First test after pool refill

[harrisb411]

Hi and thank you very all very much for your help on this forum. I recently purchased a house with an in ground pool which was in horrible shape. After having the waterfall and slide refinished we had the pool acid washed. Ive refilled the pool and replaced the SWG. Here are my current readings:

FC- 7
CC-1
PH-7.5
CH-175
TA-160
CYA-20
Salt-200
CSI -.46
So after plugging the numbers into pool math am I reading it right that it is recommending 37 lbs. of Calcium Chloride? I also have some confusion about lowering TA.

So any recommendations on what to attack first?

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

The most important part of managing pH, TA and CH is what your CSI is. CSI needs to be above -0.6 at a minimum and between -0.3 and 0 is better to avoid etching (pitting in your plaster due to CH dissolving out of your plaster). Raise your pH to 7.8 and it should get your CSI above -0.3. With TA that high pH should rise on its own. When it gets to 8.0 lower it to 7.6. Your CH will slowly rise on its own as you replace evaporated water. But, it wouldn't hurt to raise it to 250ppm either.

Here is how to lower TA, Pool School - Lower Total Alkalinity

More about etching here, Pool School - Calcium Scaling

You will want your TA to be between 50 and 60 by summer to slow the PH rise that will occur in summer with the SWG running and swimming. For now it is less important as long as your CSI is ok, just keep an eye on pH.

Have you seen this? Pool School - Water Balance for SWGs

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum.

You have a good grasp of the chemistry issues. My suggestion would be to tackle CYA first......and maybe the only thing to tackle.

You will lose little FC during these winter months but the FC demand will come quickly in a couple of months and you want the correct CYA in place. I would bring it up to 60-70.

Now, a note about CH. We suggest a CH of around 250 - 400 so you are a little bit low. The deal with CH is it will continue to rise on it's own. (The rate of rise will be dependent on the CH of your fill water.) So if you decide to add, add only enough to get to 250 and then monitor it on a monthly basis going forward.

What does your water look like? The CC of 1 ppm suggests some organics in your pool and may have to be addressed.

 

[harrisb411]

Thanks for all the advise!

I retested without the help of my 8 year old and CC is 0

The pool looks clear, and I ran the waterfall today to bring up the PH so I can add acid tomorrow to start bringing down the TA .

As far as CYA, its also on the list for tomorrow.

 

[pooldv]

Have you read about putting CYA in a sock? More here about how to add chems to your pool, Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

 

[harrisb411]

I sure have, and my boy has a sock all picked out for it. I am having a problem with the Aqualogic and operating the salt cell. Would the water temp of 65F cause it to take itself offline?

 

[pooldv]

Nice!

It could. SWGs all have a shut off point where they stop making chlorine. Some also start to have difficulty with the salt reading, low temp can cause the salt reading to be lower than it actually is. That is how I ended up with over 5000 ppm in my pool the first fall. I think the shutoff point for the aqua logic is probably lower than 65 though. I turn my swg off and switch to bleach as soon as I start getting random weird errors, usually somewhere in the 60s.