New pool owner, BBB Opening, cloudy water.

[AnnaK]

Hi Jesse,

Welcome to PF! It sounds like you've already done a lot of research and reading and are well on your way to a 5-minutes-a-day swim season.

I would do two things:
1. Get a FAS-DPD test kit like the Taylor K2006 (.75 oz reagent bottles) or the K2006C (2 oz. reagents). Water testing is far more accurate with these kits than with test strips.
2. Keep the pump/filter running 24/7. If you have a 2-speed pump you can run it on 'low'. Put it through a backwash/rinse cycle if the pressure rises to 5 PSI above normal 'clean' pressure.

If you have visible collections of debris on the bottom, vacuum. In my area I'm getting a lot of tree bracts from the birches right now. Soggy pollen which sinks to the bottom can look like dust as well.

Do you have a Leslie's pool store in the vicinity? They do their water tests with the Taylor kits and I've found their results reasonably reliable with regard to pH, FC, and TC. Having the water tested at a pool store using manual techniques rather than a colorimeter would give us a better starting point with regard to current balance. I'm really hesitant to give any chemical advice based on the test strip results—can you tell?

[Watermom]

You can order the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C from the link in my signature below. By ordering it through this link, the Pool Forum makes a little bit of money from the sale which helps us stay up and running! Welcome to the forum!

[chem geek]

For coordination sake, note that this user is also posting also at Swimming Pool Help Forums and at Trouble Free Pool.

[Watermom]

Thanks, Richard for that tidbit.

Jesse -- We are glad to have you here on the Pool Forum, but it is going to be difficult for us to help you if you are following advice from multiple sources. When we are helping somebody with a problem, the only way we can do a good job helping them is if we know everything going on with that pool. If you are taking bits and pieces of advice from various sources, not only does it make it harder for anyone to be able to help but it also may make it harder for you to clear up any problems you may be having. It is probably best if you post a problem on one forum and let your advice all be coming from the same place. Hope that makes sense!

[CarlD]

Jesse,
If you are going to use strips, at least you got the right ones, from Hach. They are really only good as a stop-gap but you can use them. Ignore TC--it's never even close to right. FC, for now, should always be purple, even more intensely than the "10".
TA is hard to read but generally is sorta OK. I find CYA almost impossible to read, but, the key is "almost". For pH you are better off with a decent OTO/pH test kit than the strips. Try to get one with chlorine neutralizer (Taylor's version is # 0014, rather than 0004).

I suspect the advice from TFP should be very similar to ours, as it's based on B-B-B as well, but I don't follow them, and I know NOTHING about Swimming Pool Help Forums--never heard of them. Given that, you should either rely on us for advice or on TFP. It SHOULD be about the same, but may not be, so if it deviates, go one way or the other and stick to it.

CarlD