New Pool, Need Help

[jimbethesda]

Hey all. I’ve been reading these forums for the past 6 months or so as my pool was being built. My pool was filled with water on Thursday. PB uses a pool service company to start the pool up. He showed up Thursday afternoon, started the pump, added a metal sequester, acid, and floated some pucks. He said he’ll see me on Monday. I told him that I would maintain PH and see him Monday.

So, over the weekend, I added some acid to keep it in range and added some calcium (fill water is 50ppm) to bring to 125 for now.

He came today and said he had put in some liquid stabilizer the first time (my test didn’t show any) and that now he would put in liquid chlorine to bring it up to 3ppm. When I asked him about bringing calcium to at least 200-250 now, he says “oh yeah, you can do that, I don’t have any with me”. I then told him I would be in charge of the chemistry, he can do the other things (long list). Ok...here’s my full test about 5 hours after pool guy left:

FC: 0
CC: 0 (I guess, can’t measure?)
PH: 7.2
TA: 60
CH: 125
CYA: 0
Temp: 62

So, I went to Home Depot and bought some Calcium and liquid chlorine. Stopped by Leslie’s and bought liquid conditioner (I know a waste of $$, but just wanted something easy)

I put 10 lbs of calcium in the skimmers (plan to put more, but I read no more than 10lbs at a time), 2 gallons stabilizer, and chlorine. The stabilizer should bring me up to around 30, so I wanted to get to a FC of 6. Pool math says I should put 2 qts, 1 cup of 10%. I partially filled up a 5 gallon bucket with water and measured out 2qts, 1 cup of chlorine. I poured it slowly in front of the return at the deep end.

I was going to wait until tomorrow to run a full set of tests, but about 20 mins later, I did the chlorine drop test. I got my sample near the return at the shallow end. Ok....here’s where I need help...

I added the powder to my sample, and it immediately turned pink. Good sign! I was expecting about 12 drops of the reagent to get back to clear. 12 drops came and went, then 20 drops, 30 drops, 40 drops, squeeze real hard and put as much as I can in....still pink!

HELP!

I bought my test kit around Aug 2018. The expiration date on the reagent says July 2019.

Thanks!

 

[Texas Splash]

Something is not right about the FC test. My pool is almost 18K and it would take over 2 gallons of 8.25% to get an FC of about 10. That's 20 drops using a 10ml water sample size (drops divided in half). Are you also doing the 10ml sample size for the FC test?

As for the other items, run a new TA, pH, and CH tomorrow. Bounce those numbers and water temp against Poolmath and check your CSI, That new pool plaster needs to be about neutral (zero) to "slightly above" for the first month. After that you can be slightly negative,.

 

[jimbethesda]

The answer is....I’m an idiot! I used R-0003 instead of R-0871. I’m rushing too much. FC is 3.5 cc is 0! I’ll do a complete set of tests tomorrow.

Sorry for the false alarm.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

You're not an idiot...you were smart enough to come here before taking over your new pool. An idiot listens to the Pool $tore for 10 years before stopping by. Ask me how I know.

 

[Texas Splash]

The answer is....I’m an idiot! I used R-0003 instead of R-0871. I’m rushing too much. FC is 3.5 cc is 0! I’ll do a complete set of tests tomorrow.

Sorry for the false alarm.

Believe me, you are NOT the first. Yesterday in fact, I was using our search feature for another topic and saw the very same thing from another owner. You're in good company here at TFP.

 

[RoyR]

FYI - those pucks are adding chlorine and CYA....

 

[splashpad]

... floated some pucks
... said he had put in some liquid stabilizer the first time
... 2 gallons stabilizer

Do you know how many & what size?
Could he guess how much?
2gals in 20K water = CYA of 37 (should read near 40) per PoolMath

Just for reference: Are you doing the CYA test in a well-lit situation, preferably outside, with bright/in-direct sunlight? (your back to the sun, view tube at waist level to your side?)
The CYA test reagent is reflective, so lower light will give you a lower reading than actual level, but over-exposure will result in a slightly higher reading than actual level.

 

[jimbethesda]

Do you know how many & what size?
Could he guess how much?
2gals in 20K water = CYA of 37 (should read near 40) per PoolMath

I don’t think he put in any conditioner, or if he did, it was bad. My test showed 0. He floated 2 pucks, 3”

 

[jimbethesda]

Thanks all for your nice replies on my stupid mistake! Ok, here is the latest test results. Please help me come up with a game plan:

First of all, I removed the pucks. I plan on using liquid chlorine until the 30 day mark when I can add salt and turn on my SWG.

FC: 2.5
CC: 0
PH: 7.8
TA: 80 (Not sure why this went up, maybe testing error?)
CH: 225
CYA: 40 (it’s cloudy right now, this might be as high as 50. I’ll retest tomorrow when the forecast shows sunny)
Temp: 62
CSI: -.15

I think for now all I need to do is raise my FC. Calcium is lower than pool math shows as a target, but stonescapes says it should be 200 for the first 30 days. PH is higher than stonescapes says, but my CSI is already negative. I think I should wait until it hits 8 (which should be soon!) and then bring it down. What do you think?

Thanks for all your help!