Newbie needs help -just opened pool

[kazimir]

I just opened my pool yesterday. This is my first time at this . I bought the house with the poolk last November.

It had a lot of leaves, but I kept cleaning it out and dumping in Chlorine as your forum recomends. I ordered the 234 kit last week but did not get it yet so I went out to Wal'mart and bought their $15 de'luxe kit to get some numbers.

I have a 35,000 gal inground vinyl pool. DE filter. I need some help. Please.
Don't know what to do next. Here are my numbers.

Total Cl. 12 ppm
PH 6.5
Total Alkalinity 20 PPM
Total Hardness 70 PPM
CYA 35

Any help would be greatly appreciated. THANKS

P.S. Should I put any Chlorine tablets in the feeder?

[Watermom]

Your biggest concern should be getting that ph up ASAP! Any readings below 7.0 are acidic and can damage your pool. Add 2 boxes of Borax to your skimmer while the pump is running. Wait a few hours to let it circulate and then retest and redose until you get the ph to 7.4-7.6. Your alk is also low. You can use plain baking soda to raise it to 80-125. Again, put it in the skimmer, wait awhile, retest, redose.

With a cya of 35, you'll want to maintain a chlorine reading between 3-6 all the time. I would suggest just using bleach to chlorinate with and not use the tablets. They contain cya in them and will cause your cya to continue to rise. In my opinion, a cya level between 30-40 is ideal. Some people like it between 30-50, so if you do decide to use tabs in the feeder for awhile, just watch the cya level and discontinue the tabs if it gets too high. Welcome to the forum! BTW - how does your water look?

[aylad]

To add to what Watermom said, I wouldn't put any tabs in the feeder until you get your pH stable. They have a very low pH, and they would defeat the purpose of the Borax for now. Later, after your water is balanced the way you want it, you could consider using them if you want.

Janet

[kazimir]

Thanks everyone for the last reply.

I put in 1 box of Borax this morning (that's all I had).

This afternoon I measured the Ph it went up to 6.8. (i will put in 1 more box)

I took all the measurment again except I could NOT measure hardness. Could it be Zero? ALk was 30 now, and CYA was 40


P.S. The water got VERY CLEAR today.

[Watermom]

If your calcium hardness reading was 70 last night, I doubt that is zero today. Keep working to get the ph up. Glad the water is looking clearer.