Help - new water gone wrong

WayneMan

New member
Jun 28, 2024
1
kansas
Pool Size
19900
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hello, long story short I drained my ~20,000 gallon pool at the advice of the loca pool guy, he dropped off the face of the earth, now I'm struggling to find the right balance.
I used 1/3 city water and 2/3 well water (Central Kansas).

When recommending products, please give me an exact recommendation. Nothing I buy seems to have CYA in it.
Calcium hardness seems low.
Help please, I'm feeling very overwhelmed.
Step by step is great, and recommending exact products with chemical names would be great, I have background in chemistry. Or just tell me exactly what to buy.
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Sinkhole
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Build Type: Plaster
Volume: 19900 gallons
Chemistry: Liquid Chlorine
------------------------------------------use Tf-pro
Latest Test Result Summary:
FC: 10.0 (4 minutes ago)
pH: 7.2 (4 minutes ago)
TA: 180 (4 minutes ago)
CH: 225 (4 minutes ago)
CYA: 0 (4 minutes ago)
TEMPERATURE: 75° (4 minutes ago)
CSI: -0.21 (4 minutes ago)
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Step by step is great, and recommending exact products with chemical names would be great, I have background in chemistry. Or just tell me exactly what to buy.

Welcome to TFP! Read Pool Care Basics and FC/CYA Levels and PoolMath. Then read Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (to determine whether you have algae -- you probably do, although I suppose that with well water and your FC level, the green in your photos could be iron) and SLAM Process (to eliminate algae). And maybe read this, on removing iron with a Polyfill filter: If you’ve got iron in your fill water, use Polyfill to remove it

Also, create your signature and introduce yourself.

------------------------------------------use Tf-pro
Latest Test Result Summary:
FC: 10.0 (4 minutes ago)
pH: 7.2 (4 minutes ago)
TA: 180 (4 minutes ago)
CH: 225 (4 minutes ago)
CYA: 0 (4 minutes ago)
TEMPERATURE: 75° (4 minutes ago)
CSI: -0.21 (4 minutes ago)
==========================================

10ppm FC is a very high level with no CYA. It will not be pleasant to swim in, and in time it can damage your equipment. Fortunately, the lack of CYA means that the FC will burn off very quickly once the sun starts shining on the water. Unfortunately, the resulting low FC will inadequately sanitize the water, and it will also allow rapid algae growth.

You need to add CYA as soon as possible. Once you have 30ppm CYA, the FC will last a lot longer in the sun, and any range from 3 to 12ppm FC will be safe for swimming.

To raise your CYA concentration, buy dry cyanuric acid. The PoolMath app says you'll need 5 pounds to raise your level from 0 to 30ppm. Here's the 4-pound bag that I buy: Clorox Pool & Spa Chlorine Stabilizer

Best way to add it is the "sock method": Find a sock you don't want to wear anymore, pour the CYA in, tie the top closed, and hang it in the pool water from a pole -- away from the pool wall, because CYA can stain the surface. After a couple hours, the CYA granules will soften (hanging in front of a return will hasten the process) and you can squeeze the sock to force the CYA out into the water.

A sock won't hold five pounds of CYA, so you'll have to do this a few times, or with a few socks at a time -- or you can do what @Newdude does: Pour it all into a T-shirt instead of a sock, and tie that up. Just make sure that whatever you use can't open up or fall off the pole.

Note that it can take a few days for added CYA to register in the CYA test, so add CYA according to the PoolMath app's "Effects of Adding", and don't add more until you've tested at least 3 days after you added it.

Your other numbers are fine. After you add CYA and then get your pool clear -- with the SLAM process and/or the various iron cures -- you might want to fine-tune those other levels, but they're nothing to worry about now.
 
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