I just moved in March, and the new house came with an above-ground swamp. It was bad in every way - orientation in the yard, ground not level underneath, not maintained at all...it was bad enough that I completely drained and scrubbed the pool, then took it down completely and re-did the earth underneath. I took the opportunity to add 1.5" foam board underneath, which I highly recommend (having already been in the full pool) - it's like walking on a cloud.
I've never owned a pool before, but I've been Googling around during startup and keep ending up back on this site - thanks for the great resource.
*****************************************************************
Anyway, down to business:
-13' x 25.5' x 4' rectangular Splash Superpool (advertised as 10,600 gallons)
-PLM-150 cartridge filter with a brand new cartridge
-SplashClear SP-18 SWG
-Full sunlight after about 9am
-City utility water
The untouched water was initially tested with a friend's Taylor kit as follows (day #0):
pH=8.2
TA=90
CH=70
I didn't test for chlorine initially.
Evening #0:
Added 28oz Kem-Tek liquid muriatic acid (14.5% HCl)
pH=7.5
TA=90
CH=70 (since the pool is vinyl, I'm going to not test for this any further)
Morning #1 and the numbers haven't changed at all.
Sweet - everything looks good! Let's go buy some bleach and cyanuric acid and dump it in the pool! Note that at this point there's no salt added to the water and the SWG cell is not powered up.
Afternoon #1:
Added 3.5 pounds dry CYA and half a gallon of 8.3% Clorox bleach
Morning #2:
pH=6.8
FC=4ppm
TC=5ppm (according to the DPD method)
Evening #2
Add 72oz of Borax
Morning #3
pH=7.8
TA=110ppm
FC=5ppm
Add 8oz muriatic.
Lunchtime Day #3 (today), received my Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD kit.
pH=7.4
TA=110ppm
FC=3ppm
CC=0.5ppm
CYA=80ppm...ish. The test seems pretty subjective based on light and eyesight. I ran the math and there's no way that 3 pounds of acid could equal that concentration (by mass, anyway).
So I added 8oz more muriatic to drop the pH, and turned the return eyeball fitting up to aerate so as to drop the TA - that's what it's doing as I type this. I also added 36oz bleach to get FC back up.
So, three questions:
1) How could CYA be indicating that high? I only added CYA once, and in a known quantity. I never used stabilized tablets of any sort.
2) How close am I to adding salt and turning on the SWG?
3) If CC maintains (or falls) and I can pass an OCLT tonight, then there's no need to SLAM at all, correct?
I've never owned a pool before, but I've been Googling around during startup and keep ending up back on this site - thanks for the great resource.
*****************************************************************
Anyway, down to business:
-13' x 25.5' x 4' rectangular Splash Superpool (advertised as 10,600 gallons)
-PLM-150 cartridge filter with a brand new cartridge
-SplashClear SP-18 SWG
-Full sunlight after about 9am
-City utility water
The untouched water was initially tested with a friend's Taylor kit as follows (day #0):
pH=8.2
TA=90
CH=70
I didn't test for chlorine initially.
Evening #0:
Added 28oz Kem-Tek liquid muriatic acid (14.5% HCl)
pH=7.5
TA=90
CH=70 (since the pool is vinyl, I'm going to not test for this any further)
Morning #1 and the numbers haven't changed at all.
Sweet - everything looks good! Let's go buy some bleach and cyanuric acid and dump it in the pool! Note that at this point there's no salt added to the water and the SWG cell is not powered up.
Afternoon #1:
Added 3.5 pounds dry CYA and half a gallon of 8.3% Clorox bleach
Morning #2:
pH=6.8
FC=4ppm
TC=5ppm (according to the DPD method)
Evening #2
Add 72oz of Borax
Morning #3
pH=7.8
TA=110ppm
FC=5ppm
Add 8oz muriatic.
Lunchtime Day #3 (today), received my Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD kit.
pH=7.4
TA=110ppm
FC=3ppm
CC=0.5ppm
CYA=80ppm...ish. The test seems pretty subjective based on light and eyesight. I ran the math and there's no way that 3 pounds of acid could equal that concentration (by mass, anyway).
So I added 8oz more muriatic to drop the pH, and turned the return eyeball fitting up to aerate so as to drop the TA - that's what it's doing as I type this. I also added 36oz bleach to get FC back up.
So, three questions:
1) How could CYA be indicating that high? I only added CYA once, and in a known quantity. I never used stabilized tablets of any sort.
2) How close am I to adding salt and turning on the SWG?
3) If CC maintains (or falls) and I can pass an OCLT tonight, then there's no need to SLAM at all, correct?