New pool owner, trying to get my chemicals balanced

[Watermom]

How does your water look? Why would you need to shock? You do need to add some chlorine so your chlorine levels don't drop below the minimum required based on your CYA ( http://pool9.net/cl-cya/) but not sure why you think you should shock.

[mitchryan912]

How does your water look?

Looks crystal clear, but there's a layer of stuff on the bottom of the pool that keeps coming back, as soon as a day or two after vacuuming. Some of it obviously is grass clippings and bits from the arbor vitae trees that line our property line, but the other stuff... I'm not sure if the stuff that tends to pile up along the liner seams is dirt clusters or not.

Why would you need to shock? You do need to add some chlorine so your chlorine levels don't drop below the minimum required based on your CYA ( http://pool9.net/cl-cya/) but not sure why you think you should shock.

I thought it was good form to shock after a heavy rain and/or every 10-14 days. Is the latter idea a pool store gimmick to increase chlorine sales? Either way, I think a goal of 3-5 sounds good to me since I'm not sure if my CYA level of 50 is correct. Is keeping it in this range as good as shocking it every so often?

For backwashing purposes, is it a big deal to have that much chlorine in the water that's being pumped into the street (and thus into the lakes)? My FIL said that it's best to backwash and rinse when the chlorine gets down to near zero so it doesn't kill the grass in the front of our property (the filter waste line goes from the backyard to the driveway, where it mostly goes into the street but some of it goes down the sidewalk.) I'm curious if that's good advice or not?

[Watermom]

As long as your chlorine never drops below your minimum per the CYA/Chlorine chart, you really don't ever have to shock the pool. Honestly, I seldom do. Of course the pool stores and pool chemical bags tell you to do it weekly to increase sales!

I have never had an issue with grass being killed from backwashing into my yard.

Regarding the stuff that keeps reappearing along the seam lines, it may very well just be dirt. I see the same thing in my pool. I vacuum very slowly and it appears to all be gone but then when the water quiets back down, it is inevitable that there will be a little dirt that had gotten into suspension that will resettle to the floor around the seams. Its no big deal. Much as we want to, it is impossible to keep an outdoor pool totally dirt-free.

[mitchryan912]

OK, that sounds good and is good to know about how clean to expect to see the bottom of the pool.

I'm using PoolCalc on my iPhone to figure out how much chems to add. It says that to raise FC from 3.5 to 5.0 in 26k of water, that I should add just a touch more than 1 quart of 12.5% chlorine. Granted I probably should have added it last night instead of now (tons of direct light on the pool in the early AM to about 3pm), but I hope to see it get close to 5ppm in the next hour to two.

Now that I have a K-2006, how often should be checking the levels? I'm assuming FC & pH should be daily, but how about CYA & TA? Should I ever need to bother with checking CH since I have a vinyl liner pool? Should I post these questions in the FAS-DPD forum?

[Watermom]

Check chlorine and pH daily. CH doesn't need to be checked as long as your CH is low and you aren't using any products that add calcium. CYA only needs checked if you are adding CYA directly or using dichlor or trichlor. Otherwise once a month is fine. TA once every couple of weeks unless your pH starts bouncing around.

You don't have to use your K2006 daily. For those quick chlorine and pH checks, you can just use an OTO kit and then use the big kit maybe once a week.

[mitchryan912]

Check chlorine and pH daily. CH doesn't need to be checked as long as your CH is low and you aren't using any products that add calcium. CYA only needs checked if you are adding CYA directly or using dichlor or trichlor. Otherwise once a month is fine. TA once every couple of weeks unless your pH starts bouncing around.

I ran another batch of tests today, just to get some practice doing them and to see how accurate my first readings were a few days ago. I also added a few hundred gallons of water (had a leak I fixed) and 12.5% liquid chlorine last night (2 quarts) plus some liquid acid this AM (2 quarts), and got this at noon:

7.2 pH
5 ppm FC (0 CC)
100 ppm TA
45 ppm CYA

I think this sounds about right, considering the previous test.

You don't have to use your K2006 daily. For those quick chlorine and pH checks, you can just use an OTO kit and then use the big kit maybe once a week.

What do you recommend for OTO kits for chlorine accurate to around 5 ppm? The one I have only shows up to 3 ppm FC. What about phenol red that's accurate with up to 6 ppm FC? Would a K1000 work, or would it be just as good to use the K-2006 since the phenol red in that kit won't last over the winter anyway? Since we're in Wisconsin, we probably only have 2 months tops of swim time left, so a new .75 oz phenol red indicator vial should last until early October, right?

[PoolDoc]

The Taylor K1000 is available from Amazon: http://pool9.net/tk/

You can see the extended OTO range here: http://pool9.net/oto/

I wonder if that's coming from the filter?

Unless you live in a coastal area, or have a sand box for your kids / grand-kids -- it's probably coming from your filter. Vacuum it up, and see if it keeps entering the pool. If it does, you'll have to dig into your filter. But if it's not bad, I'd wait till fall.
.

[mitchryan912]

Regarding the stuff that keeps reappearing along the seam lines, it may very well just be dirt.

I discovered that it's actually mostly sand. I usually close my eyes underwater because the chlorine irritates my contacts, but used some goggles and got a close up view this evening. I wonder if that's coming from the filter?

[PoolDoc]

Strip based testing of CYA is HORRENDOUSLY inaccurate.

Watch the video of the Taylor CYA test if you want to validate your testing: http://pool9.net/tk/

[mitchryan912]

Strip based testing of CYA is HORRENDOUSLY inaccurate.

Watch the video of the Taylor CYA test if you want to validate your testing: http://pool9.net/tk/

I've tossed the strips and received a K-2006, so the reading of 50 ppm CYA is from my Taylor kit. It could be inaccurate, since it was my first time performing the test.