Start-up with Quartzscape

[CarlD]

There is a liquid CYA product sold that gets into the water far quicker, but it's very expensive. And I don't know how well it works.

[zz28zz]

Started pump today and immediately put in 2 boxes of borax, 1lb of cal-hypo, and 1 gal of bleach. Borax and cal-hypo diluted in bucket (separately) and slowly poured in skimmer.
Swept pool and scooped out a few leaves. 2 hrs later got the following readings:
FC= 0
CC=2
pH= off scale and very yellow
Alkalinity= 10
Calcium hardness= 210

Put in 1 more box of borax and 1 more gallon of bleach. Will take another set of readings tomorrow.

Can't believe the FC is still zero. Could the low pH be causing a false FC reading??
Should I be worried abt the alkalinity? Maybe pick-up some baking soda?

[BigDave]

TA will come up as pH comes up. Keep at it with a couple boxes of borax at a time (wait an hour between doses, pump running) until pH gets into 7-8 range then start halving the doses. I think that the CH increase is the result of the acid bath. Keep adding bleach.

[zz28zz]

Checked FC and pH after work. FC=0 and pH is still offscale (<7)..
Added 1 more box of borax and 2 gallons of bleach into the skimmer. Swept pool. Filled a couple of old sport socks with 4 lbs (total) of dry CYA and hung in front of an outlet.
2 hrs later: FC=5 and pH almost on scale now. Added 1/2 box of borax and went inside. Still running pump 24 hrs.

High temps here are abt 102 degs and very sunny. Not expecting to see much FC by tomorrow evening.

I have a chlorine dispenser that holds ~7 pucks. Should I be using that? The installer said the pucks can be hard on new plaster but wasn't sure abt Quartzscape.

[zz28zz]

Finally got my pH up to 7.2, but keeping FC levels up has been tough. Dumped a gallon of bleach in this morn so we could go for a swim. By the afternoon, FC was back to zero. The solid CYA in the sock trick works well. It was dissolved in abt 48 hrs. Need to get more. I loaded up the chlorine dispenser with some pucks to try an keep some FC (and a little more CYA) in the pool during the week. Thx for all the help.

[Watermom]

Trichlor pucks are very acidic and will drive your pH down. Counter the effects with Borax.