New Pool, Went to the pool store! Help

[GA Mark]

I just finished filling my pool for the first time. I have a 24' Above ground pool that hols 14,500 gallons. I have not gotten my test kit that I ordered from this site, so I took my water to a local pool store. I would like to use the BBB system I did not tell them that but I did buy allot of accessories anyway here are my number's can someone please walk me through this? The pool store wanted to sell me 55lbs of chemicals.

FAC- 0
PH- 7.4
TA- 20
Calcium hardness 50
CYA 0

Please rember that I am new and know almost nothing....


Thanks

[GraceByDesign]

1. Do you have the bleachCalc? if not get it here

2. Bleach. You need .7 gallons to get to 3ppm FC (3-6 is recommended with CYA of 30-50... best guess table

3. According to BleachCalc, you need 3#7oz CYA to get to 30ppm (30-50 is recommended here)

4. Baking Soda. you need 12# to raise your TA to 80, with 80-125recommended here. This will prolly raise your pH (?).

5. Don't worry about calcium in a vinyl pool, unless it gets up to 500

6. While you wait for Ben's kit, get a 5 or 6 way drops kit from WalMart and start practicing!

7. Enjoy your pool!!!

I am not sure if the order I listed is the order in which you need to do these things... bleach is all important, though, so get it in there quick!

[GA Mark]

OK I have added to my pool so far:

1 gallon 6% bleach

waited an hour than.

5 lb stabalizer. I added it slowly to my skimmer per directions on package.

Do I do anything now or wait?

[les_smith]

Don't backwash the filter or you will lose all of your stablizer. It takes a long time for the stuff to dissolve. Probably a week or two. I just converted and I was using 1.42 gallons bleach a day at first while I waited for the stabilizer to take affect. After two weeks I was down to a 1/3 of a jug of bleach.

[GraceByDesign]

You will need to get your TA up because it will help to stabilize your pH (which is good now, but will probably rise as you add the baking soda.)

Otherwise, hop in and enjoy!

[GA Mark]

Is it Ok to go ahead and add the baking soda or should I wait a day or two?

[Watermom]

It is OK to go ahead and add the baking soda. Also, keep an eye on your chlorine level. Until your cya dissolves in a week or so, you'll find that you'll probably need to test the chlorine level morning and evening and each time, add enough bleach to raise your chlorine level back up to 5. After the cya has enough time to dissolve, you'll be able to just test and dose it with bleach in the evenings only.

Remember, you don't want too much cya in there. So, don't retest for it, add more or backwash for a week to make sure it gets dissolved.

[GA Mark]

Let me make sure I have this correct?

I added on gallon of bleach.

I added 5 pounds of stabalizer.

I need to add 12 pounds of baking soda.

Check pool every night for FAC. Add if needed for a week then check for CYA.

Seems easy enough...

Let me know if I am doing something wrong.

Thanks,

Mark

[GraceByDesign]

The 12# of soda was what the bleachcalc spit out for a pool of your size to raise TA from 20 to 80 ppm.

Try not to overshoot (80-125) with this, because it is not so easy to lower TA once you get it too high. Similar with the CYA... only way to lower CYA if you overshoot is to drain the pool, hence the good advice not to mess with it for at least a week.

Have you been swimming yet??

ETA: the rest looks good, and it IS easy, if you keep up with things every day! (I have had pools in the past!)

[GA Mark]

Ok, Why does everyone reccomed that you keep your CYA between 30-50? I am taking my water to the pool store to have them test it everydat until Ben's kit arrives? The pool place keeps telling me the higher the CYA the better. They reccomed me keeping it @ 30-200 and they said to keep it at the higher side.