Just opened my pool, what should I tackle first?

[mjc123]

Just opened my pool this afternoon - looks fantastic (considering it took 1 month to get clear when the pool company did it last year...)
https://i.ibb.co/QDCZt9J/IMG-4684.jpg

Anyway, here are my initial readings (no chlorine added yet):
FC: 0
CC: 0
pH: 7.5
TA: 120
CH: 200
CYA: <20 (couldn't test properly because the tube wasn't long enough)
Salt: didn't test, but it will be low.

I ended up having to add about 1.5-2 feet of fresh tap water to replace what was lost over the winter, so that explains the low CYA I think.

It's still too cold for the SWG to run, so I'll have to chlorinate using bleach until it warms up, which is not something I'm super familiar with. My intent isn't to swim any time soon, I just wanted to get it clear as it's easier to maintain that way. Was hoping for some recommendations/suggestions on where to start

Thanks!

 

[Wobblerlorri]

Are you using the PoolMath app? That's the first thing I'd do, to see how much liquid chlorine to get your FC up to at least 3 ppm. Then use it to determine how much stabilizer (CYA) to add using the sock method to get it up to 50 ppm.

 

[Teald024]

I’d add enough FC to get to 10 ppm using liquid bleach. Retest in 15 mins. If FC is above 5ppm, then add 40ppm worth of CYA. 24-48 hours after you add CYA, test the CYA again to see where you’re at.

Liqiid bleach is simple to add. Pour in front of a return in the deep end. The high flow of the return will quickly dispurse the chlorine.

What do you mean by the CYA tube wasn’t long enough to test? You don’t need to pour all the mixed stuff into the tube, just enough to make the dot disappear. If you filled it all the way and could still see the dark then your CYA level is very low.

 

[mjc123]

I’d add enough FC to get to 10 ppm using liquid bleach. Retest in 15 mins. If FC is above 5ppm, then add 40ppm worth of CYA. 24-48 hours after you add CYA, test the CYA again to see where you’re at.

Liqiid bleach is simple to add. Pour in front of a return in the deep end. The high flow of the return will quickly dispurse the chlorine.

What do you mean by the CYA tube wasn’t long enough to test? You don’t need to pour all the mixed stuff into the tube, just enough to make the dot disappear. If you filled it all the way and could still see the dark then your CYA level is very low.

That's exactly what I mean by the CYA tube is too long to test - I can still see the dot clearly when it's completely full. There's some CYA (ie it's not 0), but it's negligible.

I don't follow your first sentence. add enough bleach to get FC to 10 ppm then retest. if FC is above 5ppm (shouldn't it be at 10?) or are you suggesting the FC will burn off that fast because of the lack of CYA?

 

[Richard320]

That's exactly what I mean by the CYA tube is too long to test - I can still see the dot clearly when it's completely full. There's some CYA (ie it's not 0), but it's negligible.

I don't follow your first sentence. add enough bleach to get FC to 10 ppm then retest. if FC is above 5ppm (shouldn't it be at 10?) or are you suggesting the FC will burn off that fast because of the lack of CYA?

He's having you test for ammonia. If you're confident that the mix of pool water and CYA reagent did get cloudy, then you don't have ammonia. If it looked clear, you might.

Add CYA in steps. Maybe 30 ppm now, and next week check it and raise it to whatever you want. EVerything else is the same as you've been doing; you're just adding the bleach manually. Instead of turning the % up or down, you add bleach.

 

[splashpad]

Just opened my pool this afternoon - looks fantastic (considering it took 1 month to get clear when the pool company did it last year...)
https://i.ibb.co/QDCZt9J/IMG-4684.jpg

Anyway, here are my initial readings (no chlorine added yet):
FC: 0
CC: 0
pH: 7.5
TA: 120
CH: 200
CYA: <20 (couldn't test properly because the tube wasn't long enough)
Salt: didn't test, but it will be low.

I ended up having to add about 1.5-2 feet of fresh tap water to replace what was lost over the winter, so that explains the low CYA I think.

It's still too cold for the SWG to run, so I'll have to chlorinate using bleach until it warms up, which is not something I'm super familiar with. My intent isn't to swim any time soon, I just wanted to get it clear as it's easier to maintain that way. Was hoping for some recommendations/suggestions on where to start

Thanks!

Make sure you aren't adding calcium, vinyl doesn't need it
Your PH will likely go up with swimmers & that TA, be sure to use PoolMath & Muriatic Acid to lower PH to 7.2, you have vinyl, so I wouldn't overshoot that
I would personally target CYA/20, since you know CYA was present Then go from there

 

[Teald024]

The OP has SWG and eventually will likely get CYA up to 70-80ppm. Adding 40 ppm now don't do any harm even if they have some CYA in the water. Only adding 20-30ppm now is too little in my opinion.
No need to adjust pH. A pH of 7.5 is good.

 

[splashpad]

Based on this::

It's still too cold for the SWG to run, so I'll have to chlorinate using bleach until it warms up, which is not something I'm super familiar with. My intent isn't to swim any time soon, I just wanted to get it clear as it's easier to maintain that way. Was hoping for some recommendations/suggestions on where to start

OP knows they have to manually add chlorine, no need to make that excessive before the SWG is operating

:Note: If the SWG is not operating, the CYA might not be showing in the water sample (depending on temp)

 

[Teald024]

Yes, chlorine level is higher with higher CYA, but chlorine usage per day is actually less at higher CYA (less loss to the sun). It is TFP practice to startup on chlorine and then turn on the SWG. So it really doesn't matter when that bleach is added, now or later. The only real different is the reagents used for testing. higher drop count for higher FC levels.

As for CYA testing, if the sample is cold, you just need to bring the sample indoors and let it warm up for an hour. Then bring back outside to test in the sunlight. This should be done regardless of expected CYA level or if SWG on or off.

 

[mjc123]

I did end up letting the sample warm to room temp, and yes, the CYA test water was a little bit cloudy, just not enough to obscure the dot. I'll start adding some CYA and report back in a few days. Should I be concerned about a TA that high? I was surprised to see that given how much tap water I added - though I have no idea what my tap water TA is - perhaps it's high too.

As for the sun, it's still pretty weak up here in the north so a higher CYA is probably not critical at this point - though as mentioned above, my goal is to gradually bring it up to the ~70 mark a bit at a time. As for the chlorine, I'll add a bit daily. With temps still close to freezing overnight, I'm not super concerned about algae yet anyway, so I probably won't end up being super strict on watching the FC until the pool starts holding ~60 deg - at which point the SWG should be able to kick in anyway

 

[splashpad]

Sounds like you have things well in hand @mjc123 Great job!

The higher TA will allow the PH to rise (especially once the SWG is operating) you can lower PH with Muriatic Acid and the TA will slowly come down, until the "sweet spot" of PH not rising quickly will be found. As long asthe TA doesn't go below 50, it's not necessary to raise it or "target" a specific number

 

[mjc123]

Had one old jug of bleach from last year (10%) and figured that since it didn’t even smell like bleach anymore I’d just dump the whole thing in, as well as about 1 lb of stabilizer. Also threw a few pucks I had lying around into the skimmer (figured the extra stabilizer couldn’t hurt). Anyway, tried the chlorine test for the first time- pretty nifty. Anyway,
FC: 10.5
CC: 0.5
Salt: ~2300 (test strip)

I’ll check the CYA tomorrow once it has had a chance to disolve