First year with a pool

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C

Calebh2002

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Apr 12, 2015
85
Marietta GA
So this is my first year opening the pool. We have been going with what the pool store told us this year and the results are not nearly as fast as I expected, and becoming quite expensive.

I am currently waiting on my test kit, it should be here Friday at the latest.

I have also replaced the old sand filter with a new one due to leaks beyond repair, complete with new sand.

So far this week we have fed the pool:

2 jugs of pool first aid
25 lbs of soars ash
10lbs of alkalinity up
30 lbs of Chlor-brite
8 gallons of 6% bleach

Our FC is not going down as quick as it was, while our CCV remains high. Our current test kit until Friday only reads to 5ppm.

Here is a starting pic.
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And a now pic
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Welcome! :wave:

Please don't add any more powdered chlorine until you get your test kit. 30 lbs of Chlor-brite (dichlor) will have added 82 CYA to your 22,000 gallon pool. That's way high, especially if you had any residual from last year. I hope you had to backwash the filter a lot and lost some of that. Stick with liquid bleach from now on.

As an aside, you probably wouldn't have had to add so much soda ash and alkalinity up if you hadn't used that chlor-brite. It's very acidic.

I'm sure that once you start doing your own testing, your chemical costs will go down substantially.
 
I am anxiously waiting for my test kit to arrive. Neither my husband or I had any clue about CYA - or pool chemistry until this week when I found TFP. Last summer we used chlor-brite all year long, adding around 3lbs per week. Now that I know what it does to the water, I really hope that our CYA is at a reasonable level this year, just the idea of having to drain/fill with water annoys me. We have purged quite a bit of water from the pool through the winter and so far this year for back-washing. We had a lot of rain over the winter and I had to drain the levels from the top of the skimmer back to the bottom a couple of times, and we have purged about that amount this week through back-washing.

It's been a rough start to the pool season for sure. I did manage to install our new filter myself though, so I'm sure that saved us several hundred dollars in labor.
 
Great to hear, and welcome to TFP!

Let us see some numbers once you have the kit. Looking more like a pool now, but as said, no more Chlorbrite. Don't feel bad, hardly anyone tells you about the Cya side effect as long as you are buying more.
 
I will be dumping more bleach into the pool today I'm sure. No more chlorbrite until I get my test kit. I just checked it will be here Friday by 8pm.

It's going to rain all week here, and I'm in a debate. Should I keep adding some bleach when needed until the test kit gets here or just let it go and start over with a slam once I know my CYA levels and can test my FC properly.

Thoughts?


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Well -- I didn't want to wait for my test kit, so I made the schlep to another Leslie's for a water test. I went to a different location from last time, and the employee was appalled at the recommendations from the last person. To sum up a long story, I will be doing a partial drain/fill on my pool. I'm ready for my test kit to get here.

FC - 0.0 (expected, I haven't added any to the water in several days).
CC - 1.0 (Leslie's said we had a chlorine lock).
CH - 220
CYA - 150 (ugh).
TA - 80
pH - 7.0
Base Demand - 3
TDS - 1400 (not sure what this is, so I need to read about it)
Phosphates - 200 (not sure on this either).
 
Ignore TDS and phosphates. There is no such thing as chlorine lock. There is nothing wrong with a partial drain to lower CYA. The question is do you believe the test? Or have you been chlorinating with pucks and shock and have reason to believe CYA high?

FC needs to be above 0, keep adding bleach. Ph is a tad low, 7.2 is better, you can aerate the water to raise it a little. The other numbers look ok.
 

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That test kit is going to save you the $90 many times over. The only chemicals I have needed are muratic acid, cyanuric acid, and a couple bags of salt. All are relatively cheap even if you're buying bleach too. The pool store is going to miss you.
 
I finished a partial drain/refill last night. Any thoughts on what my goal should be for CYA. I have a gut feeling that I will be doing another partial drain/refill before the weekend to bring it down to an acceptable level, however only a water test will tell me for sure.
 

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