Thanks for the responses!
I'm going to try to glue all of them together in my response. Oh, and one thing that I wanted to mention... we've had a few heavy rainfalls over the past two weeks that I've lived here. Most of it was prior to testing with my Taylor kit, which is part of why I was surprised that the levels remained high. I figured that the rain was "nature's dilution" for my pool, and it might help a bit.
Do you have anyone else around that can help you learn the pool? Once you tell many of each of the below you have we can go from there.
I do know some people that own pools, and they've tossed a few nuggets of advice at me. Although, the prevailing opinion that I get is that I should just let a pool company take care of it. However, I think biology has graciously granted me my father's stubbornness when it comes to not paying someone to do something that I can do!
So, I don't really have much desire to hire a pool company... unless it's absolutely necessary.
How many skimmer do you have? Those are the things that have a basket and the water goes down through the basket to the filter.
How many returns do you have? Those are the things that are round. They are where the water returns from the filter. They should be pushing water into the pool
I have 3 returns (1 at the stairs, 1 at the shallow end, 1 at the deep end) and 1 skimmer.
Now to the fun part-----------homework!
I am going to give you a couple of links at a time. The first couple is all about what we put in our pools and why.
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
This one will show you the levels your pool should be at. Print it out so you will have it as you do your tests
Pool School - Recommended Levels
I've stumbled across those articles in the past, and I had one problem with the chart. My problem is that the chart only goes up to 100 for the stabilizer, and my stabilizer is well beyond that. To give you an idea, the Taylor test kit can test up to 100. Using no dilution, I couldn't see the black dot before I even got to the "CYA" text (it was about 1/3 the way to the text). At least from what I can tell, I might have to use something like a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio of pool:tap water dilution to be able to measure my stabilizer. I'd like to do this, but honestly... I'm not sure of a great method for measuring out these small values. I've been tempted to go back to my high school chemistry days and purchase some pipettes since their purpose is for measuring small amounts of liquid chemicals.
About your pool set-up pic, it looks like you have your pump & pump basket (w/ clear lid) on the far left. The 2 pipes that come-up from the ground into it are probably from your skimmer(s) and/or main drain. Those red handles allow you to adjust the flow (suction) of each coming from the pool. Just next to it appears to be another pump, but I can't see the back-side of it or any plumbing to make-out how it fits into the equation. Then you have that taller white item - that is your in-line chlorinator (for tablets/pucks). That was probably the source of your extraordinarily high CYA level. If it still has tablets in it, remove them ASAP. At the bottom of the in-line chlorinator, it splits into a "Y" which goes back to your pool. It probably takes water back to your return jets, spa, and/or water feature. Whatever you happen to have there. Like on the left side, the red handles allow you to adjust the flow of water back to those items. The pipe on the far right by itself coming out of the filter and going into the ground looks like it may be a separate line for filter backwash/drain.
Yep, I think you've got the piping correct. Is it a correct assumption that the only way to figure out which inlet goes to which device (skimmer or drain) would be just to turn one off and see if the skimmer is turned off? Also, should the pump be turned off prior to messing with these flow valves? I can tell you that there's currently nothing in the chlorinator. I did put one puck in it back when I first moved, but I haven't done anything with it since. As for the second pump that's in the photo, I've been told that it doesn't work. Apparently, that's the one that they used for the pool cleaner, which isn't an issue for me because I ended up going with an electric pool cleaner (Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus). I've never actually tried it though (it has a separate switch).
One thing that I'm also curious about is that I think I have a very slight leak in my piping. In the picture of my pool hardware, you'll see an area on the top-most pipe where it looks like they've tried to seal it (it's covered in dark gray gunk). Well, I see a very slow drip come from the area, so I'm guessing that the sealant that the put on the pipe probably isn't doing too well. In some research, it looks like I can use pipe cement to help fix the leak... is that correct?
Your filter looks like a sand filter to me, and it looks like you might have a multiport valve on top. Take a picture of the handle at the top of the filter so we can tell.
Fortunately, I already took
a photo of the spider valve handle, so that's not a problem at all! However, I do have a question about pressure. The handle states that the operating pressure is 50 PSI, and I've read that you're supposed to backwash depending on the operating pressure vs. the current pressure. The current pressure of the system is far below 50 PSI, so is that number not really what I care about? One thing that I've read is that if you don't know your pressure, you could just backwash + rinse, and then note the pressure as your operating pressure. Would it be better to just do that?
BUT you never want to completely drain an inground vinyl pool! If it turns out you need to drain, don't drain lower than a foot in the SHALLOW end at any one time...or even less if you have a high water table!
Ah, I never knew that you were supposed to use the shallow end as your indicator. Would you say that the rule is that you shouldn't go past the tile?
However, before any of that, can you please post a proper test reading set with the Taylor...we don't really trust test strips
Further, your chlorine may in fact NOT be too high at all if your CYA is as high as it looks on the test strip.
The TFP way is based on a ratio of cya:chlorine ... Click on the link in my signature to see. At the proper ratio, your pool is sanitized. If your FC is lower than its "min. For CYA" you can get algae or not sanitize even with a higher looking FC number.
I did test using the Taylor kit, and my issue is that the numbers are so high that they're either hard or impossible to get without dilution. The Taylor kit only goes up to 100 for CYA, and my level is well beyond that. As for FC, I got up to 15ppm before my solution even began to change from pink to clear. My pH was about 7.4, but I think I read something about pH values not being as useful with high FC? Anyway, I mentioned it above, but my problem is that given how high my values are, I might need a rather extreme dilution (33% or 25% pool water), and I'm not sure what's a good way to try to get exact ratios.
This is why its ideal to have -- and control -- a particular level of stabilizer/cya (eg 40ish) -- so that when you add chlorine (liquid bleach from super market or liquid chlorine from pool store) you are able to know that you're at the right level each day to avoid algae and sanitize your pool. Pucks and "shock" each add CYA (or calcium in the case of cal-hypo shock) which leads to too much stabilizer and creates a moving target.
Yep! While I figured that my CYA and FC may be in a proper ratio for using the pool, they just aren't manageable using standard tests. As cringe-worthy as it is to drain an refill (apparently, I can call up the utility company to have them reduce the sewage cost), it's the only way that I'm going to get the pool to levels that I can easily manage.
EDIT:
As for my pump model, it's a Hayward Super Pump model C48K2N143B1 (SP2607X10) rated at 1 HP.
