Need advice on Green pool w/45PPM FC and Off the charts High CYA

[lovemyazpool]

Hello Everyone -

We are new to the TFP forum and found it because our 'pool company' somehow allowed our pool to go green. We pay them monthly to come out and take care of the pool and when it went green about a month ago, nothing they (or we) have been doing seems to have helped, so I started searching and found this forum.

So far we have added bagged shock (Pooltime Shock XtraBlue - 20lbs) (pool company recommendation) over a period of 4 days and 8 gallons of Clorox Concentrated Regular Bleach (Recommended here on TFP) yesterday morning.

After reading the pool school we bought the Taylor 2006 test kit as recommended and started testing. I thought I was doing something wrong as it took 90 drops of the R-0871 at the 10mL test line to get my pool sample from pink to clear (well white and cloudy actually). When I did the CYA test, it tool all of a 1/4" of liquid in the tester to cover the black dot completely!

So I start reading on the forum and people are saying to drain the pool (pool calc says to drain 73% of the water (at least) to get CYA levels down to 40, but I wanted to reach out

I have not bothered to test pH as it is noted in the forums that with FC as high as ours, it would not make much difference.

The kids are sweeping the pool daily and we are running our Sand filter 24/7 and backflushing once per day. So far (after a week) there has been zero change in the color of the pool.

Before I go any further, I wanted to reach out and get some advice as to where to go from here with my levels the way they are now.

Thanks In Advance for the advice.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

I'm happy to see you've already come to the conclusion that you need to drain some water. That is probably the simplest way to deal with things. Phoenix is one of the few areas of the country where Reverse Osmosis is available, but it probably costs more than draining.

That "shock" you've been adding is 63% dichlor, with some mystery chemicals to counter the pH drop. There's also copper in there. Copper is a great algaecide, but it also stains pool walls and turns blond hair green. Figure for every 10 FC you add to your pool, you're also adding 9 CYA. The higher the CYA, the higher the FC needs to be to kill algae. It's a hopeless spiral, as you've discovered. That 20 lbs of "shock" added about 27 FC and 24 CYA to your pool.

The amount of bleach you'd need to get ahead of that green will need to come like this. It's cheaper to drain. Drain half or so and refill and let it mix, and then retest CYA and see how much more needs to go.

 

[kimkats]

LOL at the tanker but sadly it is true.

Drain that pretty green thing BUT do not take it lower than one foot in the shallow end.

You might want to go ahead and order some extra of the test stuff you will need to kill the green monster.

For CYA test:

TFTestkits.net

For the FC test:

TFTestkits.net

Good luck and keep us posted on how it is going!

Kim

 

[lovemyazpool]

Thanks for the replies. The pool calculator shows that I need to drain most of the pool but Kim you were saying not more than 1' in the shallow end (I have a huge deep end), why is that as opposed to draining it 100% and starting from scratch?

Thanks Again!

 

[MarianParoo]

Also, is that a puck floater in your pool? Take that puppy out... You can keep the floater itself (minus pucks) for if you need it when you go on vacation. Generally we are cautious about draining too much because your water table can exert pressure on the pool shell and cause it to lift out of the ground.

 

[kimkats]

There is always a chance of the pool popping or something going very wrong if you drain the whole thing so we say leave 1' in the shallow end to be on the safe side.

I do NOT want to be the one that causes you to ruin your pool!

Kim

 

[lovemyazpool]

There is always a chance of the pool popping or something going very wrong if you drain the whole thing so we say leave 1' in the shallow end to be on the safe side.

I do NOT want to be the one that causes you to ruin your pool!

Kim

Ah, got it! Thank you for the advice!

 

[gwegan]

One point you need to understand is that the CYA test, like the Ph test, has limitations. With CYA the test will show 100 (or close to 100) at any level of CYA above 100. So if your CYA is 200 the test will be showing 100. If you drain 1/2 and refill your test will still be showing 100. So It may very well take a few drain and refill cycles to get the CYA down to 40.

 

[lovemyazpool]

Thanks everyone for all of the information. The pool drain went well. Once drained, I disassembled the light fixture and everything else I could find and cleaned and bleached the areas as there was a lot of algae in, around and behind everything! Once done with that, we took a 1.5 gallon bleach sprayer and cleaned the entire pool with straight bleach and scrubbers making sure to get under all of the coping as well. We rinsed everything down, cleaned the bottom of everything again and them resprayed the entire pool with bleach and let it sit for the day.

Now we have refilled it and I am going to start to add the chemicals.

We also replaced all of the sand in our Triton II TR100HD filter (it had been 5+ years since the last change). Next Friday we get all of the equipment to install the AutoPilot SWG and Chemical Computers and at the same time we are redoing all of the electrical with a new subpanel at the pump area, surge protection and a new Pentair IntelliFloXF pump to replace our single speed WisperFlo. We also replaced the standard pool vacuum with a Dolphin Oasis Z5 robotic cleaner.

Other than maintenance, this is the only real money we have put into the pool in the 7 years we have owned the house, so I wanted to knock it out all at once. I seriously considered a new DE filter, but in our area, the sand seems to work great!

 

[MarianParoo]

Looks like a new pool! Your hard work paid off.

 

[kimkats]

That is awesome! Looks wonderful!

Now you KNOW where the algae likes to hide the most. Keep those areas in mind when you brush/clean your pool!

Keep your water balanced and brushed from now on and your pool should really be a TFP!

The whys and whats of TFP:

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Print these out and keep by the test kit:

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Some good info:

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

Let us know how things are going please!

Kim

 

[chyvan]

There is always a chance of the pool popping or something going very wrong if you drain the whole thing so we say leave 1' in the shallow end to be on the safe side.

I think this is impossible in AZ. Our water table is too low. I had mine drained from late Oct 14 until Mar 15 until my replaster was done, and nothing happened.

 

[kimkats]

Yeah BUT do YOU want to be the one that tells them "It is fine to drain your pool" and something happens??????? Things can and do happen so I refuse to tell anyone to take the chance. No caused by me.

Kim

 

[Casey]

It's a shame that the pool store drives these pools through the roof in chemicals.

You have done the right thing in draining, scrubbing and refilling and I never say that here at TFP.