Brand New Pool, Need help with chemistry

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C

Copeyboy

0
Apr 20, 2013
15
Apple Valley, CA (high desert)
Hey all, I've got a brand new plaster pool and I'm having a heck of a time getting the pH to come down to normal levels. The pool is a month and a half old and I've been using a TF-100 to do the testing. I'll put all the particulars in my signature according to the directions, but I wanted to drop in my test results to get some feedback from the experts.

FC- 0
pH- 8.2+
CH- 175
TA- 130
CYA- 0

Now, I've been putting chlorine and muriatic acid in regularly, but the numbers don't seem to want to come in. Am I missing something?Should I just keep testing and adding chemicals until everything lines up? Just a bit unsure about the next steps. There is a chlorine dispenser hooked up, and I've got tri-chlor pucks in there now to get chlorine and CYA into the pool. I figured I would let it do the work for the CYA and I'll just take it out of the equation once my numbers get to the proper range. Am I off on that? Should I be putting stabilizer in? Thanks for any and all help with this. Later.

Gary
 
The chlorine situation is fairly simple. You need to raise CYA into the 30 to 50 range. Otherwise you will lose all of your chlorine to sunlight each day.

The PH situation is more work to solve. Basically you aren't using nearly enough acid. It is very important to keep the PH below 8.0. Simply use more acid until you achieve the desired level. The amount of acid required due to fresh plaster is highest for the first month or so, and then continues at a lower level for up to a year.
 
Hi Copeyboy. I don't use pucks, but read about them enough so I'll start and maybe a wiser person can finish :) . If you go to PoolMath and enter your 26,850 gallons at the top, then go to "Effects of adding chemicals" at the very bottom and put the oz of Trichlor puck you use, it will show you how much chlorine and CYA your trichlor pucks are adding. You can then calculate how many you are using a day/week to determine the chlorine and CYA going into your pool. For a pool your size, it would take about 360 oz of cumulative pucks to get your CYA to 40-45. Have you used that many? With insufficient CYA, I don't know that your pucks are going to keep the chlorine in the pool in southern California, if it's hot and sunny out--the chlorine is just going to burn off every day. I'd suggest putting at least some granular CYA in the pool via sock method to get the chlorine protected, then see how it holds from there. Go 1/2 to goal with the CYA granules to get some in the water. It won't show in the test for a week so just measure the CYA granules and assume what you add is what is in there, then see how your chlorine starts to hold.
 
Welcome and good start-good test kit and asking questions!

You HAVE to get some CYA in your pool. I would do as Sandra suggested and add 1/2 the amount of what you will shoot for. Better too little than too much.

I would also start using liquid chlorine before you start having visible algae.

I see your PH is high. What did you PB tell you your PH should be at with it being a new pool?

Kim
 
Welcome to TFP !
First what startup method did your PB have you do and is the start up over ?
I'm assuming it is since the you stated the pools is 1.5 months old. Let's get your PH lowered with acid. It's high. Lower it to at least 7.5. When it gets to 8.0 lower it again and that will also start to drop your TA. This is going to be an ongoing thing as your plaster is new. You may want to to take it all the way down to 7.2 when you lower it. Your TA will come down also. Hopefully it will get to a point where your PH drift will slow down.

Forget the pucks. You need some CYA in there now. Use granular CYA and take it to a level of 30 to start. As soon as it starts to dissolve add enough bleach to get your FC up to 4-5 and don't let it fall below 2. Do the bleach and the CYA at the same time. You could also use CAL HYPO to raise your FC up at first as your CH is a little low. At any rate you need some chlorine in there ASAP. Maintain that FC range till you can confirm your CYA is 30. Once you can confirm its 30 or there about's, put another dose of CYA to get it to 40. When the next addition dissolves your new FC range will be a target of 7 and never below 3. You should be good there but if you start to see your losing more than 3 ppm of FC to the sun, bump your CYA up to 50.
I didn't see a CC test. Can you post one ? Use Pool Math to figure out all our dosages. ?
 
The PB used the acid startup method. I've been adding gallon after gallon of acid and the pH just keeps going back up. I'm going to stock up on a lot of acid and just keep adding it to get the pH down. I tried to do a chlorine drop test, but it registered no chlorine in the water, so it was a null test. I have liquid chlorine, as well, so I'll add that to the pool and get it going up. Thanks for the quick replies.
 
It is common to use trichlor tablets during the first four weeks of startup and run the pump 24/7. Trichlor raises FC, raises CYA, and lowers PH, all of which are handy during an acid startup. It also helps to be gradual about raising the FC and CYA levels, as large changes in the first few days can cause some minor problems.
 
JasonLion said:
It is common to use trichlor tablets during the first four weeks of startup and run the pump 24/7. Trichlor raises FC, raises CYA, and lowers PH, all of which are handy during an acid startup. It also helps to be gradual about raising the FC and CYA levels, as large changes in the first few days can cause some minor problems.
Click to expand...

I was going to say that short term use of 3" tabs worked well for me when I had a complete re-surface job done last year. You beat me to it.
I just used a cheap floater for about 2 weeks and monitored the CYA until it got up to about 50-60. The nice thing is that you are reducing the PH rise and smoothing it out, so large amounts of acid addition at one time were not needed. You will use a lot of acid for the first several weeks.

Once my CYA got to 50-60, I just used the BBB method and then added borates a few months later. Four months later I put a liquidator in. I will occasionally use a few tabs to keep my CYA up since draining is periodically required in the Summer here due to heavy rains. The pool has been nearly perfect (one minor snafu when I let the FC drop below 2, water temp was 96, and had a brief, non adhereing algae bloom that was quickly corrected). With cooler (now 82) water I can reduce my testing to every 2-3 days instead of everyday while the surface was curing. I'm also slowly reducing my pump run times (old single speed unit).
 

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