New House with an Out of Wack Pool

[BTR5229]

Hello all,

We just bought a house with a pool from the early 80's. For the first couple of weeks we have had our water tested at the pool store and the general results were that we could never keep chlorine in the pool, it was always at 0. The only response they had was that our nitrate level of 30 was to blame. They had us using the floating chlorine dispenser with chlorine tabs and even had us add 3 bags of Chlor-brite and come test the next day and the results were still 0. I started doing my own research and realized these chemicals are not the most ideal to use in our pool so I decided I would take things into my own hands. I've read through the pool school a few times so I have a general understanding of the path forward, but any advice from the experts would be greatly appreciated. I bought the TF-100 kit and did my first test tonight. Below are my results.

FC- 0
CC - 0 - 0.5
TC- 0 - 0.5
CH - 500
TA- 100
CYA - 80
PH - 7.2

Is draining some of the pool going to be the best place to start in order to get the CYA level down? We are starting to see a slight amount of algae, mainly on the stairs.

THANKS!

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Yes, you should drain about 50% of your water and refill. Use http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html to get a better estimate of how much to drain. That will also help lower the CH level, which is a bit high.

 

[BTR5229]

Thank you for all of the help!

After the drain and refill/retest will adjusting the chlorine level (SLAM) be the first step? Once the chlorine level is stable should I retest and then post the results and go from there?

 

[pooldv]

Yes, as soon as it is full lower PH to 7.2, test CYA so you know your shock level and SLAM Process. Follow all the steps, the more diligent you are testing, adding and brushing the faster it will go.