Ordered My Pool

[Watermom]

Hard to wait isn't it? I remember the hard work of getting my pool site ready. Thought we never would get it level! One side would be a little high, so we'd take a little bit off. Then, it would be a little lower than another side and so on............

Wasn't too fun from what I remember, but SO worth it!

[dcombs44]

Tested pH and Alk for grins from my tap water.

pH was pretty much dead on 8.0 (not bad for a fish tank )

Alk hadn't changed colors at 12 drops, so it's higher than 120. I stopped there. I know I've still got some room here with the vinyl pool.

Looks like I'll be playing a little mad scientist to get things in check.

Once I fill, what's the first thing to get in check?

I guess I should work on adding CYA first since it's acidic right? That should lower pH....

What's the best route here?

[Watermom]

PH and chlorine first. Then you can tweak the other stuff.

[aylad]

I agree with Watermom, pH and chlorine first, but it won't hurt to go ahead and add your CYA, just don't broadcast it like the label says, and if you add it through the skimmer into a sand filter, don't backwash the filter or retest for CYA for at least 4-5 days because it takes a long time for it to dissolve. Until you have CYA in the water, you're gonna have to make frequent chlorine additions because the sun will eat up a lot of your chlorine, so the sooner you can have it in the pool the better.

Janet

[dcombs44]

Thanks!

So, we had the sod removed last week, but I kept getting rained out on days I planned to work on leveling.

Well, we finally got to start yesterday (heat index of 110 degrees). About 4 inches down on the high side was a 4' x 10' slab of 10" thick concrete. Grrrrrr....

Took a big chunk of the afternoon to bust up the concrete and remove it.

Ended up getting a few of the blocks set for the posts using a laser transit level. Had to dig down a fair amount though, so we've got a fair amount of digging and raking left to do.

Back to the grind after work today.

[Watermom]

HARD WORK!!! But, will be SO worth it. Just keep picturing you floating on a raft with a cold drink in your hand!

[dcombs44]

Well, it's been a struggle, but we're almost there.

We started filling the pool last Friday afternoon. I took the day off to finish getting the walls up and the liner in. At about 9:00 pm after 10 hours or so of working on the pool, the liner slipped and couldn't be stretched back over the side. At that time, there was about 1.5 feet of water in the pool. So, we drained, replaced the sand that had washed out, refit the liner, and started refilling on Sunday.

I'm filling with a garden hose, so it's a slow process. Got it filled to just below the return yesterday, so I got the return and skimmer installed, and got the filter completely installed.

Will finish filling tonight, test the pump and add chlorine. This is day 3.5 with no chlorine, so I'm ready to get some sanitizer in there to keep from an early algae bloom. Assuming we finish filling and add chlorine tonight, we should be swimming by tomorrow.

What a process.