Hi gang, stumbled upon this community after much pool research. I am a new pool owner this season, with our pool being opened on June 12 this year by a local pool supplies/maintenance company. The pool was measured as 36’ x 16 1/6’ average, and was told that the volume should be around 89k litres, or ~23.5k gallons. I’ve inputted 24k gallons as most calculators I’ve tried is close to that number.
This is how the pool started (picture taken after the interlock contractor re-leveled around the pool), and also dumped the cover into the pool. Note that we did not open last season when we owned the house but was under renovation.
During the opening, 20L of chlorine (listed as sodium hydrochloride 12% on my receipt) was added. They got the cover out. I’m unsure whether they scrubbed the liner.
This is what it looked like the day after (June 13):
Without taking any water samples, the pool guy told me to add 40L chlorine without any stabilizer.
This is what it looked like after (June 14):
At this point I had purchased some test strips for quick testing at home (I’ve subsequently ordered a Taylor K-2006C kit which hasn’t arrived yet). The results showed no FC and what could be either no or 0.5 TC. I also had zero CYA.
The next day (June 15), I added 3.6kg of CYA (1/2 on each skimmer), as well as an additional 30L of chlorine (they ran out, otherwise it would have been 40L).
This is what it looked like the day after (June 16), when the pool maintenance guys also came to do some repairs on the equipment (flow sensor and fixing some plumbing joins). They brought and put in 1kg of flocculant, after which we put it in 8 hours of recirculating and then back to filtering. They also spent quite some time scooping up leaves and whatever was inside the pool as much as they could. The image is of the evening when flocculant has had time to work.
The next day I brought a water sample there, and these were the results (June 17, ~1pm):
FC 0.04
TC 0.57
CC 0.53
pH 6.6
Alkalinity 122
Hardness 117
Salt 2400
Iron 0.10
Copper 0.00
Phosphate 1605
Interestingly my test strips were showing higher pH (7.8), hardness (250) but I assume it’s not very accurate.
I purchased but haven’t used:
- 40L chlorine
- 3L phosfree
- 2kg pH plus
- 2 bags of salt (should have been 3 but I only purchased 2 for now)
I’m unsure whether the treatment plan has been correct (water was only tested when I brought back a sample). I think I may need more CYA before putting any more chlorine, and I should probably clean my SWG as it is showing check cell and low salt.
I’ve spent close to 4x their opening costs including the extra service call and chemicals, and they want to come back for some vacuuming after adding in the flocculant. This is as accurate account as I have notes on so far.
Last picture is from last night (June 17) 8pm, and it looks pretty close to that right now:
What’re my next steps here? I may have missed some details so ask away!
This is how the pool started (picture taken after the interlock contractor re-leveled around the pool), and also dumped the cover into the pool. Note that we did not open last season when we owned the house but was under renovation.
During the opening, 20L of chlorine (listed as sodium hydrochloride 12% on my receipt) was added. They got the cover out. I’m unsure whether they scrubbed the liner.
This is what it looked like the day after (June 13):
Without taking any water samples, the pool guy told me to add 40L chlorine without any stabilizer.
This is what it looked like after (June 14):
At this point I had purchased some test strips for quick testing at home (I’ve subsequently ordered a Taylor K-2006C kit which hasn’t arrived yet). The results showed no FC and what could be either no or 0.5 TC. I also had zero CYA.
The next day (June 15), I added 3.6kg of CYA (1/2 on each skimmer), as well as an additional 30L of chlorine (they ran out, otherwise it would have been 40L).
This is what it looked like the day after (June 16), when the pool maintenance guys also came to do some repairs on the equipment (flow sensor and fixing some plumbing joins). They brought and put in 1kg of flocculant, after which we put it in 8 hours of recirculating and then back to filtering. They also spent quite some time scooping up leaves and whatever was inside the pool as much as they could. The image is of the evening when flocculant has had time to work.
The next day I brought a water sample there, and these were the results (June 17, ~1pm):
FC 0.04
TC 0.57
CC 0.53
pH 6.6
Alkalinity 122
Hardness 117
Salt 2400
Iron 0.10
Copper 0.00
Phosphate 1605
Interestingly my test strips were showing higher pH (7.8), hardness (250) but I assume it’s not very accurate.
I purchased but haven’t used:
- 40L chlorine
- 3L phosfree
- 2kg pH plus
- 2 bags of salt (should have been 3 but I only purchased 2 for now)
I’m unsure whether the treatment plan has been correct (water was only tested when I brought back a sample). I think I may need more CYA before putting any more chlorine, and I should probably clean my SWG as it is showing check cell and low salt.
I’ve spent close to 4x their opening costs including the extra service call and chemicals, and they want to come back for some vacuuming after adding in the flocculant. This is as accurate account as I have notes on so far.
Last picture is from last night (June 17) 8pm, and it looks pretty close to that right now:
What’re my next steps here? I may have missed some details so ask away!
Unfortunately you're spinning your wheels and not going anywhere. 
You need a proper test kit - Taylor K-2006C which is the only good one offered up north. If you have a mailing address south of the border, then the TF-100 is an option. With either of those kits, you record accurate numbers and follow the 