Ordered My Pool

[dcombs44]

Added a jug of bleach and did a quick test with the wal-mart kit after I stirred it up.

.5 ppm chlorine
7.8 pH

I'll finish filling the pool tonight and run a full battery of tests with the Taylor Kit. The plus side is that our tap water reads .5 ppm of chlorine out of the tap, so as we add water, we're adding a decent amount of chlorine (or so it seems).

Should I try to get the chlorine to shock level off the start, or should I just keep it at recommended levels until CC is over .5 ppm? I was planning on trying to get it between 1 and 3 ppm before bed tonight and checking it again in the morning.

[Watermom]

Since your pool has had water in it for several days now with no real cl level to speak of, I'd probably throw in a 3-qt. jug this evening. Wait a couple of hours and test and see what that does for you. It will probably take you up to about 3.5. Then, I'd suggest testing it early in the morning. If you haven't lost more than 1pm of chlorine overnight, then I'd say you lucked out and despite the delay in chlorinating and filtering, you escaped something starting to grow. If you do lose more than that overnight, I'd shock the pool. Don't want to start off a new pool with icky stuff growing in there! Better take care of it right off the bat.

Keep us posted how it is going. And, have fun swimming this evening. You are gonna swim, right??

(In your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will raise the cl by about 1.2.)

[dcombs44]

Been tinkering all day. Got a few drips in the filter plumbing. I've been adjusting here and there trying to seal them up, but some are stubborn.

Latest Test Results:

FC: .6
CC: 0
pH: 7.4
Alk: 130
CYA: No reading yet.

I added 1.75 lbs (28 oz) of CYA this afternoon. I dissolved most of it in a sock, and the rest, I mixed in a bucket and added to the skimmer. That should get me to about 15 on CYA.

My nephew is in the pool right now. When he gets out, I plan to add 96 oz. of 6% bleach. Should get me to 4 ppm. I'll test before I go to bed and when I get up to see if any chlorine is used up over night. If it is, I'll shock tomorrow evening.

I did find that the local hardware store carries 10% Liquid Chlorinator for $3.99 a gallon.
The way I calculated, that comes out a fair amount cheaper than bleach.

A couple of questions:

1) Should I add more stablizer now? Say another 15 oz. That should get me to somewhere around 23 ppm. Then I could bump it up to 30 or so from there a little at a time. Or......should I leave it as is, test in a week and add more then?

2) I guess I only had one question for now.

[Watermom]

You'll be ok to go ahead and add some more cya now.

[dcombs44]

Added another pound of CYA this morning. Like I said, that should get me up to around 23 or so.

Since the Taylor kit's lowest reading is 30, is there a way to alter the test to know where I am right now? More drops/fewer drops, less test water/more test water?

How do I know that I'm getting close to 30?

Tested FC this morning, and it was still a solid 3 ppm. No FC loss overnight. Water is sparkling, and things are going well so far. (Knock on Wood)

[Poconos]

I don't know about altering the 1:1 ratio but you should be able to judge by how cloudy the sample is getting. The dot doesn't just disappear....it fades away into a blur then to nothing so that should give some idea if you are approaching being on-scale.
Al

[Watermom]

It should take about 3-1/2 lbs. of cya to get to about 30ppm in a 15K pool. There is no kit that I am aware of that can differentiate a reading of less than 30ppm.