Help! Our new 30ft. above ground pool will be full tonight. What next?

We have never had a pool before and I would like to do it right, especially since my husband has put me in charge of this project. This site helped us a great deal when it came to picking out what we needed. I go to Pool School in the morning and I want to be prepared. What is my next step and what do I need to buy? Our pool holds 21,000 gallons and we have a sand filter(not turned on yet). We bought the Taylor K-2006 test kit and we filled our pool with municipal water. We tested the water this evening:

PH 7.5
Alk 90ppm
No Chlorine

What do I have to do next in order to swim this weekend? Nothing has been added yet.

Basically, you need to add chlorine and stabilizer, (CYA). Each gallon of 6% bleach will add about 3ppm of FC. Since your water is now there sitting for a day, I would immediately raise the FC level to 10ppm -12pm. That's 3.5 to 4 gallons of bleach. If it's still that high when you want to swim wear old suits because they may bleach. Be sure to measure both FC and CC before you swim. CC should be 0 or no more than .5 ppm

You should aim to get an initial CYA level of 30ppm. I'd get 5 lbs to start. Read the label and calculate how many pounds of CYA you need to get 30ppm. Only add half that much. You'll need to wait 2 to 5 days for the CYA to show up on the CYA test in your kit. Don't test too often until you get refills for the test (I buy the reagent by the pint).

Be VERY wary of what they teach you in "pool school". I suspect EVERYTHING about pool chemistry is garbage. You'll know if they tell you the following:
1) you need calcium in your vinyl pool (you don't)
2) you need phosphate removers. (you don't)
3) Bleach is bad (it isn't)
4) Watch out for chlorine lock (there is no such thing)
5) Keep and use clarifiers, flocculents, and algaecides regularly. (You don't)
6) You need to shock weekly (you only shock when there's a need and a reason to shock).

Let us know how many of these they hit you with!

Carl

In 21K gallons, each 1.5 gallons of 6% bleach will raise your FC by just over 4 ppm. Until you have stabilizer in the pool, you'll need to keep a chlorine level of at least 1-3 ppm at all times. This will require 2 or 3 bleach additions daily, since the sun will consume much of your chlorine. You also need some stabilizer, also called CYA, and sometimes labeled as conditioner or balancer. You'll need to add enough to target about 40 ppm of CYA in your pool--either added through the skimmer and then filter not backwashed for a week to give it time to dissolve, or put into an old sock and tied in front of a return. It can take up to 4 or 5 days to dissolve, so don't test for it for at least that length of time--save your reagent. Once the stabilizer is dissolved in your pool water, then you can probably go to once daily bleach additions.

You can swim while this is dissolving--as long as you don't let your chlorine drop below 1 ppm, you can swim. Your pH is perfect, and your alk is fine. Don't let them sell you calcium, phosphate remover, or any algaecide other than polyquat 60--and you really don't even need that, except if you plan to close it for the winter.

There are other methods of chlorination--granular chlorine comes as cal-hypo (fine to use as long as your calcium doesn't get above 300 or so, then you have milky, cloudy water issues) or dichlor (fine to use as long as you realize it drives pH downward and raises CYA quickly, so watch for that if you use it).

When you get a chance, read as much of the info as you can at our sister site, PoolSolutions, and we're here if you have questions or problems. Congrats on the new pool!!

Edit: I see Carl and I were typing at the same time, but he was quicker to the "post" button. Note that the advice is the same!!

Right!

The minor differences between our advice isn't going to matter. Both will work just fine. If you go with CYA=30, that's fine. If you go with CYA=40, that's fine too. Jan has a preference for higher CYA levels than I do, but I have a preference for higher chlorine levels....both work just fine, just a difference in our "comfort level".

But I'd swim in Jan's pool without thinking twice and she would in mine (Watermom and Poconos have swum in Jan's pool and in mine)

Carl

Thanks Jan and Carl! I will let you know how it goes. The only thing I am planning to buy this morning from them is the stabilizer.I really want to learn how the pump works. I have one more question. Do I just poor the bleach directly into the pool in front of the jet?

Valerie

You can either pour the bleach slowly in front of the return jet or slowly into the skimmer while the pump is running. (That is what I do -- in the skimmer.) Either way is fine.

If you pour in front of the return ( which is what I do), be careful to pour slowly and avoid any splahes onto your clothes or the side of the pool.

Janet