Newly Registered-Lots of Problems

[PoolDoc]

OK, good.

But, that's just the standard bleach concentration these days -- identical to the store brand bleach at Walmart.

Do *NOT* wait for it to stop raining, to take care of your pool. For some reason, many -- maybe most? -- people seem to think that they can abandon pool care during rainy spells. This has led to the myth that rain brings algae, but it's actually the lack of care that results in algae, not the rain.

You MUST maintain appropriate chlorine levels, even when it's rainy. As I wrote on PoolSolutions.com many years ago now, "pools can be easy, but are not forgiving". If you neglect your pool, even for brief periods, you WILL end up regretting it.

[crandies]

Okay I have everything I need for now. Pool is a loverly shade of green. Pumps running. Here are my readings from the 6-way kit.
Chlorine - 0
Ph - 7.5
Alkilinity - 120 ppm
Hardness - 190 ppm
I am getting no rating at all on CYA

What next?

[crandies]

The Clorox is like the undiluted laundry detergents they make today. There is just less water in the jug and you are supposed to use less. A box of 3 are 8.29 at Costco.

[PoolDoc]

Sorry, but it's not possible -- chemically -- to have a 3x bleach (25%) concentrate using standard methods. If they tried to make it, it would break down before it arrived at the store!

This paper: http://www.powellfab.com/technical_i..._Pisarenko.pdf
describes a newly developed method of making 30% bleach that is transportable and will last up to a couple of weeks. But this is brand new technology.

To the best of my knowledge, NOBODY is selling bleach to consumers with more than 12.5% sodium hypochlorite. The industrial bleach I used buy in tanker loads was delivered within a day of manufacture, and arrived at 16 - 17% strength, though it was sold as 15%. If you spilled it on cotton rags, it would start a fire!

SO . . . I'm STILL not sure what you bought, but I AM sure it was not 24% bleach!

Please read the label and tell me what it reports, either as "X% available chlorine" or as "X% sodium hypochlorite".

[PoolDoc]

Sorry, I missed the previous post:

I am getting no rating at all on CYA
What next?

Purchase and use Sams Club dichlor if you can: http://pool9.net/sams-dichlor50/ This is undiluted dichlor (56% available chlorine) and will add 9 ppm of CYA for every 10 ppm of chlorine added.

[crandies]

My readings are:
Chlorine -0-
Ph 7.5
alkalinity 120ppm
hardness 190 ppm
no rading on CYA

[crandies]

It reads Sodium Hypochlorite 8.25% and available chlorine 7.85%
I do not know why it says "CONCENTRATED" right across the top of the bottle. I know very little (well okay nothing) about chemistry except not to clean your bathroom with bleach and ammonia at the same time. I did go out and brush the pool and it started raining again. It is green. the hardness is too high and my CYA shows no reading at all. Should I use the Borax (is this the stabilizer)? Or start with the bleach? Thank you.

[Pappy]

The easiest way to add CYA is the diclor PoolDoc referenced earlier. 1ppm chlorine also adds .9ppm CYA. Triclor tabs add CYA, AND lower pH. You can also get granular cyanuric acid at pool store/lowes/home depot/walmart.

[Watermom]

Just use the dichlor that PoolDoc linked above. If you use it for awhile, your CYA will build up fairly quickly. Don't run anymore CYA tests until:
1) You have added granular CYA separately and it has been a week since you have done so

OR

2) You have been using Dichlor for a week to 10 days.

Otherwise you will just be wasting your CYA testing reagents.

If you will let us know if you prefer to add CYA separately or use Dichlor which will add CYA at the same time it is adding chlorine, then we can give you a little more specific instructions.

Hope this helps.

[crandies]

Thank you all so much. This morning I can actually see the bottom of the shallow end. I am very excited about keeping up this program. One more question. Should I continue to put the Leslies tabs in the floater?