New to TFP -- Need Thoughts

[Goontoe]

Hello, I stumbled upon TFP yesterday and have been reading up on the great information here. I have owned a pool for 2 years and have very good luck so far. One thing that has been troubling me for several months now is the rising value of my CYA number. I have been using ProTeam 1" High Tech Tabs as my chlorination technique during these two years which is likely how my CYA number got so high.

Here are the readings (from the pool store, which is pretty good) from this morning. I am about to order my own testing kit.

PH = 7.5
TA = 123
CH = 225
CYA = 222
FC = 9.7
TC = 9.9
TDS = 450

My FC and TC numbers also seem high, but I assume that needs to be high with the high CYA number.

I currently do very little maintenance on the pool. Shock it every other week, add the tablets to the chloronator once a week or so, add Microfloc Clarifier every other week.

So, I am torn between continuing on the way I have done things the past 2 years or if I should try the BBB approach which sounds like it would be a more daily maintenance. I am leaving for vacation in about a week and will be gone for about a week, so I likely will not do any major adjustments until I return.

Any thoughts? Are the ProTeam products good products to stick with for simplicity and ease? If it ain't broke, don't fix it? Thanks!

-G

 

[Bama Rambler]

With a CYA of over 200, it's not if but when you have a problem. When that happens and the Pool Store sells you hundreds of dollars worth of magic fixes that doesn't work and then tells you that you have chlorine lock and you'll have to drain your pool anyway, you'll come back. Because We're going to tell you that you're going to have to drain some water and we're not going to try and sell you chems before we do that. Not only that, but we'll teach you how to keep that from happening again.

Getting a good test kit is the first step in the process. Then reading Pool School and learning how to manage your pool.

We're glad to help anyway we can. And we won't charge you an arm and a leg to do it.

 

[HotShot53]

If you don't want to deal with adding chlorine every day, you can look into getting a chlorine pump to add it for you, or a salt water chlorine generator that will make the chlorine for you with just adding a little salt once or twice a year. (There are sections of the forum for each of those topics.)

 

[Goontoe]

Thanks for the replies. I have my test kit on order now. I'm thinking that between now and when we leave for vacation, I will drain a small percentage of the water every night and then refill to the normal level in an attempt to get the CYA number down to a manageable number. Then will start the new process when I return.

 

[RobbieH]

I currently do very little maintenance on the pool. Shock it every other week, add the tablets to the chloronator once a week or so, add Microfloc Clarifier every other week.
-G

Shocking your pool every other week is not only way too much maintenance, but is an unnecessary expense!

 

[Goontoe]

RobbieH, yeah, I'm starting to sense that. I was just following orders from the pool company. I would throw about 2-4 lbs of shock in the pool every other week.