Just Refilled Pool and Seeking Chemical Balance Advise

[bisel]

Hello All,

New to the forum and seeking some advice ...

I drained my pool last week. Powerwashed the sides and edges and took apart the cartridge filter and cleaned the filter cartridges. Refilled with fresh water.

After refilling, I adjusted the pH ... had to add a bit of muriatic acid to bring pH down to 7.2

Next thing I did was to shock the pool with 2 lbs of dry powder pool shock ... sodium dichoro

Following day added those 3" stablized chlorine tabs to my floater to dispense chlorine. Also added a bit algaecide as preventive treatment. I run my variable speed pump 24x7 so water is always slowly circulating, so chlorine is always being dispersed.

Tested my water twice daily ... morning and mid afternoon. The total chlorine is about 3 to 4 ppm in morning and 2 to 3 ppm in the afternoon. Kind of expecting to be lower in afternoon as the sun has been shining.

I probably need to get a better test kit to test more things, but I have ordered some test strips (AquaCheck 7 way strips). But, for now, took my water to Leslie's for testing and here is where I have some conflict with what they are telling me.

They state calcium hardness is too low at 154 ppm. I have read the effect of too soft water leaching out calcium from the concrete. But, in the past, the calcium hardness had always been to high. I am a bit reluctant to calcium into the water. Any thoughts from you all?

The next thing they tell is to reduce my phosphates to under 100 ppm. They test it at 177 ppm. My thought is that this is a bit of hype. Phosphates are food for algae, but the way to control algae is chlorine and algaecide. So am particular reluctant to add chemical to reduce the phosphates. I kind of want to wait a bit and just see if I have any problems on this one.

Lastly, they tell me to add cyanuric acid as my CYA level is 20 ppm. I think this is totally wrong because:
1. I run my pump 24x7
2. The chlorine level is at least 2 ppm and the tabs contain CYA so it already had some stablizer

Using the stabilized chlorine tabs will raise the CYA level over time and as the level rises there is a corresponding requirement to increase the chlorine ppm. With the CYA lower, I can run lower concentrations of chlorine and still have good sanitization.

So ... that is my story and I would really appreciate comments.

Steve

[Denniswiseman]

It seems that what you are saying is OK
Forget about phosphates
Check out these links
Chlorine / CYA Chart and Recommended Pool Levels
Excessive CYA renders your chlorine ineffective and you have to use more to get the same sanitation
For every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm.
For every 10 ppm FC added by Dichlor, it also increases CYA by 9 ppm.
For every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases Calcium Hardness (CH) by at least 7 ppm
Use these common products to balance your pool
Liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite or plain bleach)
Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to lower pH and TA
Bicarbonate of soda to raise TA
Aeration will raise pH only
Soda ash will raise pH and TA

You really need to get yourself a decent FAS/DPD test kit (Taylor K2006c or TF Testkits TF100 in the states) to get accurate results as maintaining an appropiate shock level means testing quite often during the day