New to the Pool

[trips27]

Like many other threads that i have been reading, I am a rookie. Bought a home with ig pool. Vinyl liner 22,000 gallons with a sand filter. Removed the cover, water was clear but obvious green bottom. Got pump started and vacuumed pool best I could until I couldn't see anymore due to clouding up.

Went out and bought a test kit from Wal Mart. PH was 8.2, Chlorine 0, CYA was 45. The alkalinity took 12 drops to turn red so I think I need to add 120. Kinda confused there so some help would be appreciated.

Poured in 2 gallons of bleach late this afternoon to help shock the pool.

Obviously it is still cloudy. What do I need to do next? I also bought some Borax and Baking Soda, but no muriatic acid yet. Any help will be appreciated.

[PoolDoc]

Hey Steve;

Welcome! Pools are stressful and confusing at first, but if you equipment is OK, everything should be pretty easy shortly!

1. Don't worry about the alkalinity.
2. Do get some acid -- preferably muriatic acid from Lowes or similar. Add acid 1/2 gallon (approx) at time, till your pH is below 7.6. See this page, to learn how to use muriatic safely: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?13111
3. Order a K2006. See this page about testing: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?14994
4. Not sure what sort of kit you bought -- none available will read "45 ppm" of CYA. If it's NOT an OTO kit, get one.
5. Add 3 gallons of 6% household bleach each evening UNLESS OTO test shows orange-ish yellow.
6. Run filter 24/7. Do not back wash until you see a pressure increase.
7. Complete your signature, per example below.
8. Continue vacuum, UNLESS the chlorine gets below (light yellow or less)

Good luck!

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Pool signature example (for http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/profile...=editsignature)

Let's say you have a 12,000 gallon concrete kidney pool with a StaRite System 3 cartridge filter, a Hayward Super II 1.5 HP pump, an Pentair Intellichlor SWCG, a Hayward pool heater, and a Nature II unit. Put this in your signature:

"12K concrete kidney; StaRite S7M120; Hayward 1.5HP Super II pump; Intellichlor IC20; Hayward H250DFN, and a Nature II unit"

Doing this will make it MUCH easier for us to give consistently good answers.
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[trips27]

Thanks for the info. I got HTH 6-way test kit from Walmart

For cya, after mixing I had to pour it into a container until I could no longer see the black dot. That's where I got the 45 from.

I'll continue with the bleach, add some muriatic acid and post updates. One thing I'll have to do is check my electrical panel as there is a timer on there for the filter. I'll make sure that it is running 24/7 for now.

Looking forward to this summer and very happy I found this forum. :thumbup:

[PoolDoc]

OK. I didn't realize that was still available -- they no longer sell it in my area: http://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-6-Way-Test-Kit/17043668

That's actually a very desirable kit -- it's a custom Taylor kit made for Arch / HTH, and not available otherwise.

[trips27]

Added m/a this morning around 8:30 est. Put in a little more than half gallon as it was hard to judge. At 11:30 est ph is now 7.2 and ch is 1. My timer shut the filter from 10pm to 7 am so that didn't help. Have it 24/7 now. With so much crud on the bottom yesterday I vac'd with the filter on waste. I have it on normal filter now and vac'd just where I could see. When doing so I noticed one of the water returns spitting out green sediment, so I've stopped the vacuuming for now.

What's next?

[PoolDoc]

Sand filters catch dead algae better than they do live algae (green = live).

So, kill the algae. With 22K gallons, and 45ppm CYA, you'll need a dose of 20+ ppm chlorine to do so. On your pool, that's 7 gallons of plain 6% bleach. Add it in the evening, then stir up the pool with a brush. Depending on how much sludge you have, you may need to repeat this several times.

If you haven't already, read the Best Guess page, so you understand what's going on. (Link in my signature!)