First timer Pool Opened with Stabilizer Quesion

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C

Clearly Inspired

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Sep 5, 2015
17
Edmond, OK
So, firstly thank you to everyone on the forum for the great support and wealth of information and shared experiences. You have already made my experience with my pool more tolerable than I thought it would be.

I have read all the good information about pool math, what type of kit to buy, how and when to SLAM etc.

We are first time pool owners and received the pool with a bunch of chemicals that we don't use after we found this site. We kept the pool going trouble free for the duration of the season last year until we closed in October.

I opened the pool really early this year because the temperatures were unseasonably warm and it seemed to be the right thing to do as the water had turned green after a few days above 60 F. We got fooled! The temperature dropped again and we have only used the pool once this season so far.

Here is where the story really starts. For my initial SLAM my CYA was measured at 48 units. So I SLAMmed the pool accordingly. FC, CC, pH, and Alk have all been within TFP parameters. I have noticed though that it is taking quite a bit of chlorine to maintain the pool at 6 ppm FC. The warmer temps, coupled with heavy winds caused water to evaporate. So I added water to ensure the pump wasn't being taxed - sometimes when the water gets too low on the skimmer the pump starts sucking air. The replacement of water made me think that the CYA levels were being messed with. Everyday the FC was around 1.5 to 2.5 with 0 FC. But I read that evaporation will not mess with CYA levels, so obviously the sun is burning it off, but it really seemed like it was burning it very fast for my CYA level.

Since then, we have received quite a bit of rain, so much that the pool has been over flowing and creating a mud pool by the skimmer so I elected to eject some water from the pool via the waste gate on the filter (Only 2 inches (21 foot round pool)).

So for about a week the pool has not been tested and I know the FC and CC is zero. I just checked the pH (7.7) and the Alk (80). Curious as to my CYA even though I should already know that it's 48, I decided to check it again because, as I said, my gut was saying that the chlorine bleach was burning away too fast. My CYA today was less than 30. That seems really low for just draining 2 inches of water out.

Any thoughts?

I am going to raise it 20 points and take another reading.

I would like to swim in it tomorrow after SLAMming it again. The question is - should I wait for the stabilizer to stabilize a few days and then SLAM it (Its a granulated stabilizer)? We expect some heavy rains this week again and we may have to drain some more water out. Adding stabilzier and SLAMming it then seems more logical.

We live in Oklahoma City
 
A SLAM might last more than a day or two. You have to pass the OCLT, have less than 1 CC, amd have clear water. (You can swim up to the SLAM level). You can SLAM at the CYA level you dose to, although it may not read on the CYA test right away.

Are you sure you don't have a leak? Evaporation doesn't cause you to lose CYA. 2" of draining shouldn't cause a big drop. Maybe try a bucket test to make sure you aren't losing water.
 
UPDATE:

The pool has been maintained daily.

Ph is on the high side lately as it continues to creep back up after adding MA. Right now it's 7.8. Alk is at 90. FC after adding chlorine today was 3.5 and CC was less than 0.5.

We have removed the fountain from the return. The Ph is not my issue. We can control that. I think our irrigation system is adding fresh water to the pool every day. Nothing I can do about that except to turn off the irrigation system. What is still bothering us is the fact that we have to add 8 cups of chlorine a day. Is this normal? If it is normal then we won't worry about. I would have assumed that 3 or 4 cups a day would have been more the norm. For the record, it is sunny as all heck here all the time now.

To be clear, the irrigation has only been in use for the past 2 weeks. The amount of chlorine we have been adding has been since we opened the pool.
 
Performed an OCLT a few months back. I am confident we do not have an algae problem because our CC is never above .5. I haven't done another CYA test since (why don't the Kits come with more CYA reagent?) we added stabilizer at the beginning of the season. We had a CYA of 40 then.
 

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