In-ground pool virgin needs some advice.

Jump to latest Follow Reply
W

wkusae31

LifeTime Supporter
May 9, 2015
84
Lexington, KY
Hello fellow pool owners. I bought a home last fall with an inground saltwater pool. It has an Aqua Rite system. I had a pool company come out and open it for me on Thursday. They dumped 3 bottles of a white powdery substance and a bottle of blue liquid (after they opened the pool). They recommended that I go back to their store to test my water today so I did. Here are the results that are not ideal:

CYA: 29
Tot. Chlorine: 7.4
FC: 7
pH: 7.1
Adj. Total Alk: 63
Tot. Hardness: 143
Borates 13

They recommended that today, I:

1. Pour 1 bottle strip kwik through skimmer with basket out while backwashing. Then backwash and rinse and repeat with Kleen It.
2. 1.5 bottles saltscapes shock
1 bucket optimizer
9.5 lbs lo n slo
5.5 bottles stain & seale
1 bottle stabilizer

Day 2:
1 bucket optimizer
9.5 lbs lo n slo
20 lbs BP 100

Weekly:
1.5 renewals into water

Is this what I'm supposed to be doing? I'm quite shocked that I'm putting in this much chemicals into a saltwater pool, but I'm also brand new with this.
 
Welcome to TFP

Well, if you read around here you will find that pool store testing is always suspect. Our maintenance of pools is based on accurate testing and only adding to the pool what it needs when it needs it.

I would,suggest doing a little reading here and making sure you are comfortable with the techniques we use because they are really not comparable with what most pool stores advocate. Almost everything they are recommending you add to the pool we would not recommend.

We are here to help!
 
I would suggest doing NONE of that at this point, it is hard to say much about the state of your pool though without knowing what they added, and without having what we consider reliable test results. This is not to say that the test results you have been given are wrong, but that it is our experience on average pool store testing is wrong more often than it is right. Remember they make money by selling you more chemicals, and test results that say you need to add this or that makes them money, and even if those tests are wrong, they get to make yet more money fixing what last weeks test had wrong.

Instead I would say to start with ordering one of the suggested pool test kits from the pool school link above (see my sig. for the TF-100 link), this is step on to get it on order as it take a few days to get to you. The next step is to understand a bit more about what is going on in your pool, don't worry we are here to help along the way, to do this you should read the ABC's section of pool school http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/123-abc-of-pool-water-chemistry, once you get through there we will have some basic terminology in common and can help more. We also need you to update your signature with your pool information, this lets us tell at a glance the details about your pool, as the suggestions for a vinyl liner pool will be different from a plaster pool, etc. You also mention that you have a SWG (salt water chlorine generator), yet there is no salt level reported in your test results, was this an oversight?

Ike
 
Oh good gosh!

:shaking2::shaking2::shock::shock::bounce:

Man please DONT add all that stuff. Its crazy!

If you dont remember anything else, remember this. The pool store job is to sell you as much snake oil as they can. Thats why they exist.

Your Job is to learn what your pool actually needs, and with that, you have found the right place.

The first thing you need to do is get yourself a reliable test kit and be able to test the water yourself. The pool store testing is flawed, to the nth degree. We recommend either of the two following kits.
The TF100, (best back for the buck) and the taylor K2006. The TF100 only avialable online at www.tftestkits.net
The Taylor availble at various online sites.

Once you get a test kit, and test the water, then post up some test results and we can help you.
In the meantime, we recommend reading up on the ABCs of pool chemistry (click the pool school button).

And here are some handy references.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/134-recommended-levels
http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/128-chlorine-cya-chart-slam-shock

and here is a tool that you will need to use for as long as you own your pool. Just enter how many gallons you have, at the top left where it says volume.
in the boxes on the left most column, enter the test value
in the next box, to the right, enter your target (see recommended levels)
then click calculate buttom and Pool Math will tell you how much of something to add. Its just that easy.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

hope this helps get you started.

Please ask all the questions you have and we will help you...that's why we are here.
 
Thanks for the info. Before I posted this thread, I read a lot of the basics about how to operate, the terminology, etc from this website. This website is incredibly helpful for newbies (and probably veteran pool owners) so I'm very grateful for the sharing of knowledge.

The pool opening cost me $400 on Thursday (they dumped 5 bottles of chemicals into the pool) and another $650 today (but I have not used them yet). I will definitely order those test strips and go that route. My apprehension is that I'm such a newbie that I do not want to destroy an expensive pool and the associated equipment (filter, pump, heater) over $600. Both are a lot of money, but I'd rather be on the lower end of "a lot of money" than the higher end of it. Haha. As a newbie, I've always heard that SWG were easier to maintain and less chemicals so that was why I was so shocked at my wife bringing home $650 worth of chemicals (which, nothing against women, but my wife is very non-technical and I should've known better than to send her on our first trip, but I was extremely busy this morning).
 
wkusae31 said:
Thanks for the info. Before I posted this thread, I read a lot of the basics about how to operate, the terminology, etc from this website. This website is incredibly helpful for newbies (and probably veteran pool owners) so I'm very grateful for the sharing of knowledge.

