First test numbers of season

[aylad]

I know, I could go to the Leslie's store and buy CYA. But I'm still unhappy with them because of the problems I had with my pool several years ago when they were testing my water and selling me chemicals. Haven't been back in their store since.

You can also buy CYA at WalMart--it's in a 2-lb container marked spa balancer, but if you look at the ingredient label isocyanuric acid is the active ingredient.

You can use the trichlor if you want, as long as you keep a VERY close eye on your pH, but keep in mind that it will take a long time to get the CYA up to a point where it does any good if you just use the pucks--you'll use a lot of chlorine unnecessarily because the sun will eat your chlorine up on a daily basis. It really would be better to at least start with a small dose (say 15 ppm) of CYA in a single dose, THEN start using the pucks to raise it from there.

Janet

[jimk0512]

Thanks for the advice. I will try to find CYA locally from a different store than Leslie's, and order online if no luck.

The bleach is doing the job at 10 to 15 ppm, because the water is now clear gray instead of green, and I can mostly see the bottom. The sand filter hasn't clogged yet, so I must be backwashing it often enough. The pH is 7.0 (or lower, I can't tell with my Taylor kit). I'll adjust using borax as if I were trying to adjust from 7 to 7.2 and see what happens. I'm off to brush the sides and clean the bottom.