New guy coming soon to a pool

[JoyfulNoise]

Do you know anything about the water supply in the area of that home? Is it on a well or municipal supply? If muni, can you pull a water quality report from the town supplier?

That pool water is very corrosive towards plaster. It has calcite saturation index (CSI) of -1.0 or less. To be safe, that TA should be, at a minimum, 30ppm higher and the CH should be raised to a minimum of 200ppm.

Was the pool pump running at all when you took the water sample? Is the pool running? Was it covered and there was a lot of snow melt?

If you only sampled the water at the surface and the pool was still winterized, then you May be just looking at winter melt and rain water (it sits on the surface and doesn’t mix very well without circulation).

 

[Kush]

Well water and am awaiting test results from seller. Pumps are off and winterized. Pool covered. It did rain about an inch the day before I took the sample so maybe that had an influence. I was expecting to see higher numbers due to the chemical bill.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Well water and am awaiting test results from seller. Pumps are off and winterized. Pool covered. It did rain about an inch the day before I took the sample so maybe that had an influence. I was expecting to see higher numbers due to the chemical bill.

Yeah, sounds like you probably sampled a good deal of rain water. Rain water has very low alkalinity, no CH or anything else. Because it has very low TDS, it’s specific gravity is lower than the pool water and it will float on top without much chemical mixing. So without pumps to churn and homogenize the water, you’re not going to get a good sample.

No worries now, just wait until you get the keys and you can retest then. Chemical balancing isn’t that hard unless the previous owner really screwed thongs up.

 

[Kush]

Thanks I’ll update once we get the house. Until then I’ll keep educating myself.

 

[Kush]

Well there she is in all her glory. I open the pool yesterday and have been vacuuming and back washing 3 times over 24 hours. Most recent test results:

fc:8
ph:8.2
CL: 8
Cya:50
Ch:175
Ta:90
Water temp 56

When I opened the pool the pH was off the charts added 2 gallons of 20% muratic and it came down to about 8 the CH was at 150 TA was 110.
Pool math has me adding 36 pounds of calcium chloride? What’s the best way to do that? Should I bring down my PH first? So far I have added 5 gallons of 10% chlorine.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Don’t bother with CH, your calcium is fine for now. Focus on getting your TA lower so your pH will stabilize. That’s going to require acid additions, then aeration to let the pH come back up then acid again. You repeat that process until the TA comes down to recommended levels and your pH starts to stabilize. You don’t want to run with a pH up at 8 all the time. Keep your FC at recommended levels and do an overnight chlorine loss test to make sure your water is clean and sanitized.

See Pool School for lowering TA and doing an OCLT.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

By the way, very picturesque pool!

Do you have a fence on the back side of that pool? Looks like it’s open to the wild ....

 

[Kush]

By the way, very picturesque pool!

Do you have a fence on the back side of that pool? Looks like it’s open to the wild ....

Yes there is a “” invisible deer fence along the back but it doesn’t keep out the chipmunks

 

[JamesW]

Yes there is a “” invisible deer fence along the back but it doesn’t keep out the chipmunks

A fence that only keeps out invisible deer?

How do you know that it's working?

Your yard might be full of invisible deer.

 

[JamesW]

That's why I use FLIR thermal surveillance cameras and phased array doppler radar to detect any invisible animals. So far, none detected.

 

[Kush]

Well I can tell you one thing.... chipmunks can’t swim

 

[Kush]

Passed the OCLT Sunday night with .5 part per million reduction in chlorine. Most recent numbers taking at 8:20 this evening are
pH 7.5
Fc 7.5 down from nine this morning
TA 70
CYA 40
CH 70

Back washed again last night. Fighting a small leak on the output and of my pump going to get some PTFE thread locker to join my tape instead of the plumbers putty that’s been used in the past. Have some grey mottling of the plaster finish so still looking at my CH. My well water comes out with a CH of 50 probably will add a few hundred gallons tomorrow.

 

[mknauss]

Your CH is very low for a plaster pool. You need to get that to 250 ppm at least as soon as you can.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Yes, plumbers putty is absolutely the wrong thing to use on threaded fittings for pressurized water applications. Plumbers putty is for making a custom “gasket” type seal between two smooth mating surfaces where there is no positive water pressure (sink & tub drains mating to a porcelain surface or any kind of drain/waste application). On a threaded fitting used for pressurized water applications like the pool pump, I have found that wrapping the threads with a layer of Teflon tape followed by a very small dab of non-setting liquid Teflon thread compound works the best. You don’t want to overdo it with the thread compound, just a thin line of it down the thread and then smear it around the perimeter of the thread so that the Teflon tape is coated. Works every time I do it and you can come back years later and easily remove the fitting.

 

[Kush]

Today was interesting at 8:30 AM I have a 25 pounds of calcium chloride my pH is it 7 1/2 from my calcium level 275 my free chlorine was a 4 1/2. At 2:40 PM what is 63° high pH dropped to 7.3 marine disappeared my CH was at 2:50 so I added according to pull math 1.7 gallons of chlorine at 3 PM at 3:30 I tested the chlorine was at eight we combined chlorine set .5. 11 PM test my chlorine was at one my peer to drop back to 7.2 my calcium is still at 2:50 and I check my CYA again because I still have some type of reflective material in my pool light.

 

[Kush]

Today was interesting at 8:30 AM I have a 25 pounds of calcium chloride my pH is it 7 1/2 from my calcium level 275 my free chlorine was a 4 1/2. At 2:40 PM what is 63° high pH dropped to 7.3 marine disappeared my CH was at 2:50 so I added according to pull math 1.7 gallons of chlorine at 3 PM at 3:30 I tested the chlorine was at eight we combined chlorine set .5. Today was interesting at 8:30 AM I have a 25 pounds of calcium chloride my pH is it 7 1/2 from my calcium level 275 my free chlorine was a 4 1/2. At 2:40 PM what is 63° high pH dropped to 7.3 marine disappeared my CH was at 2:50 so I added according to pull math 1.7 gallons of chlorine at 3 PM at 3:30 I tested the chlorine was at eight we combined chlorine set .5. 11 PM test my chlorine was at one my peer to drop back to 7.2 my calcium is still at 2:50 and I check my CYA again because I still have some type of reflective material in my pool light.

Rereading that it sounds like my iPad is drunk

 

[kimkats]

LOL I tried to un-drunk it some for you! LOL From now on if you could list your test like this it would be helpful for us:

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

I hope your ipad does not have a hangover this morning!

 

[Kush]

So I think I missed the boat. It seems to be that no matter what you’ll have to slam the pool to start a fresh bass line at the beginning of the season. When I open my pool it was clear I’ve been sweeping skimming robots running filters running chlorine is that recommended levels for my cya yet today after an OCLT and final ch addition, a full day of sun and two swimmers my chlorine has disappeared I was at 6 ppm with cc of .5at 10 AM today. About to slam... what says you?

 

[kimkats]

I say do a OCLT sharing the results with us. The MAIN thing is to get the water to test BEFORE the sun hits the pool!