new construction

[Charlie_R]

Your Durachlor tabs are Trichloroisocyanuric acid 99%. It will take several days with these in the skimmer to bring your CYA to a readable level. I don't know how many it will take, maybe someone else here will. While they are dissolving, you will need to keep an eye on your FC levels with morning and evening testing. Expect your evening test to show a marked decline in your FC, especially on bright sunny days, until your CYA level starts to climb. You will notice that you lose less and less FC through the day when you are close to a good CYA level.

Retest your CYA level about a week into using the Durachlor (trichlor) tabs, you should then see that the solution is cloudy, but it may still not be enough to read in the tube with the volume of water in your pool. Question: are you mixing the water and reagent for 30 seconds? That can have a large impact on the test results.

Don't worry too much if your FC goes into the 10-20 range, you are likely to lose a good part of that to sunshine during the day.

Something else, with your K-2006 kit, when testing for FC, use the 10mL sample. It will be close enough, and save on your DPD and R-0871.

You are correct in that no color change with adding the R-0003 means 0 CC.

As Waste said, you are doing fine!

Charlie

[kenny6269]

Thank you Charlie for putting my mind at rest. So the ALK level is nothing to be alarmed about at this point ? That's the one reading that has me concerned. Its hard for me having an arsenal of chemicals at my disposal and not using them! I am trying to be more disciplined with the pool than the hottub. On a side note, I have been keeping the pool covered with a solar blanket in an attempt to be able to swim by Memorial day, I've read that it can affect chlorine levels but I don't know about anything else. The pool water looks crisp and clean still at this point.

[Charlie_R]

Oops! sorry I didn't catch that one. I'm not an expert at pool care yet!

If you are concerned with the ALK level, here are a couple of links you should check out:

http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/total-alkalinity-in-swimming-pools.html

and

http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/lowering-swimming-pool-alkalinity-step-by-step.html

Both are from the Pool guides section at the sister site to these forums. Actually, if you haven't gone there, why not take an hour or three and do some reading? I can assure you, it will help you out in caring for your pool. I know it helped me! Lots of great info there.

Hope you can get to swim over this weekend!

Charlie

[BigDave]

I don't think anyone's mentioned POP yet. It's critical to successful pool care. You can't buy it anywhere. Insufficient POP causes skyrocketing pool chemical demand and swimmer discomfort. POP is Pool Owner Patience - or Pool Owner Patience and Persistence or perseverance ...
I mention this only because of your comment:

Its hard for me having an arsenal of chemicals at my disposal and not using them!

I think you're off to a great start and it sounds like you've "got your mind right".

The TA is high and will cause pH to rise. Some swimmers skin may be sensitive to TA this high. Anyone who gets a skin reaction from the pool should avoid it until you bring the TA down.

The procedure for reducing TA Charlie_R linked above will get you there and let you practice your POP - it can take a while. Also read and understand Using Muriatic Acid to Safely Lower Your Pool's pH. Good news is the trichlor tabs you are using are acidic and will aid the process.

Speaking of Trichlor tabs, it's fine to use them as a CYA and chlorine source but you'll need to stop when the CYA level reaches your target (I'm guessing 40-50 in Mo). We don't know how much dichlor the installer put in the pool so it'll be hard to dead-reckon the CYA but: I estimate your pool to be about 19000 gallons, so a total of 9lbs of trichlor should add 32ppm CYA. Test CYA after you've used about half that (to be sure we're not way off). Keep a close eye on FC while waiting for CYA to come up (twice a day + before / after swim sessions + during swim parties). Use bleach to supplement FC as required. Remember, your FC targets are going to be increasing as the CYA level builds - be sure to keep it above the minimum on Ben's Best Guess Chart.

I don't recall if you mentioned completing the CH test on the fill water - it should be a close indication of the pool's CH even if the pool water is interfering with the test. Not that CH means a lot in a vinyl liner pool.

Again, Congrats and good luck!
Dave

[Charlie_R]

Thank you, BigDave, for clarifying a few of my points. Yes POP is important, as I learned last year! As a new pool owner/maintainer that IS one of the more important aspects of pool care that needs to be learned/practiced.

Charlie

[kenny6269]

I want to thank you all for the help, it's been quite helpful. I added about a guess of 1 quart of muratic acid on Saturday. Here are my numbers as off today:
Free chlorine: 14ppm
Total ALK: 330 ppm
PH: 7.6

I added the rest of the gallon of muratic acid after running the test. We finally got in the pool over the weekend for the first time, it was a little cool but it smile on the wife and kid's face!

[kenny6269]

Just tested again:
Alk: 270 ppm
Ph: 7.4
FC: 10 ppm
No combined chlorine

I think I need to add a couple more gallons of muratic acid over the next few days. I also think I should add some stabilizer. Any thoughts?

[BigDave]

Woah! there. A gallon took your pool from 7.6 to 7.4 pH. Two gallons may move it farther than you want. Add a second gallon, let it mix, retest and see where you want to go from there. Maybe all of the third gallon, maybe part of it. I definitely wouldn't take the pH lower than somewhere between 6.8 and 7.0. Then it's time to aerate and wait for the pH to rise.

[LuvTheBeach]

Our pool is being built now. How long did yours take? Were having terrible weather here in Oklahoma so ours may take a while!

[kenny6269]

Beach, it took forever! The hole was dug the second last week in March, the pool was operational on 22 May. The pool company estimated about 10 days from start to finish, however the day after the hole was dug the rain started, if seemed like it rained every other day until the pool was complete...as a matter of fact it still is raining a few days a week. We joked when if first started to rain that it wouldn't be open until after Memorial day, it was nearly a reality. We still haven't really enjoyed it because of all the rain and cool weather, the water is still at 74 degrees.