Newbie here - Some ?'s

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BugginOuT

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Jun 11, 2014
18
Little Ferry, NJ
Hello,

New to the site here but I've been lurking for the past couple of days, obtaining as much information as much as I possibly can. Didn't know household bleach and baking soda were used for pool maintenance until this week. :(

Ordered the TF-100 kit yesterday, so won't be here until early next week. For the meantime, am using AquaChek test strips and a basic HTH drops kit for water testing.

FC - non-existent
pH - 6.2 - 6.8 (Aqua strip), 7.5 on the HTH kit
TA - Low
CA - Low

Apologize for lack of information here, hopefully, the TF-100 kit can provide some better numbers when I get it.

Opened the pool on Tuesday and put in about 2-4 gallons of liquid shock. As of today, water is still cloudy and somewhat light green. I am brushing, vacuuming, and backwashing on a daily basis. According to the PoolMath, I should add another 121 oz of bleach, but I wanted to get some guidance from members here before I proceed.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated it.

Buggin
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

Forget the strips, the drop tests are better. Was the HTH chlorine test also clear? Is it pink or yellow matching?

What target are you using in PoolMath for the FC? Because you are going to need a LOT more than 1 gallon, but you need to know the CYA level first to know what FC you need.

When the kit arrives, post up all the results. Until then, just add a bottle of bleach every day.

Then you are going to have to follow the ShockLevelAndMAINTAIN Process to clear up the pool.

How much Pool School have you read? Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
 
Welcome to the forum. :wave:

Yeah, you kinda' in a holding pattern until you get your kit. I would suggest you add that jug of clorox each evening (it'll keep the sunlight from killing it) until your kit gets in. It will probably hold your algae at bay and maybe even improve a little.

Post your test results from your new kit and you'll get lot's of help getting your pool crystal clear.

Put a state in your sig by Little Ferry......your general climate helps us give you better answers. :D
 
jblizzle said:
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

Forget the strips, the drop tests are better. Was the HTH chlorine test also clear? Is it pink or yellow matching?
Click to expand...

Almost clear to a hint of light yellow.

Xexys said:
Little Ferry, New Jersey I believe.
Click to expand...

Correct. Weather has been cloudy for the past couple of days, with temperature in the low to mid 70's.

I will add one bottle per day until the kit comes so that I can post some solid numbers. Will be back next week and thanks for the replies.
 
How have you historically chlorinated in the past?

You could use your yellow test and just try to keep the color a nice yellow until the better kit arrives. I bottle of bleach should give you about 4.5ppm of FC
 
jblizzle said:
How have you historically chlorinated in the past?

You could use your yellow test and just try to keep the color a nice yellow until the better kit arrives. I bottle of bleach should give you about 4.5ppm of FC
Click to expand...

We've always had a slow start up when opening up the pool. It would take us days if not weeks to get it clear. I would also have a difficult time keeping the pool chlorinated throughout the season. Perhaps, bad pollen season or my pool chemistry was never on point. I would bring water samples to my local pool store to get it tested and the results are always the same, add more shock. Now that I found this site, I'm hoping to learn a thing or two about keeping my pool clear without breaking the bank.
 

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My kit arrived today.

On the Weekly Test is as follows:

FC = 1.5
CC = 2.5

So my TC is 4 (If I leave the tube alone, it turns back to pink (is that normal?)

CYA Test: Filled the water to the top of Level 20 and I can still see the black dot on the bottom of the tube

TA Test: After putting in more than 30 drops of R-0009, the tube is still somewhat pink: 300ppm

Calcium Hardness Test: Tube turns pink, not RED as indicated by the instructions. 500ppm
 
No CYA and high CC points to ammonia. Add FC up to 10ppm and retest FC and CC in 30 minutes. Repeat until the CC drops and the FC starts to hold. Then add 30ppm of CYA and continue the SLAM process.

What is the pH
 
jblizzle said:
No CYA and high CC points to ammonia. Add FC up to 10ppm and retest FC and CC in 30 minutes. Repeat until the CC drops and the FC starts to hold. Then add 30ppm of CYA and continue the SLAM process.

What is the pH
Click to expand...

pH, according to the Blue Kit is between 7.2 - 7.5

According to PoolMath, in order to obtain FC of 10ppm, I need to add: 2 gallons 2 cups or 2.2 (121 oz) jugs, is that correct?

What's a good effective stabilizer I can purchase at my local hardware store?

Also, I'm having to backwash alot, once the gauge hits 25 and low circulation, is that normal? How often do I need to put earth?
 
Looks like you used PoolMath correctly to get the 4.5ppm.
You can get any stabilizer, ideally 100% cyanuric acid. Walmart has some that works well.

What is your clean pressure? You should backwash and recharge when the pressure rises 20-25% over the clean pressure. If the water is not clear, then a DE filter will require a lot of attention. You can run in recirculate mode if you have it at the beginning, but once all is dead, you have to filter it out.
 
Monday's Update:

TC level is still low about 3
TA = 100
Calcium = 275
CYA = At level 20, I can still see the black dot on the bottom, but starting to get a little hazy. I've added about 4.5 pints of pH Stablizer in my vacuum bag, placed it in front of my return. Seems to have dissolved most of it, is it true that I would still have to wait a week before it shows up?
ph = 7.2
 
At this point, TC is meaningless. You need to be testing and reporting your FC and your CC.
I do not feel like you followed these instructions:
jblizzle said:
No CYA and high CC points to ammonia. Add FC up to 10ppm and retest FC and CC in 30 minutes. Repeat until the CC drops and the FC starts to hold.
Then add 30ppm of CYA and continue the SLAM process.
Click to expand...

forget testing anything else.
 
So it dropped from an expected 10ppm to 3ppm in 30 minutes? At least the CC are pretty low. Did you dose back up to 10ppm after the 3ppm reading?

What did you target with your CYA addition?
 

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