Just getting started and need help.

[laurandavid09]

Also I have my pool jets pointed towards the surface. Should I point these down as not to aerate the water? Sometimes the jets hit the surface making small bubbles. Does not happen often though, but it does happen.

Thanks.

 

[polyvue]

I am going to be adding bleach to bring up FC and also acid to drop pH. Is there any specific order I should do these in or can I do them right after each other?

I normally correct the pH first, though in the long run it doesn't matter. Wait at least 30 minutes with the pump/filter operating after you add acid and before you begin adding chlorine.

Also I have my pool jets pointed towards the surface. Should I point these down as not to aerate the water? Sometimes the jets hit the surface making small bubbles. Does not happen often though, but it does happen.

Probably not too important at this point, but having jets pointed toward surface tends to raise the pH.

 

[duraleigh]

Unless your pH is 7.2 or lower (not likely), you will have very, very little affect from that much aeration....not enough to consider.

 

[PaulR]

I have a polaris pressure cleaner. It has a bag on top and seems to fill with water like it should. How do you get the cleaner out of the water without letting everything that has been caught in the bag not to get back in the pool.

Yeah, it's tricky. You want to grab the cleaner with two hands by the central stem just under the rear float... and lift it out. If you pull on any other part it will likely come off. (Not a big deal but certainly an annoyance since you will have to reassemble!)

The bag on mine is constructed such that leaves aren't going to fall out. In effect the bag is a big upside-down U, the water shoots up into one leg and the leaves basically fall into the other leg. It has never been a problem unless the bag is super full.

Also I usually don't pull mine all the way out, I have wedding-cake steps in the shallow end and I pull it up to sit on the middle step then unclip the bag from there.
--paulr

 

[laurandavid09]

Great news. Tested my pH level and it is at 7.5 and water temp is around 68-70 degrees. Cl and Br looked to be about .5/1

I also took out the floating chlorinator for the time being.

So what now?

Thanks.

 

[PaulR]

Great news. Tested my pH level and it is at 7.5 and water temp is around 68-70 degrees.

Awesome, pH in range!

Cl and Br looked to be about .5/1

Okay, that tells me you're using the OTO (yellow drops) test for chlorine. You haven't added bromine so the Br number is irrelevant. Do you have the FAS-DPD (powder + drops) test for chlorine? If you got a TF100 or a Taylor K-2006 kit, you have that. You'll need it for the next step (which is shocking the pool) because the OTO test isn't really intended to measure chlorine above 5ppm.

So what now?

SO glad you asked....

Time to shock, and by that we mean using bleach or liquid chlorine (same stuff, different strength). At this point I'm not clear on what your CYA is, seems like various tests have shown anywhere from 30 to 90. So, you need to pick a number to use for your CYA. Once you've decided that, look it up in the Pool School Chlorine/CYA Chart to find your shock level, then crank up the Pool Calculator to figure out how much bleach you'll need.

For example, say you pick CYA 60; the chart says shock level is FC 24. In the Pool Calculator, going from basically FC 0 to 24 in an 18500 gallon pool, that works out to 3.5 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine or about 5 big (182-oz) jugs of 6% bleach.

Let us know if you don't understand how I worked that out.

Once you get the pool to shock level, then we should talk about how to keep it there, and for how long. But one thing at a time.
--paulr

 

[laurandavid09]

Great news. Tested my pH level and it is at 7.5 and water temp is around 68-70 degrees.

Awesome, pH in range!

Cl and Br looked to be about .5/1

Okay, that tells me you're using the OTO (yellow drops) test for chlorine. You haven't added bromine so the Br number is irrelevant. Do you have the FAS-DPD (powder + drops) test for chlorine? If you got a TF100 or a Taylor K-2006 kit, you have that. You'll need it for the next step (which is shocking the pool) because the OTO test isn't really intended to measure chlorine above 5ppm.

So what now?

SO glad you asked....

Time to shock, and by that we mean using bleach or liquid chlorine (same stuff, different strength). At this point I'm not clear on what your CYA is, seems like various tests have shown anywhere from 30 to 90. So, you need to pick a number to use for your CYA. Once you've decided that, look it up in the Pool School Chlorine/CYA Chart to find your shock level, then crank up the Pool Calculator to figure out how much bleach you'll need.

For example, say you pick CYA 60; the chart says shock level is FC 24. In the Pool Calculator, going from basically FC 0 to 24 in an 18500 gallon pool, that works out to 3.5 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine or about 5 big (182-oz) jugs of 6% bleach.

Let us know if you don't understand how I worked that out.

