Spring Opening Questions

[PoolDoc]

+ You can find any stores in your area that carry the HTH 6-way testkit, by following the link, and then clicking the "Look for stores where you can Pick Up Today" link on the Walmart page.

+ Take the Floatron out, and stick to 2 gallon bleach (2 ppm) doses, via the skimmer, till the copper is gone. You'll probably need to do this in the evening, and again in the AM.

+ If you find any 60% algicide that has an ingredient poly [oxyethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene dichloride] . . . or that just starts with "poly", buy a bottle and use it.

+ Try to get a 6 way, and find out what your CYA level is. Order a K-2006

[cjblanton07]

Ok, the floatron came with a ion test kit. It was .5ppm (high) Took the floatron out and added 2 gallons of bleach this evening and will do the same in the a.m.

I got the 3 way kit just because I won't be able to get to town until this weekend to get the 6 way. I'll order the K-2006 asap.

While my husband added the bleach I tested and the CL was 5.0ppm - is this b/c he was adding bleach and it had already gotten over to the far side of the pool? pH was 6.8 if that very light yellow.

So I just need to continue to add 2 gal bleach p.m. and a.m. and test once a day for copper using my ion kit until all the copper is gone and then start adding borax to raise pH?

Thanks!!

[PoolDoc]

Let's keep the chlorine below 5, till the copper is gone.

Low pH is hard on liners. Don't over do it, but do add borax till you reach 7.0. (Not higher, till the copper is gone!)

[cjblanton07]

Ok - I'll do just 1 gallon of bleach then until the copper test clear. And 1 box of borax every 4hrs until I get to 7.0.

Thanks!

By the way, what's the PF:5 for in my signature?

[PoolDoc]

PF is "Pool Factor", some thing I've used privately for years, and in my local business, but not here. It's just a ratio between your pool and a pool with 1 million pounds of water.

So . . . if you add 1 pound of something that's 100% concentration, like CYA or chlorine gas, you get a 1 ppm increase of that something (CYA or chlorine). On your pool, since it's about 1/5 the size of a million pound pool, you get a 5 ppm increase.

The calculation works like this:

Say you want to know how much a box (4.75 lbs) of borax will increase your borate level. For complicated reasons, pure borax has an effective borate concentration of 11%. So this is the calculation for YOUR pool: 4.75 x 0.11 x 5 = 2.6. SO, each box of borax will add about 2.5 ppm borates to your pool; to reach a 50 ppm level (effective algistatically) you'd need 20 boxes.

Anyhow, having the PF in signatures allows me to more quickly and accurately calculate doses.

[cjblanton07]

Thanks for the explanation

[cjblanton07]

Went home at lunch and levels were pretty much the same CL 5.0 pH 6.8 (barely) "ions" .5 But the pool color was much lighter and more blue looking now but still very cloudy - still can barely see the bottom or sides. Added 1 box of Borax and will re-check levels when I get home.

On a side note NO wal-marts in my area have a 6 way test kit. They said there was a walmart within 50miles but I didn't even recognize the name of the town and not even site-to-store shipping. So I'm going to check with Lowe's, k-mart, etc. We're paycheck to paycheck kind of people so I may not be able to order the K-2006 kit until the end of the month.