New Owner, first opening, few questions...

Greetings. I am a new Pool owner and opening my pool for the first time. (built last fall) I've been trying to do my homework and decide on which chemicals to use etc. Upon opening I shocked with 12% liquid chlorine x 4gallons, and added a dose of polyquat.

Pool details: Above ground, 27', 52" deep, ~18,500 gallons I think, vinyl liner, 1.5hp pump and sand filter, in the midwest.

I have the Taylor K-2006 kit and my readings were as follows:

FC=12ppm
CC=0
CYA=30 (maybe slightly less)
PH=7.7
CH=240
TA=140

Water looks great right now, and was clear upon opening.

So now my questions:

I plan to use Trichlor pucks in an inline feeder. I think this will work ok, as my cya is low, and ph is high?

Should I consider adding more CYA directly?

As for if/when I need to shock I was considering Cal Hypo shock packets, but I am concerned about the Ca with my higher levels, is that an issue? I know just bleach would work but I won't always be the one doing it, and others may not be able to calculate things out as easily.

Should I be worried about the TA and CH. I know its hard water that came from a deep well. (Grrrr, the known better water source was available when we had to fill it) And if so, how do I correct that?

I fear the hard water will have me in a constant PH "battle".

Thanks for any and all advice. Great forum!

Hi Brent;

1. Trichlor will work; you'll just need to switch to bleach or cal hypo with CYA gets higher.
2. If you have no heater and no SWCG, you can use cal hypo without a calcium problem *IF* the trichlor feeder is DOWNSTREAM of the filter.
3. Actually using cal hypo will work very well with hard water *IF* you do it in the manner I can explain. But, I want to make sure it's safe first. If you get cal hypo inside the feeder with the tabs, the feeder can explode.
4. Don't add stabilizer, if you are going to use trichlor.
5. Do NOT buy trichlor ANYWHERE but Sams Club ("PoolBrand" brand, only) or from Amazon, using my links. Once you've learned to decipher the chemical labels, you can look around, but most of the trichlor being sold is a hodge podge blend, often containing copper.
6. Once you get your routine established, you can probably manage your pool with cal hypo, trichlor, borax, and maybe a gallon of muriatic acid.

Great info, and thanks for the prompt response. My feeder is after the filter in the return line. Anxious to learn your method. I have no heater or swcg. I had planned on the Sam's Trichlor, very reasonably priced. Also, which strength Cal Hypo is best to use? I have seen a few different strengths.

I am on the fence about whether I should continue a maintenance dose of polyquat weekly or not? thoughts? (fyi, I am not terribly worried about the expense of it)

If you are good at maintaining your water chemistry, you don't need the weekly polyquat. I never use it at all.

Like Watermom said, it's easier -- if you have the K-2006 -- just to run higher chlorine, than to add in another chemical.

Regarding cal hypo, anything at 65% or above is fine. Usually the 65 - 68% strength is a better deal. The 73+% strength is just made with a somewhat refined process. But, avoid the products below 65% -- as far as I know, they are all blends, with mystery ingredients. They are almost always LESS economical, and sometimes the mystery ingredients cause problems.

What about the method for applying the cal Hypo?

Add it DIRECTLY to your skimmer, BUT

1. Make 1,000% sure that there are no chemicals of any kind anywhere in the lines or pump, between the skimmer and the filter.
2. Don't add when you've just backwashed the filter; wait till the pump has run 12 hours and loaded a little dirt into the filter.

Just remember, except for borax, cal hypo reacts BADLY with almost everything, including Coke, stabilizer, trichlor, dichlor, and more. It's fine once it's fully dissolved, and the filter will hold it, till it dissolves.

And because I ask too many questions ;)

1) Add powder direct into skimmer, correct? Not pre-dissolved in a bucket and then add?

2)What is the advantage of this vs broadcasting on the surface?

If you want to pre-dissolve it, and THEN put it the skimmer, that's OK. It's more work, and doesn't accomplish anything, though.

Without going into the chemistry, you end up with all the cloud from the cal hypo on the filter instead of the pool. There are both physical, and chemical aspects to this.

just to be double safe, would it be advisable to turn off my feeder for some amount of hours? Is there already a post somewhere that does explain the chemistry? I won't trouble to ask you to type it all out if there is not.

Thanks again for all your help.

Nah. I'd leave the feeder open, just to make sure a high concentration of cal hypo solution doesn't get trapped in there.

Long post? no. I think the longest one is in an old newsletter; I'm not sure if that one is even available to subscribers at the moment. And, the process is not published (as far as I know) except by me -- Chem_Geek is skeptical I think, for just that reason. My understanding of it is 1/4 guess and chemical intuition (which got me started) and 3/4 practical observation.

I'd bet data exists in old Olin (HTH) files somewhere. But, maybe not. John Wojiitowicz was one of their principle developers and researchers and he could sometimes be standing on gold, and not notice.