Opening pool myself for first time

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jaspers95

Active member
Aug 1, 2019
30
Long Island, NY
Opening pool myself for first time so I'm looking for help getting things going. I've got everything thing reconnected and running as of now. The issues now are the water is pretty cloudy (could barely see the bottom of deep end) and the clorine generator has the no flow lit solid. I'm not getting a salt level reading on it either.

Once I got filter running I brushed the pool then put in some shock. Had my filter going for about 3 hours and noticed hardly anything coming out of return jets. Filter PSI is now about 10psi higher than when I started. Is this expected with a DE filter or did I forget something?

What do you recommend the next steps I should take to get the pool clear and get the clorine generator running
 
Congratulations on getting things running without leaks. Your next step is to backwash the filter and recharge the DE. And get used to it, because you will be doing it a lot. DE filters filter great and clog fast because of it. Pay attention the the pressure after you recharge it with DE. That is your clean pressure. When it goes up 25%. backwash again. As an aside, only use 80% of what the manual says after a backwash because it won't all come off. If you ever take it apart and clean it, then use the whole amount.

This is what comes after that. Written out SLAM Process

The movie version
 
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Richard320 said:
Congratulations on getting things running without leaks. Your next step is to backwash the filter and recharge the DE. And get used to it, because you will be doing it a lot. DE filters filter great and clog fast because of it. Pay attention the the pressure after you recharge it with DE. That is your clean pressure. When it goes up 25%. backwash again. As an aside, only use 80% of what the manual says after a backwash because it won't all come off. If you ever take it apart and clean it, then use the whole amount.

This is what comes after that. Written out SLAM Process

The movie version
Click to expand...
 
Ok good sounds like what's happened is expected based on how dirty pool is. I will try to do what you suggest. While I'm doing that should I do anything to address the chlorine generator and the salt level, or just keep it off until the slam process is complete ?
 
jaspers95 said:
Ok good sounds like what's happened is expected based on how dirty pool is. I will try to do what you suggest. While I'm doing that should I do anything to address the chlorine generator and the salt level, or just keep it off until the slam process is complete ?
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Just pretend they aren't there right now. You'll lose some salt through backwashing, and the SWG can't keep up anyway. You'll burn it out trying.

Do take a look at the flow light after the filter is cleaned. Sometimes the flow switch can fail, If it's got problems, you can order parts while the pool is clearing.

There are plenty of other people here who have lots of experience with SWGs, so if you need help with it, post again.
 
jaspers95 said:
The process says I need an FAS DPD chlorine test. I usually take water to local pool supply and they test for free. Will that due for this process or do I need my own test kit? If I need my own which one and where can I buy it ?
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Pool store testing will not work. They'd soon tire of you coming in every few hours. And their results would be wrong, most likely.
You can search online for a Taylor K2006C - not the plain K2006; it's too small. You'll run out of reagents in no time. Or you can buy a TF100 from TFTestkits.net. That's the one I use. I'd suggest getting the XL option now to save shipping because you'll be buring through a bunch of it during the SLAM and afterwards you'll become obsessed with testing. We all do, initially.

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jaspers95 said:
The process says I need an FAS DPD chlorine test. I usually take water to local pool supply and they test for free. Will that due for this process or do I need my own test kit? If I need my own which one and where can I buy it ?
Click to expand...
Pool store testing is notoriously inaccurate. Also, when doing a SLAM, you need to test multiple times a day (at least 3x daily and up to once every 30 mins) to know how much chlorine to add.

Recommended test kits are the TFT-100 or the Taylor K-2006C (the C is important). For what it’s worth I got the K-2006C and wish I had gone with the TFT-100. It had more reagents for the money and they are typically much fresher with later expiration dates.

Until you get the kit, add 5ppm of liquid chlorine daily to keep up with the algae.
 
Since I didn't have a kit I had my first test results done from store. I know you say inaccurate but I don't have another way to test unless wait for new kit to come. wondering How to slam based on these results:

FC. 0.18
Total Chlor: .21
PH: 7.2
TA: 60
CYA: 7
Phosphates: 275
Salt: 2074

From reading the slam chart it looks like I can only get shock level I need if cya is 60 or higher. What do I do? So how much liquid chlorine do I add ? should I just do th 5ppm as suggested?
 
jaspers95 said:
Since I didn't have a kit I had my first test results done from store. I know you say inaccurate but I don't have another way to test unless wait for new kit to come. wondering How to slam based on these results:

FC. 0.18
Total Chlor: .21
PH: 7.2
TA: 60
CYA: 7
Phosphates: 275
Salt: 2074

From reading the slam chart it looks like I can only get shock level I need if cya is 60 or higher. What do I do? So how much liquid chlorine do I add ? should I just do th 5ppm as suggested?
Click to expand...
Read again. Shock level for less than 30 CYA is 10 FC. But since you have no way of measuring losses after the initial dump, stick with just 5 per day until you get a test kit. Don't raise CYA. That test is the one most likely to be wrong from the pool store, and the biggest PITA to fix if it gets too high. If you add based on that test, you'll likely go too high. Vacuum up what you see and maybe even backwash it away just to be rid of it, but don't try SLAMming. You're unlikely to be successful but if you are it will be at great waste of bleach. And bleach costs money.
 
You use the non-SWCG chart for SLAM levels.

