new pool balancing

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Olddad212

0
Oct 6, 2016
29
Fort Worth /tx
Pool Size
16000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hello everybody! Our new pool was filled December 11th from tap water from the city. The first 2 weeks the pool builder was taking care of it and now its my responsibility. I ordered the Tf100 test kit and been playing with it. Here are my results, but I cant get the CYA test down. Note, I am in fort Worth where it has been in the 20's last few days and freeze protection has been running:brickwall:.

FC 2.5
CC .5
PH 7.5
TA 100
CH 175
CYA-I cant get it to work yet!

The pool is running the rainbow 320 with pucks in it. I noticed when the pool was running on a regular schedule with normal temperatures, it would not produce enough chlorine with the rainbow 320. I am going to convert to getting rid of the pucks and switching to bleach.

I did take a water sample to leslies 9 days ago:their results

FC 1
total available chlorine 1
calcium hardiness 100
CYA 0
TA 110
PH 7.8
copper 0
iron 0
TDS 300
phosphates 50

Concerns and questions:

Do I need to treat the pool differently as it is brand new?
This is new plaster, will the low calcium affect its curing?
if I start adding all these chemicals, will affect the plaster?
Could I ditch the pucks and go straight to bleach? or use bleach as a supplement to pucks. I intend not to use the rainbow in the near future

I did read pool school, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't have to do anything different due to being new construction.

Thank you for all your help!
 
I am going to start with this link:

Pool School - Start-up New Plaster

CYA test-so I am guessing you can see the dot even with the tube filled? If that is the case you do not have any CYA. That is something has to be added. Your PB should have added it. He might be using the chlorine tablets to add it. They will but it takes a while as each tablet/puck adds about 3 ppm.

The CH does seem low. That puts your new plaster at risk. Here is a link to find what we use to adjust each level.

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

Your new plaster will be MORE affected by unbalanced water than by adding the stuff needed to balance it.

Go to Pool Math at the top of the page. Play around with it. Look at the CSI area. You want it to be between -.6 and +.6. You will see the temp of the pool plays a large part in it. There is quite a learning curve so take your time to mess around and see what does what to your levels.

Let me know if you need any help. I KNOW it is a lot of info. :hug:

Kim:kim:
 
If you hadn't added CYA, do you think the CYA test "isn't working" because it is in fact 0 or near 0?


Olddad212 said:
Hello everybody! Our new pool was filled December 11th from tap water from the city. The first 2 weeks the pool builder was taking care of it and now its my responsibility. I ordered the Tf100 test kit and been playing with it. Here are my results, but I cant get the CYA test down. Note, I am in fort Worth where it has been in the 20's last few days and freeze protection has been running:brickwall:.

FC 2.5
CC .5
PH 7.5
TA 100
CH 175
CYA-I cant get it to work yet!

The pool is running the rainbow 320 with pucks in it. I noticed when the pool was running on a regular schedule with normal temperatures, it would not produce enough chlorine with the rainbow 320. I am going to convert to getting rid of the pucks and switching to bleach.

I did take a water sample to leslies 9 days ago:their results

FC 1
total available chlorine 1
calcium hardiness 100
CYA 0
TA 110
PH 7.8
copper 0
iron 0
TDS 300
phosphates 50

Concerns and questions:

Do I need to treat the pool differently as it is brand new?
This is new plaster, will the low calcium affect its curing?
if I start adding all these chemicals, will affect the plaster?
Could I ditch the pucks and go straight to bleach? or use bleach as a supplement to pucks. I intend not to use the rainbow in the near future

I did read pool school, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't have to do anything different due to being new construction.

Thank you for all your help!
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
CYA is the only thing that I don't buy at local stores (Lowe's, Dollar general), and I buy it off Amazon. You do have to add it. Use PoolMath (button above) to see how much CYA you need. I prefer the granular CYA over the liquid CYA. Hang in there and keep reading. You are on the right track!
 
I'm not surprised to see a significant difference between pool store CH results and personal results - that was my experience as well.

I am however, surprised that a pool builder would turn-over the keys to a pool with CH below mfr/industry recommended minimums. If I were you, I'd keep records of the pool store results, your own results, as well as documentation of your corrective action.

I'm not convinced that the product warranties are worth the paper they're printed on, but better safe than sorry.
 
I buy my CYA at Lowes since they tend to have it all of the time. Walmart also has it IN season. You can buy the liquid gold CYA at the Pool $tore but the powder is just as good and a lot less $$. It just takes a little longer to dissolve and show up on the test.

Kim:kim:
 
 
Thank you all for the great responses! I am pretty sure he didn't add. Now I remember him saying the pucks have stabilizer. Since the water is missing cya and calcium, which one should I add first ? Or can I add both add same time?

i purchased the Leslie's conditioner but I will look into your suggestions next time!
 
Is the conditioner liquid or solid? Either way you can add it then add the calcium. They play well together.

If the conditioner is the powder put it in socks (yes, like you wear LOL) and hand them off of a broom handle or such in front of the return. You can squeeze them to help the dissolve faster.

Kim:kim:
 

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You can and should squeeze the sock to help it dissolve. As soon as it is all and the water has had a chance to mix up good your CYA test should show it.

You are doing a great job getting everything balanced! :hug:

Kim:kim:
 
Checked this evening and the sock has about 25% left to disolve. I checked the cya and the dot is starting to disappear. It looks like I'm at 25ppm now and still using pucks at the moment. I do plan to stop using the rainbow 320 and use bleach. Calcium is still at 150 and ph 7.6

will it be safe to add calcium now ?
 
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