The BBB Method - What Schedule do you Follow?

[vz5dzh]

It's already filled. Our neighbor offered to let us use his well water. We should've declined. Hind sight is 20/20.

[vz5dzh]

Ok so I did the 6-way HTH test.

Cl and Br didn't register at all. (Water stayed clear, no yellow tint) We put about 1/4 gal of bleach in there last night, but it probably has disappeared already.

I did the CYA test, but probably should've skipped it. That water stayed clear, so no result on that one.

Ph was 7.2. Yay!

Hardness was 170 ppm, which it says is a bit low. Surprizing after using some well water, but I don't think this is a big concern because it is a vinyl pool, correct?

Alkalinity came out at 120-130. It was almost red at 120, but I put another drop in there to be certain. This is a little high. Do I need to be concerned about this?

SO I need to get more bleach in there and some CYA, right? How much CYA for a 3,800 gal pool? Is there a formula somewhere?

[aylad]

In 3800 gallons, 1 pound and 3 oz of CYA should get you to about 40 ppm. The best way to add it in your pool is probably just to put it in an old sock and hang it in front of where your water returns to the pool and let it dissolve there. You won't have any CYA in the water until you add it, so save your reagents until at least a day or two after you've seen all the CYA dissolve from the sock.

pH, hardness, and alk all look fine. You're right that the hardness doesn't need to come up in a vinyl pool. Alk is fine for now. If you see your pH fluctuating a lot, then you can worry about adjusting it, but I don't think that's going to be an issue for you.

This is a chlorine pool, so ignore the bromine reading. You want to test for chlorine 2-3 times a day until you have some stabilizer in there to help protect the chlorine from the sun.. You might need to add bleach a few times a day, but to keep the pool safe to swim in and algae gone, you'll need to keep at least 2-3 ppm of chlorine in there at all times.

Janet

[vz5dzh]

Thank you! I am really feeling great about this pool now.

[aylad]

It's a lot of information to digest at first, but if you keep plugging along, it won't be long before you wonder why you thought it was so hard!

[Watermom]

Once your CYA has dissolved and you have a reading on that test, you'll be able to go to just testing and dosing in the evenings only. But, since needed chlorine levels are based on CYA levels, at that point, you'll need to start keeping your chlorine between 3-6ppm instead of the 2-3ppm that are suggested for now.

Your dosing is going to be easy. In your pool, each cup of 6% bleach will add 1ppm of chlorine. Use that as a reference to help you figure out how much bleach to add each time you test.

As Janet said, your pH is fine at 7.2, but if it drops any lower you'll need to bump it up with a little 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart) So, you might want to go ahead and get a box to have on hand if you need it.

[vz5dzh]

I've got the borax and baking soda at the ready if need be.

I tested the chlorine tonight and it looked to be in the 2-4 range. It's hard to see those yellows. I didn't add any more bleach at this point. I'll check the chlorine again in the morning and see where we are at.

Thank you all again for the help!