Brand New Pool Owner Needs Advice On When Swimming Can Commence!

[Watermom]

Baloney!! Bleach is 6% sodium hypochlorite. How come that would void the warranty if their pool store liquid chlorine which is either 10 or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite won't? Just more evidence that the pool store doesn't know what they are talking about.

Test your pH and post the reading.

I'm guessing your volume to be around 9700 gallons. Go ahead and add a 3-qt. jug of plain bleach slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running. That will take your chlorine up to about 4.6ppm. Until you get some CYA in there, you'll need to test at least morning and evening and even in the afternoon if you are home, and each time add enough bleach to get back to around 5ppm. For reference, in your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add about 1.5ppm of chlorine.

You still haven't given the ingredients of the items requested in the above posts. We need to know to be able to advise you. You need CYA (stabilizer). You still haven't told us what the ingredients are in the tabs and enhancement sticks, so I can't recommend that you use the sticks to add CYA because they could have something else in them as well.

[Jeannie]

Forgot to add.. the pool volume is listed at about 11,000 gallons.

Just tested using Phenol Red. It showed 6.8.

[Watermom]

Most AG pools have 48" walls but water levels don't go to the top of the walls. Typically, water levels are about 4 inches below that. That is how I came up with the volume.

i assume that 6.8 is the lowest reading that your pH test can show. What that means is that your pH could actually be much lower than that. You need to raise it above 7.0 ASAP as readings below 7.0 are acidic and can damage your pool. Add a half a box of 20 Mule Team Borax slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running. After a couple of hours, retest and redose until you get the pH between 7.2 - 7.8. Once it starts to move, you can add smaller doses of Borax.

BTW -- It is fine to add bleach and Borax one right after the other. Won't hurt a thing. I do so all the time.

[Jeannie]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Should I add the chloro-guard tablets? They don't have any ingredients listed.. just directions to put it in the skimmer and that it is a clarifier and conditioner.

[Watermom]

NO. Combo products are risky especially when you don't know the ingredients. Just go and buy some stabilizer separately. You'll need about 3 lbs. You may be able to find it at Walmart, Lowe's or Home Depot. It may be called stabilizer or conditioner. Check the label ingredients. If it says cyanuric acid or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff. If you don't find it any of those places, you may have to ........... go back to the pool store!! If you do, do NOT let them sell you anything else!

To add the CYA, while the pump is running, slowly pour the CYA granules into the skimmer so it won't clog the pipes. Then, make sure you run your pump 24/7 for about 4 to 5 days to give it time to totally dissolve in the filter. Also, don't backwash the filter for that time period or else you'll just be throwing the CYA out. That amount should give you about 40ppm of CYA which would be a good level.

For the first week until the CYA dissolve, you'll need to test and add bleach a couple times per day as explained in post #11 above. A week after adding the CYA, you should be able to go to testing the cl and adding bleach in the evenings only. With a CYA level of 40, you'll want to keep your chlorine level between 3-6 ALL the time or else you risk an algae bloom. (See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below for more about the connection between CYA and chlorine levels.)

Are you feeling overwhelmed with all this or do you feel confident that you understand? It is really pretty easy. The first week is the hardest because you have to test and add bleach so often. After that, all it takes is about 5 minutes per evening to test and add bleach. You'll want to test chlorine daily, pH once or twice per week. Those are the critical things.