New pool-what and when to add

[mohawk]

We have a new 20,000 gal ag pool that is filling as we speak. The water analysis from the store reads: cya 0, tot ch 0.9, free ch 0.1, ph 8.2, tot alk 178, iron 0. The chemicals that came with the pool are Lo'N Slo sodium bisulfate 93.2%, Pool Magnet Plus-for metals, Stabilizer 100 cyanuric acid 100%, Back Up Algae- not poly, Smart Sticks trichlor 96.5%and Smart Shock sodium dichlor 63.05% with copper 0.26%. I know these question have been asked many times before, but I not sure how much to put in and in which order. Maybe the ph should be first, but I also need chlorine. Any help will be welcomed. Sorry it's so long. Denise

[waste]

We have a new 20,000 gal ag pool that is filling as we speak. The water analysis from the store reads: cya 0, tot ch 0.9, free ch 0.1, ph 8.2, tot alk 178, iron 0. The chemicals that came with the pool are Lo'N Slo sodium bisulfate 93.2%, Pool Magnet Plus-for metals, Stabilizer 100 cyanuric acid 100%, Back Up Algae- not poly, Smart Sticks trichlor 96.5%and Smart Shock sodium dichlor 63.05% with copper 0.26%. I know these question have been asked many times before, but I not sure how much to put in and in which order. Maybe the ph should be first, but I also need chlorine. Any help will be welcomed. Sorry it's so long. Denise

Mohawk, it's all cool, don't freak, odds are no one's going swimming tonight, but if they do, that's ok. We usually recommend bleach as the chlorine source but since you have the sticks and no cya, go ahead and use them, until your cya is ~ 30 (or higher if you decide you want it higher). Using the dichlor will introduce copper to your water, which can turn anything white in the water a nice teal color, I'm not sure how much it takes though. If you have a 'floater' to put the sticks in, use it, if not you can put 1 in the skimmer until you can get one. Add a gallon of unscented 6% bleach to the water, this will be a recurring instruction until you get the cya up. High pH isn't the emergency that low pH is - there should be instructions on the bottle of Bisulfate as to how much to add, go with 1/2 of what they say and retest 4 hrs later to decide how much more to add. You can add 3 lbs of the cya (I recommend putting it in a 'kneehigh stocking' and popping the package into the skimmer for quick disolving). Adding all this at once this evening is fine, just be sure to have the pump running - if the water isn't high enough to run the pump, just add the bleach to the incomming water stream.
You'll need to get a good test kit so that you can test your water without having to run to the pool store (and sometimes [often] their results are way out of whack) and be able to test your own water - when you can do this, we can help you so much more.
Congrats on the new pool, welcome to the forum Denise - the decision to come here and get good pool advice shows that you care for your new investment and want it to be taken care of properly!!
For right now, this should get you started, in a couple of minutes, I'll add a link to this showing what a good decision you've made. - Waste

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=4057 (Don't mind my nonsense at the end, sometimes ZI think I'm funny - occasionally I'm right )

[mohawk]

Waste, Thanks for the quick reply. I do have a good test kit. It's Taylors 2005 complete (high). We also have a spa-which I understand well-that I use the kit for. If I put the sock in the skimmer with stabilizer, is it ok to also put in the trichlor-1 or 2 sticks with it? Thanks again for your help. Denise

[waste]

Denise, sorry I didn't see this last night - - yes, you can put the cya in with the trichlor, I'd still suggest getting the floater dispenser for the sticks. They're inexpensive and you won't get the high concentration of chlorine in the skimmer when the pump's not running (which can weaken the plastic and prematurely fade the liner around the skimmer).
You do indeed have a good test kit! I used the same one for 15 years(I just switched over to Ben's - mine was ready for retirement anyway and it's a good way to say 'thanks' to Ben for providing us the forum and Poolsolutions). If I can be of any more service, simply ask - Waste