Hello All--
First time pool owner, sorta accidentally. We bought a house two days from going into foreclosure, assuming that the pool was a goner. A buddy of mine convinced me that if it held water and had no major cracks, it was salvageable. So I decided to try. I wish I had found TFP first, but you live and learn. Attached is a pic from day one. Initially the pool store started with a half drain and a shock upon refill, and then had me add Darnloads of CYA, which ended up bringing up my level to somewhere north of 140! So, after finding this place and reading a bunch I realized that the direction they were taking things was expensive and high maintenance, I bit the bullet and did enough of a drain to lower CYA to ~60 (still high I know, but it is the level I felt comfortable going to) Right now the pool is refilling and the pump is running through the vac hose to keep filtering. PH was also initially quite high. Most of the sides of the pool was covered in chalky white scale (Calcium I assume? Dead Algae? I dunno) which I power washed off down to the water line during the second draining. I had already bought a test kit before finding this site, but I bought the Leslie DPD Complete Chlorine Kit --http://www.lesliespool.com/Home/Pool-Chemicals/Water-Testing/Test-Kits/81330.html which does not have the good Chlorine test. I supplemented with the standalone FAS-DPD test from tftestkits.com so that I can accurately measure high levels of Chlorine. With that addition, am I missing anything important from my ability to test?
Current readings are:
FC -- ~35 (This is using the 5x dilution method and so can't be super reliable)
TC -- ~>35 (really hard to measure until the new kit gets here)
PH --7.4 (and dropping as the fill continues, forgot to test the tap PH, may need to adjust)
CYA -- ~85 (With 25% of the pool to go, I hope to get this to 60 or so, I may need to drop it further hope not)
A new and complete panel will be done once the pool is full, right now I am focused on maintaing FC to shock level for the remainder of the fill and then until the Shock Process is complete. Is there anything else I need to look at?
My hope is to get 2-3 seasons out of the pool while I figure out what I want to resurface with.
(Thanks in advance for the help, and for all the great material already in place here, I actually think I have a basic framework of understanding that I can build on now as I learn, instead of just guessing and throwing stuff in)
First time pool owner, sorta accidentally. We bought a house two days from going into foreclosure, assuming that the pool was a goner. A buddy of mine convinced me that if it held water and had no major cracks, it was salvageable. So I decided to try. I wish I had found TFP first, but you live and learn. Attached is a pic from day one. Initially the pool store started with a half drain and a shock upon refill, and then had me add Darnloads of CYA, which ended up bringing up my level to somewhere north of 140! So, after finding this place and reading a bunch I realized that the direction they were taking things was expensive and high maintenance, I bit the bullet and did enough of a drain to lower CYA to ~60 (still high I know, but it is the level I felt comfortable going to) Right now the pool is refilling and the pump is running through the vac hose to keep filtering. PH was also initially quite high. Most of the sides of the pool was covered in chalky white scale (Calcium I assume? Dead Algae? I dunno) which I power washed off down to the water line during the second draining. I had already bought a test kit before finding this site, but I bought the Leslie DPD Complete Chlorine Kit --http://www.lesliespool.com/Home/Pool-Chemicals/Water-Testing/Test-Kits/81330.html which does not have the good Chlorine test. I supplemented with the standalone FAS-DPD test from tftestkits.com so that I can accurately measure high levels of Chlorine. With that addition, am I missing anything important from my ability to test?
Current readings are:
FC -- ~35 (This is using the 5x dilution method and so can't be super reliable)
TC -- ~>35 (really hard to measure until the new kit gets here)
PH --7.4 (and dropping as the fill continues, forgot to test the tap PH, may need to adjust)
CYA -- ~85 (With 25% of the pool to go, I hope to get this to 60 or so, I may need to drop it further hope not)
A new and complete panel will be done once the pool is full, right now I am focused on maintaing FC to shock level for the remainder of the fill and then until the Shock Process is complete. Is there anything else I need to look at?
My hope is to get 2-3 seasons out of the pool while I figure out what I want to resurface with.
(Thanks in advance for the help, and for all the great material already in place here, I actually think I have a basic framework of understanding that I can build on now as I learn, instead of just guessing and throwing stuff in)
