Initial results are in, and they're not good.

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steve_

0
Jun 8, 2015
6
Wake Forest, NC
After running the Taylor test kit against my pool water, here are the results:
FC 10
CC 1
pH 7.0
TA 160
CYA 300+ (I cut the sample in thirds and mixed with 2/3 tap water, then *3 to get results. They slightly above 100 on the CYA scale.)

I've also got algae starting to creep on the sides and bottom. Water is otherwise clear.
I appreciate your help in advance. What should my next steps be?

Note that I just moved into this house and 'inherited' the pool. The vinyl liner is toast and the seller agreed to pay for a new liner, which was going to be installed at the end of this season. Instead of futzing with the water balances, should I just go ahead and have the liner replaced and refill anew? I live in NC so realistically I have only a few more weeks before the season ends.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Steve, and congrats on the kit!

With your CYA there really is no reasonable way to manage it. You will have to do a considerable water replacement to bring that down to a managable level. Since a liner replacement is in the near future it probably doesn't make sense to replace 80% of your water and then drain again a few weeks later, so I say go for it and get the new liner in. If you will be following TFPC going forward then that new liner should be looking great for many many years to come. Will be easy to see with your perfectly clear water too ;)

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Hi Steve,
If the seller will agree to replace the liner now, rather than at "end of season", do it. You might even get a couple more weeks of swim time in and be a pool refill and algae headache ahead of the game.

Considering your CYA is 300, then looking at 50% drain and refill,
300/2 = 150
150/2 = 75
75/2 = 37.5

You would need to exchange 50% of your water 3 times, which is 1 1/2 the volume of your pool in order to get the CYA down to recommended level.
2 of the 50% exchanges yeielding CYA of 75% would be manageable, until the liner was replaced.

So, it really comes down to the cost of your water and wheter or not you are willing to do 2 of the 50% water replacements and a SLAM for a few weeks of swim time and then again drain the pool and pay for another pool full of it when the liner is replaced.
 
Divin Dave said:
So, it really comes down to the cost of your water and wheter or not you are willing to do 2 of the 50% water replacements and a SLAM for a few weeks of swim time and then again drain the pool and pay for another pool full of it when the liner is replaced.
Click to expand...

Not only cost, though. If he doesn't SLAM it before changing the liner, the algae is likely to still be present when he refills after adding the new liner. Who would want to start a "new" pool like that ?
 
Sparkle said:
Not only cost, though. If he doesn't SLAM it before changing the liner, the algae is likely to still be present when he refills after adding the new liner. Who would want to start a "new" pool like that ?
Click to expand...
Huh? How do you figure the algae will still be there with a new liner and 100% new water?

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I would add 10 ounces of sodium bromide to this pool. This will make it a bromine pool. Bromine does not bind to cya and will snitize the water. You will have to activate daily the bromine with bleach, and a weekly shock with mps or chlorine. The bromine is sensitive to UVB, but this late in the season there is less UVB and therefore not a problem since you have to dicard this water anyway. If you have a cover use it.
 

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I agree that at extraordinarily high CYA levels that if one does not lower them and one is planning on a full water change later, then converting to a bromine pool is probably the easiest thing to do and it's not expensive either. By doing a full water change later, one can remove all the bromine/bromide in the pool to be able to get back to a chlorine pool after the liner is replaced.
 
No, but I am saying that the water that flows through there now has 300+ CYA and would need at least 120 FC to reach SLAM level. After a fresh fill and raising the CYA to 30 he will only need 12 FC to reach SLAM level and kill off any residual crud in those areas. That is if there is a need to SLAM afterward at all since the initial post-fill, pre-stabilizer chlorine addition may well be plenty strong enough to remove the organics potentially lurking in his system.
 
But fixing the problem before draining would require LOTS of bleach. Fixing the problem after draining would require significantly less bleach.

Are you saying to drain, fill up, fix the problem, drain, new liner?
 
If the problem that you want to resolve before changing the liner is algae, then the bromine approach is probably the easiest. It works around the CYA issue and while it turns the pool into a bromine pool, the complete water replacement will let one go back to chlorine when the liner is changed and water replaced.
 
Bromine is a good idea if OP wants to keep things going through the rest of this season (and credit to tepelus, I hadn't thought of that) but if he is going to replace the liner sooner then I see no need for the extra expense of fixing an algae problem before the new CYA free water is in.

From my HTC One via Tapatalk
 
I would replace the liner now. Get a solar blanket and warm that new water up. You might get some swim in if the installers are fast. I closed the pool last year in the beginning of November. A solar blanket can make a huge difference down South.
 
Agent99 said:
Are you saying to drain, fill up, fix the problem, drain, new liner?
Click to expand...

That's one way to do it.


Donldson said:
I see. Ok, so which are you suggesting Sparkle:

A: A SLAM with FC target of 120-160, or
B: Replacing 14,000 gallons of water, SLAMing, and then draining again?
Click to expand...

A is a ridiculous suggestion.
B is one way to do it.

Shirley, some of the experts here would have good ideas about how to address the problem before exposing a brand new liner to it. As a matter of fact, there already was an alternative suggested.

Other alternatives could even involve algaecides or other stuff you would not normally want to expose your TFP to.
 

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