Getting water balanced, newer pool owner

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Mrtrojanap7

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Jul 16, 2017
5
Corona, CA
Hi all! I found this website last year, and it helped me get started with pool maintenance. Thank you so much! When I first bought my house (last august), we had a flood and didn't move in until December. Swam most of summer and maintained well. In December, a pool guy came by and taught me about filter cleaning, maintenance and helped me get pool really cleaned up for winter non-use.

Fast forward to now, water is testing as below:

FAC: 1 ppm
TAC: 1 PPM
Calcium Hardness: 400
CYA: 90
TA: 120
pH: 7.7
TDS: 2300
Pho: 1000

Background and my plan of action so far:
Pool water is sitting about 5" low. Going to add more tomorrow morning while getting ready for work.
Tonight, going to add some chlorine. I have some liquid (13% I believe) and a couple left over bags of power powder plus from Leslie's (i'm sorry I know that is a sacrilegious term :p). I was thinking to add one bag of the powder.


After that I'm kind of stumped about what to tackle first? I want to bring the TA and TDS down, and CYA. I am hoping that adding more water helps with TA and TDS. What would you all suggest about what my next steps should be? I'm concerned that adding chlorine and/or acid to bring PH down more will increase my TDS and bring TA up...
 
Don't add the powdered chlorine.

It will add either CYA or Calcium, and you have plenty of both already.

What I see are pool store results. TDS is meaningless and phosphates don't really matter if you maintain adequate free chlorine.

If (big if) those results are accurate, all I see you needing is a lot of bleach. You should ve maintaining a minimum of 7 FC and targeting 19-12 FC when you add bleach. [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA] But the CYA test is probably the one the pool store's get wrong most often, so it could actually be anywhere from 40 to 200.

If you're serious about taking control of your pool's chemistry, you need your own test kit so you can be sure of the results and also to get timely feedback on what you've been adding.
 
I have the Leslie's big test kit at home, Taylor K-2006/Leslie's 81329. I'll retest CYA on my own. I used it last night to test the pH and chlorine.

So the liquid chlorine is better because it won't add any conditioner/calcium? or minimal conditioner/calcium compared to powder?

My local mom and pop place sells chlorine in a 4 pack, with a returnable yellow box. Is that best way to go vs bleach?
 
Mrtrojanap7 said:
I have the Leslie's big test kit at home, Taylor K-2006/Leslie's 81329. I'll retest CYA on my own. I used it last night to test the pH and chlorine.

So the liquid chlorine is better because it won't add any conditioner/calcium? or minimal conditioner/calcium compared to powder?

My local mom and pop place sells chlorine in a 4 pack, with a returnable yellow box. Is that best way to go vs bleach?
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That's what I use. HASA is the brand name. Typically I slop about a quart a day into the pool in Summer.
 
There is it, HASA. I'll use what I have left of that at home. Probably will add a gallon today while pump is running. After adding that, few hours later do I add some more acid to lower the pH?

I feel suckered - I appreciate your help Richard. I picked up the bad habit of going into Leslie's to get a test done, since I'd do it while going grocery shopping. I'm going to keep up doing the tests at home. Thanks for your help Richard.
 
Mrtrojanap7 said:
There is it, HASA. I'll use what I have left of that at home. Probably will add a gallon today while pump is running. After adding that, few hours later do I add some more acid to lower the pH?

I feel suckered - I appreciate your help Richard. I picked up the bad habit of going into Leslie's to get a test done, since I'd do it while going grocery shopping. I'm going to keep up doing the tests at home. Thanks for your help Richard.
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7.7 is fine for pH. You could wait a day to add acid, most likely. Your call.

A gallon of 12.5% will add about 7.5 FC to your pool, which will just barely get you above minimum. The good news is, if you add daily, it won't take so much every time.
 
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