Help on startup

Greetings,

Hoping I can get some guidance.

Opened pool yesterday. It was pretty green with a lot of debris (leaves, pine needles, pollen). It is a 16 x 32 rectangle, 5.5' deep to 3' deep, vinyl. I believe that's 16,276 gallons. Also, I have a cartridge filter.

I have Ben's kit. Here's what I got:
FC: 0
CC: 0
TC: 0
pH: 7.8
Alk: 50
Cal: 50
Cya: 0

I added three gallons of bleach immediately and started vacuuming, even though I can't see the bottom, and removed a lot of stuff.

In the evening, I added some powdered shock rather than bleach.

Questions/Comments:

1. How frequently should I be adding bleach/shock? I've read in previous posts that bleach burns off quickly duing the day and that the debris and algae use the bleach quickly. Also, I've still got a lot of powdered shock and some pucks from early last year before I discovered this awesome site and got "pool stored" for the last time. I've seen in previous posts where some use shock and pucks periodically, so I'm OK with using this stuff rather than discarding.

2. Should I bleach/shock during the day or wait until evening?

3. Should I start adding stablizer now to increase my CYA?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

jawman

Welcome to the site.

You started right by removing all of the debris and junk from the pool.

It is suggested to try to test at least 3x's a day while shocking the pool to get rid of algae. Morning, mid-day, and evening. Usually when shocking it is best done in the evening to let the FC work overnight. However, in your case you are fighting algae so you need to keep your FC level up as much as possible.

If you haven't seen this chart it will help you out a bit
----
Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm
----

With your stabilizer level at 0 you should be shocking at 10ppm. Keep the FC level at 10ppm until you clear the algae. If you can't test 3x's a day test it as often as you can. More is better in this case because if the levels fluctuate a lot the algae is harder to get rid of.

You should probably add some CYA to get some into the pool. You can put some in a stocking and hang it in front of the return to the pool. Add under the recommended amount because you can always add more if needed. Generally speaking you shouldn't backwash or vacuum to waste for about a week because the CYA takes a while to disolve. I am not sure if this applies to you though with a cartridge filter system as I am not sure that they are backwashed like sand filters. I am not familiar with them so I am sure someone else will chime on that. If backwashing applies I'd hold off on the CYA.


Good luck and be VERY persistent. If not you will learn how persistent the algae will be ;)

Jawman,

Are you adding your chlorine in accurate measurements? Your post doesn't say that but I assume you are...that's important.

1. The more consistently you keep your Cl at shock value (10-12ppm), the faster your clearing process will proceed. In theory, if you added enough Cl to get back to 10-12ppm every 30 minutes, 24/7 that would be best. I use that just to illustrate a point.....Test and add back as often as you can.....the process goes faster.

2. Well, it's tied in to #1 above. My experience is that I lose more than half of my Cl to the Sun by adding in the daytime with no CYA. I personally choose to take a somewhat slower route and add my Cl at dusk and again before I go to bed. It took me about 8 days the first time I did this and 6 days the second time I cleared my pool. Perhaps I could've done it in much less time adding 4-5 times daily but I would've consumed a lot more bleach.

3. No. You're gonna' need to backwash frequently and you'll backwash your CYA right out into the yard.....wait 'til your pool is clear and your done backwashing.

The Cal Hypo (if your dosing accurately) is fine to use as a Cl source. The tri-chlor tabs are OK, but are pretty slow-dissolving and will not have a huge affect on your clearing process. That said, I'd still use them in your situation (or give them to someone you;d like to get even with!:D )

Additionally, vacuuming frequently will speed up the process quite a bit.