keeping up

[Watermom]

Great news! Congratulations! With your CYA at around 40, be sure to keep your chlorine between 3-6 ALL the time. If it dips below 3, you risk an algae bloom.

To work on raising the pH, I'd add about 1/3 of a box of Borax at a time. Pour it slowly into the skimmer while the pump is running, breaking up any clumps. Let the pump run for a couple of hours, retest and redose as needed.

[Beast]

Pool has been looking good. pH is up around 7.6 and FC is around 4......I found a liquid shock @ BJ's which is like a Costco or Sam's club if you've never heard of before. They have a case which consists of 4 one gal containers of liquid shock. 12% sodium hypo-chloride. The case is $12.99 which is about the same price I'd pay for bleach @ 6%. So is this stuff good and I just use a lesser quantity when raising the FC? And I guess finally with these #'s how often should i anticipate adding more.

[Watermom]

Bleach is 6% sodium hypochlorite, so that is the same stuff, just a higher concentration. Thus, you could be able to use approximately half as much to achieve the same affect -- assuming it really is 12%. Sometimes the higher concentrated stuff degrades faster so it may not actually be that potent.

As far as how often you'll have to add it, you'll just have to test and learn the pattern of your pool. For now, I'd test every evening and add enough to get back to about 6ppm. Then test the next evening and add enough to get back up to 6ppm. With a CYA of 40, you don't want it to drop below 3ppm.

[Beast]

10-4 thanks

[Beast]

I just want to say thanks again for all your help. I added the Borax about 1/4 of the box and by the next day the water was crystal clear. and now that it is crystal clear I notice sand or DE on the floor of the pool. The last time I took the filter apart I inspected the fingers pretty well I thought and everything looked perfect. I did notice that i was missing a screw and nut on the rubber connecting it to the cover. Could this one missing screw be enough to allow some DE through or is there something else I should be checking?

[Manslick]

I'd replace the screw on principle alone. But be sure to get the correct one. You have to get one that is designed for a chlorine pool filter. It may cost you $7.

Check to make sure you don't have too much DE in the filter. Back flush and weigh out the exact amount required.

[Beast]

i got that bolt in last week. not as much sand/DE in the pool as before but still some. i don't see any rips in the fingers at all. pH went down to 7.2 added more borax went up to 7.8. sparkling water. have been able to keep FC around 3 with adding 1/2 gal bleach every other day. I'm ecstatic with all the help I've gotten here. just wish i had more time to work on pool or come on here. work and kids are keeping me extremely busy