Newbie to pools

[aylad]

What Ben said!!

I personally run a high CYA pool intentionally because in our climate (Louisiana) I use less chlorine and it's much easier to keep my levels stable. I would imagine in Florida your climate is very similar, so lowering your CYA may not be the best thing to do, especially if your water is in good sbape now.

I would replace any reagents that were in a garage longer than one year. They can last a lot longer than that when stored in a cool dry place, but heat can make them degrade. You can order them from several places online, but I usually get mine from sps-poolspas.com. Their prices are among the lowest and their service is fast.

Janet

[mthandt]

Thanks again! The CYA part of the test kit seems to be working at least because the store tested the same. Good to know that that CYA level isn't that excessive for down south here then. It seems like right now the pool is using virtually no chlorine because the CYA is high, it's been cool out and the pool is partially shaded. It's only at about 5 ppm though and according to the best guess chart I guess that's a little low. Trying to decide if I should bump it up a couple ppm and just keep it there. The pool seems to be doing well right now but I figure a little more can't hurt.

[Watermom]

The pool is using little chlorine because the water is cold, but when the weather starts to warm up, if you don't run higher cl levels you'll have a green pool! We see it all the time. Since your CYA is 80-90, then you don't want to use any stabilized forms of chlorine. So stay away from trichlor pucks and dichlor powder. What kind of pool is this -- gunnite, vinyl, fiberglass? Also, go ahead and post a full set of current water testing results.

[mthandt]

The pool is using little chlorine because the water is cold, but when the weather starts to warm up, if you don't run higher cl levels you'll have a green pool! We see it all the time. Since your CYA is 80-90, then you don't want to use any stabilized forms of chlorine. So stay away from trichlor pucks and dichlor powder. What kind of pool is this -- gunnite, vinyl, fiberglass? Also, go ahead and post a full set of current water testing results.

Yeah, the CYA level is my biggest fear with the trichlor pucks which is what I would most likely be using. I would like to do the BBB method but again I think my girlfriends parents would think I am crazy if I was out there pouring a gallon of chlorine in the pool everyday. I think they would feel better with me just using the pucks. Next time they leave town I'll just drain half the pool, haha. I think for now I'm just gonna continue using the pucks and monitor the CYA levels and if it starts to get too high and the chlorine demand becomes to great I'll consider swapping out some of the water or switching to liquid chlorine.

Here are the results from the store test:

TC: 5 ppm
FC: 5 ppm
CC: 0 ppm
pH: 7.6
TA: 100 ppm
Calcium: 250 ppm
CYA: 80 ppm

Oh, and it's a screened in gunite pool.

[Watermom]

Your numbers all look ok except that your chlorine is bit low for your CYA level.

Regarding continuing to use the pucks ---- it is your call. If it were my pool with a CYA of 80-90, I would not use them. It is easy to get into trouble when your CYA level gets too high. Just my opinion.

Glad to have you on the forum!

[mthandt]

Your numbers all look ok except that your chlorine is bit low for your CYA level.

Regarding continuing to use the pucks ---- it is your call. If it were my pool with a CYA of 80-90, I would not use them. It is easy to get into trouble when your CYA level gets too high. Just my opinion.

Glad to have you on the forum!

Yeah, I realize the chlorine is on the low side for the CYA levels but I think I'm losing virtuslly no chlorine at the moment, definitely will have to do something soon. Haven't put any chlorine in it for a week and it's holding at those levels probably due to a combination of the low CYA levels, the cool partially shaded water and no one is swimming in it. I would like to switch to liquid chlorine as I can get 6% clorox bleach from Sams for $2 a gallon before tax but don't really know how much I will have to stay on top of it with liquid chlorine. Maybe I'll start trying it next week and just see what happens. I have to get more reagent for the chlorine test on Tuesday so I can start testing it myself.

[PoolDoc]

There's nothing magic about liquid chlorine or bleach -- it's just one of the two forms of chlorine available to you that has no stabilizer. The other is cal hypo (calcium hypochlorite) and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find.

You could also use an SWCG (Salt Water Chlorine Generator), but that's significant expense upfront, and there's ANOTHER learning curve you have to climb with those units.

Here's an option: with your CYA that high, once you get your K2006, you can do this:
1. Dose 1x per week to 12 - 15 ppm chlorine using bleach. (We'll help you figure the dose, if you can give us pool gallons AND pool dimensions (so we can make sure the gallons figure is in range - often, it's not.).
2. Adjust your TC feeder / floater / what to trickle feed, so that your chlorine doesn't go below 3 - 5 ppm, before your next bleach dose.

That way, you can 'sneak' in, dump the bleach, trash the bottles, and then bask in the appreciation for the crystal clear pool (assuming, your filter is working OK). Over time -- depending on how you clean your filter -- your CYA will drop. The more pool water you dump (backwash) each time, the sooner it will drop. If you've got a cartridge filter, and don't loose any water, you may have to see how things run this way and whether the CYA keeps climbing.