New pool owner and have MANY questions. Need help!

[CarlD]

Thought i said that!

[Txboynjgirl]

I came back from the pool store and their test results were:

FAC 3
TAC 3
pH 7.6
TA 80
CYA 40
CH 200
Salt 3300 (my aqua rite reads 2900)

My own simple test results:

pH 7.5
CL 2 (close but mot quite 3)

Should I still add the 5 gallons of bleach? Would that raise my chlorine too much? Isn't 1.5 gallons of bleach equal to 5 ppm? (22000 gallon pool)

Do you buy your CYA (chlorine stabilizer) at the pool store?

For future references...what are the measurments for the Borax? 1lb of Borax equals how much pH?

Thanks, I will run more filter 24/7 to help clear it up.

Steve

[aylad]

Thought i said that!

Thought I said it too!!

Anyway, back to the questions.... 1.5 gallons of bleach in a 22000 gallon pool actually should raise your chlorine by about 4, and you don't even achieve shock level with a CYA of 60 until you get it up to 20 ppm, so if you're still trying to kill an algae bloom, you definitely need to go ahead and add the bleach per Pooldoc's instructions, and try to maintain the 20 ppm by adding chlorine as often as you can during the day in order to kill off the bloom. The filter running 24/7 will remove the dead algae from the water, but the chlorine is what will actually kill it.

You can get CYA at WalMart, in the pool/spa section, or at the pool store.

How much Borax it takes to raise pH by a certain amount depends on your TA level.. The higher the TA, the more Borax it will take to make the pH move. Somewhere around here there's a calculation for it, but I'll have to search for it and come back to edit this post...



Janet

[Txboynjgirl]

Thanks Janet. I have learned more on this site the last couple of days than talking to a pool person or searching other internet sites. Hopefully, my blueish cloudy pool will be ready for this weekend.

[aylad]

Keep that chlorine up and the filter running, and odds are good you'll be ready!

Glad you're finding the forum helpful.

Janet

[Watermom]

By the way --- when buying cya it is sometimes called Conditioner or Stabilizer. Check the label ingredients. If it says cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, that is the right stuff.

[Txboynjgirl]

I left my pool running 24 hours. The deep end is still very blue and it seems alittle bit cloudy. The shallow end is pretty good. I guess I need the pump run 24 until it clears up. It is expect to rain today.

I did add 4.5 gallons of bleach.

BTW is it better to vaccum DIRT to the filter or go to waste. I did it the other day to the filter and it looked like to shoot it back into the pool. I hope I don't have to change my filter sand. I think it is about 4-6 years old. What say you?

[PoolDoc]

If dirt shoots back into the pool when you vacuum, you have a problem.

1) Your pump may be too big for the filter, and is forcing the dirt through the sand.
2) Your pump may be too big for the filter, and has blown sand out during backwashes,
so now you don't have enough in the filter.
3) Your filter may have some other problem.

Fix #1 by putting a valve between the pump and the filter, and closing it partially OR by having a service guy replace the pump's impeller and diffuser with the next size smaller (not possible on all pumps) OR by buying a new smaller pump OR by buying a bigger filter.

Fix #2 by opening the filter and adding filter sand. Then, since your pump is STILL too big, consider your options in #1
above.

Fix #3 by repairing (?? whatever it takes -- I dunno what all it might need.) your filter.

Just to be sure, you can do the "DE filter test" on the filter. (There are a few types of dirt sand filters won't catch -- even when they work properly.) Add a small amount of DE ( 2 cups should be plenty) to your skimmer while the pump is on. Watch your pool returns for 5 minutes. If the DE shoot back out into the pool, you have filter problems.

Oh yeah: DEFINITELY run the pump 24/7 till you are ALL cleaned up.

Ben