Once you get the pool to shock level, then we should talk about how to keep it there, and for how long. But one thing at a time.
--paulr

I have the TF100 kit. I assume you mean the pink powder that comes in the white container.

The sellers left a testing kit behind when they left. The CYA tube in that kit is much smaller, which means I would use less chemicals than the one in the TF100 kit. Since that seems to be used a lot, can I use the smaller tube for the CYA test, as to be abel to use less of the chemical that comes in the TF100 kit?

I should be home earlier tomorrow during daylight still, so what test do I need to do tomorrow afternoon?

Thanks. I am going to post some before pics of my pool of when I started and will post some pics of my progress now.

 

[laurandavid09]

Attached are pics of when I started.

 

[laurandavid09]

Here are tonight pics

 

[laurandavid09]

More

 

[laurandavid09]

One more

Enjoy

 

[PaulR]

I have the TF100 kit. I assume you mean the pink powder that comes in the white container.

My powder is white with a tinge of gray, but it turns the water pink, if that's what you meant.

The sellers left a testing kit behind when they left. The CYA tube in that kit is much smaller, which means I would use less chemicals than the one in the TF100 kit. Since that seems to be used a lot, can I use the smaller tube for the CYA test, as to be abel to use less of the chemical that comes in the TF100 kit?

With the CYA test the important part is to use equal amounts of test water and R-0013. After that, you just need to mix up enough total liquid to fill the tube far enough to get a good reading.

Curious, I thought the TF100 already used the small view tube!

I should be home earlier tomorrow during daylight still, so what test do I need to do tomorrow afternoon?

Daylight is really best for two things: color-matching (like the pH test) and the CYA test. For the CYA test, the optimal lighting is outdoors with your back to the sun. I'm not saying you should run it again; but if you happened to feel like it, that would be a good time.

At this point we know your pH is okay and your chlorine is low. So, you can just go ahead and put the bleach in (with the pump running). Give it, oh, an hour or so, until the sun's off the pool, then run the FAS-DPD test. Repeat the FAS-DPD test in the morning, preferably before the sun hits the pool. (This is the "overnight FC loss test.") If the morning test shows you've lost more than 1ppm FC, then you need to keep shocking.

Thanks. I am going to post some before pics of my pool of when I started and will post some pics of my progress now.

The pics are worth a thousand words. (You'd think I'd learn how to post some. ) Obviously much improved, with any luck you are near the end of the process.
--paulr

 

[anonapersona]

So, that CYA is really important at this point. That tells you what your target chlorine level is, for fighting algae and for normal operation.

Since you are not using tablets now, that value will stay pretty stable until we have a lot of rain or if you have a leak somewhere and have to add makeup water. We do get a lot of rain in the winter here near Houston and so I test CYA monthly, just to be sure I know what FC I am looking to hit when I add chlorine.

So, time to look around and find your best local source of chlorine. Get maybe 5 big jugs or more. And decide what you will do with the empties, can you recycle plastic or take it somewhere? Also you will want a big plastic measuring cup that holds 4 cups. You may be going through a lot if the pool is still green (or grey or cloudy).

Tomorrow is Friday, so if you have bleach on hand you can really hit it hard this weekend, starting when you get home tomorrow. So, get your CYA value and FC and CC, then post back and let us see what you have. With that info you can determine what amount of chlorine you need in the pool from the CYA Chart, then use the Pool Calculator to figure what volume of bleach or liquid chlorine to add to get there. Then, an hour or so later, test again and if it is lower than that target, you add more bleach.

Try to hit it several times Friday evening, and then Sat and Sun you can check it as frequently as is reasonable. The harder you smack the algae, the more likely you are to totally knock it out. You'll need to brush the pool and empty all the debris out of the skimmer, the Polaris, and the bottom of the pool, as well.

 

[laurandavid09]

I have the TF100 kit. I assume you mean the pink powder that comes in the white container.

My powder is white with a tinge of gray, but it turns the water pink, if that's what you meant.

The sellers left a testing kit behind when they left. The CYA tube in that kit is much smaller, which means I would use less chemicals than the one in the TF100 kit. Since that seems to be used a lot, can I use the smaller tube for the CYA test, as to be abel to use less of the chemical that comes in the TF100 kit?

With the CYA test the important part is to use equal amounts of test water and R-0013. After that, you just need to mix up enough total liquid to fill the tube far enough to get a good reading.

Curious, I thought the TF100 already used the small view tube!

I should be home earlier tomorrow during daylight still, so what test do I need to do tomorrow afternoon?

Daylight is really best for two things: color-matching (like the pH test) and the CYA test. For the CYA test, the optimal lighting is outdoors with your back to the sun. I'm not saying you should run it again; but if you happened to feel like it, that would be a good time.

