Hello! I have been a reader for the last year learning a ton here, and managed to get through my first season as a pool owner with clear water. So thank you all.
We had our pool renovated last spring and then converted to salt mid-summer, the renovation company handled the chemicals for the first month and I don't know what they put in, but I think a lot of unnecessary chemicals, jacks magic, algicide, and trichlor tablets. It is a kidney shaped pool in the mid-Atlantic region so doesn't have a cover unfortunately. We had a few dead mice, a dead bat, a dead red-spotted newt (apparently skin is toxic) and our CYA and Calcium levels were starting to get high near the end of the season. After each of the animal instances I shocked the pool with 10% bleach to high levels (25ppm) due to high CYA (pushing 70-80ppm). We also have a baby who will be able to use the pool this summer. When the pool company closed the pool they drained 1/3 of the water, I am also on Well water, so need a truck to fill. Due to all of the above and needing to get 1-2 trucks to top off the water, I made the decision to just do a full drain and re-fill and figure it is a good time to get the chemicals right from the start. They are coming next week on Monday to Drain, Tuesday to fill, and Wednesday to open the pool.
I just wanted to make sure I had my chemical plan on track, I read a few posts about vinyl pools but nothing about a full drain on a gunite pool.
My plan is as follows:
1) Pool company will add salt upon opening. (but no other chemicals I think?) Last year they added Jacks Magic Magenta to the pool along with an algicide upon opening.
2) Add liquid chlorine until chlorine level is 3-4ppm, not worried about overshooting this initially. Will check 2x a day initially to make sure level is maintained until CYA and SWG are in balance.
3) Add granular CYA in sock to get to 30ppm (I want to be careful to not get the CYA too high again as shocking the pool becomes quite challenging). I am in the mid-Atlantic so the sun may not be as bad as the south, and will gradually increase CYA until I can maintain a good chlorine level with my salt cell. I know the guidance is 60ppm plus, but want to test to come up with the correct number for my pool. I really want to keep this as low as possible and am willing to replace my salt cell more frequently, so am targeting 30ppm-50ppm to make shocking the pool easier and more effective.
4) Get PH in line 7.4-8.0. Last year due to the plaster and SWG the levels would rise and I would need to add muriatic acid 2x a week.
5) Get Total alkalinity in range, 50-90ppm, last year with the acid additions and small water feature this number was hard to keep much higher than 50ppm.
6) Increase Calcium, the pool company told me the water trucks are around 70ppm calcium, I will add enough to get to 300ppm initially. I was reading on the Orenda website that higher calcium can actually be OK to maintain LSI. I don't want to go crazy, but will try to get this around 300ppm.
My main questions are
-do I need any Jack's magic or other product? Do I need an algicide (I don't think so as long as i maintain enough free chlorine)?
-looking for advice on a SWG with a slightly lower than 60ppm CYA level to make it easier to shock. Again - in mid-Atlantic, and will go through daily testing to ensure adequate chlorine from SWG.
-what would a good first shot target be for calcium, is 300 too high to start with?
-making sure i'm not missing anything with the opening plan
Thank you!
We had our pool renovated last spring and then converted to salt mid-summer, the renovation company handled the chemicals for the first month and I don't know what they put in, but I think a lot of unnecessary chemicals, jacks magic, algicide, and trichlor tablets. It is a kidney shaped pool in the mid-Atlantic region so doesn't have a cover unfortunately. We had a few dead mice, a dead bat, a dead red-spotted newt (apparently skin is toxic) and our CYA and Calcium levels were starting to get high near the end of the season. After each of the animal instances I shocked the pool with 10% bleach to high levels (25ppm) due to high CYA (pushing 70-80ppm). We also have a baby who will be able to use the pool this summer. When the pool company closed the pool they drained 1/3 of the water, I am also on Well water, so need a truck to fill. Due to all of the above and needing to get 1-2 trucks to top off the water, I made the decision to just do a full drain and re-fill and figure it is a good time to get the chemicals right from the start. They are coming next week on Monday to Drain, Tuesday to fill, and Wednesday to open the pool.
I just wanted to make sure I had my chemical plan on track, I read a few posts about vinyl pools but nothing about a full drain on a gunite pool.
My plan is as follows:
1) Pool company will add salt upon opening. (but no other chemicals I think?) Last year they added Jacks Magic Magenta to the pool along with an algicide upon opening.
2) Add liquid chlorine until chlorine level is 3-4ppm, not worried about overshooting this initially. Will check 2x a day initially to make sure level is maintained until CYA and SWG are in balance.
3) Add granular CYA in sock to get to 30ppm (I want to be careful to not get the CYA too high again as shocking the pool becomes quite challenging). I am in the mid-Atlantic so the sun may not be as bad as the south, and will gradually increase CYA until I can maintain a good chlorine level with my salt cell. I know the guidance is 60ppm plus, but want to test to come up with the correct number for my pool. I really want to keep this as low as possible and am willing to replace my salt cell more frequently, so am targeting 30ppm-50ppm to make shocking the pool easier and more effective.
4) Get PH in line 7.4-8.0. Last year due to the plaster and SWG the levels would rise and I would need to add muriatic acid 2x a week.
5) Get Total alkalinity in range, 50-90ppm, last year with the acid additions and small water feature this number was hard to keep much higher than 50ppm.
6) Increase Calcium, the pool company told me the water trucks are around 70ppm calcium, I will add enough to get to 300ppm initially. I was reading on the Orenda website that higher calcium can actually be OK to maintain LSI. I don't want to go crazy, but will try to get this around 300ppm.
My main questions are
-do I need any Jack's magic or other product? Do I need an algicide (I don't think so as long as i maintain enough free chlorine)?
-looking for advice on a SWG with a slightly lower than 60ppm CYA level to make it easier to shock. Again - in mid-Atlantic, and will go through daily testing to ensure adequate chlorine from SWG.
-what would a good first shot target be for calcium, is 300 too high to start with?
-making sure i'm not missing anything with the opening plan
Thank you!
