New AG Pool & Water Testing Questions

[jake69chevy]

Hello all! Thanks for the great forum. I have found lots of help in here so far. I have had my new above ground pool up with water and liquid chlorine for 7 days now. I wanted to wait a few days to run all the tests. I have been running FC & PH daily. I have a few questions:

1) I have standard pool cover that I will be using on the pool while the pool is not in use. Do I still need to worry about adding a stabilizer or conditioner for CYA? (I have not added any stabilizer/conditioner/cyanic acid at all do far). Do I need to? Are there people here that don't need it?

2) I have only put in 1.5 gallons spread out over the last 7 days despite what the guy at Leslie's said (4 gallons the first week to 2 weeks).

3) What is my FC goal if I were not to need a stabilizer?

Iam still trying to get the hang of PoolMath and I attached a screenshot, if someone could make sure Iam doing it right that would be very helpful. Thank you!!


Here are my numbers:

FC: 5
PH 7.8
Calcium Hardness 250
TA 130
CYA 20

 

[atttech-2]

The cover will help some with FC burn off but you absolutely want some CYA, I would shoot for 30 ppm as that is where the test starts to read accurately. A pool with 3 ppm FC and no CYA has a much higher concentration of chlorine actively oxidize organics than the same pool with some CYA because much/most of the FC gets bound to the CYA. With no CYA you can have wild swings in sanitation anything from no FC due to bun off, all the way to dry skin and excessive bathing suits wear when the FC is high. One of our chemical experts could give you the exact numbers and how they break down but bottom line CYA is important.

Your levels look good, your TA might be a tad high but not enough to do anything about if your pH is stable. If you start to have a hard time with maintaining the pH at or below 7.8 try lowering the TA below 100 there is a guide to lowering TA in Pool School. The pool math screen shot is to small for me to read

 

[zea3]

Hi, if you have only used liquid chlorine and no tabs or bags of "shock" then you should not have any CYA at all. What test kit are you using to get your results?

 

[jake69chevy]

TF-100. (It starts at 20 so thats what i put - I should have been more clear)

 

[jake69chevy]

How much Cyanuric Acid do i add based on my signature? I am not sure if i am not using pool math correctly...it says add 0.

 

[atttech-2]

using a pool calculator for a rectangular pool with dimensions of 18' X 9' and a water depth of 3.5' I get 4241 gallons. To increase CYA by 10ppm in 4241 gallons I get 5.7oz by weight.

one 3" trichlor puck (assuming it's 8oz) would raise your CYA about 8 ppm. I think Walmart sells individual pucks for a couple bucks would be way more economical than buying pure CYA unless you already have some .