Until you get your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine to the pool each evening with the pump running.
 
Last night I added the 5ppm of liquid chlorine. I noticed the pressure was pretty low during the day ( clean was 16psi and was up to about 23psi) and figured I'd backwash today before adding more liquid chlorine.

Well just before I was about to backwash I noticed the flow coming out of the jets was stronger and when I checked the pressure on the filter it was down to about 17psi. So I don't need to backwash. Wondering how the pressure could get lower without even backwashing ??
 
jaspers95 said:
Last night I added the 5ppm of liquid chlorine. I noticed the pressure was pretty low during the day ( clean was 16psi and was up to about 23psi) and figured I'd backwash today before adding more liquid chlorine.

Well just before I was about to backwash I noticed the flow coming out of the jets was stronger and when I checked the pressure on the filter it was down to about 17psi. So I don't need to backwash. Wondering how the pressure could get lower without even backwashing ??
Click to expand...
A grid split, maybe?

Or the pump was off for a while and the DE fell off and the heavy stuff settled out. Then when you restarted, it recoated and went on. That's the principle of the bump-style DE filters.
 
Got my kit and did a test last night and FC was 2.6 and CC was .4. Pool has been very clear for a couple of days.

I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine - sodium hypo 12.5% - last night and based on my pool size I calculated that to be 3ppm.

This morning I took another measurements and got 6.6 FC and .4 CC.

So the FC went up by 4ppm overnight but I calculated it to go up by only 3ppm.

What would cause this difference? I'm not calculating it right or my pool size isn't what I think?

Also since the pool has been ear is it now time to move on to next step ? What is next step(s) ? Get the SWCG going ? Add other chemicals that are off ?
 
jaspers95 said:
Got my kit and did a test last night and FC was 2.6 and CC was .4. Pool has been very clear for a couple of days.

I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine - sodium hypo 12.5% - last night and based on my pool size I calculated that to be 3ppm.

This morning I took another measurements and got 6.6 FC and .4 CC.

So the FC went up by 4ppm overnight but I calculated it to go up by only 3ppm.

What would cause this difference? I'm not calculating it right or my pool size isn't what I think?

Also since the pool has been ear is it now time to move on to next step ? What is next step(s) ? Get the SWCG going ? Add other chemicals that are off ?
Click to expand...
You may have some overstrength bleach if it's really fresh. They know it's going to lose some strength in shipping and storage, so it starts out a little higher.

Your pool may not be as big as you think. That one is real common. People forget to deduct for steps or the taper of the walls or the radius at the floor. I'll tell you, 37000 gallons is a huge pool. You'll need to pat attention when you dose and if bleach and acid always overshoot, reduce the volume.

You can try recalculating volume. Break out tape measure and calculator and sketch pad. Or cjhange poolmath to 30000 gallons when you make any other adjustments. If you come up short consistently, it was the bleach. Or maybe everything will be much closer but not quite right. Then you go up or down a 1000 gallons and do it again.

You're ready to run all the tests now and start dialing things in. A tip: only use 10 ml water in the FC test and only one scoop of powder. Then multiply by .5 It saves a lot of reagents.

So run your tests and post the results and someone will be along to guide you on the next steps.
 
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jaspers95 said:
Got my kit and did a test last night and FC was 2.6 and CC was .4. Pool has been very clear for a couple of days.

I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine - sodium hypo 12.5% - last night and based on my pool size I calculated that to be 3ppm.

This morning I took another measurements and got 6.6 FC and .4 CC.

So the FC went up by 4ppm overnight but I calculated it to go up by only 3ppm.

What would cause this difference? I'm not calculating it right or my pool size isn't what I think?

Also since the pool has been ear is it now time to move on to next step ? What is next step(s) ? Get the SWCG going ? Add other chemicals that are off ?
Click to expand...

jaspers a couple of observations on testing.

When you first start testing yourself, you need to realize that your tests may be off. There is an art to getting the testing and being consistent with. Things you don't think about like taking test water from the same place in the pool each time, making sure the bottom of the concave of water in the tube is right at the target line, holding the bottle straight up and down so the reagent drops are consistent, etc. Believe it or not all of these little things can add up fast to variations in your testing.

The best thing you can do is track your test results either by hand (some prefer) but I prefer using the PoolMath app (link up and to the left on this page). You can input all your test results.

I work in IT, and I used to work for a software company that created and maintained SW systems for oil distributors (jobbers). Many of our clients owned gas (service) stations. As a federal requirement they would have to "stick their tanks". It is a process where I worker takes a stick, and measures the amount of gas in each underground tank at the service station. They would then input the numbers into the system. The system would track how much gas was purchased, vs how much should be in the ground. Station owners never really reacted to variations in the daily readings. After all there are dozens of variations at play: tanks are round, did the employee stick the tank at the exact spot as the last employee? Did the employee remember the exact reading when keying it in to the system? Etc. What the system did was track trends. Each sticking may be off up or down, but overtime you could see if the readings were trending too high (tank taking on water). Or the tank was trending too low (leaking fuel). It was the trends they were after.

So here is the TLDR version: Make sure to track your testing readings. Don't react to daily variations, look for trends overtime. In no time you will understand based on your local weather, your pools needs, swimmer load, etc what your pool does or doesn't need!
 

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