At this point we know your pH is okay and your chlorine is low. So, you can just go ahead and put the bleach in (with the pump running). Give it, oh, an hour or so, until the sun's off the pool, then run the FAS-DPD test. Repeat the FAS-DPD test in the morning, preferably before the sun hits the pool. (This is the "overnight FC loss test.") If the morning test shows you've lost more than 1ppm FC, then you need to keep shocking.

Thanks. I am going to post some before pics of my pool of when I started and will post some pics of my progress now.

The pics are worth a thousand words. (You'd think I'd learn how to post some. ) Obviously much improved, with any luck you are near the end of the process.
--paulr

Well the tube in the TF100 kit could be considered small, but the one in the other kits is about 1/3 the size. On that test tube I tend to get higher CYA.

So the main test I need to do tomorrow afternoon is the CYA Test. Find out what my CYA is and then use the chart to see what my shock FC needs to be. So should I do a FC test tomorrow as well to see where my FC is so that when I do the CYA test and find my shock FC, I can put in my FC test results as the beginning and my shock FC as the goal to get the right amount of bleach to add?

Hopefully that all makes sense.

 

[PaulR]

So the main test I need to do tomorrow afternoon is the CYA Test. Find out what my CYA is and then use the chart to see what my shock FC needs to be. So should I do a FC test tomorrow as well to see where my FC is so that when I do the CYA test and find my shock FC, I can put in my FC test results as the beginning and my shock FC as the goal to get the right amount of bleach to add?

Hopefully that all makes sense.

Perfect!
--paulr

 

[laurandavid09]

So the main test I need to do tomorrow afternoon is the CYA Test. Find out what my CYA is and then use the chart to see what my shock FC needs to be. So should I do a FC test tomorrow as well to see where my FC is so that when I do the CYA test and find my shock FC, I can put in my FC test results as the beginning and my shock FC as the goal to get the right amount of bleach to add?

Hopefully that all makes sense.

Perfect!
--paulr

If I run out of test solution for my CYA testing is this the same stuff?

http://www.lesliespool.com/browse/Home/ ... 30/I/81398

I see they have a lot of solutions. Is this just as good as the stuff in the TF100 kit

http://www.lesliespool.com/browse/Home/ ... ewall=true

I may take a water sample up to warehouse pools to see what readings they get after I do mine. Just more knowledge to see where I am since they are not too far away.

 

[polyvue]

If I run out of test solution for my CYA testing is this the same stuff?

http://www.lesliespool.com/browse/Home/ ... 30/I/81398

Yes, you want the Taylor R-0013 Cyanuric Acid Reagent. Leslie's has the 2 oz size... but you can twice the amount (4 oz.) for nearly the same price at TFTestKits. See http://www.tftestkits.net/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=3

As for reagents and other kit refills, I would recommend visiting either

http://www.tftestkits.net/index.php
or
http://www.spspools-spas.com

If you plan to order refills, anticipate what else you'll need... I've found that the shipping cost can exceed the price of the item, so try to group them together.

 

[duraleigh]

Just more knowledge to see where I am since they are not too far away.

Or possibly introduce a lot of doubt and confusion on your part if they get results different from yours.

Learn to trust your own results. Pool stores are well known for poor testing....many test with strips (ugh). Many test with seasonal employees who are clueless.

Some are good but the sooner you get comfortable with your own testing, the sooner you will be able to take control of your pool.

 

[spishex]

Also I have my pool jets pointed towards the surface. Should I point these down as not to aerate the water? Sometimes the jets hit the surface making small bubbles. Does not happen often though, but it does happen.

Thanks.

Sorry to jump into the middle of this, but I just wanted to say...

You should orient your returns, generally speaking, toward the floor. They're purpose is to circulate the body of water, and the more energy that gets wasted creating ripples on the surface the less your water is moving. That leads to less mixing and less motion on the pool's surface. It also distributes your chlorine to the top of the pool where it is more easily destroyed and doesn't ever touch stuff that's settled on the floor. Having the APC in helps but you're still better off directing them down.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[laurandavid09]

Just more knowledge to see where I am since they are not too far away.

Or possibly introduce a lot of doubt and confusion on your part if they get results different from yours.

Learn to trust your own results. Pool stores are well known for poor testing....many test with strips (ugh). Many test with seasonal employees who are clueless.

Some are good but the sooner you get comfortable with your own testing, the sooner you will be able to take control of your pool.

I feel comfortable with my own results, so I may or may not take it in. More than likely I will not.

Thanks again.