Day 1, where to start?

Hi Everyone,

Let me start by saying I'm a total newbie when it comes to pools, so bare with me while I get up to speed...

I've got a brand new above ground pool. It's actually a Fastlane Pool (by Endless Pools) that I've fully enclosed/insulated and has custom spa cover. It's heated and in addition to the small water pump they sent with it (~30 gpm), I put in a Hayward 1.5 HP pump so I could run a pool sweep on occasion. I keep it at 89 degrees and the water is crystal clear right now.
I live in the Mountains in Central California and we get very hot summers (110+) and some snow in the winter, so I'm hoping the cover/insulation will help me keep things (water balance) under control throughout the seasons.

I’ll tell you that I’ve spent the last 3 months trying to read/listen/ask/figure out what to do/not do and then yesterday I happened upon poolsolutions.com and something struck a chord… I’ve sorta got up to speed and even read the latest posts from Ben (I totally love your honesty and I hope you have great success in the near future! Where’s the donation button!!!!?).

My first question is really related to getting started with BBB. Our water comes from a private well and I’ve got several water systems/filters in place, so it’s not too bad, but high alkalinity seems to be an issue right out of the gate… (it’s off the chart right now, but I can add dry Acid and bring it down, but when I do that my PH goes way down also…? Is that normal? I’m thinking I have to go get some Borax and get this new system going???). I was told not to use Muriatic Acid as it will damage the vinyl? I’ve got a basement full of chemicals and I’ll figure out how to dispose of them later… :)

My next question is in regards to stabilizer; since my pool is covered/insulated for all but about an hour a day (just an exercise pool), do I need to worry about my low (almost zero) number? (the pool place told me my cover was my stabilizer and not to worry about that reading).

Sorry if my questions are answered somewhere else in this forum, I spent 6 hrs reading ps.com and some of this forum last night and had to stop when the words started running together… :o

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions and I look forward to being a good member in this community!

Evan

AG FastLane Pool, 9x13x4’ ~ 3,000 gal, 1½” plumbing, 30 gpm water pump (runs 12 hrs a day) AND a Hayward Power-Flo LX Pump (only used on occasion for the pool sweep), Flo-Pro 560 Skimmer, Hayward H100IDP1 Heater (kept @ 89 degrees)

PS, Ben, I’m a software engineer, let me know how/if I can help…

Since you use well water, do you know if you have metals in your water? If not, you might want to get the water testing before you take the chlorine too high.

You can use muriatic acid in a vinyl pool. To lower alk, the process is to add muriatic acid which will lower your ph and your alkalinity. (Don't let the ph go below 7.0 however.) Then, you aerate the water to raise the ph back up without the alk going up. You can turn your return jet facing upwards to create bubbling on the surface, or throw in a gaggle of 12 year old kids to splash around. Anything you can do to aerate the water. After the ph gets up to 7.6-7.8, you repeat the process if the alk wasn't lowered enough the first cycle. Repeat as many times as necessary.

Regarding whether or not you will need stabilizer, not sure. Wait and see. Give it some time and see if you have trouble keeping a chlorine reading through the day. You can always add cya (stabilizer) later if you find that you need it.

Any more questions -- ask away. We are here to help. Glad to have you on our forum!

I'll have to check on the metals; I'm not too sure about that...

Good deal on the muriatic acid! I've still got a few lbs of dry acid; is that ok to use until I run out?

Interesting on the aeration... Since it's a counter-current swimming pool, it gets aerated for at least 30 mins everyday (assuming I get my butt in the pool to exercise :eek:)

Is there a good guideline as to 'how long' chlorine should last? (covered with a 5” thick spa cover, so I’m thinking it should last longer?)

Using the dry acid should be ok. Not sure how long the chlorine will last ............ but you'll soon find out! Being covered will make a difference I'm sure.

Ok, I got my Taylor test kit and here are my first numbers:

FC = 3
TC = 3
CC = 0
PH = 7.6
TA = 120
CH = 100
CYA can't tell... I filled it full and could still see black dot (water was barley cloudy)
Temp = 85

Not sure what (if anything) I need to do...? This pool is covered 23x7, so?

PS, water is crystal clear...

Looks to me like you need to go swimming!!

BTW, love the avatar....

Janet

FC = 1.5
TC = 1.5
CC = 0
PH = 7.6
TA = 130
CYA can't tell still... BUT, I just realized that I received the wrong test kit from In The Swim... :( They sent me the K2005 kit, not the K2006, and of course their customer care dept isn't open today so I have to call from work on Monday.

So until I get the correct kit, I guess I only have two questions...
Should I be concerned that I lost 1.5ppm FC & TC and my TA went up 10ppm and now it's getting outside the upper limits...???

I wouldn't worry about the TA for now--but I would go ahead and bump your Cl up to 3 ppm just to be safe. In my pool, 1.5 ppm Cl loss is negligible, but I don't know the average daily loss in a covered pool. If that's a much bigger chlorine loss than usual for you, you may need to shock it, but your CC is at 0, so I would just keep an eye on it. If the water starts smelling like chlorine, or if your CCs go up, or the water gets cloudy, then shock.

Janet