I've been a pool owner for 8 years now, and have been doing self-maintenance for 7.9 years (only took a few weeks of having a pool guy before realizing I needed to do this myself). I discovered this gem of a website a few weeks ago -- not sure how this site managed to escape me for so long but just happy to be on-board now.
Anyway, enough on the life story intro, on to my question. Shortly after reading this forum, I purchased a Taylor K-2006 test kit to understand the real chemistry of my water, and here are the results:
FC: 3.0 ppm
CC: 0 ppm
PH: 7.6
TA: 130 ppm
CH: 1050 ppm
CYA: >100 ppm
I think it's obvious which chlorination method I've been using from the numbers above... yep, Trichlor pucks. So, what to do next. From reading various postings, I've concluded that I must get CH and CYA levels down ASAP, and the most direct way to do this is to purge and replace my water. So, what are all of the practical options? I could do a complete drain and replace but I was thinking about maybe draining 1/3 to 1/2. The other thing is that my plaster does have stains, and it seems like the time to address this, if I'm already thinking about draining the pool. I'd rather not do a full blown acid wash, so what if I drop PH on the partially filled water and spot treat the plaster exposed from partial draining? Just throwing a few thoughts out there but I'd like to get your collective opinions and ideas.
Thanks in advance...
Anyway, enough on the life story intro, on to my question. Shortly after reading this forum, I purchased a Taylor K-2006 test kit to understand the real chemistry of my water, and here are the results:
FC: 3.0 ppm
CC: 0 ppm
PH: 7.6
TA: 130 ppm
CH: 1050 ppm
CYA: >100 ppm
I think it's obvious which chlorination method I've been using from the numbers above... yep, Trichlor pucks. So, what to do next. From reading various postings, I've concluded that I must get CH and CYA levels down ASAP, and the most direct way to do this is to purge and replace my water. So, what are all of the practical options? I could do a complete drain and replace but I was thinking about maybe draining 1/3 to 1/2. The other thing is that my plaster does have stains, and it seems like the time to address this, if I'm already thinking about draining the pool. I'd rather not do a full blown acid wash, so what if I drop PH on the partially filled water and spot treat the plaster exposed from partial draining? Just throwing a few thoughts out there but I'd like to get your collective opinions and ideas.
Thanks in advance...