Hi there! Sorry in advance for the long post.
I've been deep in Pool School for a couple of weeks and am finally starting the balancing process today. We recently purchased a home with a salt water pool; the previous owner walked us through his care routine when we got the keys in Feb. He told us he took water to the pool store a *couple of times a year* and threw salt in whenever he felt like the chlorine was low (!!!!!) until he could smell it again. Knowing nothing about pools at the time, we thought "great, a low-maintenance system!" Fast-forward to now, warming up so we are starting to use the pool. We noticed the water just didn't seem right, so I started googling and found TFP. Ordered the Taylor K-2006-C and K-1766 and started testing. The chemistry was WAY off. I'll spare you the horror of the numbers. I shudder for the previous owner now that I know that whenever you smell chlorine it is CC and means there is something growing.
Salt, CYA, and TA were all high. CH was reading >1000 (I realize now I had a fading endpoint issue). Took a sample to Leslie's just to get a ballpark that we didn't somehow get a dud test kit, their numbers actually weren't too terribly far off of ours (other than CH 593). Because the calcium in our tap water is high at baseline, and the previous owners obviously didn't do any proper chemistry care, we decided to do a complete drain and fill. (I contacted multiple companies about an RO treatment and all said our TDS were too high and would ruin their membranes.) This may not have been 100% necessary but we thought it would be better to start fresh.
SO! We have brand new water. SWG has been powered off since we drained. Luckily it is very clear, we do have some scaling on the waterline tile that we will be tackling at a later time but nothing on the plaster that we can tell. After the drain I noticed one specific area of the pool smelled like a gross pond and noted that there was some yellow on the wall (not visible when pool is full). I am 80% sure after reading that it's mustard algae. It is on the wall that gets the most shade and there is none on the floor of the pool; I scrubbed it with the brush and hose water when the pool was empty and it got slightly lighter but definitely didn't come off.
Current Test Results:
FC 0
CC 0
pH ~8.1 est (acid demand 3 drops to 7.4, 5 drops to 7.2, 7 drops to 7.0)
TA 160
CH 140
CYA <30 (suspect 0, solution was completely clear and obvs new water)
Salt 600ppm
Water Temp 73F
The Plan:
Add 51oz 20 baume muriatic acid to pH 7.2: Transchem Muriatic Acid 1 gal Liquid - Ace Hardware
Add 62oz dry stabilizer to CYA 40 (will likely add less and test so I don't overshoot): Robot or human? (I know not to use Clorox pool salt but is their stabilizer ok?)
Add 1.9 gallons 10% Chlorine to 16 (I know I can use bleach but this seems like a decent price at $6.99/gallon for 10%?): HTH Liquid Chlorinating Chemicals 1 gal - Ace Hardware
Add 23lbs calcium chloride to CH 350 (this seems like a lot?): O-ACE-sis Granule Calcium Hardness Increaser 25 lb - Ace Hardware
SLAM with CYA of 40 (I could aim for CYA 30 but with the sun in PHX I think the extra buffer will help)
OCLT when SLAM seems complete (CC<0.5)
FC to Mustard Algae Level for 24 hours after SLAM complete, thoroughly brush pool
Add CYA to SWG ideal of 70
Add salt to ideal ~4200-4500 (will get non-clorox non-pool pure salt)
Adjust pH and CH as indicated
Start SWG as FC levels are coming down from SLAM, adjust run time and % as indicated to goal FC 5
Lower pH and aerate to bring TA down (I suspect our pH will drift up, and I want to keep CSI down to reduce scale)
Maybe add borates to further buffer
MAINTAIN our beautifully balanced TFP water =)
Am I overlooking anything? Does anything I listed need to be completed in a different order? Are any of the chemical supplies I linked terrible? Pool School was a lot of information, so typing all of this out was helpful and your feedback is appreciated!
I've been deep in Pool School for a couple of weeks and am finally starting the balancing process today. We recently purchased a home with a salt water pool; the previous owner walked us through his care routine when we got the keys in Feb. He told us he took water to the pool store a *couple of times a year* and threw salt in whenever he felt like the chlorine was low (!!!!!) until he could smell it again. Knowing nothing about pools at the time, we thought "great, a low-maintenance system!" Fast-forward to now, warming up so we are starting to use the pool. We noticed the water just didn't seem right, so I started googling and found TFP. Ordered the Taylor K-2006-C and K-1766 and started testing. The chemistry was WAY off. I'll spare you the horror of the numbers. I shudder for the previous owner now that I know that whenever you smell chlorine it is CC and means there is something growing.
Salt, CYA, and TA were all high. CH was reading >1000 (I realize now I had a fading endpoint issue). Took a sample to Leslie's just to get a ballpark that we didn't somehow get a dud test kit, their numbers actually weren't too terribly far off of ours (other than CH 593). Because the calcium in our tap water is high at baseline, and the previous owners obviously didn't do any proper chemistry care, we decided to do a complete drain and fill. (I contacted multiple companies about an RO treatment and all said our TDS were too high and would ruin their membranes.) This may not have been 100% necessary but we thought it would be better to start fresh.
SO! We have brand new water. SWG has been powered off since we drained. Luckily it is very clear, we do have some scaling on the waterline tile that we will be tackling at a later time but nothing on the plaster that we can tell. After the drain I noticed one specific area of the pool smelled like a gross pond and noted that there was some yellow on the wall (not visible when pool is full). I am 80% sure after reading that it's mustard algae. It is on the wall that gets the most shade and there is none on the floor of the pool; I scrubbed it with the brush and hose water when the pool was empty and it got slightly lighter but definitely didn't come off.
Current Test Results:
FC 0
CC 0
pH ~8.1 est (acid demand 3 drops to 7.4, 5 drops to 7.2, 7 drops to 7.0)
TA 160
CH 140
CYA <30 (suspect 0, solution was completely clear and obvs new water)
Salt 600ppm
Water Temp 73F
The Plan:
Add 51oz 20 baume muriatic acid to pH 7.2: Transchem Muriatic Acid 1 gal Liquid - Ace Hardware
Add 62oz dry stabilizer to CYA 40 (will likely add less and test so I don't overshoot): Robot or human? (I know not to use Clorox pool salt but is their stabilizer ok?)
Add 1.9 gallons 10% Chlorine to 16 (I know I can use bleach but this seems like a decent price at $6.99/gallon for 10%?): HTH Liquid Chlorinating Chemicals 1 gal - Ace Hardware
Add 23lbs calcium chloride to CH 350 (this seems like a lot?): O-ACE-sis Granule Calcium Hardness Increaser 25 lb - Ace Hardware
SLAM with CYA of 40 (I could aim for CYA 30 but with the sun in PHX I think the extra buffer will help)
OCLT when SLAM seems complete (CC<0.5)
FC to Mustard Algae Level for 24 hours after SLAM complete, thoroughly brush pool
Add CYA to SWG ideal of 70
Add salt to ideal ~4200-4500 (will get non-clorox non-pool pure salt)
Adjust pH and CH as indicated
Start SWG as FC levels are coming down from SLAM, adjust run time and % as indicated to goal FC 5
Lower pH and aerate to bring TA down (I suspect our pH will drift up, and I want to keep CSI down to reduce scale)
Maybe add borates to further buffer
MAINTAIN our beautifully balanced TFP water =)
Am I overlooking anything? Does anything I listed need to be completed in a different order? Are any of the chemical supplies I linked terrible? Pool School was a lot of information, so typing all of this out was helpful and your feedback is appreciated!