Help with new pool and SWG..which chemical do i fix first

[Loganadyson]

First I want to say thank you!! This forum is incredible!! I've had different INTEX pools for years and could have REALLY used this in past years! So, I'm starting from scratch since I now realize how incredibly clueless I am about the water chemistry, and because this is my first year with an SWG. We have a 16' x 48'' INTEX ultra frame pool with the INTEX SWG. We live in the country, and fill our pool with softened well water. Here's my problem...the water (right now) is crystal clear, however, here are the test results from the hth 6 way test kit(with drops, not the strips) and I already have those stupid back swimmer bugs. ( I am sure that's what they are, did some research to make sure)
Salt- 2550
Cyanuric acid- 50
Ph- 7.5
Chlorine- 0
Alkalinity - 380
Hardness-0
The pool holds about 5,061 gallons of water, and the SWG manual says the salt should be between 2500 and 3000ppm, optimally 3000ppm.
So I know salt, chlorine, and hardness need to come up. Alkalinity needs to come down, and I think ph and cyanuric acid are good.

I know they all affect each other so I'm scared to fix one and make another worse! What do I do first? !

 

[Richard320]

Re: Help with new pool and SWG..which chemical do i fix firs

Your vinyl pool doesn't care about Calcium hardness. If the water is foamy, you might need to add some. Wait and see.

pH is fine, but it will rise with the SWG. When you lower it with acid, the alkalinity will slowly come down.

You do need some chlorine in there, now, before algae can get going. Add bleach - about 1.5 qts of 8.25% Chlorox.

Raise the salt a little - I'd put in 10 pounds - then fire off the SWG and see what happens.

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Help with new pool and SWG..which chemical do i fix firs

PH is indeed fine for now.

Get some chlorine in the pool first. I recommend adding chlorine manually right at the moment. SWGs work better if you get everything balanced first before you start depending on the SWG.

The next step is to raise the salt level towards the high end of the recommended range. Salt will drift down over the course of the season, so you want to start a little high (but not way high, so careful on how much you add).

A medium priority item is to raise CYA. I wouldn't start that today, just in case you end up needing to shock the pool. But tomorrow or the next day start raising CYA up to the 70 to 80 range recommended for a SWG pool.

There is no need to raise calcium hardness in a vinyl liner pool. Especially given your very high TA, you don't want CH much above 50 or you will get calcium scaling in the SWG.

If that test result is correct, your TA is very high. Lowering TA is going to be a slow process and there is no need to start right away. Simply lowering the PH to 7.2 each time it gets to 7.8 will lower the TA eventually.