Starting to get the hang of this

[pc12]

Hey all,

First of all I need to thank this site, and everyone on it, for giving me the confidence to jump right in and decide to take care of our pool myself after the pool builder turned the keys over to us. At first I was pretty intimidated, but everyone here had broken everything down in a way that you can really understand and work with. In short, I am no longer afraid of my Taylor K2006 test kit

Anyway, here are the readings I got this morning. We live in GA, and we just got done with about 2 days straight of rain, and I have a few questions, and want to verify I am on the right path):

Salt: 3,200 ppm
CYA: 60
FC: .6 - Added about 2qts of 10%
CC: 0
pH: Higher than the top reading (Took 5 drops to knock it down to 7.4) - Added a little over 2 quarts of Muriatic Acid
TA: 80
CH: 270 - Added 1lb of CC (All I had left, need more)

Questions:
1) pH - It is always off the charts when I test. Two things that I have read:

• New plaster can raise pH (Pool was finished in January)
• Aerating raises pH (We have a sheer decent)

Is this going to be a normal constant battle because of the two items listed above? Or is there something else that could be attributing that I need to check into?

2) FC - I'm still learning about the SWG, and what my needs/settings should be. Our pump runs from 8am - 6pm daily, Pool builder set the SWG at 50%, and said that should be fine. If I use the Pool Math App though (and if I am using it correctly) and input the following under Effects of Adding:
Pool Volume - 15k Gal
Chem Additions - SWG
24 Hour SWG Output - 1.25
What would you like to Calc? - Pump Run Time
SWG% - 73
Free Chlorine Generated - 3 ppm

Effects says - "10 hours pump run time"

Am I doing this right? Try bumping the SWG% up to 70-75% based on my pump running for 10 hours a day?

Thanks, and appreciate any suggestions/comments/corrections -
Paul

 

[ajw22]

I would run your SWG at 80% for 10 hours a day. test your FC daily and if you see your FC rising you can slowly dial it back until it stays pretty stable. As we get intot he summer with increased daylight you will need to raise the SWG % as the pool uses more FC daily.

Yes, new plaster + running your sheer descents rapidly raises your pH. The new plaster issue may go away in a year or so. You can decide if running the sheer descents is worth the acid additions.