Hi all, I'm very new to this pool thing and I have been googling every obstacle I have come across and every time I end up following a link to this sight. This seems to be the place for answers.
As my signature says says I have a 10k gallon in ground vinyl liner pool. When I opened the pool about a month ago it was completely green but only about 2/3 full. I topped it off vacuumed as much of the solids out as I could with my filter on waste and once I was satisfied with that I added 2 bags of shock that I disolved in water and spread around the pool. In 2 days my water was crystal clear. I have a leslies delux poolcare test kit I used to test my TC and PH. My TC was well within the range on the kit and PH was high in the range. (TC= 2.5 PH=7.7) I'm not great with the fine colors so those are really just my best guesses. After a few days of patting myself on the back at how great I am at maintaining my pool chemistry I decided to test my alkalinity. I found it to be at about 40ppm. The kit tells me it should be between 80-120 so I do the math add 6lbs of baking soda and because my ph was already slightly high in the range I added some of the dry acid the previous owner left me to lower the ph. Happy with my test results the next day I decided to take a sample down to my local pool store to get verification that I'm as awesome at this as I think I am. That's when things fell apart. They told me my chlorine was 0 and that my stabilizer was also 0. They sold me 4lbs of stabilizer and some test strips to test FC, PH, TA, and Stabilizer. I added 2lbs of stabilizer and let the filter run overnight. I tested it the next day and it still told me I had zero. I added the other 2lbs and left the filter running all day. that night I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine. Filter ran for about 2 hours after the add. Next morning I tested with the strips and stabilizer seemed ok. Again I'm bad with color matching but it seemed to fit in the good range on the label 30-50ppm FC 0 ph again in range. Waited until that night added another gallon of liquid chlorine. Next day test no change. That night added a bag of shock and 1 gallon of chlorine. Tested 30 minutes later and still had no change in my results. Baffled I put a chlorine tablet in my float dropped it in the pool gave it a few second grabed a water sample from near it and used a strip to test that and it showed FC off the chart. So my strips seem to work. My TC was still in a good range on my Leslie test. The pool was clean and being used a little each day and water level was a little low. I decided to top it off from 1/3 of my skimmer to 1/2 way up the skimmer. I also did a backwash then decided to go a step further and rinse out the filter. I added 2.5 lbs of DE let the filter run for 2 more hours decided not to add any more chlorine or any other chemicals. This morning I took a sample and kept it in a cooler while I was at work. After work I took it to a different pool store for a more in depth test. According to that test
FC 0.12ppm
TC 0.12ppm
CC 0.0
Hardness 76ppm
alkalinity 83ppm
CYA 52
Before I read pool school and learned I didn't need to I took the pool stores advice and added calcium hardener to the pool although I only added 10lbs not the 20 they recommended because I figured I shouldn't add that much all at once. Sorry this was so long but it seems like the more detailed I can be with what I've done the more able you guys and gals are able to help. Do I need to do a SLAM to get my FC levels up? There is no algae and the water looks and feels great. The pool gets a TON of sun and it's been very sunny most days since I opened the pool. Water temp is around 80F. I feel like im just throwing money away adding chlorine at this point. Thanks in advance for any advice on how to move forward.
As my signature says says I have a 10k gallon in ground vinyl liner pool. When I opened the pool about a month ago it was completely green but only about 2/3 full. I topped it off vacuumed as much of the solids out as I could with my filter on waste and once I was satisfied with that I added 2 bags of shock that I disolved in water and spread around the pool. In 2 days my water was crystal clear. I have a leslies delux poolcare test kit I used to test my TC and PH. My TC was well within the range on the kit and PH was high in the range. (TC= 2.5 PH=7.7) I'm not great with the fine colors so those are really just my best guesses. After a few days of patting myself on the back at how great I am at maintaining my pool chemistry I decided to test my alkalinity. I found it to be at about 40ppm. The kit tells me it should be between 80-120 so I do the math add 6lbs of baking soda and because my ph was already slightly high in the range I added some of the dry acid the previous owner left me to lower the ph. Happy with my test results the next day I decided to take a sample down to my local pool store to get verification that I'm as awesome at this as I think I am. That's when things fell apart. They told me my chlorine was 0 and that my stabilizer was also 0. They sold me 4lbs of stabilizer and some test strips to test FC, PH, TA, and Stabilizer. I added 2lbs of stabilizer and let the filter run overnight. I tested it the next day and it still told me I had zero. I added the other 2lbs and left the filter running all day. that night I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine. Filter ran for about 2 hours after the add. Next morning I tested with the strips and stabilizer seemed ok. Again I'm bad with color matching but it seemed to fit in the good range on the label 30-50ppm FC 0 ph again in range. Waited until that night added another gallon of liquid chlorine. Next day test no change. That night added a bag of shock and 1 gallon of chlorine. Tested 30 minutes later and still had no change in my results. Baffled I put a chlorine tablet in my float dropped it in the pool gave it a few second grabed a water sample from near it and used a strip to test that and it showed FC off the chart. So my strips seem to work. My TC was still in a good range on my Leslie test. The pool was clean and being used a little each day and water level was a little low. I decided to top it off from 1/3 of my skimmer to 1/2 way up the skimmer. I also did a backwash then decided to go a step further and rinse out the filter. I added 2.5 lbs of DE let the filter run for 2 more hours decided not to add any more chlorine or any other chemicals. This morning I took a sample and kept it in a cooler while I was at work. After work I took it to a different pool store for a more in depth test. According to that test
FC 0.12ppm
TC 0.12ppm
CC 0.0
Hardness 76ppm
alkalinity 83ppm
CYA 52
Before I read pool school and learned I didn't need to I took the pool stores advice and added calcium hardener to the pool although I only added 10lbs not the 20 they recommended because I figured I shouldn't add that much all at once. Sorry this was so long but it seems like the more detailed I can be with what I've done the more able you guys and gals are able to help. Do I need to do a SLAM to get my FC levels up? There is no algae and the water looks and feels great. The pool gets a TON of sun and it's been very sunny most days since I opened the pool. Water temp is around 80F. I feel like im just throwing money away adding chlorine at this point. Thanks in advance for any advice on how to move forward.
