Hi all,
New here but have been reading up for a while ...............well since October when we purchased our new (to us) home with an in ground pool .
Long story short , saw pictures of the running pool and peaked at it under the winter cover before buying the house, but the pool was already winterized and winter came quick in the northeast. So really just hoping everything would be o.k. when we got to opening time in the spring.
Its a 18' x 36' vinyl liner pool with an 8' deep end. Approx 26,000 gallons if my math is correct.
Anyway ...........winter was hard this year and opened the pool to a nice tear in the corner of the liner , and a few minor holes that needed patching . Its probably due for a new liner but not for another year or two for us as we just purchased the house, and a bunch of our disposable income went to buying the house, lol. Patched the holes and tear and filled the pool up, primed and started the filters .............yes filters (there is a cartridge, DE and a sand filter all plumbed in) . Everything is working great, just a few little drips in the plumbing that I need to take care of. Already got rid of the old DE filter and I plan on running the cartridge and sand filter .
Ok, the water was a nice shade of green, so got that all taken care of and in about a weeks+ time, the water is now crystal clear and we have been swimming already (although its friggan cold,lol . 65 deg. but the boys dont care ! New solar cover has it up to about 70 already, but these cold nights keep knocking it down.)
I have the TF 100 test kit. (I already have a 400 gallon hot tub that also made the move with us !) SO I am pretty well "learned" in taking care of the tub chemistry . Its already running on the "dichlor - bleach method" and I have set-up a bleach dosing system for it already . ( its now a VERY low maintenance hot tub!)
The pool is a little different and because of the scale a little bit more intimidating to me until I figure it out.
Anyway ............
My pool numbers are
PH - 7.2 (would like to get that a tad higher. )
Alk - is 110 / 120
FC - I am trying to keep at around 3 with bleach ( just ordered a Liquidator that should be in tomorrow !)
CC - 0 (Yay !)
I forget Calcium #'s but I remember it was within spec .
My CYA is reading 0 ! I tested a few times because I thought I wasn't doing the test incorrectly , but it keeps coming up 0 with the TF100. Double checked it with the useless strip's I had on hand and of course they say its about 40 lol.
SO I will trust the TF100 readings.
I dont want to dump a bunch of CYA in my pool skimmer/pump , and don't want to hang a sock from the edge of the pool or just dump the sock in the filter basket and risk a clogged basket / pump.
I just hung it suspended in the skimmer box by tying a knot in the sock through the hole in the skimmer lid, so the sock is hanging in the turbulent water and slowly dissolving . Does this of CYA sock method O.K. ? I only put 4 cups of CYA in the sock for now (I am a believer in not overdoing the chems too quickly).
Does anyone else dispense CYA like this, and is it o.k. to do like this ?
Thanks !
New here but have been reading up for a while ...............well since October when we purchased our new (to us) home with an in ground pool .
Long story short , saw pictures of the running pool and peaked at it under the winter cover before buying the house, but the pool was already winterized and winter came quick in the northeast. So really just hoping everything would be o.k. when we got to opening time in the spring.
Its a 18' x 36' vinyl liner pool with an 8' deep end. Approx 26,000 gallons if my math is correct.
Anyway ...........winter was hard this year and opened the pool to a nice tear in the corner of the liner , and a few minor holes that needed patching . Its probably due for a new liner but not for another year or two for us as we just purchased the house, and a bunch of our disposable income went to buying the house, lol. Patched the holes and tear and filled the pool up, primed and started the filters .............yes filters (there is a cartridge, DE and a sand filter all plumbed in) . Everything is working great, just a few little drips in the plumbing that I need to take care of. Already got rid of the old DE filter and I plan on running the cartridge and sand filter .
Ok, the water was a nice shade of green, so got that all taken care of and in about a weeks+ time, the water is now crystal clear and we have been swimming already (although its friggan cold,lol . 65 deg. but the boys dont care ! New solar cover has it up to about 70 already, but these cold nights keep knocking it down.)
I have the TF 100 test kit. (I already have a 400 gallon hot tub that also made the move with us !) SO I am pretty well "learned" in taking care of the tub chemistry . Its already running on the "dichlor - bleach method" and I have set-up a bleach dosing system for it already . ( its now a VERY low maintenance hot tub!)
The pool is a little different and because of the scale a little bit more intimidating to me until I figure it out.
Anyway ............
My pool numbers are
PH - 7.2 (would like to get that a tad higher. )
Alk - is 110 / 120
FC - I am trying to keep at around 3 with bleach ( just ordered a Liquidator that should be in tomorrow !)
CC - 0 (Yay !)
I forget Calcium #'s but I remember it was within spec .
My CYA is reading 0 ! I tested a few times because I thought I wasn't doing the test incorrectly , but it keeps coming up 0 with the TF100. Double checked it with the useless strip's I had on hand and of course they say its about 40 lol.
SO I will trust the TF100 readings. I dont want to dump a bunch of CYA in my pool skimmer/pump , and don't want to hang a sock from the edge of the pool or just dump the sock in the filter basket and risk a clogged basket / pump.
I just hung it suspended in the skimmer box by tying a knot in the sock through the hole in the skimmer lid, so the sock is hanging in the turbulent water and slowly dissolving . Does this of CYA sock method O.K. ? I only put 4 cups of CYA in the sock for now (I am a believer in not overdoing the chems too quickly).
Does anyone else dispense CYA like this, and is it o.k. to do like this ?
Thanks !
