Working on my fresh start..

[ShinerDraft]

I drained the Baquagoo and refilled last week. Water looks great, as it should seeing as how I checked the pool calculator after adding about 10x the bleach I should have. Being that I've gotten past the "conversion" phase, I'm moving to this forum..

Anyway, I winged it with bleach over the weekend (how accurate is the smell test for chlorine anyway?)..

The test kit came yesterday and I did the quick chlorine & pH test. Chlorine was virtually zero, pH looked a little high. CYA is obviously zero. We've gotten a lot of rain in the past few days, so that might explain the high pH (or does it?).

I added a little bit of bleach just to get the Chlorine above zero for the night. I also added one of the hockey pucks (just floating in the pool for now) to get some CYA going.

I'm hoping to be well on my way to balanced water over the weekend..
- I can keep a handle on the Chlorine with the bleach & quick test.

- Is it critical to lower the pH right now, or will that happen on it's own?

- How much should I let the puck dissolve before testing CYA again? I don't want to leave the puck in there too long and overshoot the target for CYA, but at the same time the CYA test uses alot of that R0012 stuff, so I don't want to test too often.

 

[giulietta1]

The test kit came yesterday and I did the quick chlorine & pH test. Chlorine was virtually zero, pH looked a little high. CYA is obviously zero. We've gotten a lot of rain in the past few days, so that might explain the high pH (or does it?).

No, rain is usually acidic and tends to LOWER pH.

- Is it critical to lower the pH right now, or will that happen on it's own?

- How much should I let the puck dissolve before testing CYA again? I don't want to leave the puck in there too long and overshoot the target for CYA, but at the same time the CYA test uses alot of that R0012 stuff, so I don't want to test too often.

Please post a full set of numbers from your tests. "A little high" is not sufficient information for us to give you meaningful advice. You can probably go ahead and lower it.

Using pucks only will raise your CYA VERY SLOWLY. They contain CYA but are mostly chlorine. Order some CYA from an online pool store if you can't get it locally. It is typically called stabilizer or conditioner. Read the small print to make sure it's cyanuric acid.

Use the pool calc to determine how much CYA you need, then add it to your pool. Be a little conservative. It's much easier to add more than to take it out! You can: (1) put it in an old sock and hang that in front of a return, or (2) pour it into your skimmer. If you do (2), don't clean your filter for about a week. The CYA will sit in your filter and slowly dissolve.

Allow about a week before you test the CYA.

 

[ShinerDraft]

Unfortunately, I didn't quite have time for a full round of tests yesterday.. I will try to tonight.

If the puck doesn't contain much CYA, then I'll probably just take it out and put some CYA in a sock as suggested. I can save the pucks for later when I get close to my target level.

According to the pool calc, I need 25oz of CYA to go from 0 to 40. Adding the CYA will have a side effect of lowering my pH. Sounds like I can kill two birds with one stone.

 

[newnick]

Shiner, one of my favorites, Bock of course!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[heatmisr]

Unfortunately, I didn't quite have time for a full round of tests yesterday.. I will try to tonight.

If the puck doesn't contain much CYA, then I'll probably just take it out and put some CYA in a sock as suggested. I can save the pucks for later when I get close to my target level.

According to the pool calc, I need 25oz of CYA to go from 0 to 40. Adding the CYA will have a side effect of lowering my pH. Sounds like I can kill two birds with one stone.

CYA doesn't lower your pH, pucks do.

 

[JasonLion]

CYA doesn't lower your pH, pucks do.

CYA is acidic and will lower your PH a little.

 

[ShinerDraft]

I had a crazy weekend.. No time to mess with the pool beyond adding a cup or two of bleach each evening. Everything still looks wonderful though. Absolutely 100% crystal clear. The pump is circulating great so the filter is clear of any algae or other gunk. The puck is about 1/2 way dissolved and I have a full bucket of CYA ready to go.

Tonight, I'm going to change the filter and add about 12-15oz of CYA. Next week, I'll do my first real CYA test to see how much more to add.

Question - do I measure the CYA by weight or volume? I'm thinking weight since the directions on the bucket say to "add __ pounds per 10,000 gallons..."

 

[JasonLion]

Question - do I measure the CYA by weight or volume? I'm thinking weight since the directions on the bucket say to "add __ pounds per 10,000 gallons..."

CYA is normally done by weight. If you use my Pool Calculator, see the link in my signature, it will give you both weight and volume, so you can measure either way. The numbers are slightly different depending on which way you measure.