Does it pay to have stupid luck with pool water?

[VinnyinNJ]

Pool is filled, the dealer is coming to do an orientation for the family but I won't be there, gotta work!

I was impatient last night with 13,500 gallons of water not being taken care of so I went outside and made sure things worked. Since the filter was on I figured why not add some stabilizer to prepare for today. It seems I got it to 80 when I checked this morning. So I figured hey I should add bleach, l got that to 6.4. But my PH is way down, I added washing soda, it was still down so I added some more but time to go to work. I'll check it tonight.

So readings from Taylor/TFP
FC 6.4
CYA 80
PH 7.0 or lower.

I did not test CH, TA and no salt added yet. CH out of the tap was reading 10, tested 2x same reading.

Will continue tonight.

 

[PoolGate]

Did your builder do an acid (hot) start?

 

[Mdragger88]

Until your swg is up & running be sure to add liquid chlorine daily to maintain target fc levels according to the liquid chlorine part of the FC/CYA Levels .
It takes 24-48 hrs after the salt is in for it to be thoroughly mixed so u can test the level & add more if needed. It’s best to creep up on your salt target as overshooting = water replacement.
You shouldn’t turn on your cell until after that time so you will need to manually chlorinate for a while.
Definitely Test your ta - if it is 60 or above you can also point the jets up so they bubble on the surface to aerate & raise ph without increasing ta further.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Did your builder do an acid (hot) start?

It's an AG pool, other that setting up the equipment and dumping salt in today I don't think he is doing anything else. When I asked if there will be starter chemicals he said no other than the salt.

It's all on me, but I've been through this before so not a problem.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Until your swg is up & running be sure to add liquid chlorine daily to maintain target fc levels according to the liquid chlorine part of the FC/CYA Levels .
It takes 24-48 hrs after the salt is in for it to be thoroughly mixed so u can test the level & add more if needed. It’s best to creep up on your salt target as overshooting = water replacement.
You shouldn’t turn on your cell until after that time so you will need to manually chlorinate for a while.
Definitely Test your ta - if it is 60 or above you can also point the jets up so they bubble on the surface to aerate & raise ph without increasing ta further.

Thanks and yes! I looked at Pool Math this morning to get a idea of how much to put in, It was a guesstimate as to how much I actually added. I will test the pool tonight to see what the FC/CC is and then add whatever is needed. The PH is way off but I attribute that to the CYA going in, fill water was 7 4 out of the tap. I'm using washing soda that seems to raise PH a little bit more than borax per ounce; never used it before but store was out of borax.

I said CH but it was TA and was 10 out of the tap which is low, tested 2x just in case I screwed up but it was the same both times. Maybe bad reagents or maybe it is low.

 

[PoolGate]

It's an AG pool, other that setting up the equipment and dumping salt in today I don't think he is doing anything else. When I asked if there will be starter chemicals he said no other than the salt.

It's all on me, but I've been through this before so not a problem.

I am just wondering why your water is so acidic on a new fill. What pH is your fill water?

 

[Mdragger88]

That’s crazy low ta fill water! Most people have the opposite problem. Just keep going slowly until u get a readable ta & ph.
& Check poolmath effects of adding before each addition

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Fill water out of tap is 7.4 but I added about 8 lbs of CYA which drops the PH. When I tested my TA out of the tap 2x it was at 10. I wasn't able to spend a lot of time this morning before having to go to work but will continue tonight.

Pool Math said CYA would drop my PH by 1.1 so it could be in the low 6's. It also said washing soda would raise PH 0.9 for 55 ounces which is a box. I plan on stopping at a store tonight to pick up borax or more washing soda to raise the PH.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

I came home early today and the pool store was here giving the orientation to my wife and son. He added 1 gallon of liquid shock and when I measure FC it was about 16 PPM. He put 7 bags of salt and the Taylor kit read 3200 PPM and the SWG reads 2700. I'll give it some time to settle for the reading ... I'm guessing that as long as it produces chlorine I'm shouldn't be concerned what it reads. I didn't test PH because of the high chlorine reading. TA was around 50 and I didn't get a chance to read CH but it was 60 out of the tap a few weeks ago, I don't think I added anything for it to go up but I will test.

Is there a shortage of borax in the US? Shelves are empty!

