New liner, need to balance water

[JoeJob3]

Hey all!

I just got my liner replaced in a 24' round ABG pool. I had 9000 gallons of "treated" water delivered and did the rest with the hose. I'm trying to get the water balanced and have a few questions:

TA is at 50. It was at 40 and I dropped almost a full box of Borax in yesterday.
PH is really low - at the bottom of my K-1000 range, so I know it's either 6.8 or lower. The Borax didn't even make a dent in it.
CYA is basically non-existent, so I need stabilizer.

I do have some trichlor tabs left over from last year, but I intend to chlorinate with liquid chlorine/shock.

I have a couple pounds of PH increase (calcium bicarbonate). Should I put that in or get more Borax? I've read that I should get the PH higher first and let alkalinity naturally come up with it, and swimming should aerate and get the PH a touch higher.

I might bite the bullet and get liquid stabilizer just to get things moving. We've already lost a lot of the swim season hear in eastern MA and I don't want to lose more.

I have been going over other posts and reading the ABCs and used the pool math calculator, I'm just looking for some more-detailed advice on my specific situation.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jeffchap]

Raise the pH to 7.2 with Borax

Put 30 ppm of CYA in a sock hung in front of a return and let it start dissolving.

Raise your FC to 5 ppm with liquid chlorine.

Swim!

 

[JoeJob3]

Thank you for your reply! I dropped a 4-pound box of Borax in last night and I'm at about 7.2 for pH. Alkalinity is at 60. CYA is still under 20 even after a full bottle of liquid stabilizer, so it looks like I'll be grabbing some granules and doing the sock thing to bring it up the rest of the way. Pool Math said to use a little over 5 pounds of Borax, so I might add a little more since I'm still at the low end of the TA. PH should come up once we start swimming, but the pool is only about 72 degrees right now. I have my DIY heat pump running and it's about 75 at the outlet, so hopefully it will be closer to 80 by the weekend.

 

[jeffchap]

Be sure to get the chlorine in there ASAP too. We don't want that pool going green on you.

 

[JoeJob3]

I put another pound of Borax in, have 3 socks with granular stabilizer (about 2.5-3 pounds) in there, and I poured about a quart of shock in. Will test again in a bit.

 

[jeffchap]

By shock do you mean liquid pool chlorine (12% strength)? What is the total volume of your pool?

Don't get hung up on pH and TA too much right now. CYA and FC are your immediate priorities. Once those are stable, you can focus on the others. Low TA/pH won't make your pool go green, but low FC sure will, and quickly.

 

[JoeJob3]

Yes by shock I meant the 12% liquid chlorine. My pool is a 24' round ABG, 13,600 gallons. With CYA at 10 and my FC at 1, Pool Math said to drop about a quart of 12% bleach in so that's what I did. I did drop a couple of leftover 3" tabs in a floater just to get some chlorine and CYA in before I got the stabilizer, and I dissolved about 3 pounds of CYA yesterday. I'll be testing again this morning.

In previous years (this is my 5th season with this pool) I had thought CYA was a bad thing and I should stay away from it, and I did end up with a couple algae blooms if I forgot to add shock. Now that I have a new liner and fresh water, I'm determined to get it right!

 

[JoeJob3]

I just checked again and my CYV is about 25, so I need to put a little more in. FC is in the 3-6 range so I should be good there. TA is about 65 so I'm happy, pH is 7.2 and that I'm sure will rise. I have the solar cover on pretty much all the time right now to heat it up, so I shouldn't be losing much chlorine yet. I think once the CYA is up and the temp is closer to 80 we'll be good! Thank you so much for the assistance!

 

[jeffchap]

Where do you live? If you're down south, you may want to target CYA for 40 or 50 to give your FC a little more protection from the heat and sun. Be sure to adjust your FC target accordingly. I like to keep my FC at 10% of whatever my CYA is for some added cushion. It's always better to err on the high side.

It's safe to swim with FC as high as 40% of CYA. This is what we call our SLAM level. Since you've had low FC since you filled the pool, it would be a good idea to raise your FC to that point one time just to eliminate any nascent algae that might be hanging out in your pool. Then let it drift back down to your maintenance level.

Be sure to test FC every day and dose back to target level. After a couple of weeks you'll have a pretty good feel for how much chlorine your pool requires each day. Then you can just dose that amount daily without testing and only test a couple of times per week.

Eyeball the water daily and if it starts to look less sparkly, be sure to test for FC and CC.

Good luck and enjoy the pool!

 

[JoeJob3]

I'm in the Northeast, so not to worry there. The solar cover is on the pool any time we're not actively swimming. I get probably about 8 hours of direct sunlight on the pool. We were able to swim for the first time this past weekend. I'm keeping an eye on the chlorine and pH every other day to make sure I'm good. The water is probably the cleanest it's ever been and I intend to keep it that way!

 

[jeffchap]

Be aware that sunlight is necessary to burn off any combined chloramines (CC) resulting from your chlorine breaking down organic matter. So if you smell a whiff of that chlorine scent when you remove the cover, that's CC. I wouldn't measure CC immediately after opening it up either.