New Pool, Went to the pool store! Help

[GA Mark]

I just finished filling my pool for the first time. I have a 24' Above ground pool that hols 14,500 gallons. I have not gotten my test kit that I ordered from this site, so I took my water to a local pool store. I would like to use the BBB system I did not tell them that but I did buy allot of accessories anyway here are my number's can someone please walk me through this? The pool store wanted to sell me 55lbs of chemicals.

FAC- 0
PH- 7.4
TA- 20
Calcium hardness 50
CYA 0

Please rember that I am new and know almost nothing....


Thanks

[GraceByDesign]

1. Do you have the bleachCalc? if not get it here (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=4735)

2. Bleach. You need .7 gallons to get to 3ppm FC (3-6 is recommended with CYA of 30-50... best guess table (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365)

3. According to BleachCalc, you need 3#7oz CYA to get to 30ppm (30-50 is recommended here)

4. Baking Soda. you need 12# to raise your TA to 80, with 80-125recommended here. This will prolly raise your pH (?).

5. Don't worry about calcium in a vinyl pool, unless it gets up to 500

6. While you wait for Ben's kit, get a 5 or 6 way drops kit from WalMart and start practicing!

7. Enjoy your pool!!!:D

I am not sure if the order I listed is the order in which you need to do these things... bleach is all important, though, so get it in there quick!

[GA Mark]

OK I have added to my pool so far:

1 gallon 6% bleach

waited an hour than.

5 lb stabalizer. I added it slowly to my skimmer per directions on package.

Do I do anything now or wait?

[les_smith]

Don't backwash the filter or you will lose all of your stablizer. It takes a long time for the stuff to dissolve. Probably a week or two. I just converted and I was using 1.42 gallons bleach a day at first while I waited for the stabilizer to take affect. After two weeks I was down to a 1/3 of a jug of bleach.

[GraceByDesign]

You will need to get your TA up because it will help to stabilize your pH (which is good now, but will probably rise as you add the baking soda.)

Otherwise, hop in and enjoy! :cool:

[GA Mark]

Is it Ok to go ahead and add the baking soda or should I wait a day or two?

[Watermom]

It is OK to go ahead and add the baking soda. Also, keep an eye on your chlorine level. Until your cya dissolves in a week or so, you'll find that you'll probably need to test the chlorine level morning and evening and each time, add enough bleach to raise your chlorine level back up to 5. After the cya has enough time to dissolve, you'll be able to just test and dose it with bleach in the evenings only.

Remember, you don't want too much cya in there. So, don't retest for it, add more or backwash for a week to make sure it gets dissolved.

[GA Mark]

Let me make sure I have this correct?

I added on gallon of bleach.

I added 5 pounds of stabalizer.

I need to add 12 pounds of baking soda.

Check pool every night for FAC. Add if needed for a week then check for CYA.

Seems easy enough...

Let me know if I am doing something wrong.

Thanks,

Mark

[GraceByDesign]

The 12# of soda was what the bleachcalc spit out for a pool of your size to raise TA from 20 to 80 ppm.

Try not to overshoot (80-125) with this, because it is not so easy to lower TA once you get it too high. Similar with the CYA... only way to lower CYA if you overshoot is to drain the pool, hence the good advice not to mess with it for at least a week.

Have you been swimming yet?? :D

ETA: the rest looks good, and it IS easy, if you keep up with things every day! (I have had pools in the past!)

[GA Mark]

Ok, Why does everyone reccomed that you keep your CYA between 30-50? I am taking my water to the pool store to have them test it everydat until Ben's kit arrives? The pool place keeps telling me the higher the CYA the better. They reccomed me keeping it @ 30-200 and they said to keep it at the higher side.

[Watermom]

The higher you keep your cya, the higher you'll have to keep your chlorine level to keep it sanitized. That is what gets so many people in trouble. They continue to add cya via trichlor pucks and yet the pool store tells them to keep their chlorine level between 1 and 3. And, before you know it, they have a green pool and can't figure out why.

[GraceByDesign]

The higher the CYA, the more stable your chlorine will be. ***

BUT

CYA reduces the effectiveness of the chlorine as a sanitizer. This means you have to keep a higher level of chlorine if you keep a higher CYA.

If you have a CYA of 200, I don't even know how much Cl you would need on a daily basis, maybe 8-15, but to shock would take a ton... at 60-90ppm CYA (the highest level on Ben's chart) shock level is 20. Higher that 20 is not recommended for vinyl pools because of potential bleaching of your liner. And while swimmimg in a highly chlorinated pool is probably ok once in a while, I personally would not want to make a habit out of swimmimg in it!!

30-50 seems to be a number that keeps the chlorine relatively stable to sunlight, while not requiring HUGE chlorine ppm's to keep your pool sanitized.

***ETA probably only true to a certain point. I am not a chem. whiz...

[GA Mark]

I am so glad I found this site. They told me earlier today that my CY level was 90. Now I know that seem high however the way that they tested it was by putting my water in a little tube and lifting this rod until you see a little black ball. Now i saw them test it and the bube had marks on the side that had the 25 mark 50 mark and 100 mark. So how they came up with 90 is in my opion is only a guess.

Is that the same way you test it with bens?

[Watermom]

You mix equal amounts of pool water and cya test reagent, then wait a minute or so. Then you slowly pour this mixture into a cylinder where there is a black dot on the bottom. As soon as you can no longer see the black dot, you take your reading from the numbers along the side of the cylinder. It is definitely the hardest of all the tests to read.

[medvampire]

I would wait for Ben's test kit for your CYA level. Unless you are using a large amount of stabilized chlorine I can’t see 5lbs of CYA getting you to a level of 90 that fast. CYA is slow dissolving and can take a week to reach its full level. Since you poured your CYA in the skimmer I would also recommend you not back flushing your filter for a few days. The CYA will stick around in the filter while it dissolves.
The role CYA plays is kind of like sun screen for your chlorine. You go out in the sun you want to be protected but you still want a tan. Think of chlorine as your skin you want your skin exposed to the sun to get a tan but you don’t want it burnt. The CYA protects chlorine by bonding with it to protect if from the sun but we still need it to interact with the water. When chlorine hits water it forms other compounds that do the work of cleaning organics and killing the bad bugs. Like too much sunscreen too much CYA will not allow interaction of chlorine to the water in the pool.
I would be cautious of pool store results and wait until you get Bens kit to really dose your pool. You might go to Walmart and grab one of the 5 way test kits with liquid reagents while waiting. The CYA test seems to be a good one but be cautious about the TH. If you do get one of these kits remember some of the test are not accurate with a chlorine level above 5.

May I ask where at the pool are you getting your water for the test?
If you poured your CYA in the skimmer and getting the water at the return it may account for the incresed CYA level.
Steve

[GA Mark]

I am getting my water theoppisite side of the skimmer about 12 inches down. I guess my question is this. If the side of the tube goes from 50 to 100, how did she come up with 90? An educated guess maybe?

[Simmons99]

Guestimate....

Wait a week - you can get the 6-way test from wal-mart and it has enough reagent for a few CYA tests.