first water test after initial treatment

We just filled our 9X17 Tuff pool w/ a Fastlane current generator a week ago. I did all the initial treatment that the store told me to, but now I am confused about testing and adding chemicals. I thought it would be more straightforward. From what I've read so far on your website, it sounds like I just need to see if I can find a test kit at Walmart. But the main questions are:

1. Will it complicate things if I go ahead and use the chemicals that came with my pool package?
2. Do I need to start testing so soon? The pool has only been at 80 degrees for about 4 days, since we were learning how to adjust the heater. The outdoor temp hasn't been above 50 all week.
3. Since we did the initial treatment a week ago, can I wait to add chemicals/chlorine until I finally find a test kit. Don't know if Walmart in Nampa, Idaho will carry them this time of year, so I might have to wait a couple of days for one from amazon.

I have read a lot on the website before I signed up for the forum, so I have hope that I may be able to figure out how to take care of my pool.

Hi,

Without knowing what chemicals came with your pool package (ingredients, not product names), I can't tell you whether or not to use them. If you'll list them here, we might have a better idea. However, you do need to get chlorine of some sort into the pool ASAP so you don't start out with an algae outbreak. You do need to start testing and managing your chlorine--it only takes a few days for algae to get started, and a whole lot longer to get it cleaned up!

Welcome to the forum!

Okay, still trying to get my head around this. The pool holds 4000 gallons of water.

We have BioGuard products. The water is being consistently heated to between 79 -81 degrees.

I did the initial "shock." Then, about 8 days later, one chlorine stick in the skimmer (when I couldn't find the test strips and everyone was saying be sure to add enough chlorine regularly enough...).

I have been adding lo'n'slow almost everyday, per the pool store instructions based on the initial water tests at their store, for a total of 11 x half-pound treatments now. The instructions that I was sent home with said to do this 18 times.

I finally found the AquaChek test strips that came with the pool and have used them twice, but I went ahead and bought the HTH 6 part test at Walmart to compare results. This is what I am seeing from the tests this afternoon:

With test strips: pH is between 7.2 and 7.8
free chlorine is between 5 and 10
total alkalinity is around 200
CYA is not more than 30

With HTH chemistry tests:

pH is 7.2
free chlorine is higher than 5 (the color is dark orangish yellow, off the chart)
total alkalinity is 240
CYA was clear, therefore low?
hardness was 350

I am confused by the chlorine reading being so high. There are no signs of problem with the water. We have been swimming in it almost daily, but only about 1/2 hour a day for exercise.

I also did some reading on pool water chemistry in the book "The Ultimate Guide to Above-Ground Pools" What I read said high chlorine had the potential for causing health problems, but no ideas were offered for what they might be or how to adjust high chlorine.

Thank you for your help,
Laura

You can stop using the lo n slow--your pH is low enough as it is, and the trichlor stick you have in the skimmer is also acidic, so it's going to tend to push your pH downward still. You don't want your pH to go below 7.0, or you'll risk doing damage to your liner.

Your CYA is clear because unless you've added something called stabilizer, conditioner, or balancer, you don't have any. If you plan to keep the pool open through the winter, then you'll need to add some stabilizer, because that's what keeps the sun from eating up all your chlorine. I would add a dose to get your CYA up to about the 40 ppm range--you can follow the label directions on the container, or ask here and we can help you calculate the dose. What you're looking for is often labeled different things, as I stated above, but the ingredient list should list cyanuric or isocyanuric acid--that's what you need. Until you add stabilizer to the water, the sun will quickly consume the chlorine, so don't worry about the Cl being where it is. With a CYA of 0, I would swim in chlorine levels of 5-10 with no worries--although it might fade your suits so wear old ones :)

Do not add any cal-hypo products or any other form of calcium to your pool water-- CH of 350 is very high, and with your high alk, you're going to get milky water if you add any more. Personally, I would use the trichlor sticks for awhile, if you don't have problems keeping your pH up, and then just switch to plain unscented bleach for your chlorine source.

Finally, ditch the test strips--they are okay for telling you if something is or is not in the water, but they are not reliable enough to tell you "how much", as you can see from comparing your test results above. Use your drop kit--but don't bother to test for CYA again until at least 4 days after you've added some stabilizer to the water--just save the reagents.

You can force your chlorine test to read higher than the 5 ppm mark--just mix a sample of pool water 1:1 with distilled water (which contains no chlorine), mix the sample well, test from that, and then multiply your result x 2. It's a ballpark, but it's still better than strips will give you.

Hope this helps!