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[pauly3dotcom]

New Pool Owner here needs a little hand! Thanks to the amazing TF-Pro Test Kit and the Pool Math app (paid subscription) I am getting better but I need some help figuring out what I need to improve and how to tweak/optimize my water and chemical additions.

Pool Math Log Share = PoolMath Logs

If you check my link above you will find that I have optimized a few of my levels in my pool. The pool is brand new construction and has only had water in it for exactly 1 week so I recognize results may still jump around. My pool is in direct sun (no trees in backyard) from sun up through about the 3PM hour, so it gets lots and lots of sun. I am using 10% Bleach from HomeDepot and getting my reading at about .5 by the next evening after adding the suggested amount which has been about 40oz - 70oz daily. I just got CYA to 50 so I may get better chlorine longevity going forward.

I am also having my pH continually climb daily even after using muriatic acid at the indicated dosage to lower it.

Questions:
- Should I expect all chlorine to dissipate daily?
- Why does my pH continue to climb up even after adding the recommended dosage of muriatic acid?
- Should I add some tri-chlor pucks to my chlorinator to supplement the liquid bleach?
- What else do you suggest based on reviewing my pool log shared above/

 

[TexEdmond]

I'm draining my pool at the moment because CYA has always been BONKERS high, and it's screwing up all my other numbers and I've got cloudy, possibly unstable / unsafe pool water. I drained it approximately 50% last week and got a 30ppm reduction in my CYA... I'm brand new here too and only just ordered my TF-100 this morning, so any data I could provide is just from strips and pool store machine readings. I'd say y'all get about as much or more sun down there as we do in Edmond, OK (dated a gal from Raymondville in College and have several good friends from the Valley), so I get the concern about sunshine, especially as hot as it is right now. I know squat about pool masonry curing affecting your chemistry, but I can say it's been a big Dang hassle draining and refilling my pool twice in two weeks. Fortunately I'm on a well and electrons are cheap up here. I'd say one new pool owner to another, I'm going to be really, REALLY careful about putting any more pucks in the tube from here on out. Actually, I need to figure out a way to get the pucks I have in my chlorinator, out of there, safely. I'm fed up with the CYA, as they say. No dichlor, no trichlor for this fella. Gimme that straight up monochlor, that's what I say. I'm draining because I wasn't able to get the water to clear up, high CYA, which will NEVER come down without draining, causing high pH and high alkalinity. I have poured over 2 gallons of muriatic acid in the last 3 days, and it still didn't clear up. So I figured I'd listen to the folks here. Somebody else will correct whatever I got wrong here and help you get things right.

Just curious, how long did they say the backorder was for the intellichlor I40? We're talking about swapping over to a salt system and all our stuff is Pentair.

 

[BenB]

Couple of suggestions.

1) Test FC again 30 minutes after you add the bleach. From your logs I don't see that you've ever confirmed that you're getting the FC increase based on what you added.

2) Review this chart again FC/CYA Levels. Your FC should never ever fall below the minimum. Ever. Most folks here actually treat the recommended range from the table as the minimum. So you need to bring your level up higher than you have been.

3) Your pH will rise. The acid brings it down but it will start to rise again. It will rise fastest from 7-7.4 then slow down. Don't let it get above 8. You could also test this 30 minutes after adding acid to check what the result was.

 

[generessler]

Hi. I'm a pool owner for only about a year, but I've read a lot, so I'll say what I've read.

- Should I expect all chlorine to dissipate daily?

If your CYA is correct - which it seems to be - direct sun may cause loss of 1.5 ppm per day or maybe a bit more. With such a loss rate, you should target 3-4 ppm or more for a safety margin, especially since you're also running high pH, which decreases FC effectiveness.

- Why does my pH continue to climb up even after adding the recommended dosage of muriatic acid?

A few possibilities:

• The new pool's concrete surface is leaching high pH material at a high rate.
• Fill water is alkaline; direct sun is requiring continuous topping off from that source. (Do you have an auto-leveler? If so, this happens automagically.)
• Cal-hypo tabs in the feeder increase pH. (Otoh, trichlor tabs reduce pH and increase CYA.)
• Something is churning the water: a water feature; return jets pointing upward; swimmers splashing, etc. etc.
• A salt water chorine generator can be both a source of high pH chlorine and churn (hydrogen bubbles).

- Should I add some tri-chlor pucks to my chlorinator to supplement the liquid bleach?

As mentioned above, if your goal is to increase CYA and decrease pH, yes. Otherwise no. Steady use of trichlor causes CYA so high you'll need to partially drain to reduce. (But this can be useful. My pool was open through the winter, using about a trichlor puck every couple of weeks as the only chlorine. This restored CYA lost due to ~4" rain per month and no evaporation. Come spring, CYA was 40 ppm, same as the previous fall.)

