Here's my numbers

[KurtV]

...PB recommended that I shock once a week using the Cal Hypo. But I'm hearing all of you say that maybe I shouldn't have to shock once a week. Could it be that he is recommending shock once a week, to sort of "make up" for the fact that my FC is 2ppm? Or should I just shock when my test results warrant (like when CC is above .5)?
Yes, only when you need it (CC above 0.5 ppm). You'll start to develop a feel for when that's going to happen by testing regularly and paying attention to what's going on in your pool (a bunch of swimmers, lots of kids who leave little presents, lots of leaves and stuff, etc.) but there's not any good reason I know of to shock on a schedule.

Does it make a difference that I live in SC, and we have 90's and 100's in the summer, plus we have a heater?
For chlorine, not really. Your chlorine demands may be higher than for a pool in the great white north but procedurally, everything's the same.

On the heater, there are some who theorize that you need to keep more calcium in your water to protect your heater and you'll find some threads in the forum that speak directly to that issue (though I've seen nothing that was very definitive). I don't know enough about that for my opinion to be of any value.

Regarding TA, I guess with a PH of 7.6, I definitely don't want to raise that too much, so I guess the baking soda is the way to go to raise TA. He was getting his number of what my TA should be, based on what I was using to shock (cal hypo) and sanitize (chlorine sticks). He said it should probably be between 100 and 140. So he said to raise it to 120 we would add 16 lbs of baking soda. So I guess that will be OK to do?
Your TA is in the normal range now. It won't hurt anything to raise it but it probably won't help much of anything either. I'd suggest you leave the alkalinity alone and see what happens naturally. If you have trouble controlling your pH over the next few weeks, you can raise the alkalinity a bit then. If you do decide to do it, add half or even a quarter of what the PB recommends (or better yet, download mwsmith's BleachCalc and figure it out using that), wait a day, test, and repeat as needed until you get it to where you want it.

Regarding converting to bleach for weekly sanitation, how do I add it? I don't want to bleach out my beautiful new liner. PB told me that when I use the Cal Hypo to shock, I should add it very carefully and very slowly to the skimmer basket, so that it gets deposited in the filter and gets distributed that way. Can I (should I) pour bleach in the skimmer? What would be the typical amount I would add each week: are we talking maybe one or two jugs, or 10 jugs? Since I will be the one doing the work, I don't really want to be loading up my grocery cart with 10 jugs of bleach each week.
You can add bleach through the skimmer or just pour it in the pool in front of a return or walk around the pool adding small amounts as you go. None of those methods should have any appreciable affect on the liner.

The amount of bleach you'll use depends on too many variables to give you a firm answer. 10 gallons per week is not out of the realm of the possible but neither is 3 or 4 gallons per week (or eve less at some times of the year. You can also by liquid chlorine in higher concentrations (10% and 12.5% typically) at pool stores; that would save you some lugging around. Be warned, however, that the higher concentration bleach tends to degrade faster and that it will eat holes in clothes and other things more readily than the household stuff.

One more: PB said in this area, most pools end up with mustard algae at some point in the summer. He recommended that I call him when this happens, and he will come out and put in a copper algaecide that is made a special way so that the copper won't come out of the suspension and damage the liner. Does this make sense? I asked him about using polyquat, but he said the copper stuff works better.
It's very unlikely that you'll have to deal with any algae if you're diligent about maintaining your water chemistry; especially the chlorine level. Remember that your PB has been teaching people to run fairly high CYA levels which supresses chlorine's sanitizing and oxidizing action and that could well be why they're seeing annual algae blooms. In the (hopefully unlikely) event you do have a bloom, most people here will tell you to deal with it using chlorine first, 60% polyquat second (though others here will tell you that the poly is better as a preventative and not very good as a remedy), and copper based algaecides not at all. There are other opinions here, but I think that's a fair summary of the party line.

Once again, I thank all of you for the great education. You people are the best!

Judy

Hope this helps.

[jnorris]

OK, back again! Here's my second set of numbers (about 5 days later):

CL 2.0 (was 2.0 before)
TC 2.0 (2.0 before)
PH 8.2 (7.6 before - YIKES!)
TA 120 (80 before - PB added baking soda to raise)
CYA 40 (30 before - time to get rid of the sticks!)

What could have made my PH go up? I was under the impression that baking soda would raise TA without raising PH. When I did the acid demand test, 1 drop was needed to bring the color back down to the 7.6 color. According to the chart in the test kit, I need to add 1 pint of muriatic acid. Is it OK to wait until tomorrow to do this? I'm having people over swimming today, and I'm a little leary of adding acid to the water my child is going to be swimming in a few hours from now.

