New Pool questions - introduction

[Watermom]

To answer a couple more of your questions:

Yes, you can add bleach slowly into the skimmer (while the pump is running, of course,) or slowly pour it in front of a return jet (again while the pump is running).

And, also yes to running your cya on the low end knowing that you will need to use some triclor pucks while you are away. Just keep a close eye on the cya so it doesn't build up to levels higher than you want.

Welcome to the forum!

[dmarsh70]

CarlD / Watermom,

Thanks so much for your quick response. I really appreciate it. I know what I do thus far ONLY because of this board and nobody else. Suffice to say I trust you guys more than pool builders

I will head out today and pick up some calcium flakes and or Cal-Hypo. Wanted to check out the local store anyways.

Yaeh the Lamottes Tester I have is not test strips. It has regeants and instead of looking for colors you put it in a little machine and it gives a digital read out.

They are mixing up plaster now! (yay) so should be testing this all out tomorrow I hope!

I will also pick up a small amount of "normal" tri-chlor pucks as well - until I get it all going.

I never really compared the bleach vs chlorine prices that much - may almost be a wash in some cases, but the CYA level thing seems to be the root of a lot of problems and I want to make sure that is in check before I ever start.

Amazing reading some of the pool supply websites - nobody mentions how this stuff raises CYA levels - but feel free to come in with a free water sample.

Wow I guess I'm catching on quick.

I am not really all that happy about running for 48 hours myself. I really am not sure if the pool guy is sure. He seems to always be in a rush... So I may go 12 - 20 hours on pump - full speed to get some of that initial stuff out - then start testing and adding.

I would imagine PH would be the first order of business. I assume (like you said) it will be high - so I'll hit it with Muriatic, start chrlorinating. Check and adjust TA, calcium, and let it roll.

One more final question (at least for now)

I do have a solar cover. I know - in Florida do I need it? Who knows, but I got it so I am wondering if there are any issues keeping it on almost immediately.

Can you add chemicals with the cover on and leave it on? I understand if I am "shocking" the higher concentration may degrade the solar cover so I'll have it off. Other than that is it ok to leave it on?

Thanks again CarlD and Watermom!!

[CarlD]

Again, I'm not a builder and there are some initial things we here about and our professional members confirm that seem counter-intuitive. This may be one of them: running for 48 hours w/o chems. Plus, if he warranties his work, you want to follow his directions so he can't claim you violated the warranty and therefore he's not responsible.

A solar cover hold in heat and can also reduce chlorine loss particularly due to evaporation. If you get a high end solar cover and do everything right you'll get a full 3 to 4 years out of it. If you buy a cheaper one and aren't as careful, it will only last 3 seasons and maybe a little bit more..... Been there, done that. Go ahead and add chlorine as you need it.

[dmarsh70]

Thanks again Carl - good point - better do what he says for warranty sake.

I did buy a better than average cover - so thanks for that.

One last question:

I just went to my local pool supply company - I dont know if I can mention the name so I wont.

They have liquid chrlorine in 2.5 gallon jugs for $4.79 it's 10.8 percent. The guy behind the counter agreed it's just like bleach and many folks use it !! I was shocked!

Does that price seem pretty reasonable?

David

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

Watermom and CarlD have gotten you off to a great start--a new pool is really exciting and it'll be SO much easier to maintain since you've done your homework and seem to have a good grasp on the chemical requirements!

10.8% LC at $4.79 works out to less than $2/gallon for the 10% stuff, which is a much better price than I pay at Wally World for 6%--just make sure that it's actually 10%! The higher percentage stuff tends to degrade much faster than the 6%, and if it has degraded, then it's not such a great price! CarlD has posted somewhere a way to test for the actual percentage of chlorine in your jug--I'll look and see if I can find it and post the link here.

Congrats on the new pool!


Janet

[CarlD]

Yeah, I think if you pour five 2liter soda bottles full of tap water into a 5 gal bucket to get 10 liters and add 1 cc of your chlorine to the water and stir, you can then measure it as if it was in the pool....I THINK that's it. It's the same as adding 1 liter of bleach to 10,000 liters of pool water. Or adding 1 gallon to 10,000 gallons. It was an eyedropper measure or so. Whatever 1/10,000th of 10 liters is.

[dmarsh70]

WOw you guys are just awesome! Thanks so much. THe pool place said they fill them everyday - in fact they we're putting new ones on the shelf as I got there. But we'll find out soon enough - if the poolcaluclator shows me what to add and it's not close I know its degraded.. I'll test the first week with bleach and the pool version bleach to see if it's close. I hope it is.

SO this is what I did. I took water out of the hose and tested it as i really wanted to learn how to test with the digital read out and check it all out. I do NOT have a test for CC - but I think someone said its a combination of FC and TC.

So here are the readings just out of the hose:
FC: 1.39 (I guess they add chlorine to city / county water)
TCL: 1.40 (Total Chlorine -- is this total CC?? little confused here. Is my CC: 2.88 and thereby I need to shock?
PH: 7.6
ALK: 84
CH: 92
CYA: LOW reading - I was expecting this as I dont see why they would have CYA in city water.

So it appears Carl was accurate - I will need calcium, and Stabilizer. The ALK should be cool I do believe and i'll probably have to drop the PH down with muriatic the first week or two.

If someone could comment on the Chlorine levels I would appreciate it.

Also, I realize the numbers will be totally different when I get 15K gallons of water circulating in fresh plaster. I know the PH will go through the roof.

I was talking to the plaster guy today. He said he thinks I misunderstood waiting 48 hours to add chemicals. He said he would certainly let it run for several hours to filter stuff out - and I may even need to wash the filter once a week at first - however he said once it's filtered for several hours - take your readings and start working on ph and sanitizer, assuming you know how to. Told him I spent HOURS researching..,.

Guys and gals you are all great. I appreciate your continued support. As soon as I am a member out of probation (for lack of a better term) I will post some pics of HOPEFULLY sparkly clean water!

Thank you all for the WARM WELCOMES! Very nice. You are all invited to my pool open party

David