- What else do you suggest based on reviewing my pool log shared above?

All I've read says new pools bounce around. You just need to ride it out. Get CYA and CH in recommended ragnes, keep pH under 8.0 (with muratic acid), and FC over 1.5 at all times. Your log verifies the new pool thing: pH 7.2 to 8.2 in a couple of days with borates in the water is a stiff increase. The good news is MA isn't so expensive. The bad news is it's a pain to add every few days :<

 

[clambert1273]

My pool was just redone and filled on 6/5 lucky for me it has been pretty stable but after 72 hours the first thing I did was add cya to 60 because it's brutal here and since adding that I add 1/2 gallon 10% chlorine before noon and the rest of the gallon around 7pm that seems to keep me around 7-8 FC when I test at 9am, we push the PH to 7.5 daily being careful with trying not to let it float too much. I brush & manual vac every morning

all that to say I think most of what you are experiencing is the plaster curing the trick is to just test & know what you need. I figured out my 1/2 gallon dumps by testing & dosing my chlorine the first few days and seeing how much was used 24 hours later that let me run some calculations and figure out if I added the 1/2 gallon 2x a day that kept me pretty stable the full 24 hours even with swimmers

 

[pauly3dotcom]

I'm draining my pool at the moment because CYA has always been BONKERS high, and it's screwing up all my other numbers and I've got cloudy, possibly unstable / unsafe pool water. I drained it approximately 50% last week and got a 30ppm reduction in my CYA... I'm brand new here too and only just ordered my TF-100 this morning, so any data I could provide is just from strips and pool store machine readings. I'd say y'all get about as much or more sun down there as we do in Edmond, OK (dated a gal from Raymondville in College and have several good friends from the Valley), so I get the concern about sunshine, especially as hot as it is right now. I know squat about pool masonry curing affecting your chemistry, but I can say it's been a big Dang hassle draining and refilling my pool twice in two weeks. Fortunately I'm on a well and electrons are cheap up here. I'd say one new pool owner to another, I'm going to be really, REALLY careful about putting any more pucks in the tube from here on out. Actually, I need to figure out a way to get the pucks I have in my chlorinator, out of there, safely. I'm fed up with the CYA, as they say. No dichlor, no trichlor for this fella. Gimme that straight up monochlor, that's what I say. I'm draining because I wasn't able to get the water to clear up, high CYA, which will NEVER come down without draining, causing high pH and high alkalinity. I have poured over 2 gallons of muriatic acid in the last 3 days, and it still didn't clear up. So I figured I'd listen to the folks here. Somebody else will correct whatever I got wrong here and help you get things right.

Just curious, how long did they say the backorder was for the intellichlor I40? We're talking about swapping over to a salt system and all our stuff is Pentair.

Lovely pool you have in your Avatar TexEdmond! Hope you get your CYA fixed! RE: IntelliChlor IC40, I ordered when pool construction began in early April and I have got NOT one word on status or updates from Pool Supply Unlimited. I walked into Leslie's yesterday and there was an IC40 sitting on their shelf BNIB but they do not have the Power Box.

Couple of suggestions.

1) Test FC again 30 minutes after you add the bleach. From your logs I don't see that you've ever confirmed that you're getting the FC increase based on what you added.

2) Review this chart again FC/CYA Levels. Your FC should never ever fall below the minimum. Ever. Most folks here actually treat the recommended range from the table as the minimum. So you need to bring your level up higher than you have been.

3) Your pH will rise. The acid brings it down but it will start to rise again. It will rise fastest from 7-7.4 then slow down. Don't let it get above 8. You could also test this 30 minutes after adding acid to check what the result was.

You are absolutely correct, I have no clue why I wasn't checking my levels 30 min after dosing. I will start doing that and adding to my logs. I did check this morning about 12 hours after adding the liquid chlorine and MA. I was >5 on FC and back to 8.2 on pH. I am running my IntelliFlo VSF for about 22 hours a day on 4 different speeds. I think I can back that down if I want to be able to afford my light bill! LOL!

Hi. I'm a pool owner for only about a year, but I've read a lot, so I'll say what I've read.

If your CYA is correct - which it seems to be - direct sun may cause loss of 1.5 ppm per day or maybe a bit more. With such a loss rate, you should target 3-4 ppm or more for a safety margin, especially since you're also running high pH, which decreases FC effectiveness.

