Confused after Pool School :)

[Richard320]

Ok after reading a little bit. I got my pump running and had added 2 Gallons of liquid bleach. I do have some "shock" powder should I add some or should the bleach be enough.

Also I have a chlorinator, should it have tablets in it and what should I set the little dial on the side of the chlorinator to? Up to this point I have been using one of those floaty things.

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If the "shock powder" is Calcium Hypochlorite, you can use that as your FC source. It will add CH, too. You have plenty of breathing room on CH right now. If the shock is dichlor or trichlor, be very careful. They both add CYA at an alarming rate. You can use a little extra CYA, but go real easy with it. The Pool Calculator can tell you the effects of adding chemicals. It's near the bottom of the chart.

If you stick with bleach, you're only dealing with one chemical at a time. It's simpler.

Save the pucks for vacation. Keep them dry and they'll last for years. They affect FC, CYA, TA, and pH, so if you're confused now...

 

[Robione]

Ok Thanks. And I'm extremely confused, but I'm slowly catching on.

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[Smykowski]

See if this helps....

Chlorine is chlorine is chlorine. Your goal is to maintain a Free Chlorine level in your pool that is dependent on your CYA level. The higher the CYA, the higher your FC will need to be.

Pucks raise FC - but they also raise CYA.
Calcium hypochlorite raises FC - but it also raises calcium hardness.
Plain bleach only raises FC (technically, it also raises salt, but so extremely slowly you can ignore it).
Liquid shock from the pool store = plain bleach but stronger.

Above I said that those products raise FC. The pool calculator will tell you by how much.

 

[Robione]

So I realize it's probably a never ending battle but.... Once everything is good. How do you guys maintain the chlorine level? Just keep pouring liquid bleach directly in the pool or is there a more automated way.

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[jblizzle]

There are a few options:
-manually add bleach
-the liquidator
-peristaltic pump
-salt water chlorine generator

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[Robione]

First, thank you to everyone that has replied with help and advice.

I have followed most and here is where I'm at after a full day of rain.

I'm also curious what these levers do and do I need to ever adjust them. The reason I ask is it seems like my skimmer is not that effective. I see water going in it but it doesn't seem to clean the top that well. I do have to clean the bucket every few days and the basket at the pump is clean too. I also have one of those robotic things cruising around the bottom and the bottom looks immaculate. When pool time comes around does the majority leave the robot in or pull it out and let the pool do its thing using skimmer and drain at bottom of pool.

And of coarse nothing is labeled.

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[jblizzle]

The valve directly in front of the pump is the suction valve. Right now it has both pipes open ... these may be the skimmer and the floor. If you partially close one direction you may be able to increase the flow through the skimmer. Do you have a weir on the skimmer as they help a lot.

The other valve is on the return side. Looks like you have 3 different pipes heading back to the pool (although 2 are tied together) and only the one on the left is currently open. You can just turn that valve CW to see what the other pipes go to (water feature?)

BTW, how did you measure a CH of 8? That test is usually in increments of 10 or 25 ppm. That combined with the low pH is making your water appear corrosive.

 

[Smykowski]

With a CYA of 40 the poolcalculator range for FC is 3 to 7, meaning don't let it get below 3, ever. If it's my pool I'd dose to 6. In fact, in my pool I target the high end of the range for dosing so that it's extremely unlikely that I would ever go below the minimum.

 

[Robione]

Ok sorry for the slow response. That 8 was supposed to be 80 and I just checked it again and it's 90 now. All the goals seen on the right were already in app when I downloaded it. Do they seem correct? Oh and my CYA is like 30 or less.

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[jblizzle]

With a vinyl pool, the low CH does not matter.

See the recommended levels here:
pool-school/recommended_levels