New house=new pool

[froggy1369]

I bought a house last August so at the tail end of pool season here in NorthEast Pa. It got real cold real fast! Anyway the pool was good and I didn't have to do much to it before we closed it.

Fast forward to this year we took the cover off, cleaned out the sand filter per the instructions I found here, and vacuumed the pool. The pool is pretty crystal clear. I bought the Taylor k-2006 testing kit and the speed stirrer.

Some pool details 27x4 round vinyl. Hayward Dream Line sand filter and Hayward Power-flo 1.5hp pump. There is a pool frog system attached but I removed the mineral pac and the bac pac and don't intend on using it. The previous owners did and blindly walked in and out of the pool store with huge bills and tons of stuff on top of the bac pacs.

I have purchased 8.5% bleach, baking soda, and Borax and want to use this method. I tested my water chemistry this morning and came back with these numbers.
FC- 0
PH - 7.4
TA- 70
CH- 170
CYA- 40

So because the pool is clear do I need to SLAM it or should I just plug these numbers into the pool calculator and shoot for maintenance levels? And what order does stuff get added?

Thanks in advance for all your help. I will continue to read and find more answers, but figured it never hurts to ask.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I do not recommend stocking up on all those chemicals, since most members never need baking soda or borax. This is why we stopped using the BBB name and now call it TFPC.

Did you test the CC?

The only thing I see that you need to do is get come chlorine in your water. There is a chance there could still be something in the water that will consume the chlorine. Since the water is still likely too cold to swim in, I would suggest raising the FC to shock level for your CYA and Perform the Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to make sure you are starting off clean.

 

[froggy1369]

I figure if I don't use them for the pool I can clean with both of them! Plus we use baking soda when we kill our deer! No loss! Lol thank you :-d

 

[froggy1369]

And sorry. Yes CC was zero as well. No color change from anything with those tests.

 

[froggy1369]

So using that chart, since my cya is 40 I want to add bleach to raise to a 16? Which is the number I want to put in the calculator as my target to figure out how much to add?

I just want to make sure I am doing this correctly.

 

[jblizzle]

Yup, that is correct, just make sure your volume is set correctly. Since you are not really SLAMing, just want the FC to start out close to shock level for the OCLT.

Since the water is clear and the CC appears to be 0, hopefully you would pass the OCLT right away and they you can just let the FC drift down to normal maintenance levels.

 

[froggy1369]

Thank you so much for your help! Hopefully all is well tomorrow morning!

 

[froggy1369]

Okay I just tested my FAS-DPD. My FC is 10.8 and my CC is .2. Should I add more bleach and retest in 30 minutes to do my OCLT? Or should I just run with this number and see what happens in the morning?

 

[jblizzle]

If the sun is off the pool, then you should be good to start with that.

After tomorrow's morning test, start using a 10ml water sample so each drop is 0.5ppm ... saves a lot of reagent.

 

[froggy1369]

Yep, no sun! I waited until it was gone to test! I'll set my alarm to get up in the AM to test it before the sun starts hitting it! I'm a late riser when my kiddo isn't home! Lol

 

[froggy1369]

Okay hauled my lazy butt out of bed about 3 hours earlier than normal! FC is 9.8 and CC is .4 So this means I passed right?

now that the chlorine is in should I run another full test to make sure everything else is still in line? Or do I just test daily and maintain? Not exactly sure where to go from here! Lol

 

[pooldv]

Here is introductory info from Pool School.

TFPC for Beginners
ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry
Recommended Levels
Recommended Pool Chemicals

 

[froggy1369]

Okay so nightly testing and adding as needed it is! Tonight we measured as follows:
FC 8
CC .5
PH 7.4
TA 80
CH 170

So not too much change since this morning. Meaning I am burning off approx 1.5 ppm of chlorine during the day. At least for now while no one is using it! So with my target FC being 5 with my CYA of 40 I am still GTG!