new to pool stuff

[Watermom]

OK. Keep working on the pH. Stick with bleach for your chlorine. And, don't retest your CYA for a week.

[Red Gate Zoo]

I have a question about CH. I have been trying to lower my CH from 500 since 6/27 by adding muriatic & aerating with fountain. CH went down to 400 but won't go any lower. TA went from 100 down to 50. I have added cyanuric periodically to raise my CYA to 75. I have used only bleach since 6/27. I use approx. 182 oz. 6% bleach/day to keep my FC about 5-7. pH has ranged from 7.1 (right after addition of muriatic) to 7.8. Pool is sparkling clean. Filter hardly ever needs backwashing now. Should I be worried about the high CH?

[PoolDoc]

Aeration + muriatic lowers carbonate alkalinity; it has no effect on calcium levels.

As far as I know, the only two practical ways to lower CH (or TH) are by
(1) draining and refilling -- and this only works if your fill water is soft!
(2) lime softening to precipitate the calcium and then vacuum or filter it out.

You can see if lime softening will work for you, using the calcium bucket test:
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?16992

[Watermom]

If it was my pool and I had sparkling water, I probably wouldn't worry about CH of 400. That's not super high. In fact, the suggested level is 200-400. But, I would not use any cal-hypo and I would not let my TA and pH get high. Just my opinion.

(Note to others reading --- vinyl pools do not need calcium 200-400.)

[Red Gate Zoo]

Thanks.

I had come to the same conclusion- that 400 was not too high to worry about. My CYA is 75 & I'm using about 182 oz. of bleach a day, sometimes a bit more (364 oz.). I have been thinking of raising the CYA a bit higher (85-90) to hopefully use less bleach as you had suggested a while back, since my pool gets full sun all day.

What do you think?

[Watermom]

If you are using that much bleach each day, you probably would do better with your CYA a little higher. Take it up slowly, though. Don't want to overshoot your target.

[aylad]

You're only a couple of hours away from me, so my climate is much the same as yours--you'll find that you lose a LOT less chlorine if you'll bump your CYA up to 90 or so! That's where I keep mine--and my chlorine loss is only about2-3 ppm daily.