initial results after pool refill, lots of stuff to add, what order and how much?

[vinouspleasure]

Hi,

after pool painting we refilled 37K gunite pool, tested using ben's test kit:
fc - .5
cc - .5
tc - 1
ph 6.8
alk 30
cal 30

looks like I need to add:
2 gals of bleach
27 lbs of borax
38 lbs of baking soda
80 lbs of calcium

that's a whole lot of borax, baking soda and calcium, should I add 1/2 of those amounts and re-test? I've added cya, waiting for it to fully dissolve before testing.

tia,
jd

[vinouspleasure]

anyone?

[aylad]

Wow, you're right, that's a whole lot of stuff at one time. I agree with the two gallons of bleach--but keep in mind that you're going to need to keep adding bleach a few times a day until you get some stabilizer in the water.

I think you're going to find that 27 lbs of Borax is too much, unless you're trying to get your borate level up, in which case you need to have some acid on hand. The 27 lbs is provided that your TA is 100--but yours isn't, so I think you'll find that it won't take as much borax to move the pH as you think. I personally wouldn't add more than 2 or 3 lbs of anything at one time to my pool--giving it a chance to circulate and retesting to add more. I would get the pH up where you want it, and then test for/adjust your alk with the baking soda. YOu might find that the addition of all the borax may raise the TA, if only slightly.

What level of calcium are you targeting?

[vinouspleasure]

thanks for the suggestions, I'll start with borax tonight. I'm using the pool calculator goals, it targets 260 for calcium hence the 80 lbs. I have 30lbs on hand, how much to you think I should start with?

[aylad]

I don't add calcium to my pool, but I've seen so many people that have huge major cloudy issues when adding too much at once. I wouldn't add more than 2-3 pounds of anything at a time to my pool, without giving it time to circulate. Some of the other gunite owners may chime in here and say different, but I'd much rather go at it slowly than dump too much in at one time and have a pool full of milk.

Janet