New Member - Pool Newbie saying hello

My wife and I just purchased a new home with a beautiful in-ground pool! It was a huge selling point for us as we both had pools growing up. We are very excited about it. We close in early July so I am gathering information so I can be ready to take over maintaining it from the previous owners. They currently have a pool company maintaining it until closing. In the contract they said they would leave all pool equipment for us so I am not sure what type of test kit (if they have one) or other equipment they use.

I am a pool newbie - only experience is helping my Father with our above ground when I was a kid.
However, we do have a spa at our camp so I have some experience with water chemistry and balance.

Looking forward to joining the Pool Forum community!
I have followed you on twitter and filled out the registration form. Good day everyone!

It is always good to do your homework upfront! It will make your pool care a lot easier. Getting a good test kit is the single best thing you can do. We recommend a Taylor K-2006 or 2006C (link in my signature). Go ahead and order it so you'll have it ahead of time. Do a lot of reading on the forum, especially the stickies at the top of each sub-forum. Also, read on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. Lots of good information there as well. Come back whenever you have some specific questions and someone here will help you get started with your pool.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

Thanks WM. I will look into both of those. Seems to be the standard and everything i would need in a test kit. ive used strips in the past, but have had inconsistant results in the spa and my aquariums.
Currently, all i can see is the 'getting started' thread so I will poke around there until I can see more topics. I appricate the reply and thanks for the warm welcome.

Until your registration is completed, if you log out, you'll be able to read in the rest of the forum.

Just ordered the Taylor K-2006. should be here in a few weeks. thanks for the advice!

Greetings all!

Closed on the new house Tuesday morning. couldn’t wait to get my hands on the new pool!

On arrival, everything was up and running like we asked for, however it wasn’t maintained properly. They had a ‘pool guy’ who came over every week to throw chlorine tabs in the skimmer, backwash, vac, etc… the pool, obviously need more attention with all the rain we have had this year; it was a green swamp when we got in the back yard.

I called their pool guy to see what he has done so far, just chlorine, bags of ‘shock’, and a gallon of algaecide. I cringed.

So I took it by the horns and got started. using my Taylor test kit here were my initial readings on Tuesday morning:

Water: Green
FC: .8
CC: .2
Ph 7.6
TA 120
CYA: 50

Added 6 gals of bleach and tested FC a couple hours later. got FC up to 25ppm and by 10pm it dropped to 19ppm.
I added another gallon and went to bed.

By morning FC dropped to 15 again, so I added an additional gallon. Tested an hour later, 19ppm. Off to work I went.

When I arrived home, I noticed my father in law decided to install the on/off timer settings so my filter was off. DOH! His heart was in the right place. He didn’t realize I was trying to run the filter 24/7 until I get my algae squared away.

Brushed the pool walls and floor and added some more bleach, FC dropped a little during the day but not as much as the previous day. added one gallon of bleach last night and this morning it was around 19.5 FC.
When I arrive home, I will check CC and post it here.

So far, the water quality is improving. FC is being consumed less than the first day and the water is not green anymore, just cloudy so I think im on the right track.

Can anyone see anything incorrect with what I am doing so far? any suggestions?

I vac’d to waste on the first day, backwashing daily as well. trying to keep my FC between 15-25. Should I stay closer to the 15 mark or is +shock+ ok at this point?

Thank you all in advance!
Rob

21,000 gal, IG, Vinyl, sand filter, (pump specs unknown right now)
Taylor K-2006

Test results tonight:
Water: blue! But cloudy.
Fc: 22.5
Cc: .5

Dropped a couple ppm during the day while at work.

Ill check it again in the AM and see where it's at.
I also filled the pool a little below the top of the skimmer, I plan on vac'ing to waste tomorrow evening or this weekend.

Is this high FC ok for my vinyl liner? My brother said it will bleach it. According to the best guess chart, shock is 15pmm and +shock+ is 30ppm at my current CYA of 40/50. Any recommendations to what's better at this stage?

Thanks and good night!

Test results for this AM:
Water: Blue and cloudy
FC: 21.5
CC: 0

Will check again after work this afternoon.

Also, now that the water is clearing and i can see the bottom in the shallow end, i spotted to what looks like a small rip in the liner. grr.... water level looks a tad lower than what it was last night. anyone recommend a good patch kit? or are the ones you pick up at walmart or lowes ok?

Thanks in advance.

Membership updated.

Vinyl pool patch sticky is HERE: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?13118

I'm working on updating that thread, today. So, even if you look at it this AM (7/12/2013), you may want to check it again, this evening.

So long as you have stabilizer in your pool (CYA > 30 ppm) high chlorine (FC < 25 ppm) shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks, i will check it out that sticky later tonight. and get it patched asap.
thanks for the info RE: FC. I will keep it at that level until i don't lose more than 1ppm in FC and CC is .5 or less overnight. i feel im getting closer. it's a sand filter, would adding a little DE to the skimmer help filter out the fine particles in between back-washing? ive read a lot of people do that. does it really work?

Adding DE will:
(a) test your filter. If DE blows back into the pool, your filter 'fails' and needs service.
(b) IF it passes, added DE will help filter fines, but it will also make the filter stop up much faster.

I recommend testing with a small amount of DE, and then adding more if it 'passes'. But I'd recommend waiting till you are ready to vacuum.

Adding DE to the filter worked like a charm! filter passed. nothing blew back into the pool. after about 4 hours it was ready for a backwash. repeated with the same amount of DE and the water has been crystal clear ever since with no BW'ing needed. overnight CL test passed and now im letting FC fall down to 3-6ppm. thanks for the tips. water looks great!

Good news! Thanks for the update.