You are going to need to measure and watch the following things:
FC (Free Chlorine)
CC (Combined Chloramines)
TC (Total Chlorine)
pH
TA or T/A (Total Alkalinity)
CH (Calcium Hardness)
CYA (Cyanuric Acid, also called Stabilizer, Balancer or Conditioner)
1 gallon of 6% bleach will add about 1.8ppm of FC to your pool.
You'll want a test BEFORE you add anything, but the most important steps are:
0) Get a good test kit before you start. We recommend the Taylor K-2006 and you can link to it on the signatures of PoolDoc, Watermom, aylad, and (I believe) Poconos. Also get a simple OTO/pH kit for now. These are the most valuable investments you can make.
1) Getting you pH in the range of 7.2 to 7.8 Use 20 Mule Team Borax to raise pH, Muriatic Acid or Dry Acid to lower it.
2) Getting an initial shock level of chlorine into your pool--6 gallons of 6% bleach ought to do it.
3) Getting a minimal level of CYA to keep your chlorine from disappearing. Start by aiming for 30ppm, and no more. It's better to get to 15 or 20ppm and need to add more than put in too much and get to 40 or 50 too soon. It can take a week for the CYA reading to show. Get this stuff at a pool store or the pool section of WalMart, K-Mart, etc. Use about half of what the container says will get your pool to 30ppm. You can always add more much easier than reducing it.
Don't worry about Total Alkalinity or Calcium Hardness just yet. When you do, you'll use simple baking soda to raise TA and Calcium (from a pool store) to get to the 200-400ppm level of calcium.
We'll guide you through it.
DO NOT ADD ALGAECIDES,CLARIFIERS, BLUING, PHOSPHATE REMOVERS OR ANYTHING ELSE! The pool store will push all this stuff on you...for now, only buy stabilizer and, if you don't want to deal with Muriatic Acid, then buy Dry Acid as well. You can always get Calcium from them later.
Do NOT waste your money on their "Total Alkalinity Raise" or any pH raiser, like "pH Up!" or "Balance Pak 200" etc. Total Alkalinity Raiser is Baking Soda, at 3 or 4 times the price. If they tell you it's not baking soda, they are wrong. Period. Pool chem companies use another name for Sodium Bicarbonate that makes it sound "different" but it's still just bicarb.
pH raisers are comprised of Washing Soda, which is $.80/lb in the supermarket and $3-$6/lb in the pool store. Same chemical.
Bleach and Liquid Chlorine are the same stuff. Some LC is 6%, same as bleach, some is 12.5%, about twice bleach. Usually bleach is cheaper.
Finally go to PoolSolutions.com and read the tips and stuff there.
Carl
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