New Guy

[caliguy]

Hello everyone! Before registering, I've been lurking this forum for the last 2 weeks and got a ton of info. I recently moved into a house with a 19K gallon in ground pool that was built in the mid 80's. It's so old that the returns are at the bottom of the pool. All 10 of them. This is my first real pool (had a cheapy AG for one season) and I'm excited to get this up and running. Used the BBB method for a week and my pool finally cleared up tonight. My first question is how will I know when it's safe for swimming with the readings below? I'm located in NorCal and it's still a little too cold for swimming, but was just curious as to when it was safe after you see the pool clear up.

Current readings
FC: 6ppm (after shocking it 2 days ago)
pH: 7.2
TA: 80
CYA: 50-60

Thanks!
Pete

[aylad]

If your chlorine stays between6 and 10 ppm, the pool isclear and your CC is 1 or less, I'd go swimming!!!

Janet

[caliguy]

Awesome! At least my kid won't be so bored during summer vacation. I do have one other question concerning testing the water. I got the Taylor K-2006 kit and followed the direction to test chlorine. In step 5 to test CC, I wasn't sure if I was to use the same sample I did for FC or get a new one from the pool. Also, the powder amount to use to test FC. The instructions say 2 scoops, but is a scoop considered a full scoop with a mound or level it with the top of the scooper?

[PoolDoc]

#1 - Use the same sample
#2 - If you get enough so the water turns pink (unless there's no chlorine) it's enough. Period.
(It's just an 'indicator', in a "back-titration", so if you've got color, you're good to go.)

Ben

[Watermom]

You don't have to use two scoops. As Ben said, all you need is enough to make it pink. If one scoop does, don't add more. No reason to waste the powder.

[caliguy]

For some reason I couldn't start a new post in the start here section so I'll just reply to my original post. Hope that's OK.

Before I found this forum, I got a 50lb tub of 3" chlorinating tablets and a box of 1lb bag of shock from Costco. I hate to let this go to waste so my question is, how much CYA will a 3" tablet add? What's the safest way to store this stuff?

[aylad]

I believe the rule of thumb is that for every 10 ppm of chlorine, you get 6 ppm of CYA when using pucks. If the "shock" you have is dichlor, you'll get about 8 ppm of CYA for each 10 ppm chlorine.

Janet

[caliguy]

Since my CYA is at the 50-60ppm range, I'll just leave it the way it is. So how does one store this stuff? I might just give some of it away. Thanks for the reply.