How to take care of water while under construction?

[krdowns]

Our new fiberglass pool is set, filled, backfilled, and the pump is running. But, we are under an extreme heat wave and the contractor doesn't want to pour concrete with it so hot. So, in the meantime, I have no idea how to care for the water. We have a Pentair saltwater system installed, but no minerals in the water yet. The contractor probably won't be back for a couple weeks, as this heat is predicted to last a while. They have thrown some shock in, along with some scale inhibitor. Is there anything I need to keep an eye on? I had enough of looking at the dirt settled on the bottom, so I threw the Prowler in to give it a scrub. I didn't know whether vaccuuming is a good idea, since I really only know enough to be dangerous. I didn't want to mess up my pump or something. Any help is appreciated.

[aylad]

If your pool is filled, you need to make sure it has between 1-3 ppm of chlorine in it at all times to keep it from going green. I'm assuming there's no stabilizer to protect the chlorine from the sun, so you'll need to add chlorine a few times during the day to make sure it never goes below 1 ppm. You can use plain, unscented bleach for this, but I need the volume of your pool before I can give you a dose.

You also need to run a set of tests on your water with a drop-based kit. If you don't already have one, we highly recommend the K-2006, which can be found in the link in my sig, but in the meantime, go to WalMart and see if they have the 6-way hth drop kit, which will suffice until you get a better one. At the absolute minimum, at least pick up a cheapie OTO kit (uses red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine) and measure your chlorine and pH with that.

In hot weather, it only takes a few hours for algae to start growing in a pool without chlorine!

[krdowns]

Thanks for the help. It is a 12K gallon pool. It doesn't seem to have any algae growth yet and I don't want it to start.

[aylad]

In 12K gallons, each 1/2 gallon of 6% bleach you add will raise your FC by 2.5 ppm, just for reference...

If the pool goes unchlorinated for 2 weeks, it's gonna be a real swamp. I can't believe they didn't caution you against that before they left it!!



Janet

[Watermom]

If the pool goes unchlorinated for 2 weeks, it's gonna be a real swamp. I can't believe they didn't caution you against that before they left it!!Janet

Heck, if the pool goes un-chlorinated for 2 days you're gonna have the start of a swamp! It's gonna be a real pain to have to be adding bleach several times a day so why don't you go ahead and throw in some stabilizer? In a 12K gallon pool, you'll need about 4 lbs to get to a CYA level of 45-50. Get an old athletic sock and put some in it and hang it in front of a return jet. If you give the sock a squeeze once in awhile it will help it dissolve faster. I doubt the sock will hold 4 lbs. so you'll probably have to do it in a couple of doses. When you buy it, it may be labeled as stabilizer or conditioner. If the ingredients are cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, that's the right stuff. Once the CYA is in there, you'll need to keep your chlorine between 3-6 instead of 1-3 but it will allow you to not have to add bleach multiple times per day. You should be able to go to testing and dosing in the evenings only.

Once your SWCG is up and running, you'll probably need to add additional CYA. Check your manual. Most SWCGs need 60-80ppm of CYA.

[krdowns]

Thanks so much for all of the help. I think that I now have our water situation under control....for now.

[aylad]

Stay on top of it--it only takes a very short time to let algae get started--and you don't want to start your new pool out that way!

Janet

[krdowns]

I managed to drop my pH from 8.2 to 7.2, but my alkalinity went up from 250 to 270. Any idea why that is, or what to do to correct? I will retest in the morning, but thought this was curious.

[Phillbo]

Since the SWCG is installed, why not go ahead and add salt and turn it on? You don't need to wait for the concrete pour to start using the system.