My 30 day initial start up is done, now what?

[OGSW20]

My initial 30 day start up maintenance guy did his final check and balance of the water today. Over the course I noticed he mainly added some muriatic acid and chlorine to maintain pH, FC, and TA. He put in CYA and sodium chloride in the first 2-3 weeks but after the numbers where on point he just maintained it with acid and chlorine.

Now moving forward, I’m going to try and keep the chemicals and water balanced myself. What should I stock on hand and how much of it?

Hopefully the salt will be going in soon for my SWG chlorine production. Also, still waiting on my automatic pool cover to go in. I’m sure these two factors will make a difference on what I should have on hand. But for now, I’m just going to put in the chlorine myself until the SWG is working properly.

Thanks for any feedback and advice!

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi OG,
the only thing anyone can tell you for sure that you will need often, is MA.
You'll need to test your water and compare your test results to the TFP recommended levels, and then from there, make a determination on what else you might need.

What Are My Ideal Pool Levels?

Use our tool to find ideal chemical levels for any swimming pool. Check TFP recommended levels on pH, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, and more.

www.troublefreepool.com

Once you have reached the Recommended Levels, then CYA, CH, TA only need checking periodically, maybe once a month. The FC and the Ph are the ones to keep a daily eye on.

When I go shopping for Pool chemicals, I stock up, but thats just me. I have a few bags of salt on hand, a jug of CYA and a jug

 

[PoolGate]

When is your swg being turned on? You can do it now. Do you have the salt yet? Meanwhile you'll need to add chlorine daily. Test FC and pH daily.

Main thing is take a full battery of tests and post results here. If you use PoolMath you can automatically share you results with TFP.

 

[OGSW20]

Hi OG,
the only thing anyone can tell you for sure that you will need often, is MA.
You'll need to test your water and compare your test results to the TFP recommended levels, and then from there, make a determination on what else you might need.

Once you have reached the Recommended Levels, then CYA, CH, TA only need checking periodically, maybe once a month. The FC and the Ph are the ones to keep a daily eye on.

When I go shopping for Pool chemicals, I stock up, but thats just me. I have a few bags of salt on hand, a jug of CYA and a jug

When is your swg being turned on? You can do it now. Do you have the salt yet? Meanwhile you'll need to add chlorine daily. Test FC and pH daily.

Main thing is take a full battery of tests and post results here. If you use PoolMath you can automatically share you results with TFP.

Thanks Dave and PoolGate! Current readings as of this morning after the chemical guy added acid and chlorine yesterday:

FC 1.0
pH 7.3
TA 100
CH 300
CYA 60
Salt 0
Water Temp 75
CSI -0.24

Chemical guy says he did not want to get the CH over 300, however, based on TFP recommendations, its slightly low. I know every chemical guy has their own theories, so I just let him do his job for the first 30 days and I will adjust accordingly here forward. TA is a little high and CYA seems a tad low. FC was much higher yesterday at 3.0 after the chemical guy left. I'm sure the sun and 95 degree weather killed off some of it.

I plan to pick up some salt this weekend and add it in. Chemical guy told me to add several bags at first, then slowly add additional bags as needed to get the salt levels correct.

 

[ajw22]

Your FC is way low for CYA 60 without a SWG. It should be 7-9 with a minimum of 5. see FC/CYA Levels

Use liquid chlorine and raise it to 9.

Everything else is fine.

 

[PoolGate]

CH 300 is fine no need to increase.

 

[OGSW20]

Your FC is way low for CYA 60 without a SWG. It should be 7-9 with a minimum of 5. see FC/CYA Levels

Use liquid chlorine and raise it to 9.

Everything else is fine.

OK, I'll add some liquid chlorine to get that up. Should I be using the SWG chart since I'll be starting up the SWG, or do I go by the non SWG chart for now?

 

[ajw22]

OK, I'll add some liquid chlorine to get that up. Should I be using the SWG chart since I'll be starting up the SWG, or do I go by the non SWG chart for now?

Use the non-SWG targets until the SWG is operational.

 

[OGSW20]

Bumped up the FC to 3.2 as of this morning and the pH is at 7.8

This was done by adding one gallon of 6% bleach. Couldn't find anything stronger without additives. I picked up 10 40lbs bags of Diamond Crystals Bright and Soft salt from Costco and will be adding it in a few bags at a time. I have Borax and Muriatic Acid 31.45% on hand as well.

Anything else you guys recommend?

 

[PoolGate]

FC is still too low you are risking an algae outbreak. Target 10% of your CYA for your free chlorine level. And not sure how you tested at "3.2". Also keep in mind chlorine is a consumable which you need to add daily until your SWG is online. Make sure that salt has NO additives. Don't add all that salt at once. TEST your salt with the k-1766 salt test before adding any new salt. Then target a salt level of 2500 using pool math. Then test again. Then add more salt as needed to get you to @ 3000. You cannot remove salt except by dilution (water change) so you don't want to go over.