The pool opening cost me $400 on Thursday (they dumped 5 bottles of chemicals into the pool) and another $650 today (but I have not used them yet). I will definitely order those test strips and go that route. My apprehension is that I'm such a newbie that I do not want to destroy an expensive pool and the associated equipment (filter, pump, heater) over $600. Both are a lot of money, but I'd rather be on the lower end of "a lot of money" than the higher end of it. Haha. As a newbie, I've always heard that SWG were easier to maintain and less chemicals so that was why I was so shocked at my wife bringing home $650 worth of chemicals (which, nothing against women, but my wife is very non-technical and I should've known better than to send her on our first trip, but I was extremely busy this morning).
Click to expand...

Take whatever you can back and recoup that $650. As an aside, I'm pretty sure I've spent less than $650 in the last (almost) two years of non-SWG pool ownership. That is including testkit, new reagents, and chemicals (bleach and muriatic acid). I won't count natural gas or electricity. SWG pools are slightly easier to maintain as you don't need to add chlorine, or at least not as often as non-SWG pools.

You really need to get a testkit though. As others have said, the TF-100 is the best bang for the buck, but the Taylor K2006 is essentially the same thing. Once you get those, post your numbers on here. There's a lot of very knowledgeable people here and will help you manage your pool.
 
Hello everyone. Thanks for the tremendous help. Just wanted to follow-up with a few questions:

1. I read on this website that the best time for the pump to run was during direct sunlight for a SWG. Do all pools have timers? I am fairly technical and cannot find a timer so I'm wondering what my pump set-up is, without one?
2. As I stated before, I have an Aqua Rite system. It originally read 3000 (2 days ago when I had my percentage on 50%). Today it read 2900 so I increased my percentage to 70%. Is this OK or a dumb rookie mistake?
3. The pool store, on my analysis sheet stated I have a 27,500 gallon pool. They closed and opened the pool for me in the fall/spring. I do not remember them measuring my pool. I measured and it is 40'long x 20' x 3' deep (half pool) and 8' deep (diving board half). According to the calculator on here, I have 34,400 gallons because I based it on 40'x20'x5.75'. Seems like 7,000 gallons is a big discrepancy so I did not want to overdo it with chemicals.
 
Is your pool a rectangle, oval, freeform, etc.? I have a 40x18 oval (3 foot radius in corner), 3 feet shallow and 8 feet deep. Just built, and CAD drawings show 23K gallons. Hard to believe that just 2 feet wider would give you that much more volume if yorus is an oval.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Welcome to TFP-
You're wife does not need to be technical to understand the basics of your pool. if she is at home more than you, she will be the best person to know( see ) the changes in your pool. It's amazing at how clear your pool can be if you follow the simple TFPC method. My salt water pool is truly self sustaining most of the swim season.
 
wkusae31 said:
Hello everyone. Thanks for the tremendous help. Just wanted to follow-up with a few questions:

1. I read on this website that the best time for the pump to run was during direct sunlight for a SWG. Do all pools have timers? I am fairly technical and cannot find a timer so I'm wondering what my pump set-up is, without one?
2. As I stated before, I have an Aqua Rite system. It originally read 3000 (2 days ago when I had my percentage on 50%). Today it read 2900 so I increased my percentage to 70%. Is this OK or a dumb rookie mistake?
3. The pool store, on my analysis sheet stated I have a 27,500 gallon pool. They closed and opened the pool for me in the fall/spring. I do not remember them measuring my pool. I measured and it is 40'long x 20' x 3' deep (half pool) and 8' deep (diving board half). According to the calculator on here, I have 34,400 gallons because I based it on 40'x20'x5.75'. Seems like 7,000 gallons is a big discrepancy so I did not want to overdo it with chemicals.
Click to expand...
Most pools have timers, but it is not a necessity. You can turn it on manually and the previous owner may have done that. Check this out to see what common ones look like http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/141-visual-encyclopedia-of-pool-equipment.

You increase or decrease the percentage to add more or less chlorine to the pool.

As you begin to add chemicals pay attention to the effect they have on the pool. Mine is free form pool and I had no real idea, but through careful additions (when necessary) and watching the effect of the additions I narrowed down the pool size.
 
Yev said:
Is your pool a rectangle, oval, freeform, etc.? I have a 40x18 oval (3 foot radius in corner), 3 feet shallow and 8 feet deep. Just built, and CAD drawings show 23K gallons. Hard to believe that just 2 feet wider would give you that much more volume if yorus is an oval.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have stated that mine is a rectangle. The pool store estimates around 27,500 and from the math calculator on this website, it puts me around 34,000. Maybe the pool store is accurate if yours is 23,000 and fairly similar to mine?
 
SCon36 said:
My 16x36 is about 24k. It is a rectangle with 2ft radius I believe.

Looks like you're a Topper alum right in the middle of the BBN. Welcome to the site.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm a diehard Topper fan.

I just ordered the TF100 test kit with Stirrer, Taylor Salt Test, and Borates test. I'm very impatient so I'm hoping that it gets to me fairly quickly. I'm curious how these test results compare with the ones I received from the pool store. One thing that I'm surprised is that my CYA level is at 29 when it should be around 60-80 (per TFP website), but my FC level is at 7 (so I'm assuming it's safe to swim since it does not smell bleachy and not at the Shock Level).

2015-05-10 23.51.27.jpg
 
In preparation of getting my test kit, I'm rounding up the necessary chemicals so that I will be prepared to adjust my levels according to TFP. My wife bought SaltScapes Sunshield Stabilizer during her $650 expedition at the pool store. Is this the same as CYA (I read that it has a variety of names such as Stabilizer, Conditioner, etc) so I wanted to make sure that this is something that the TFP community is fine with to use? I did not know if there was a recommended brand or product that does a better job.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply