New Owner - Need Help-- Please

[mbar]

Carl,
Thanks for the post, I am printing it out to give to a friend of mine who just filled his pool, and has the dreaded test strips! You explained everything in a concise, complete way - You should put it as a sticky somewhere!

[michladny]

I took the water to get tested and here is what I got:

Sat Index 0.26
Total Dissolved Solids 0
Free Chlorine 2.4
Total Chlorine 2.5
Combined Chlorine 0.1
pH 7.9
CYA 53
Copper 0
Iron 0
Total Alk 100
Adjusted total Alk 81
Calcium Hardness 10 (they said it was 0 but put 10 in for the computer)
Temp 75

They wanted me to raise the Alk w/ 4 lbs of Alk increaser and add 25 lbs of Calcium to the pool

Now one place told me (where I bought the pool that I do not need Calcium for an above ground pool) and this place (reccomended by MANY, MANY people said I do need some calcium) WHICH IS CORRECT?????????? I thought my Alk was fine at 100????

[CarlD]

I took the water to get tested and here is what I got:

Sat Index 0.26
Total Dissolved Solids 0
Free Chlorine 2.4
Total Chlorine 2.5
Combined Chlorine 0.1
pH 7.9
CYA 53
Copper 0
Iron 0
Total Alk 100
Adjusted total Alk 81
Calcium Hardness 10 (they said it was 0 but put 10 in for the computer)
Temp 75

They wanted me to raise the Alk w/ 4 lbs of Alk increaser and add 25 lbs of Calcium to the pool

Now one place told me (where I bought the pool that I do not need Calcium for an above ground pool) and this place (reccomended by MANY, MANY people said I do need some calcium) WHICH IS CORRECT?????????? I thought my Alk was fine at 100????

No! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!!

That advice is completely and totally wrong, it will not help your problems, it will only cause more! They are just trying to sell you expensive chemicals....
"Total Alkalinity Raiser" 4 lbs--$10. Ingredient: Sodium Bicarbonate 100%

Arm&Hammer Baking Soda, 1 lb $.89 Ingredient: Sodium Bicarbonate 100%

Same stuff. But your Total Alk is 100ppm WHICH IS PERFECT!!!!!

Sure, they want to sell you calcium--it's expensive and it gives them lots of profit. It does NOTHING for a vinyl pool. I don't care if the pool store clerk says he swears on his saintly mother's head you need it. If he says if you don't need it, he'll commit Hari-Kari, then hand him a short samurai sword and tell him to go ahead. YOU DON'T NEED IT!!!!!

Calcium is SOLELY to prevent concrete and plaster pools from leeching calcium out of the walls, weakening them, into the water. By saturating the water sufficiently with calcium you prevent this. But Vinyl doesn't contain calcium and it doesn't leech it into the water, so you DON'T need calcium. I find, when I know EXACTLY what a chemical does, NOBODY can talk me into putting it in if I don't have the problem it addresses. So now you know why vinyl doesn't require calcium levels and even if a million people recommend this store, they are still WRONG.

Your pH is a bit high, but you don't need much acid to lower it--and you can leave it if you want and it will be OK.

I'd raise chlorine levels, but you can use bleach for that. If you pool is clear, you are probably OK. But if it's green, you need to go into algae-fighting mode, and there are thousands of posts on that.

Boy! I really HATE these pool store folks who mislead decent people with this garbage!

[michladny]

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!! MY POOL WATER IS BEAUTIFULLY CLEAR and I feel fine in there.

I am going to go buy my $40.00 test kit and do this all myself


THANKS SO MUCH for the reassurance !!!!


Michelle

[CarlD]

You are very welcome!

You can do this.

It's really not that hard but we find ourselves fighting the forces of ignorance and confusion. This mumbo-jumbo and secret handshake nonsense is all to separate you from your money. It's a racket.

[michladny]

Yes, I agree and just to prove my point to the hubby I called THREE pool places/stores with the info from the first store and asked if I needed to add Calcium..... three said YES and one said NO (the place I purchased the pool said no). The three stores that said yes said you need calcium to keep the walls from scaling and you also need it to keep the water comfortable.... the place we bought the pool said no need for vinyl pools to have calcium...HMMMM...it really is a matter of trusting yourself and I cannot believe that these stores do this to people (and imagine the money they make from new owners LIKE ME!!!!).
My best friend of 10 years just put a pool in too and she just finished filling it and came home with $100.00 worth of Calcium, Alk powder, PH increase and two different test strip kits -- I directed her to this website and she called the pool place to return chemicals and they said they do not take chemicals back!!!! WHAT A RACKET!!
From now on I will only get chemicals and testing WHEN and IF there is a problem NO ONE else can fix!!!!!!

One more ? ..... can I add bleach even if I still have a chlorine tab in the floater to increase the chlorine or should I wait till it is gone or add small amounts till they are dissolved??????

Carl--- THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH !!!! My pool was just put up three weeks ago (May 17th) and the water was filled with a garden hose so it has been in use for about two weeks (maybe) my water is CLEAR and you can see the bottom of the entire pool and the pebble pattern if you shut the filter/pump off so the water is totally still (and even with it running you can still see the bottom). I feel like I have done alright so far but these stores do make you feel otherwise....

P.S. My friend Melissa just called back and wants to know if she can add the Calcium anyway now that she cannot return the 25 lbs they recommended she START with!!! She said it was like $38.00 for the bucket---YIKES!!!!

[CarlD]

Michelle:

Here's PoolDoc's final answer to the calcium and vinyl question:

http://www.poolsolutions.com/tips/tip03.html

Ben (PoolDoc) says that Professor Langlier himself say his index isn't relevant to pools, and one of the biggest manufacturers of vinyl used by the liner makers discounts the need for calcium as well.

If I were your friend, I would tell that store that if they don't take back sealed chemicals just purchased that she, and you will NEVER frequent that store again. You won't buy toys, accessories, chems you DO need, large items (like a solar cover or solar cover roller)--nothing, Nada, gornischt there--and you'll tell the 15,000 pool-owning friends you have (Us forum folks --but don't tell them that) not to use them.

If you have a floater in the pool, then simply add bleach to the skimmer and make sure the floater's not right at the skimmer's door. Once chlorine's in the water, it doesn't matter where it came from, but pouring bleach on the tablets could be very, very dangerous.

[CarlD]

Carl,
Thanks for the post, I am printing it out to give to a friend of mine who just filled his pool, and has the dreaded test strips! You explained everything in a concise, complete way - You should put it as a sticky somewhere!

That's very flattering of you to say. There already was a sticky in the Chlorine and Chlorinating forum that I had done and Watermom put up, but I added this one to that so if one isn't clear to newbies, maybe the other is...cuz I'm too lazy to actually sit down and rewrite them as one...