 

[OGSW20]

OK, so I added the 6% bleach Friday night 9/13

Saturday morning my FC was at 3.2.

I added 4 bags of salt Saturday night.

Salt reading Sunday morning was 2000ppm and FC was at 0. I dumped another gallon of 6% bleach and it bumped FC up 2.8. I put another 2 bags of salt later that night.

This morning FC was at 0 again. I had my SWG running for 9 hours last night at 100%. Why is the FC at 0? My salt reading this morning was 2600ppm. I put in another bag of salt and will test the salt again tonight. I know my CYA is a little low.

Is there something wrong with my SWG? Or am I lacking something that is not allowing FC to be produced? I did notice my CC had a slight reading this morning at 0.2 which has never given me any readings before.

Test as of this morning:

FC 0
CC 0.2
pH7.8
TA 100
CH330
CYA 60
Salt 2600
Temp 74 degrees
CSI 0.09

 

[ajw22]

Do a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

Chances are you have algae and need to do the SLAM Process

The algae is consuming all the FC your SWG is generating.

 

[PoolGate]

Your salt level possibly is too low. What does the SWG display panel say for salt level it detects? Can you take a pic of the panel and post it? It may have an error code for salt too low. If your water started at 0 salt, you would need to add @ 9 40lb bags of salt to get to 3000. You say you have added 6 so far? Also how much water are you using to test the salt with the k-1766? The instructions can be confusing but you use 10ml of water, not 25ml.

That SWG in a pool your size will provide a LOT of chlorine so something is not working on it.

 

[OGSW20]

Do a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

Chances are you have algae and need to do the SLAM Process

The algae is consuming all the FC your SWG is generating.

Thanks Allen, I will try that tonight. The water is super crystal clear. I did not notice the FC loss until after I put in the salt. Prior to that, the FC would go down in small amounts before the chemical guy came back out to bump it back up.

 

[OGSW20]

Your salt level possibly is too low. What does the SWG display panel say for salt level it detects? Can you take a pic of the panel and post it? It may have an error code for salt too low. If your water started at 0 salt, you would need to add @ 9 40lb bags of salt to get to 3000. You say you have added 6 so far? Also how much water are you using to test the salt with the k-1766? The instructions can be confusing but you use 10ml of water, not 25ml.

That SWG in a pool your size will provide a LOT of chlorine so something is not working on it.

I am not too familiar with the panel yet, but what gathered was 2.1 gpl when I looked at it this morning. Is this the salt reading?

I tested with 10ml and came back with 13 drops before it changed to orange this morning. Yesterday was 10 drops.

Salt before the test this morning was (6) 40lb bags. I added one more this morning, so now its at 7 bags.

I will take a picture when I get home tonight and post it.

 

[PoolGate]

I am not too familiar with the panel yet, but what gathered was 2.1 gpl when I looked at it this morning. Is this the salt reading?

I tested with 10ml and came back with 13 drops before it changed to orange this morning. Yesterday was 10 drops.

Salt before the test this morning was (6) 40lb bags. I added one more this morning, so now its at 7 bags.

I will take a picture when I get home tonight and post it.

Yes, 2.1 is too low. The SWG will not produce at that level. Do you have the speedstir for mixing the test tubes? The K-1766 will benefit from the speedstir! How confident in you that your pool volume is correct?

See below for the reading from mine.

 

[PoolGate]

From Jandy:

SALINITY Salinity is displayed along with the gpl (grams per liter) indicator, when the SALINITY button (C) is depressed. If a reading of HH appears, the salinity is above 4.5 to 6.5 gpl (depending on pool temperature) and is too high to measure correctly (at normal temperatures). Maintain salinity between 3.0 and 3.5 gpl. See Section 4. ADD SALT The ADD SALT indicator comes on when the flow/temp/salinity sensor determines that the salinity level of the pool water is too low. Maintain Salinity between 3.0 and 3.5 gpl.

 

[OGSW20]

Yes, 2.1 is too low. The SWG will not produce at that level. Do you have the speedstir for mixing the test tubes? The K-1766 will benefit from the speedstir! How confident in you that your pool volume is correct?

OK, so I am looking at the right numbers. I just assumed that maybe once the salt was in, even though it is low, it would produce some chlorine.

I was kinda anal about the measurements and figuring out the pool volume, so I am pretty confident in that number. I'm sure it's plus or minus to some degree because of curves, but if it were perfect angles, it should be pretty close.

I do not have a speedstir, but I am swirling as I am dropping the drops. I can see the water swirling around continuously.

 

[OGSW20]

Here is what I have after 7 bags of salt

 

[OGSW20]

Latest salt level is 2800. So, put in another bag. Now 8 bags total.

Running the pump all day today and it actually has some FC reading at 0.2. At least there is some progress. I will run the pump all night and see what that additional bag does tonight.