Getting things ready...

Hello all.

Did my first testing this weekend.

Salt: 2600 ppm
CYA: 50 ppm
Alkalinity: 80 ppm
pH: 7.6
Free Chlorine: 1.5 ppm
Combined Chlorine: 0 ppm
Water is still cold... around 65 F today

I did a good job keeping leaves to a minimum this winter. Also, I ran the pump like once a week on the weekend for at least a good 8 hours. Also, added a big bottle of bleach one a month during the pump run cycle.

Went to Lowes and got 10 bags of salt and some CYA.

I've been doing the panty hose tip on my polaris picking up small particles on the bottom and thats working great. Plus my normal bag has a hole in it haha.

I added 1 bag of salt today because I want to figure out approximately how many ppm's I get per bag.

Water is clear. One issue I have is that I have some brownish stains on the bottom that don't go away with a brush. Is there anything I can do to clean those up? Also a little brownish tint on the stairs. Not real worried about the stains, I am going to replace the liner after this swim season.

What order should I work on things? Salt, CYA? Or CYA, salt?

The compupool swcg manual recommends upwards of 100 ppm CYA. Should I go ahead and start bumping it up now while its still cold or wait till closer to swim time?

The compupool swcg manual also recommends 3500 ppm salt. Same question, should I start bumping it up now as well?

From my test results, should I work on anything else?

Here's a tip I learned today. I bought the salt on Lowes website. When I went to the store they already had it loaded on a cart. That's one less time that I had to move it!

Thanks!
-stephen

Sounds pretty good.

Getting the salt up, so the SWCG will generate, would be my first step. The one bag is a good place to have started! Please be careful when adding either the salt or the cya!

How long had the pool been running before you tested? I wouldn't trust the salt and cya before the pump ran 24 hours. It's far better to go slowly (smaller additions of the chems), and see how things progress.

As for your brown stains, they are probably organic and will lift when your chlorine level comes up. If you want to speed up the lifting, we can tell you how.

Have a great pool season!

It was running close to 12 hours. The CPSC36 has a built in test that seems pretty accurate. I tested it last year against a strip and the results were approximately the same. After a couple hours the unit reported 2700 ppm and then about 8 hours later it was still reporting 2700 ppm. I didn't get home in time to add another bag this evening. I'm going to work with it all weekend. I'll get the salt up first. So far it looks to be 100'ish ppm per bag but I'll take it slow so I REALLY get a good estimate.

Yes I am interested in how to speed up lifting the stains!

Thanks.

While adding salt and brushing it around to help dissolve, the brush caught the corner in the shallow end and caused a tear in the bottom! I jumped in today and put a patch on it. This was not fun as the water was 60 F. After patching, I had to open the pipe that sucks water out from behind the liner so I lost an inch or so of water.

In other news, even after adding fresh water, the salt level is reading 3500 ppm. Now on to CYA I guess... after I make sure the patch worked.

Brrrrrrrr!!! I'm glad to see you didn't go into cardiac arrest! On a positive note, I saw on Dr. Oz the other day that taking a cold shower in the mornings increases your metabolism. You should be good to go with that now!

Glad to see you back around the forum this year!

Added some CYA last Sunday and did another run of tests today:

Salt: 3400 ppm
CYA: 60 ppm
Alkalinity: 80 ppm
pH: 7.6
Free Chlorine: 5.5 ppm
Combined Chlorine: 0 ppm
Temp: 77 F

Pool has been running non stop this week since I added 3 lbs of CYA.
SWCG was off for a few days after adding CYA and then I kicked it back on like Wednesday at 50% output so I'm sure thats why my FC is so high right now, not to mention the CYA is increased.
Also, it rained a TON here in Louisiana this week! So my pool was topped off for a few days until the overflow drain trickled it back down.

Waste mentioned something about speeding up lifting the organic stains. What can I do to work on that?

Thanks!
-stephen

OK so my water seems to be in good shape now. CYA didn't seem to increase much after the second 3lb bottle... maybe 65-70ppm?

So what (if anything) can I do about these stains? Not extremely worried about it since liner is getting replaced but if it's not too hard to clean up I would like to.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/7510/poolstains.jpg

Thanks,
-stephen

Hi!

The key to lifting organic stains is chlorine, the higher the concentration in the stained area - the more quickly it will lift. Unfortunately, high chlorine levels are bad for liners. Mbar is the resident stain expert, I'd suggest searching the site for stain removal tips. (IF you want to spot treat the area, I'd use cal- hypo in a kneehigh and keep a close eye on it!)

I don't mean to be terse, but my computer is giving me LOTS of trouble of late and I'm trying to keep my posts short and sweet.

Hi, Ted! Been missing you around here!

Hey Lisa!

Sometimes life interferes with life. :-

It's not that I don't want to be more active here, it's my job situation and my wife's job (and now school - she's gone back to get her medical billing certificate) that has changed. I'm still here to help the members with pool issues, just not every day:(

How's your health?

I'm doing great, thank you for asking! Most recent scans were in January and still all clear, praise God!