New Intex 16' x 48" pool owner

[BigDave]

Baking Soda will raise your TA, will also raise your pH a little. Borax will raise your pH while raising TA a litte. Washing Soda will raise both.
You don't want to let your pH go much lower your OK now but any lower and you'll have to act.

[losttree]

Ok, we finally got in today and my CYA is finally all dissolved. I added a 1/4 box of Borax to keep the pH from going any lower as it had been trending down and was a light shade of 7.2 on my 6 way. My results tonight were Cl of 1, pH of 7.2, Alk of 40 and my CYA reading was 40.

If I understand the best guess chart, I think I need to get Cl between 3 and 6. I added 1/4 jug bleach tonight and will test in the morning. My k2006 isn't here yet so I don't want to overshoot as I can't measure above 5. Am I understanding correctly?

[PoolDoc]

Don't worry about overshooting -- too much chlorine won't get you in trouble; too little will!

With the OTO kit, you want to be really yellow (on the scale) to dark yellow (off the scale). Stay there, and you'll be fine.

[losttree]

With all the help I've gotten on here, we've been enjoying our pool the last couple of weeks. Thanks to all for the help. My k-2006 kit came recently and I used it for the first time tonight. CYA is holding between 40 and 50, pH is 7.8 and FCC was 2.0 ppm tonight. I added 1/3 gallon 6% bleach to get up into the 3-6 range from the best guess chart.

We run the pump round the clock which may be excessive, but it's working so far. My wife loves it so much, she's shopping for a 27-30 ft ag for next year.

[Watermom]

Sounds like you are doing great! You really can cut back on the pump run time without your water quality suffering and it will save you some money on your electric bill. I typically turn my pump on around noon and off around 8pm. That has always worked for my pool. I don't blame your wife for wanting a bigger pool. I've never heard anyone complain about their pool being too big!

Keep up the good work and have fun swimming!