Ideal Levels

[iwannapool]

My pool, inground vinyl with heat pump heater, SWG and it's ~30k gallons, should be complete in a week or two.

My PB is going to fill the pool with trucked in water, don't know the source, and my house water is very hard, lots of lime, I know this for sure, and I assume calcium as well. I would like to know what the ideal levels should be for CL, CYA, TA, salt,....etc. I'd like my water to have that nice soft water feel and be gentle on the eyes and skin without a clorine smell.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Sardian]

CL-Depends on your CYA. But with your SWG 3-5 ppm should be good for starts.

CYA-Depends on the Mfg of your SWG. AutoPilot recommends 60-80ppm. Without a SWG you'll usually find that 30-50ppm is recommended.

TA-Generally you'll find that 80-120ppm is recommended but it can be higher (in the 180 range) since you have a vinyl pool. I like to keep mine at 80-100ppm

Salt-Again, depends on your SWG but generally 3000ppm is a good place to start.

I would read this forum quite a lot. There is lots of good info to be had. I follow the teachings here and my pool (which I have only had for a year) has been crystal clear.

My pool has been full of water for nearly a year but we have only gotten our concrete, grass, fence, etc in the past week. I'm still a little confused about what CL level I should maintain with my SWG (which was dead out of the box but that's another story). With a CYA level at 60-80ppm it would seem that I would need to keep it between 5-10ppm but according to AutoPilot I will be fine at a lower rate. I have read here that it's due to some kind of "super shocking" that goes on in the SWG cell.

Good luck on your pool. Just get yourself a good test kit, plenty of BAKING SODA, BORAX, AND BLEACH. Also, get some MURATIC ACID and some CYA. That's about all you'll need to get your water balanced once your pool is filled. Don't worry about calcium. You'll want to get the water right before starting up the SWG.

One note about CYA. Put in less than you think you need. It takes the stuff forever to disolve and once it's in you can't get it out without draining water from the pool. The same thing goes for your salt.

Russell

[CarlD]

If you have a lot of calcium in your local water you may want to avoid ALL additives with calcium and just let it come from the tap. It's not a problem as long as it doesn't get too high. Or you can consider a water softener, which you may want anyway.

[chem geek]

Only one minor comment I have. Even though you have a vinyl pool and the higher TA with lower CH is OK for water balance, your SWG will cause a lot of pH rise if you have a higher TA so I would stick with a TA of no more than 100 and probably 80 is best (if you have a CYA of 60-80). You really only need a higher TA when you use an acidic source of chlorine (like Trichlor) and you won't be using that.

Richard

[iwannapool]

Thanks for all the help and recommendations. I do have a whole house water softener but the outside faucets are not connected to it since it would overload the system when used for outside watering and such.

I guess I could connect a hose to the house water heater drain to get soft water to the pool and spa. I would need to make sure that any calcium/lime that's in the bottom of the tank is cleaned out really well before putting that water in the pool.

Thanks again for the help.

[Sardian]

You could hook up a hose to the cold side of your washing machine hook up and get water there and not put the strain on your water heater. Or, pick up a good Y connector from the lawn and garden dept at one of the Big Box stores (one that has the built in ball valves) and hook it up to your wm connector. This way you wouldn't have to disconnect your WM when you need to fill the pool.

It was just an idea. I guess it all depends on where your WM is. I know my wife wouldn't want a hose dragged through the house every time I filled the pool ;-)

I guess I could connect a hose to the house water heater drain to get soft water to the pool and spa. I would need to make sure that any calcium/lime that's in the bottom of the tank is cleaned out really well before putting that water in the pool.

Thanks again for the help.

[iwannapool]

You could hook up a hose to the cold side of your washing machine hook up and get water there and not put the strain on your water heater. Or, pick up a good Y connector from the lawn and garden dept at one of the Big Box stores (one that has the built in ball valves) and hook it up to your wm connector. This way you wouldn't have to disconnect your WM when you need to fill the pool.

It was just an idea. I guess it all depends on where your WM is. I know my wife wouldn't want a hose dragged through the house every time I filled the pool ;-)

That's a great idea, I hadn't thought about that. Our washing machine is just inside the door from the garage so I could run the hose out though the garage to the pool without having the Mrs. getting too cranky.

Thanks for the suggestion.