Hi everyone. I'm new here. My wife and I purchased a home back in February of this year and it has an in-ground pool. We had always wanted a pool in our previous house (it was on the 5-year plan) but after 14 years of kids and other priorities, it never happened. So a pool in the new-to-us house was a big deal and we are already enjoying it. I've been reading up on all the good information here and being a bit of a DIY'er, I want to give TFP a go.
The history on the pool is that it appears to have been maintained by a local pool company for a number of years. They closed it up last fall and since we had no real practical knowledge of pool opening, we had them come out to open it up for us in mid-May. It had a solid winter cover over the pool and raised spa. When they pulled the cover off, the water was actually crystal clear (not in the spa, tho). That kinda surprised me. The pool guy gave me the history of things as he knew them, saying the previous owner was pretty much keeping the lights on, so to speak, with the equipment. He pretty much threw some chemicals in the pool and off he went. The pumps were working but the heater was not. Home warranty guy came out to service it and recommended replacement ( I asked about this in another thread) so we have a new propane heater getting put in soon.
So I started testing the water and my first test came out looking like this:
FC: 2
CC: 0
PH: 8.2
TA: 140
CH: 300
CYA: >100
So my first major concern is that CYA is off the chart. I say >100 but if I had to eyeball the reading it would likely be a guess of 150. So the first thing I did was get all of the trichlor tabs out of the pool and started buying bottles of bleach to prevent putting additional stabilizer in the pool. I know the main recommendation is going to be to do a (75%?) water change but I can't really see doing that at the moment. I have added bleach over the past few days but the numbers aren't really budging at the moment. I am sure I need to be adding more. (Acid to lower PH?) So as it stands, the pool was very swimable over the holiday weekend (I managed to get the heater we had working) but I want to start getting things under control so I am looking for some advice on how to tackle the chemistry issues and bring things in line with where they should be. I am also going to be looking to replace pumps, timer, etc. and will likely want some advice on pad layout/replumbing. Thanks in advance for the assistance. This website is a wonderful resource.
The spa at opening:
The pool at opening:
Equipment Pad
Open pool
The history on the pool is that it appears to have been maintained by a local pool company for a number of years. They closed it up last fall and since we had no real practical knowledge of pool opening, we had them come out to open it up for us in mid-May. It had a solid winter cover over the pool and raised spa. When they pulled the cover off, the water was actually crystal clear (not in the spa, tho). That kinda surprised me. The pool guy gave me the history of things as he knew them, saying the previous owner was pretty much keeping the lights on, so to speak, with the equipment. He pretty much threw some chemicals in the pool and off he went. The pumps were working but the heater was not. Home warranty guy came out to service it and recommended replacement ( I asked about this in another thread) so we have a new propane heater getting put in soon.
So I started testing the water and my first test came out looking like this:
FC: 2
CC: 0
PH: 8.2
TA: 140
CH: 300
CYA: >100
So my first major concern is that CYA is off the chart. I say >100 but if I had to eyeball the reading it would likely be a guess of 150. So the first thing I did was get all of the trichlor tabs out of the pool and started buying bottles of bleach to prevent putting additional stabilizer in the pool. I know the main recommendation is going to be to do a (75%?) water change but I can't really see doing that at the moment. I have added bleach over the past few days but the numbers aren't really budging at the moment. I am sure I need to be adding more. (Acid to lower PH?) So as it stands, the pool was very swimable over the holiday weekend (I managed to get the heater we had working) but I want to start getting things under control so I am looking for some advice on how to tackle the chemistry issues and bring things in line with where they should be. I am also going to be looking to replace pumps, timer, etc. and will likely want some advice on pad layout/replumbing. Thanks in advance for the assistance. This website is a wonderful resource.
The spa at opening:
The pool at opening:
Equipment Pad
Open pool