New guy LOST !!!!

[AE340B]

HI, folks-
I just returned from another pool store with a full water test. Here's the results:

Free Chlorine: 0.5
Total Chlorine: 0.5
pH: 7.4
total Alkalinity: 50
Calcium Hardness: 140
CYA: 0.0

I guess the question now is, what do I add, in what order, and how much? Again, the pool is a vinyl liner 44,000 gallon pool. I think I know why the CYA is gone - I had a leak in the solid cover all winter that allowed the water from the pool to seep up onto the cover, after which the automatic cover pump would dump it all overboard. I had to keep refilling my pool all winter. I would guess that all in all I replaced the vast majority of my water this past winter, 12" at a time! Will the use of the 3" pucks bring the CYA up to where it needs to be, or do I need to add some stabilizer now? I'd hate to raise it to normal levels now, only to have the pucks push it over the edge and have to drain the pool later in the year to bring it back down. The water is still only 56 degrees, if that matters. I think I may be at the point now where I'm starting to see a glimmer of knowledge, but it's just enough to be a danger to myself. Sherra, thanks for the info. Where do I go to download this bleach calc formula? As far as the solar cover, I'm gone alot but my wife and two kids are still here when I'm gone, and the kids are in the pool almost every day. My kids and I basically overuled my wife's objections to the pool when we bought it so she has no strong interest in helping me to maintain it. That's why I need the auto chlorinator. The kids are still to young to maintain the pool in my absence. Also, if anyone has answers to my shock questions asked in the post above I'd certainly be appreciative. As I said earlier, I'm still lost, however I feel that slowly I'm starting to learn. Thanks again to all of you for your help so far. I look forward to the time when I know enough that I can return the favor by helping another who is lost as I am now.
Doug

[Area Man]

Doug,

Wait for others to reply, because I'm learning too. But I think you should add an initial dose of CYA rather than relying on the pucks. Michael's BleachCalc calculator suggests 10 lbs or so to get your CYA up in the 30's.

Did the pool store really report your total alkalinity at 50 today, and 110 yesterday? Something seems wrong there. Using Ben's test kit gives me very consistent TA results.

It also seems odd that they reported lower calcium hardness today, after you added the "Hardness Plus" they recommended yesterday. My general recommendation is: test it yourself! I value my pool store, but am having better results from my own testing and adjustment using information from this forum.

Rick

[AE340B]

Rick,
I agree that I need to get a test kit. The stores around here (I tried the 4 that I know of) all sell the small kits that don't test for CYA. I know Ben sells them, but I think I should get one fairly soon, and other posts from people who have already ordered tham seem to suggest that they take quite a while to arrive after the order. I'll probably just order from Ben and test at the stores until it arrives. Ben put this whole sits together so ordering from him seems to be the right thing to do to support him and his efforts. I agree with you that the test results are all over th board. I think the results I got yesterday were wrong. My small home test kit agrees with the numbers I got today. My kit only does FC, pH and Alkalinity, but those numbers match. Thanks for the response.
Doug

[fullhouse]

this should be the correct link to get you to the bleach calculator. mwsmith wrote it and it is in the signature of all of his posts. there are add'l calculators in the top corner. http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe

[Sherra]

http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe
One of our regulars on this board wrote the program. When you download it, save it to your desktop. It's a very small program. You can customize all the settings once you open it. First thing I'd do is in the upper left corner click on "more calcs" and then "settings" and change the units to "imperial" (U.S. units instead of Metric...unless you're more comfortable using metric), then enter your pool volume in gallons. From that point you'll be able to easily figure out how much bleach, etc you need to add to bring your levels up to where you need them. With having practially no chlorine in your water right now and not CYA, you need to bring your chlorine up to about 3 (assuming your water is clear).

Then, my suggestion is to bring your CYA up to about 20 or 30 since you plan on continuing to use pucks. That will get some CYA in your pool and still give you a little wiggle room for using the pucks.

[Sherra]

Sorry, I was typing my reply at work and got interrupted by my boss and actually had to do some work and didn't get to hit the "post" button for almost an hour. Darn work!