New house, new pool, new headaches.

Hello and thanks for reading my plea for help.
As the title indicates, new house and pool, but far from being brand new.
This is an in-ground, gunite/plaster that is kidney shaped.

Before filling the pool up this year, I had to drain it to get the coping and tiling replaced. The plaster/gunite of the pool was in good condition according to the company I had refurbishing the pool. This all happened about July 9th, 2012 and finished up around July 16th .

I thought that I would get to start it up, but the 2” copper pipes that were above/below ground stubbing to the 2” poly lines ended up being pretty hole filled. I rebuilt all the copper pieces with 2” PVC. I used unions, valves, and bungs all made from PVC to remove the copper and brass valves that were worn out. All the parts were around $80 and 8.5 hours of work/store time while the temp was 102 F outside.

Finally to the pool…

So I picked up the Wally World HTH 6 Test kit.
The contractors I had out estimated 17,000-gallon pool.
pH is 8.2
CL 5
Br 10
TA 80
TH 140

CYA Couldn’t the test to work
CC and FC no idea how to get these.

The pool has the following hardware:
Hayward S244T Sand Filter
Hayward CL220 Chlorinator
New 1 HP Pump Motor
Polaris 380 (was NIB)

In-ground Gunite/Plaster Pool
Neighbors est. 15 y.o.
Diving Board
Est 17,000 gallons

I have no idea what I am doing and am reading continuously to learn.
Any quick points before I have a green swamp are greatly appreciated!
The answers from experts are probably a lot faster than my learning curve. ☺

I'm going to give you a mix of specific and cut-n-paste answers that apply to you. Here goes:

1. Watch the CYA video on this page: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?17157
You probably just have zero CYA.

2. No chlorine test kit actually distinguishes chlorine and bromine; your bromine reading is just 2.2 time your chlorine reading.

3. Read the muriatic acid guide linked in my signatures; get some MA; lower your pH to 7.6 or so.

4. Your other reading are OK; don't worry about them.

5. Check your chlorine every PM; add PLAIN 6% (check %) bleach every evening if the chlorine is below 2.0. One gallon will add about 3 ppm.

6. Continue using trichlor. You can load up the skimmer too, to try to get some chlorine + stabilizer in there. But have bleach on hand in case you get low.

7. One HUMONGOUS caution: if you still have copper pipes ANYWHERE in your system, do NOT put tabs in the skimmer and do NOT use the Hayward chlorinator!!!! Instead, get some floaters and use those.

8. Complete the pool chart -- links below.


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