Now Entering Day Two

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dlaslo

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May 30, 2015
78
Venice, FL
Yesterday the 24 ft AG pool finally filled with tap water and I took a sample to the pool store. They gave me an "Opening Kit" with shock, algicide, metal treatment, and trichlor tabs. The also said my calcium hardness (at 99 ppm) was low and had me put 15 pounds CaCl2 in in two steps with filtering for a few hours.

I also put the metal (measured 0.1 ppm iron was high) and shock in yesterday at dusk but held off on the algicide (not sure why)

Today, I'll do my first analysis (I bought the recommended Taylor kit) and see what's happening.

How am I doing?

One of the questions I am brooding over is what to do when we go on vacation. We're going to Europe for almost two weeks in August and we also have an RV and go on longer trips at times. I presume I slam the pool and put a cover on?
 
Your next move is the one you should have done in the beginning-------------do your own test and share the results here. We would have been able to save you a LOT of money!

Do you have your receipt? If so take back the algicide. You do not need it.

You have a good test kit. If you use it you will never have to go to the pool store except for maybe the metal test.

Your next step is to find a source for bleach/chlorine. For some people it is Walmart greater value bleach (plain, unscented bleach), others find Sam's club or costcos 3 pack of bleach is the best price, others use chlorine form the pool store in their jugs you pay a returnable deposit on. My best price is the ACE hardware up the road. Make sure to check % as Walmart such is 8% and the pool store is 11%.

Here is something I would like for you to read. It is a lot of reading and may be a little overwhelming but it will make all the difference in YOU taking care of your pool.

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

After you run your tests post the results here and we will help you with the next step.

Kim (I will touch on the trips in a few mins.)
 
Trips--------2 weeks gone-----you will need someone to come over every couple of days to put pucks in your pool BUT for this to work you will have to have a lower CYA level as the pucks will add CYA to your pool. This is where having your own test kit is going to come in handy. Here is a link to Pool Math. It is SO helpful in showing you what your pools needs AND what each chemical will do to your levels.

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Long weekend-----about the same as above except you will not need anyone to come over as you should be able to put enough pucks in to keep your pools levels up.

PLEASE know that you should not use pucks long term as they will add CYA and over time that will cause many problems. If you CYA gets too high you will have to add more and more bleach to keep the algae monsters at bay.

Here is a link to daily care of your pool.

Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Here is what your pool will need.

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

Good luck!

Kim
 
Thanks Kim....I have read the ABCs, and the great booklet that comes in the Taylor test kit. I'm a Chem Engr and the analytical tests will be fun. I have three gallon bottles of clorox, trichlor and dichlor tabs and many one pound bags of shock. I also have the Jesse spreadsheet loaded and ready for action.

I intend to exclusively use clorox for sanitation and you gave me a good idea for future use of all the pucks I have (vacation).
 
OK...here is my first reading

pH=7.5
FC=11.5ppm
cc=0
CH=210
TA=110
CYA = below detection
Temp=72F

Still a rookie at this but here's my thoughts.
FC will come down with daylight - do nothing -- then check daily and keep it at 3 ppm in days to come
CYA is too low.....add stabilizer until 30 ppm? Recheck pH, FC ??
CH - OK.
Alkalinity is higher than recommended but probably OK where it is??
 
You are getting the hang of this for sure. :goodjob: Definitely get that stabilizer going since it will take a few days to fully register on your future tests. You already know your TA and PH are slightly off, but not earth-shattering. You can use the Poomath Calculator (link below) to assist you in adjusting if you like. You are doing well!
 

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Your tests look good, wouldn't mess with anything except CYA right now.

Did you get any cloudiness at all in your CYA test? If so you should treat your pool as if it has about 20 CYA to make sure you never undershoot your FC level or overshoot when adding CYA.

From my HTC One via Tapatalk
 
dlaslo said:
No cloudiness at all for CYA test. Instead of adding 3 lbs I added 2 lbs stabilizer (its all I had).

Can I use pucks for a while?
Click to expand...

if you didn't add the stabilizer I would say yes, you could use them to raise CYA while adding FC. but since you added stabilizer, no. wait a week to check your CYA. if its still low, then use the pucks but figure out how many pucks to use to raise your CYA to level you want, then stop.
 
Just checked the FC with a test strip and it is still 10 ppm. The sun didn't bring it down at all (sunny day all day). so we couldn't wait and jumped in the pool. Great fun, but the whole family smells like clean underwear.
 
dlaslo said:
Just checked the FC with a test strip and it is still 10 ppm.
Click to expand...
The only thing test strips can accurately measure is the distance to the bottom of your trash can. Use your k-2006.

The smell is because of your very low CYA level. Without CYA in the water the chlorine is not stabilized and is much harsher than it will be when you get your CYA level up.
 
2 pounds of stabilizer is only going to add 17ppm of CYA ... so no issues using tablets if you have them.

BTW, your low CH was fine ... there was no need to add calcium in a vinyl pool.
 
Our house has two faucets - one before and after water softening, and I used both to fill the pool so I expect to be a little down on calcium - so it wasn't a surprise to me when they handed me a 15 pound container of calcium salt (since I'm not charged any money by the store for the first batch of chemicals needed - they aren't trying to make a buck on it - but they told me up front that they do not pay for stabilizer - the other deficiency).

But, I also noted the difference in the TFP and the pool store (where I bought the pool) suggestions for calcium hardness guidelines for AG vinyl.
So the question is...why the huge differences in CH recommended levels? I'm guessing the answer is -- CH is a "soft" parameter and doesn't normally cause pool chemistry trouble? Or maybe - it's an IG guideline at the store?
 

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