first time pool owner needs help, please.

[sneal]

I looked for a sticky on opening a pool for the first time but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. My pool installation will be complete in a few hours and the water will start going in!! YAY! We have decided to use the BBB method. I have a 18x33 (54" deep) pool. How much liquid chlorine do I need to put in the pool? I have 4 gallons of it as of now. We got the liquid chlorine on sale. I see most people use household bleach? What is the difference? Isn't the liquid chlorine the same thing, just a higher concentration? Also, how much CYA do I need to put in? Do I add all the bleach and CYA at the same time? Do I do it as the pool is filling or when it is full? I suppose it will take about 2 days for it to fill up, I figured I should add some bleach as it is filling. Any help would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you so much! Steph
I will fill out my siggy once I know the exact details of my filter/pump and exact gallons. Thanks again!!

[Watermom]

Tell us the volume of your pool and the what percent sodium hypochlorite your liquid chlorine is and someone can help you get started. You are right that it is the same as bleach only bleach is 6% sodium hypochlorite.

While the pool is filling, especially since it is SO hot it would be wise to drizzle some bleach(or liquid chlorine) in as it is filling. Just reach as far from the side of the pool as you can and drizzle it in there being careful not to splash you or the liner. (Hmm, just realized you didn't tell what type of pool you have so you may not have a liner.) At any rate, you'll then want to stir it around with a clean broom, oar or some such thing to mix it in. Repeat after each few feet of water are added.

Give us some more info and we'll go from there! BTW -- Thanks for becoming a subscriber. We appreciate it and hope you enjoy the forum!

[sneal]

Thanks watermom! :) I was wrong, we don't have the chlorine. Could have swore we bought it. anyway... my pool volume is 16,000 gallons. My pool is an above ground, does havea liner. ;) It is a sharkline escalade RTR.
Thank you guys so much.

[Watermom]

I'm sorry I didn't get back to you quicker. I have had a really busy day.

I hope you are drizzling in the bleach. Once your pump is full, go ahead and take a full set of readings and post them.

You'll want to add about 5 lbs. of stabilzer to your pool. That will take you to about 40ppm of CYA. Add it slowly to the skimmer so as not to clog the pipes. CYA dissolves slowly, so you'll want to make sure you run your pump 24/7 for at least the next 4 or 5 days while it is dissolving in your filter. Don't test for it for a week so you won't waste your reagents and don't backwash the filter after you add it or you'll just throw it out.

During the first week until the CYA registers, you'll have to test and add bleach 2 or 3 times per day and each time, add enough bleach to get back up to around 5. (In your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add about 1ppm of cl.) It won't stick around long as it will be lost to the sun. After you get it to register, you'll be able to go to testing and dosing with bleach in the evenings only. Then, you'll want to maintain your chlorine between 3-6ppm all the time.

Once we see your set of readings, someone here can make other suggestions for tweaking chemistry levels. Hope this helps!

[sneal]

Thank you!! I wasn't sure how much stabalizer to add so yesterday I added 4.5lbs. I had also added tons of bleach already. I'll add the rest of the stabalizer today. Last night my chlorine levels were about zero so I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine ( 10% ) and this morning they are about 6 or seven. Im just using a chepo tester kit from walmart now. My taylor kit should be here today. Is it ok to swim with the chorine that high? According to my walmart test strips my TA is also low. I assume I should just leave this be until I get my taylor kit for a more precise result? Thanks again. I appreciate your help so much.

[Watermom]

Your chlorine level won't stay at 6 or 7 for long. Until that CYA dissolves and starts to register on your test, the sun will deplete your chlorine pretty fast. Make sure for the first few days, you test and add some chlorine several times a day -- morning and evening. Once your CYA is in there, you'll be able to test and dose in the evenings only.

Wait on your kit to tweak TA. Go swim!!!

[sneal]

Thanks!! We've been in for a few hours today. Why on earth did I wait so long to get a pool?? LOL. The UPS man just dropped off my taylor 2006 kit... that thing looks a little intimidating. LOL. Is there a thread on here about that kit? Just to help me understand the process a little better? I'll test some things tonight after we are down swimming for the day and post here. Thanks again. SOOOO glad I found this site!!

[Watermom]

Why on earth did I wait so long to get a pool??

I think that is probably what most of us said when we first became pool owners!

Taylor Technologies has some online demos to show you how to do the various tests. You might want to check them out.

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_choose_slideshow.asp