Help!! New Pool Owner
by Laurie OBrien
I went to the pool supply store and bought some test strips because the previous owner didn't leave the test kit he had. I read the instructions and followed them to the letter and it said that all of the chemicals were off. I made notes to where the test strips said the levels were and then I went back to the pool supply store and got everything I needed to fix these conditions. They told me that I needed to fix the alkaline problem first so, I worked on that. I did what they told me to and added approximately 20 pounds of alkaline plus. I waited until morning to test and the test strip said the same thing. Nothing had changed. Could my test strips be off? Our pool is a built in and has appoximately 23,000 gallons of water in it. I need help!! What do I do next? Any help you can give me in this matter would be most appreciated. Thank you in advance for all of your time & effort in this matter. Sincerely, Laurie O'Brien Thanks for the question Laurie First I'd have you read these posts: My First Pool..How Do I Add Chemicals & Make Adjustments? Above Ground Pool..Need To Know About Chemicals & What To Do.. I Am The New Pool Guy I'd encourage you to get a Taylor FAS-DPD K-2006 pool test kit. Pool Water Testing Water Testing Kit While you're getting used to the new test kit, you can take water samples into your local pool store. They should run all the readings for free. I'd like to have your complete chemical readings: Chlorine, CYA (cyanuric acid/stabilizer), pH, Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, and Metals (iron and copper). It makes troubleshooting much easier and the process will go much faster. Also, the kind of filtration system would help. Sand, DE, or cartridge? The above readings are what you need to concern yourself with right now. We can go into greater detail later on when I get the chemical readings. Balancing a pool is pretty easy. There are little things that make up the whole, and each one depends on the other. Before you buy any phosphate removers, clarifiers, algaecides, etc... get me the readings. This post might be of interest to you as well: Do You Really Need All These Chemicals For A Pool Or Are They Just Trying To Get Your Money? If you would, any future chemical readings need to be exact numbers. Statements such as "Chlorine is high" or "pH is low" don't help me. High and low are subjective terms and mean different things to different people. To post a reply, or if you have a similar question, you can see your post on the Q&A page in the "Start Up/Opening A Pool" category. Swimming Pool Questions and Answers Check back to this post for updates or answers. Hope this helps and have a great Summer. Robert |
