I will be draining to deal with high CYA, but...

[adamt]

I'm curious, what do I do once it's been refilled? I'm a newish pool owner and when we finished this pool in August of last year, the contractor took care of the set up for the first month.

Do I just go ahead and add my bleach, test, and go from there?

Thanks

 

[MarianParoo]

Do you have a testkit? Run a full battery of tests except CYA since you should have no CYA. You will knee to start adding that and focus on FC and pH first off.

EDIT: Whoops, my bad. Thought you were totally draining. Ignore me....

 

[kimkats]

My first question has to be.............how are you testing? It would be very helpful if you would put that info in your siggy.

Once we know that info we can go from there.

Kim

 

[Richard320]

First off, test kit.

After drain and refill. allow water to circulate to mix for an hour or so and then run pH, TA, FC, and CYA -- unless you did a 100% drain, in which case it will be zero and you won't need to test it.

Then plug your numbers into poolmath. If you're unsure of what you should target or how to use poolmath, post the test results here and someone will be along to guide you. The short version is FC or pH and while it's mixing, add CYA via the sock method. By the time the sock is rigged, you're probably ready to adjust the FC or pH you didn;t adjust already. Be aware that the pH will read falsely high if you go too high on the chlorine, so pH is probably the wisest choice for the first adjustment.

 

[adamt]

I'm using a K-2006, which I'll add to my sig right now.

When I tested this morning, results were:

FC 5
pH 7.5
TA 130
CH Didn't test
CYA 120-140 using the diluted method

 

[Richard320]

I'm using a K-2006, which I'll add to my sig right now.

When I tested this morning, results were:

FC 5
pH 7.5
TA 130
CH Didn't test
CYA 120-140 using the diluted method

Unless the water is green and murky, you're in good shape. Draining half should get CYA down to a useful number. 60 CYA is not excessive in SoCal.

 

[kimkats]

Good job on adding the test kit info! THANKS!

Print this out and use pool math (in the top bar) to find out how much of each to reach these goals:

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Here is what we use in our pools:

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

You can buy most of it at Target or Walmart. Do NOT run out to buy it just yet. You might not need this or that.

I hope this helps!

Kim

 

[adamt]

First off, test kit.

After drain and refill. allow water to circulate to mix for an hour or so and then run pH, TA, FC, and CYA -- unless you did a 100% drain, in which case it will be zero and you won't need to test it.

Then plug your numbers into poolmath. If you're unsure of what you should target or how to use poolmath, post the test results here and someone will be along to guide you. The short version is FC or pH and while it's mixing, add CYA via the sock method. By the time the sock is rigged, you're probably ready to adjust the FC or pH you didn;t adjust already. Be aware that the pH will read falsely high if you go too high on the chlorine, so pH is probably the wisest choice for the first adjustment.

Great! Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

Good job on adding the test kit info! THANKS!

Print this out and use pool math (in the top bar) to find out how much of each to reach these goals:

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Here is what we use in our pools:

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

You can buy most of it at Target or Walmart. Do NOT run out to buy it just yet. You might not need this or that.

I hope this helps!

Kim

Thank you! This forum has been very helpful.

 

[adamt]

So you told me to come back if I had questions...so here I am.

I drained probably 90% of the pool to deal with the CYA. Refilled and tested. Here are the results:

FC: 2.5
pH: 7.8
TA: 100
CH: 110
CYA: 15

I'm about to go to the pool store to buy some calcium chloride to deal with the CH level. I plugged my results into the calculator and it shows I need to add 31 pounds of calcium chloride. Is that right? The bucket says 1.25 pounds per 10,000 gallons.

As far as the CYA, am I looking for chlorine stabilizer? Or conditioner?

Thanks

 

[Isaac-1]

My math says 28.5 pounds for the CH increaser, but we may be using slightly different goal numbers. Either way you want to target the low end of the desired range for CH as it will rise over time due to concentration caused by water evaporation. As to the CYA stabilizer and conditioner are the same thing, just depends on the brand, you can even buy it in most big box stores that sell pool supplies. For the CYA just put it in an old sock and hang it in front of a water return, it will take a few days to dissolve and can take a week more to show up on the test, so don't get in a rush to retest.

Ike

p.s. are you sure the bucket does not say it will raise CH by 10 ppm in 10,000 gallons per 1.25 pound?

 

[MarianParoo]

Stabilizer/conditioner are the same things. Look for the ingredients. You want >94% "pure" cyanuric acid. Hopefully higher.

 

[adamt]

p.s. are you sure the bucket does not say it will raise CH by 10 ppm in 10,000 gallons per 1.25 pound?

Yeah, I just saw that. Thanks for the advice. I'll aim for 29 pounds of CH increaser.