Start-up with chorine after 2yrs of Baqua-yuck

First, I want to thank you folks for providing the inspiration and knowledge I needed last summer to finally end a 2-year nightmare with Baquacil. At a certain point, I calculated we were spending over $100 per week just trying to get the water clear enough to see the drain at the bottom. My local pool store/service replaced the sand in my filter 3 times last summer. I let this nonsense go on for far too long, before deciding I had to become better educated.

Here is where I'm at right now...

Pool just opened last Thursday (May 19). 27500 gallon IG with vinyl liner. We are located in East Central Illinois. We are starting up with something close to the BBB method, but I'm afraid mistakes have probably already been made. Step One is incomplete because I've ordered my test kit from Amazon, but it won't arrive for several days. Thus, I'm still on the pool store teat, simply for their testing service (they are only a few blocks from the house).

Upon opening the pool on Thursday, we shocked the pool with 3lbs (3 bags) of HTH "Shock 'n' Swim" (granulated cal hypo). Premixed in bucket and poured in front of skimmers. And then lots of brushing. Over the weekend we did 3 backwashes of the sand filter, timed so we weren't flushing the chlorine. I took water sample to pool store Sunday morning - I will post numbers below. The chorine levels were very low, obviously, so Sunday we did another shock with 3lbs of the cal hypo in the morning and another 3lbs in the evening. We also dropped a HTH tri-chlor tablet in each skimmer, but unfortunately it's the "dual-action" with the copper (which I now read to be a no-no).

I will say that the water looks good. Certainly better than it did at any point with the Baquacil. But obviously without the test kit at this time, I'm throwing darts with my eyes closed. I'm assuming I'm still in start-up/shock mode, so I will keep juicing the chlorine levels until the kit arrives and I can get more specific with the chemistry. Any advice in the meantime is welcome. Thanks in advance.

The levels from the pool store test...

FC - 0.3
TC - 0.6
CC - 0.3
TA - 127
pH - 7.8
Calcium - 152
CYA - 0

The advice of my local pool store was to Add 20# of Calcium over 3 days (which I understand to be completely unnecessary for a vinyl liner pool). And they advised I add 1 gallon of muriatic acid over 2 days to lower the pH (which I didn't think was elevated).

Glad the forum helped!

You might want to add the acid, or at least some of it. Your pH is on the high end of what most testers can measure, which means your pH is not "7.8 exactly", but "7.8 or higher". High pH is hard on liners, though 7.8 is OK if it really *is* 7.8.

Otherwise, add some CYA -- 0 is too low. ;-)

And, keep your chlorine up. Current levels are OK, with no CYA, but follow the best guess chart as your CYA rises.

Best wishes,
Ben

Quick follow up question...

I'm shocking with cal hypo (HTH Super Shock N Swim) to get my chlorine up, but I'm also putting trichlor tabs in the skimmers to raise both chlorine and assist with CYA. I probably should have asked here before doing this... But is there any problem with using both types of chlorine at once? (I'm pre-dissolving the cal hypo in 5 gal bucket before distributing in deep end.)

I added half a gallon of muriatic acid to bring down the pH. And I slow poured 4# of stablizer in the skimmer last night to dose the CYA.

I bought a cheap HTH 5-way test kit to hold me over until the Taylor K2006 arrives. I will post numbers later today.

if you added stabilizer, I wouldn't use the trichlor any more for a week maybe and get a good CYA test; trichlor adds CYA, and to much can complicate your pool! It will also drop your pH over time...
The cal-hypo adds CH, your fine now if vinyl or need a little more for concrete, but eventually you'll want to use bleach for Chlorine so you don't overdo the CH

I have ditched the trichor tabs because I found out they were the "dual action" w/ the copper. Hopefully I got them out before my pool became too polluted with copper. Green cast to the water this morning, but by afternoon it has cleared up for the most part.

Still trying to figure out the home HTH kit. First test I did showed pH around 7.0 range and chlorine was inaccurate because I shocked the pool with 3lbs of cal hypo again this morning. I did get another pool store test reading (somewhat limited because their printer was down).

CL - 1.5
PH - 7.2
TA - 145
CH - 182

The CYA isn't showing up on the test yet, since I just put stabilizer in the filter last night.

