New Member - Pool Newbie saying hello

[rmergen]

My wife and I just purchased a new home with a beautiful in-ground pool! It was a huge selling point for us as we both had pools growing up. We are very excited about it. We close in early July so I am gathering information so I can be ready to take over maintaining it from the previous owners. They currently have a pool company maintaining it until closing. In the contract they said they would leave all pool equipment for us so I am not sure what type of test kit (if they have one) or other equipment they use.

I am a pool newbie - only experience is helping my Father with our above ground when I was a kid.
However, we do have a spa at our camp so I have some experience with water chemistry and balance.

Looking forward to joining the Pool Forum community!
I have followed you on twitter and filled out the registration form. Good day everyone!

[Watermom]

It is always good to do your homework upfront! It will make your pool care a lot easier. Getting a good test kit is the single best thing you can do. We recommend a Taylor K-2006 or 2006C (link in my signature). Go ahead and order it so you'll have it ahead of time. Do a lot of reading on the forum, especially the stickies at the top of each sub-forum. Also, read on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. Lots of good information there as well. Come back whenever you have some specific questions and someone here will help you get started with your pool.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[rmergen]

Thanks WM. I will look into both of those. Seems to be the standard and everything i would need in a test kit. ive used strips in the past, but have had inconsistant results in the spa and my aquariums.
Currently, all i can see is the 'getting started' thread so I will poke around there until I can see more topics. I appricate the reply and thanks for the warm welcome.

[Watermom]

Until your registration is completed, if you log out, you'll be able to read in the rest of the forum.

[rmergen]

Just ordered the Taylor K-2006. should be here in a few weeks. thanks for the advice!

[rmergen]

Greetings all!

Closed on the new house Tuesday morning. couldn’t wait to get my hands on the new pool!

On arrival, everything was up and running like we asked for, however it wasn’t maintained properly. They had a ‘pool guy’ who came over every week to throw chlorine tabs in the skimmer, backwash, vac, etc… the pool, obviously need more attention with all the rain we have had this year; it was a green swamp when we got in the back yard.

I called their pool guy to see what he has done so far, just chlorine, bags of ‘shock’, and a gallon of algaecide. I cringed.

So I took it by the horns and got started. using my Taylor test kit here were my initial readings on Tuesday morning:

Water: Green
FC: .8
CC: .2
Ph 7.6
TA 120
CYA: 50

Added 6 gals of bleach and tested FC a couple hours later. got FC up to 25ppm and by 10pm it dropped to 19ppm.
I added another gallon and went to bed.

By morning FC dropped to 15 again, so I added an additional gallon. Tested an hour later, 19ppm. Off to work I went.

When I arrived home, I noticed my father in law decided to install the on/off timer settings so my filter was off. DOH! His heart was in the right place. He didn’t realize I was trying to run the filter 24/7 until I get my algae squared away.

Brushed the pool walls and floor and added some more bleach, FC dropped a little during the day but not as much as the previous day. added one gallon of bleach last night and this morning it was around 19.5 FC.
When I arrive home, I will check CC and post it here.

So far, the water quality is improving. FC is being consumed less than the first day and the water is not green anymore, just cloudy so I think im on the right track.

Can anyone see anything incorrect with what I am doing so far? any suggestions?

I vac’d to waste on the first day, backwashing daily as well. trying to keep my FC between 15-25. Should I stay closer to the 15 mark or is +shock+ ok at this point?

Thank you all in advance!
Rob

21,000 gal, IG, Vinyl, sand filter, (pump specs unknown right now)
Taylor K-2006