Also re: PH, yesterday we had about 2.5 inches of rain. My understanding was that our rain was slightly acidic. The pump ran all night, so I feel like the rain water would be mixed in well by now. I'm wondering what my PH would have been without the rain!

Other than taking out the sticks, stocking up on bleach, and adding the muriatic acid, is there anything else I should be doing? I'm going to try to get my CL level up to 3 to 6 ppm. How long after I add bleach should I wait to test? Also, I'm going out of town for a week next weekend, so I guess it will be alright to put the sticks back in for that?

Judy

[KurtV]

OK, back again! Here's my second set of numbers (about 5 days later):

CL 2.0 (was 2.0 before)
TC 2.0 (2.0 before)
PH 8.2 (7.6 before - YIKES!)
TA 120 (80 before - PB added baking soda to raise)
CYA 40 (30 before - time to get rid of the sticks!)

What could have made my PH go up? I was under the impression that baking soda would raise TA without raising PH. When I did the acid demand test, 1 drop was needed to bring the color back down to the 7.6 color. According to the chart in the test kit, I need to add 1 pint of muriatic acid.
The pH in many pools just seems to consistently rise or fall without any known reason. Testing regularly (like daily for chlorine and pH and at least monthly for CYA, CH, and alkalinity) will give you a feel for the trends in your pool.

Is it OK to wait until tomorrow to do this? I'm having people over swimming today, and I'm a little leary of adding acid to the water my child is going to be swimming in a few hours from now.
You can probably wait until tomorrow but there's really no need to. Keep you filter pump running and distribute the acid around the pool in small amounts and it will almost instantly be diluted to safe levels. You can also pre-dilute that acid in a bucket (always add acid to water) to speed up the dilution (though I think that's probably overkill).

Also re: PH, yesterday we had about 2.5 inches of rain. My understanding was that our rain was slightly acidic. The pump ran all night, so I feel like the rain water would be mixed in well by now. I'm wondering what my PH would have been without the rain!
That's a bit of a puzzler. Rain does generally (maybe even always?) have a low pH (something in the neighborhood of 5, I believe). But, like I said above, many pools just tend to have a rising pH. If you're using bleach it does tend to cause pH to rise, but I don't think it would account for all of your increase. It may be a combination of things, including that.

It's great that you're paying attention to the trends and thinking about how outside factors such as rain will influence your water chemistry. If you keep testing and keeping an eye on it, you'll probably solve the puzzle eventually.

Other than taking out the sticks, stocking up on bleach, and adding the muriatic acid, is there anything else I should be doing?
Nothing I can think of.

I'm going to try to get my CL level up to 3 to 6 ppm. How long after I add bleach should I wait to test?
At least a couple of hours.

Also, I'm going out of town for a week next weekend, so I guess it will be alright to put the sticks back in for that?
If you're only going to be gone a couple of days you can probably just run your chlorine up to 8 or so ppm with bleach and be OK. If it's going to be much longer you may have to use the sticks. If you do, monitor the CYA level diligently.

Judy

Keep up the good work.

[brent.roberts]

Kurt has been giving you good advice.

One or two comments. First, the risk of adding the acid a few hours before use is almost zero. In fact I would encourage you to do this.( from the time of your post this morning I am guessing however that the kids are in the water already. )

I think the higher PH might cause them a bit more eye irritation and outweigh the concern about the acid.

Many poolstore educated folks have been taught to shock once a week to the point that it now borders on an urban myth. My guess is that it came about because folks would not "keep ahead of thier water" and maintain good levels of chlorine and see the tell-tale rise in CC. So the safe thing to tell everyone was to shock once a week. I shocked mine only once last summer when I had neglected it a bit. My pool is a bit smaller than yours but treating it because almost automatic after a few weeks. Half a gallon of bleach every other day. A pint of muriatic once a week. Done deal. Just test the PH and CH levels every day and you'll get the hang of it soon enough From you postings you've got the right attitude.

CYA, TA, and Cal don't need anything like daily testing.

One more thing. Almost every chlrine tab or stick feeder cannot be turned completely off. I think Ben recommends one on his poolsolutions.com site ( Rainbow if I recall correctly) that is the only one that can be shut off completely. Watch you sticks when it's set to off and I think you'll see that they keep disappearing very slowly.

Cal Hypo granules will almost always sink to the bottom before they dissolve. There they can damage a vinyl liner. PB is right. Add it to the skimmer or pre-dissolve it in a pail and pore in the solution. By the way make sure the auto chlorinator is off before adding to the skimmer !!!

Good luck.