concerned about TA and CYA level

[cleanteeth]

I am new to the world of swimming pool maintenence. We just completed the installation of a 24 ft round 54" high above ground pool with a vinyl liner. About 4 inches of well water was added to hold down the liner, the rest came from city water trucked in. We had a couple of good storms yesterday so some of the water is from God above. The pool came with a sand filter with Zeobrite. I did order the Taylor K-2006 test kit so here are my numbers.

7:30 am
pH 7.6
FC 0.5
CC 0.5
TA 330
CYA 0
Calcuim 330 (don't think it matters with vinyl liner anyway)
I added a jug (1.42 Gal) of Clorox regular bleach. BTW, I mixed it with pool water and poured it over the skimmer. Not sure about my method or if it even matters.

12 pm
pH 7.6
FC 4.5
CC 0
TA 350
CYA 0
The water is cloudy and greenish. I'm not quite sure what to start with. The pH is okay but I think if I don't have any CYA my chlorine is going to degrade too quickly. And the Alkalinity is way too high. I just need a nudge in the right direction if anyone is so inclined. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Watermom]

Did your pool sit for a couple of days without chlorine while you were filling it? Did you notice it looking green when the well water was added?

[cleanteeth]

The well water was first, just a few inches to hold down the liner, then two loads of water were added Thursday the 17th and the final load was Friday the 18th. Then the rain came yesterday during the last water fill and twice again before this morning. I noticed the cloudiness and green cast Friday morning. There is a little chlorine in the city water but I didn't get the pump and filter together and running until late Friday afternoon, then we had the monsoon so I didn't add chlorine until this morning. Make any sense?

[Watermom]

Yes. So, basically you have had water in the pool for 3 days now with no chlorine. Probably an algae bloom starting. Shock the pool with bleach up to a cl level of about 10 and try and hold it there. Test 2 or 3 times a day (or even more if you can for a couple of days) and each time, add enough bleach to get back to 10. Make sure you test and dose at least morning and evenings plus whenever else you can. When the water starts clearing and you are not losing more than 1ppm of cl from sundown to sunup you'll be ok and hopefully the algae will be dead. By the way, in a 15,000 gallon pool, every quart of 6% bleach will add 1ppm of cl to the water. Also, run the pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the water.

You are right, until you get some cya in there, your chlorine is not going to stick around long. Get some cya and put it in an old sock and hang it in front of the return jet. Add enough per package directions to aim for an initial level of 30. Do NOT broadcast it around the pool like the label may tell you to do. It is slow dissolving. If you can squeeze the sock a few times a day, that seems to speed up the process.

Yes, your TA is too high. Get the algae defeated first and then you can work on that. Post with any more questions you have.

[cleanteeth]

Thanks for the advice, Watermom. I am on it! I'll keep you posted.

[cleanteeth]

Things are looking up. I can see the bottom of the pool now
This morning's numbers are:
pH 7.8
FC 7
CC 0.5
TC 7.5
TA 325
CYA 30

I am running out of cyanuric acid reagent. Is this something I need to order from Taylor? I have not covered the pool at all, should I be covering while I am in this process of shocking the pool? I will continue to shock until I can get 9 or 10 ppm in the morning. Thanks for walking me through this. Not really looking forward to the TA. Baby steps, right? Have a great day;~D

[PoolDoc]

Yeah, one of the problems with the K2006 is that it only holds enough CYA reagent for 3 or 4 tests . . . and there's not room for any more. So you'll need to order some later. They have larger bottles -- I'm not sure what people have been ordering.

But . . . you really don't need to be worrying about your CYA much, right now. You definitely don't need to test it every time.

I would lower the pH some. If you can handle muriatic acid (from Lowes, etc.) safely (glasses, gloves, don't breathe the fumes), it's the cheapest AND best way to lower pH. Probably be best to dose with pint or so at a time. If you will hold the pH around 7.0, your alkalinity will gradually decrease. (Actually it will decrease a lot at first, but if you keep holding at 7.0, it will keep going down slowly.) Alkalinity as high as you have favors algal growth, and can otherwise complicate pool care unnecessarily.

Other that that, keeping your chlorine up, and circulating 24/7 is what you need to do.

Oh, and test the calcium and report that. Unless you have a heater, it's not a big deal for liner pools, but it would still be a good idea to have some idea of where it is.

[polyvue]

I am running out of cyanuric acid reagent. Is this something I need to order from Taylor?

I agree with PoolDoc that you really don't have to worry about CYA (since you've just tested it and most people only need to test CYA a few times during the pool season) but you've asked a question I can answer. If you think you'll be testing frequently consider purchasing CYA reagent in larger quantity. To reduce overall shipping costs, try to anticipate what other items you're going to need and group them together. Or is this advice a bit obvious?

Taylor R-0013
Cyanuric Acid Reagent

R-0013C 60ml / 2 oz -- $4.35
R-0013E 480ml / 16 oz -- $9.35
R-0013F .47 L / 32 oz -- $13.85

MSRP -Taylortechnologies.com

2 oz and 16 oz sizes are heavily discounted at the following suppliers:

Spspools-spas.com
Amatoind.com

32 oz size available at slight discount from PoolWeb.com

I've found a source that beats all others on larger size Taylor reagents but I have not had occasion to order from them (there may be minimum volume requirements): nationalpoolcare.com

[cleanteeth]

Thanks for the info on the reagents. I came home this afternoon and checked the pool chemistry.
pH 8.0
FC 7.5
CC .05
TC 8

ran to town to get muratic acid. I have to locate my goggles and rubber gloves and I'll be out to take care of that in addition to bleach. Thanks!!

[cleanteeth]

The calcium level, 300ppm, was taken on the 18th. The other current levels taken this afternoon are;
pH 8.0
FC 7.5
CC 0.5
TC 8
I just added 2 qt of bleach and 14 oz of muratic acid. This brings back memories of chemistry class...mwwaaaa. Thanks to you all for your help. I'll keep you posted