A few possibilities:

• The new pool's concrete surface is leaching high pH material at a high rate.
• Fill water is alkaline; direct sun is requiring continuous topping off from that source. (Do you have an auto-leveler? If so, this happens automagically.)
• Cal-hypo tabs in the feeder increase pH. (Otoh, trichlor tabs reduce pH and increase CYA.)
• Something is churning the water: a water feature; return jets pointing upward; swimmers splashing, etc. etc.
• A salt water chorine generator can be both a source of high pH chlorine and churn (hydrogen bubbles).

As mentioned above, if your goal is to increase CYA and decrease pH, yes. Otherwise no. Steady use of trichlor causes CYA so high you'll need to partially drain to reduce. (But this can be useful. My pool was open through the winter, using about a trichlor puck every couple of weeks as the only chlorine. This restored CYA lost due to ~4" rain per month and no evaporation. Come spring, CYA was 40 ppm, same as the previous fall.)

All I've read says new pools bounce around. You just need to ride it out. Get CYA and CH in recommended ragnes, keep pH under 8.0 (with muratic acid), and FC over 1.5 at all times. Your log verifies the new pool thing: pH 7.2 to 8.2 in a couple of days with borates in the water is a stiff increase. The good news is MA isn't so expensive. The bad news is it's a pain to add every few days :<

The Landscape/Pool Cleaning guy that just finished by grass this morning procured for me a 100lb bucket of 3" tabs from the local pool supplier for businesses. They don't sell to general public so I think I got a deal by today's standards. I'm going to flip it and become an instant #millionaire! LOL

My pool was just redone and filled on 6/5 lucky for me it has been pretty stable but after 72 hours the first thing I did was add cya to 60 because it's brutal here and since adding that I add 1/2 gallon 10% chlorine before noon and the rest of the gallon around 7pm that seems to keep me around 7-8 FC when I test at 9am, we push the PH to 7.5 daily being careful with trying not to let it float too much. I brush & manual vac every morning

all that to say I think most of what you are experiencing is the plaster curing the trick is to just test & know what you need. I figured out my 1/2 gallon dumps by testing & dosing my chlorine the first few days and seeing how much was used 24 hours later that let me run some calculations and figure out if I added the 1/2 gallon 2x a day that kept me pretty stable the full 24 hours even with swimmers

Congrats on the redo! Thanks for the additional clarity, I think I need to let her ride and go with the flow. The water is crystal clear as we can see down to the 6.5' without issues and smells great too. I do need to brush more frequently in between vacuuming sessions but I am still vacuuming with a brush vacuum and not the roller version.

 

[clambert1273]

but I am still vacuuming with a brush vacuum and not the roller version.

Sucks doesn't it, I feel like it doesn't do a good enough job with dirt

 

[pauly3dotcom]

Sucks doesn't it, I feel like it doesn't do a good enough job with dirt

Amen... I hate it pushes dirt and won't even pickup the excess small pebbles from my StoneScapes Pebble Baja. I can't wait to bust out my 14" Pentair Vacuum Head although I am doing my best to follow the Plaster Start-Up Guide verbatim!

 

[clambert1273]

Amen... I hate it pushes dirt and won't even pickup the excess small pebbles from my StoneScapes Pebble Baja. I can't wait to bust out my 14" Pentair Vacuum Head although I am doing my best to follow the Plaster Start-Up Guide verbatim!

I am just waiting for july 7, put my salt in & drop in my robot finally!!! I literally count down every day lol

 

[TexEdmond]

The Landscape/Pool Cleaning guy that just finished by grass this morning procured for me a 100lb bucket of 3" tabs from the local pool supplier for businesses. They don't sell to general public so I think I got a deal by today's standards. I'm going to flip it and become an instant #millionaire! LOL

Whenever COVID lockdown hit last year, we piled up all our lysol wipes and hand sanitizer from around the house and I made the joke of, "Okay, let's go to the Maserati dealership!" I feel the same way now about the plywood I've got stockpiled in the garage for a cabinets project.

Lovely pool you have in your Avatar TexEdmond! Hope you get your CYA fixed! RE: IntelliChlor IC40, I ordered when pool construction began in early April and I have got NOT one word on status or updates from Pool Supply Unlimited. I walked into Leslie's yesterday and there was an IC40 sitting on their shelf BNIB but they do not have the Power Box.

Thank you! We're very grateful to the previous owners of the house for taking the massive hit on doing the design and construction and retaining wall, then handing it over to us with basically minimal hassle and issues. They used a really good local builder that's done some breathtaking work in the area. I drained a whole bunch out of the pool last night and it's coming back up nicely right now, I should be able to get some chlorine in there right about the time it's out of direct sunlight. The wife and I had a discussion last night about equipment shortages and the crazy boom of pool construction right now. If the correct equipment comes available we're gonna snag it, but I also am okay with having a full season of learning the correct way to manage a pool before automating the process, so I can enjoy the automation even more because I know how much work it's doing for me.