Starting from scratch (new water)

[Watermom]

Yes. You don't want to leave water unchlorinated for long. It is surprising how fast a pool will turn green. Don't risk it with new water!

[jilted]

oh i have seen how fast it turns green! I had to refill after measuring and it went green quick. I hit it with bleach and ran the pump and cleaned it up once but the seal was bad and trying to repair the pump was actually worse than just letting it run grinding! So it turned again... quick! I am hosting a serious frog infestation at the moment!

I started draining it again today with a small sump pump to get a head start until the new motor comes in tomorrow.

I'm hoping to have the old liner out and do all the cleaning of the bottom by Friday evening and Saturday so we can start early putting in the new liner. I sure hope that's not too long to have it without water!

[jilted]

OK we are back in business as of yesterday evening and I am now circulating again.

The water is clear but by yesterday evening i could feel the surface a tiny bit slimey so I brushed it before and after adding bleach to kick things off.

I added:
5 gal's of 6% bleach after the sun went down and this morning my reading was 10ppm (with last years reagents)
15 bags of salt and my reading shows 3600ppm which is in line with my swcg recommended levels (have not run swcg yet)
I'm almost done with adding 6 lbs of CYA but I need to do upwards of 12 lbs to get to the low end of my swcg recommended level

So here's my test results from this morning:
FC: 10
CC: 0
pH: 7.8
Alkalinity: 160
CYA: NA (new reagents on the way)

Should I adjust anything from those initial readings or should I let it circulate somemore? It's only been mixing up the water for about 15 hours.

Thanks!
-stephen

[Watermom]

Without knowing your CYA reading, it is hard to know if your chlorine is high enough to kill your impending algae bloom evidenced by the slimy feeling walls. Check the overnight chlorine consumption again tonight and see what that shows.

[jilted]

will do... I'm going to jump in later and feel the floor but the wall was not slimy.

The FC test was approx 14 hours after dosing so I will check again this evening and again in the morning.

the first 6 lbs of CYA has pretty much dissolved so I'm about to go add the 3rd 3lb container which should still have me at the lower end of my recommended level but since I am running pump 24/7 right now anyway I don't want to waste any time getting cya up to a respectable level

[jilted]

FC was 7.5 ppm last night and 7.0 ppm this morning. I haven't powered up the SWCG yet but I guess it's time. Salt test last night shows 3600 ppm. I was waiting to start it up to get an idea how fast the FC is burning off but ever since I added chems (2 days ago) it's been cloudy and cool here.

I know I need to continue adding CYA but my salt calculation was 18 bags to get to 3500 ppm and I am at 3600 with 15 bags. I am still waiting on my new CYA reagent to test. I don't want to over stabilize!

thanks
-stephen

[jilted]

Just checking in. Water has been pretty good.

FC has been easy to manage so far.
Having trouble getting pH to level off I guess the SWCG is keeping it increasing. Also the alkalinity never drops when adjusting pH.

Test today:
FC: 5.5 ppm
CYA: ~50 ppm
pH: close to 8
Alkalinity: 140 ppm

I've dosed muriatic acid a few times according to the book in the taylor test kit. 2 drops bring the test in line. The ph does come down after this but rises again in a couple days. The alkalinity stays 140.

I've been running my pump 18 hours a day which should be enough to circulate the whole pool twice. The SWCG was running at 100% but I have reduced it to 80% to see if thats enough to keep the FC stable.

Any input on my pH/alkalinity situation?

Thanks!