Hi all - We installed a pool in NJ late Fall/Winter and immediately closed it without testing anything, etc. (as the water was frozen). This forum was a huge help to us as we dealt with all the difficulties of pool construction (including having to fire the pool installer near the end of the job, getting ripped off by a concrete guy, etc.).
While it's early in NJ and it will be weeks until we see swimmable weather, we decided to open the pool this week in order to get started maintaining it and getting the hang of it. We hired a pool maintenance company to remove the safety cover, add starter chemicals (he tells me they added chlorine and PH down) and program the Pentair Easytouch panel so we could get things moving and then my hope was to use what I learn in this forum to maintain the pool myself. I'll apologize in advance for any really dumb questions.
Initial concern relates to chemicals I should be adding. Day one after the cover came off, I decided to do a basic water test. I found both the chlorine and pH to be high which didn't surprise me at all given what I was told re: chemicals they added. We left the pump on a low speed (1150 RPM) to let the chemicals distribute 24/7. I went back just now (2 days later) and tested the water again. pH seems to be down a bit (roughly 7.8) and chlorine test doesn't show any yellow whatsoever which I take to mean we now have a very low level of chlorine in the pool. It's a SWG pool so we'll be leaning on that to produce the chlorine going forward. On day 1, the SWG read that water was too cold, so it was off. Today it seems to be on but reads that the salt level is very low (again, no surprise since we haven't added salt). I did a test of the salt level and confirmed there is hardly any salt in the pool. I just ordered 10 bags of salt to add to the pool which we'll probably go pick up tomorrow.
So with all that background, here are my initial questions:
1. Weather here are the next few weeks looks like high 50s and overnight lows hitting as low as low 30s. Should I plan to dump the salt in the pool now to let the SWG start producing chlorine or is it better to add chlorine for now and hold off on the SWG for the time being?
2. Pump speed - the pool isn't a huge pool by any stretch and the pump certainly seems to have more firepower than we need. I've been running the pump at 1150RPM with the waterfall running to get water circulating 24/7. I assume that isn't really necessary (calculations I've done show that I'm getting more turnover than I need). Should I keep running 24/7 for the time being or is it sufficient to leave on 6-8 hours. Is 1150 RPM a reasonable speed to continue running the pump in the beginning?
3. Other chemicals. At this point, are there other chemicals you'd recommend adding to start off the season or other readings I should be taking? My hope was the maintenance co. that opened the pool would get us stabilized and I would then take over but he seems to pay little attention to me now that I told him we'll be maintaining the pool ourselves and having him open/close. Trying to get his attention and we may have him do some more maintenance for the time being until I feel comfortable taking over day-to-day maintenance but in the meantimea any other thoughts are much appreciated.
4. While I'm running the pump at a low speed, is there a minimum speed to run the pump if I plug in the vacuum to clean the bottom?
5. Bought a Dolphin robot to clean the bottom but it suggests a certain water chemistry before running the dolphin. Is there a real risk of doing harm to the dolphin if I plug it in now and test it before the water is stabilized?
I have a ton more questions but just starting here as I get going I think would be helpful. Thank you everyone who gave advice during the pool build and thanks in advance for your guidance! Looking forwared to our first season and getting the landscaping around the pool finished finally
While it's early in NJ and it will be weeks until we see swimmable weather, we decided to open the pool this week in order to get started maintaining it and getting the hang of it. We hired a pool maintenance company to remove the safety cover, add starter chemicals (he tells me they added chlorine and PH down) and program the Pentair Easytouch panel so we could get things moving and then my hope was to use what I learn in this forum to maintain the pool myself. I'll apologize in advance for any really dumb questions.
Initial concern relates to chemicals I should be adding. Day one after the cover came off, I decided to do a basic water test. I found both the chlorine and pH to be high which didn't surprise me at all given what I was told re: chemicals they added. We left the pump on a low speed (1150 RPM) to let the chemicals distribute 24/7. I went back just now (2 days later) and tested the water again. pH seems to be down a bit (roughly 7.8) and chlorine test doesn't show any yellow whatsoever which I take to mean we now have a very low level of chlorine in the pool. It's a SWG pool so we'll be leaning on that to produce the chlorine going forward. On day 1, the SWG read that water was too cold, so it was off. Today it seems to be on but reads that the salt level is very low (again, no surprise since we haven't added salt). I did a test of the salt level and confirmed there is hardly any salt in the pool. I just ordered 10 bags of salt to add to the pool which we'll probably go pick up tomorrow.
So with all that background, here are my initial questions:
1. Weather here are the next few weeks looks like high 50s and overnight lows hitting as low as low 30s. Should I plan to dump the salt in the pool now to let the SWG start producing chlorine or is it better to add chlorine for now and hold off on the SWG for the time being?
2. Pump speed - the pool isn't a huge pool by any stretch and the pump certainly seems to have more firepower than we need. I've been running the pump at 1150RPM with the waterfall running to get water circulating 24/7. I assume that isn't really necessary (calculations I've done show that I'm getting more turnover than I need). Should I keep running 24/7 for the time being or is it sufficient to leave on 6-8 hours. Is 1150 RPM a reasonable speed to continue running the pump in the beginning?
3. Other chemicals. At this point, are there other chemicals you'd recommend adding to start off the season or other readings I should be taking? My hope was the maintenance co. that opened the pool would get us stabilized and I would then take over but he seems to pay little attention to me now that I told him we'll be maintaining the pool ourselves and having him open/close. Trying to get his attention and we may have him do some more maintenance for the time being until I feel comfortable taking over day-to-day maintenance but in the meantimea any other thoughts are much appreciated.
4. While I'm running the pump at a low speed, is there a minimum speed to run the pump if I plug in the vacuum to clean the bottom?
5. Bought a Dolphin robot to clean the bottom but it suggests a certain water chemistry before running the dolphin. Is there a real risk of doing harm to the dolphin if I plug it in now and test it before the water is stabilized?
I have a ton more questions but just starting here as I get going I think would be helpful. Thank you everyone who gave advice during the pool build and thanks in advance for your guidance! Looking forwared to our first season and getting the landscaping around the pool finished finally