Opening my Pool the right way need advice [Archive]

VickiP

05-21-2011, 09:06 AM

Hi,
Last year was a nightmare opening our pool. I am thankful I found this site to help me with my problems with a green pool. I spent so much money on chemicals and do not want to do that again this year. I want to do it right this year and need advice. We are taking the cover off tomorrow, we have a 18,000 gallon above ground pool with a sand filter. The sand was replaced last year. What are the proper steps to open, how much bleach? and what else do I put in it?

Thanks
Vicki

CarlD

05-21-2011, 09:53 AM

Hi Vicki,

At most, opening your pool should be tedious, not painful and certainly not a nightmare. I opened this year to jello green slime and in 48 hours it was mostly clear. A week later, it was crystal clear. Here's how I do it, or suggest.
1) Add water until your level is sufficient for the skimmer to work.
2) Connect your pump and filter and turn it on.
3) Test your water and find out what your levels are. Mostly you need to know your
FC (free chlorine), your CC (combined chloramines) or TC (total chlorine) (TC = FC + CC) It's probably 0
pH (I'm of the opinion this is most important). If it's high, low or good, you need to know.
CYA/Stabilizer level. This is PROBABLY 0 as well, but if it's not you need to know what it is.
4) At this point, what I did was add 4 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine. I wouldn't NECESSARILY recommend that (my pool is about 19k) because it probably will lighten your liner. Since my liner is old and ugly, I don't care. However, if you have 0 CYA, I'd start by adding 3 gallons of 6% bleach. That will add 10ppm of FC to your pool. If you want to add a 4th, I'd go for it, because it will probably be metabolized very quickly.
5) Start vacuuming your pool to waste. If you have a return-side, or self-powered clearer, run it. If you vacuum or have a suction-side cleaner you'll want to vacuum to waste.
6) If your pool is green, check your FC level and add chlorine 3 x a day. 1 gallon of 6% bleach adds 3 1/3 ppm to 18,000 gallons. Aim for 10 to 12 ppm (assuming CYA=0).
7) If your CYA level is above 0, check Ben's Best Guess chart for the appropriate Shock level of Chlorine for that CYA level (for example, CYA of 30 to 50 means shock to 15ppm).
8) Patience and Persistence are the key.

Carl