No kit yet -- Opened Pool -- What Should I do?

[Watermom]

Keep working to get your ph in the range of 7.4-7.6. Wait a few hours after adding doses of muriatic acid to let it circulate. Then retest and redose til you get it down.

It will take about a week for the cya to dissolve. Add it to the skimmer (don't broadcast it across the pool like some containers tell you to) and then don't retest for it, add more or backwash for a week. Until you start to get a cya reading, it will be tough to keep any chlorine in your pool. You'll need to test morning and evening and each time, add enough bleach to take your FC back up to about 5. (In your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will raise your cl reading by 1ppm.) After the cya begins to dissolve, you'll be able to just test and dose it with bleach in the evenings. (Adding 4 gallons of bleach was way too much for your pool. In a 15,000 gallon pool, 4 gallons would take your cl reading up to 16 which is way too high when you have no cya. I hope it doesn't bleach out your liner!)

Hope this helps.

[AnnaE]

Thank you Watermom.

Per Leslie's Sales Manager, I added 1 pint of muratic acid. 4 hours later, I added 4 gallons of bleach.

Sorry, it was 2 gallons of bleach -- typo. I was typing too fast and typed 4 gallons instead of 2. I hope 2 gallons was still okay.

Thanks and I will do as you suggested and will let you all know how I do.

Anna

[Watermom]

2 gallons would have taken it up to around 8ppm which is OK. I'm glad it wasn't 4 gallons!

[AnnaE]

Hi all,

I got my kit yesterday and took my first test with Ben's kit this morning. Here are my results:

FC 3
CC .5
TC 3.5
PH 7.5
Alk 150
Cal 200
CYA Below 20, I'd probably say 10 or 15? It was getting harder to see the black spot, but I was still able to see it at 20.

I put in 3 pounds of CYA last Tuesday evening while watching American Idol. It looks like I could use more CYA. Should I wait another day and retest or should I go ahead and add more CYA?

Thanks.

Anna

P.S. When I use the calculator to figure how many gallons of water is in my pool, does it take into consideration that you don't fill the pool up all the way? It only goes up to the top of the skimmer, some days it's a little lower and some days it's higher. (Call me anal.........)

[duraleigh]

Hi Anna,

It looks like you've done well getting your water in shape. How does it look? If it's really clear, you can just maintain it there and enjoy your pool.

If it's still a little murky, I don't believe you ever reached shock level with the Cl. Using the calc, bring your Cl up in the evening to around 12-16ppm and run your pump 24/7. That should get rid of that .5 CC and really clear your water. Again, if your water looks good, just maintain your current Cl level

Your 3lbs of CYA should've brought you up in the 25-30 range. I would not be in a big hurry to add more. Test again in the next day or so and, if your test results are consistent, bring that level up to around 30 or so (use the bleach calc).

The calculator makes no allowance for not filling up. Calculate using the actual water depth.

Good work!!

[AnnaE]

Hi Dave,

Thanks so much! The water is very clear. I will test again in a couple of days. We're going to turn on the heater and that might change some things. The water temp currently is about 60 degrees. Memorial Day weekend should be in the high 80's or low 90's -- at least that's what they are predicting.

Thanks to you and everyone on this forum. This has been the easiest pool opening ever.

Anna