Pool store doesn't like that I'm using the cal hypo to shock and chlorinate because of "inert materials that will clog up the sand filter".

you mean the inert materials that dissolve in the water and pass through the filter? lol
Pool stores- they don't understand their own products, much less someone doing it different!

Like everywhere else, lots of storms here. Rain might be lowering my pH, so I may hit it with Borax soon.

Ran the HTH 5-way test. Still scratching my head a bit.

Chlorine is reading in the 5 box. So I'm max out on the kit, unless I go to the distilled water method. Until the Taylor kit arrives. But I'm scratching my head because the pool store read the chlorine at 1.5 yesterday. Would 5# of HTH Super Shock N Swim juice the chlorine that much in less than 24 hours? It's only 49% cal hypo with all those darn "inert materials". ;)

(I'm very new at this, and failed chemistry, so I'm at a disadvantage here.)

My pH is reading 7.2 on the kit, so that jibes with the pool store.

Water is clear as glass. But a definite shade of green in the deep end. Which I'm very concerned may be the copper.

Doesn't the bag of cal-hypo tell you how much so much quantity should raise the cl per amount of volume. i don't use cal-hypo, so not sure. Al (Poconos) uses cal-hypo and he says that his guess is that it easily would give you that much of an increase. That is a pretty hefty dose

Taylor Kit K2006 arrived last night. Did my first test this morning with the following readings...

FC - 4.5
CC - 0
PH - 7.0
TA - 120
CYA - Not registering

Couple things... 1) I'm guessing my pH is low because of rainwater in the pool this week, and a possible overreaction on my part to last week's high pH. I added a gallon of MA over the course of two days. Probably not necessary. So I'm off to Wal-Mart to get some 20 Mule Team. 2) I only added the CYA on Tuesday, so maybe that's why it isn't showing up. But I put 4lbs of stabilizer in the skimmer S-L-O-W-L-Y. Would it be dissolved and ready to register by now?

Thanks for all the help folks. I will say the water has never been clearer in this pool, since the switch from Baquacil. Really enjoying the independence from my pool store.

Your numbers look good especially when you add a little Borax to bump the pH up a bit. Give it a few more days before checking the CYA reading so you don't waste the reagent. It can take up to a week to totally dissolve.

I can't imagine you added enough copper to turn things green that quickly with dual action pucks. From your post it seems like you only used a few. More worrisome is using pucks in your skimmers, I know folks who have caused real hardware problems from "burning out" skimmers. I use Cal-Hypo (73%) to shock on opening. 15 pounds. Gets me to 50ppm. I keep CYA between 60 and 75. I open early (colder) and just don't think about anyone getting in the pool for 10 days at least. I find this the easiest and my CH always stays just fine, I use BBB completely otherwise. I think of shocking just like Z Pack. The nuclear option. I close with 25+ ppm and that CYA, figuring on keeping Cl until the temps drop. My pool has never been better since finding the Pool Forum.

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Originally Posted by PBLsQuad450

My pool has never been better since finding the Pool Forum.

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That's what we like to hear! Good to see you back on the forum for another season.

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Originally Posted by Watermom

That's what we like to hear! Good to see you back on the forum for another season.

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Glad to be back. Question on that though, I don't see references to joining or anything anymore? I would like to re-subscribe/support PF. Been here a year, and this years start up has cost so little, I promised to share last year so..

Here are test numbers from this morning (Thursday):

FC - 6.5
CC - .5
pH - 7.6
TA - 130
CYA - 0

After a week I still don't have stabilizer registering. I finally had to do a backwash last night, because circulation had slowed down. Heavy load of swimmers and sun over the holiday weekend. To the point where I couldn't get the FC to register on Tuesday evening. Shocked with 5lbs of cal hypo (49%) Tuesday evening. Another heavy load of swimmers Wednesday (kids are out of school), so I shocked again Wednesday night, this time with six 3/4 gallon jugs of 6% (s'what the wife brought home from Target). I'm guessing I need to pick up another bottle of stabilizer and see if I can get it dialed in. Today is cloudy, so I may have a day without swimmers, to get the chemistry right.

Your stabilizer would be dissolved by now. In a pool this size, 4lbs. of stabilizer should have added about 20ppm of CYA which can't easily be read with the tester. Go ahead and add another 4 lbs. and give it a week to dissolve. That should take you up to about 40ppm or so which would be a good level.