One thing the pool store guy did was turn on the SWG and told my family it takes 48 hours to start working ... I turned it off. My son was insistent that the pool guy said it must stay on, OK I'll turn it back on thinking there's 3200 PPM salt. Sticker on SWG "keep SWG off for 24 hours to fully disolve salt", hmmm ... I didn't turn it back on!

 

[jesse-99]

This is just a guess, but i wonder if the SWGs say "dont turn on for 24 hour after adding salt" because most people would just dump salt into their pump and dont bother to brush it in to mix it right away and turn on water features to help mix it in. Maybe I'm way off, but it seems like, so long as you mix up the salt and have a lot of water movement in your pool , there shouldn't be a reason to -need- to wait for 24 hours before turning on the SWGs. I'd think it gets mixed in pretty quick based on doing a reagent test a couple hours later and seeing the results you want to see? if you do, then why would you need to wait 24 hours? But maybe I'm off on this.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

This is just a guess, but i wonder if the SWGs say "dont turn on for 24 hour after adding salt" because most people would just dump salt into their pump and dont bother to brush it in to mix it right away and turn on water features to help mix it in. Maybe I'm way off, but it seems like, so long as you mix up the salt and have a lot of water movement in your pool , there shouldn't be a reason to -need- to wait for 24 hours before turning on the SWGs. I'd think it gets mixed in pretty quick based on doing a reagent test a couple hours later and seeing the results you want to see? if you do, then why would you need to wait 24 hours? But maybe I'm off on this.

I believe you're 100% correct! But I figured since I have so much chlorine in the pool already I don't need the SWG to be running. The reagents in the water in my case read 3200 ppm salt so that should be enough.

 

[Newdude]

I added 19 bags of salt and gave it a day to mix.



My SWG was $1500 purchased the year before and this years was $300 more, if one was so lucky to find it. The risk of an undisolved slug, or a few highly salinated gallons destroying the brand new unit was simply not worth one extra day of use.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

I added 19 bags of salt and gave it a day to mix.

View attachment 450756

My SWG was $1500 purchased the year before and this years was $300 more, if one was so lucky to find it. The risk of an undisolved slug, or a few highly salinated gallons destroying the brand new unit was simply not worth one extra day of use.

Makes sense!

 

[PoolGate]

My Jandy/Nature2 SWCG will not produce chlorine if the salt level is too high. However, I set mine at 0% when I add salt until it is dissolved but I think if I did not it would not cause any issues.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

My stupid luck held up on day 2! Based on the numbers I got really lucky with starting up the pool. Salt, pH and FC are all a little high but I imagine I'll be adding MA for pH when the SWG kicks in; FC will drop down as we use the pool and the salt will be lower next year due to lowering water to winterize and adding it in the spring.

Using the Taylor kit
FC 10.5 - we put a solar cover on the pool and sun didn't use up the chlorine from the morning. Unless it's chlorine lock!
CC 0.0
Salt 3200 - SWG reading 2700?
pH 7.8
TA 70 - drifted up from 50
CH 80 - this too drifted up from tap being 60, not sure why didn't think I added anything with calcium.
CYA 80
Temp 76 F - a little on the cooler side for us but we're going to brave it to get into the pool.

I haven't started my SWG only because of the FC level already, I'm keeping an eye on the FC so I don't run into a problem.

 

[PoolGate]

Target 10% of cya for your chlorine level. Is this a plaster pool? If so you'll need to get your CH up.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Target 10% of cya for your chlorine level. Is this a plaster pool? If so you'll need to get your CH up.

This is an AG pool so no plaster, I am assuming you are saying since CYA is 80 I should shoot for 8 FC.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Is it possible for TA to creep up?

After my initial adding of pool chemicals I have added nothing other than bleach to my pool water. I have not turned on the SWG at all, my pH is dropping due to the pool being covered with a solar cover and the pool is not consuming chlorine as it would during early and mid summer; but testing the water shows that TA has creeped up 10 PPM, it was 70 and now it's 80. It could be inconsistent drop size causing the testing to be off but is it possible for TA to move up without the addition of chemicals that could make it move up?

From the K-2006
FC 8
CC 0.2
pH 7.4
TA 80
CH 80
Salt 3200 - I tested 2x a few days apart in the beginning have not tested it recently

 

[duraleigh]

The resolution of the test is plus or minus 10 ppm, so a result of 70 or 80 ppm is virtually the same result

 

[VinnyinNJ]

The precision of the test is plus or minus 10 ppm, so a result of 70 or 80 ppm is virtually the same result

Thanks! I didn't realize that.