Day One for TFP

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david23

david23

0
LifeTime Supporter
Mar 26, 2015
12
Memphis, TN
I love what I am seeing here, so I'm in! While waiting for my TF-100 to arrive, I had my local pool store (yes, sorry) test my water and my CYA was 160 (curse you trichlor tabs). So I spent the week draining and refilling. I dumped in three 121oz bottles of Clorox to ward off the algae (none visible) while I get set up (I sure hope that was okay to do).

I ran my first (shaky at best - all results are suspect) TF-100 test battery this morning. The fresh new water looks very nice.
FC 13
pH 7.8
TA 120
CH 175
CYA 45
CSI 0.12
Water temp 69 degrees

I am unclear whether to add even more bleach for an initial SLAM after draining & refilling so much. After this test I added 48 oz muriatic acid to rein in the pH.

I am concerned about the CH and CSI, but I will wait until I get some guidance from you.

When everything is in order, I have Borax and MA standing by for the big day.

Thanks for holding my hand while I learn these new skills. - David
 
You did it! You are SO far ahead of the game it is not even funny!

-found TFP!
-Ordered good test kit!
-did tests!
-Asked questions!
-became a member-bonus!

I will let others help you out with the numbers. I have a vinyl pool so my "rules" are different than yours.

I just wanted to say WELL DONE!

Kim
 
Welcome! :wave:

First, the bad news... when FC is above 10, the pH will read falsely high. So there's a good chance your pH wasn't really 7.8 and now that you've added acid, it might be too low. The high-ish TA will push that back up pretty quickly. Time will tell.

The good news is that CH will come up all by itself as soon as the weather warms up and you start losing water to evaporation. Water evaporates, but CH remains. With the acid you've added, TA will lower some. It should not take aggressive action to reduce it.

The best news is that nothing is horribly out of whack, nothing that will require immediate drastic action.

I suggest you wait to do the borates -- if you choose to go that route; I haven't -- until you've mastered the rest of it. There's no need to add another variable to the equation just yet. It will only take you a couple weeks to learn your pool's personality and get used to the routine. Seriously, once things are balanced, your daily pool care is about as difficult and time-consuming as brushing your teeth. Brushing the pool weekly takes a bit more effort ;)
 
David,

Welcome to the forum with a most excellent first post. Congrats on taking a big first step and running with it.

Depending on your makeup water to the pool your CH may come up quickly enough. Run a CH on it and report the number please. The pH is good where you are right now. In 33k gallons and your TA, it should be fine with the 48 oz addition, or not too bad at worse.

Did you have Algae when you started this process? If not, you won't need to keep up SLAM levels of FC, but that's fine where it is right now as well. Don't increase it yet.
 
I would suggest doing a combined chlorine test and an overnight chlorine loss test. As long as your cc is 0.5 ppm or less and you don't lose more than 1 ppm overnight, you should be good.
 
kimkats - thanks!
Richard 320 - So I basically "pool-stored" myself. Drats. Your post made my head spin a bit. Sounds like I need to lay back and just check chlorine & pH daily for a week or so...
Patrick_B - The CH I ran came back at 175. I may be misunderstanding if you are asking me to run another or a different test. No algae since last summer. With the CYA at 160 I now understand why last pool season was a nightmare.
JamesW - I will return to Pool School and get going on the tests you advised. Thanks

Thanks for the amazing support and encouragement. I regret spending the last 9 years without your help.
I look forward to adding the borax, but I will follow Richard320's guidance and wait.
 
For CH, I am asking what the level is from your tap, or same water you use to fill the pool.

If that makeup source has much CH in it at all, it won't be too long before you have enough CH in the pool to be in range, and improve the CSI. Not that you should be frantic or tightly focused on CSI, but you mentioned it. Run a CH on the same water you used to fill the pool.
 
You could use a little powdered chlorine in the form of calcium hypochlorite for a while/occasionally. Sold at hardware and big stores like Walmart. The CH will increase fairly slow at 50 ppm in your makeup. Or buy cement accelerator in the the form of Dow Flake etc. Great problem to have so count your blessings. Mine is opposite of yours, and that's not so good.
 
David,
Welcome to TFP.

Looks like you have a pretty good grip on things and no doubt in a short period of time, you will experience the clearest cleanest pool you have ever seen and for way less money that what you've been spending on the "pool chemicals"
 

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Hey... Where's the pics?! :mrgreen:

Welcome to TFP! All of this will click n you'll be helping others here someday soon.
 
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