Struggling with numbers

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swimcoach

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Jun 14, 2012
10
This is our 2nd summer with an inground pool. Last year it was balanced by the company that installed it, and all I had to do was shock it. It's 29,000 gallons w/ gunite. We have an automatic clorine tube with 3" tabs and a nature 2 system. Here are my readings from Saturday at our pool store:

CYA:119---Their test range is 30-200, so they say this is normal. I've read on your sight it's on the high end. They sold me stabilizer a few weeks ago because it wasn't in range, and we were using cal-hypo chlorine for the winter but I switched to diclor about a month ago. I've been reading about using liquid chlorine here.
TC: 0 I had not shocked in a week.
pH:7.4
TA: 109
Adj. TA: 73 ---For which they told me to use 12 lbs of sodium bicarbonate. 4 lbs every 3 hours. I've only done this once so far.
Total Hardness: 399---No distinction of calcium etc. For this, they sold me a sequestering agent, and I was told to use 47 ozs. I have done this.

What chemicals would you suggest. I have kids in the pool everyday, all day. I teach private swimming lessons.
Thanks for any advice.
 
Im certainly not an expert as Ive only owned our pool for about a month. But that CYA seems really high to me. And if your are using an automatic feeder and you only have TC after shocking then I would guess you arent really shocking the pool at all. I guess with kids spitting and likely peeing in your pool all the time your chlorine demand is higher than most backyard pools and I would jump on that zero TC first thing. Get some bleach in there and have your feeder checked to see if its working (have no idea how these work as I use a SWCG). Some of the real experts will chime in and give you the correct advice shortly, but get some bleach in that pool pronto would be my advice.
 
How does your water look?

I would manually add chlorine now too! There is a chart in pool school that tells you how much to add based on your CYA level.

How do you test your pool at home? What kit?

And finally, how do I teach my 3 year old to breath while swimming freestyle!?!
 
I strongly recommend you get your CYA level down to something reasonable, preferably around 50 to 60. The only practical way to do that is to replace water. Unless you lower CYA you are going to have a hard time maintaining an appropriate FC level.

I don't see any point in using sequestrant. Your CH level is only a little high, not enough to be an issue.

You never want to let FC get down to zero, never.

With other peoples kids in the pool all the time, I strongly recommend you get your own test kit. That pool is not safe to swim in right now, something you would have noticed much sooner if you had your own test kit.

You really really don't want to be using dichlor. That is what is driving the CYA level up. Trichlor also drives the CYA level up, but not nearly as quickly as dichlor does. High CYA levels make the pool impossible to manage.
 
Preferably you would tackle the high CYA sooner rather than later. Any chems you add before draining are just going to be pumped out.

You can just pour the bleach slowly in front of a return jet. See the Recommended Pool Chemicals article in pool school for how to add various chemicals.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
@harleysilo-At 3 years old it's probably a matter of a developmental issue. Swimming and breathing takes a lot more coordination that most 3 year olds won't have. Just have your child practice bubbling and raising his/her head for air in the bathtub and then in the pool. A side breath with freestyle may be too much to ask at this age. Just tell him/her to continue kicking when he takes a breath so his feet don't fall under him and he stays on top of the water. Hope that helps.
 
You really need to replace water to lower the CYA. Most CYA tests can test up to about 90 okay, and things go downhill from there for accuracy. As mentioned, with zero FC your pool is not safe.

You need a good test kit to take control of your pool. The fav test kit around here is the TF100, link in my sig. They have excellent customer service and fast shipping.

Also, to avoid the CYA problem in the future, you need to choose/use a non-stabilized form of chlorine like bleach/liquid chlorine or SWG.

Welcome to the forum :wave:
 

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swimcoach said:
@harleysilo-At 3 years old it's probably a matter of a developmental issue. Swimming and breathing takes a lot more coordination that most 3 year olds won't have. Just have your child practice bubbling and raising his/her head for air in the bathtub and then in the pool. A side breath with freestyle may be too much to ask at this age. Just tell him/her to continue kicking when he takes a breath so his feet don't fall under him and he stays on top of the water. Hope that helps.
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Thanks! We do have a swim instructor come to our pool once a week and she said that all kids his age go through this stage, and there is really nothing she/we can do. It may be a month or a year before he'll take a breath while swimming. Right now, with goggles on (he loves them), he'll launch himself off the step and swim ~15' to me freestyle while I watch him from underwater. We got to 15' slowly, when he got to 5' and i would go to lift his head above water he would keep it down and keep swimming...

She did tell me wife yesterday that this week she wanted to start working with him on treading water as an effort to get him to breath while swimming.

How are you feeling about taking over your pool chemistry?
 
I ordered the Taylor 2006 test kit from Dave! I had my own last year, and when I asked our local pool store about buying replacement bottles, they said "Oh, don't worry about doing that yourself, just let us do it. Bring it as often as your want." Well, they are not open on Sunday or late Saturday afternoon when I'm working on the pool, so I definitely want to go back to testing myself and more often. I drained the water down to the bottom of the skimmers and refilled. On my test strips it measures lower than 100, but of course I have no specific number. Also, using liquid bleach, I got the chlorine up to 1.0-2.0 range on the test strips. I'm going to drain again tonight to the skimmers and just keep doing it that way until the CYA comes down. I can't drain the pool too much because of the swim lessons daily. I'm also going to buy more bleach tonight, love that!!!! I've been told not to swim in water with a higher FC of 3. Is that not true? I'VE TOLD ALL OF MY POOL OWNING FRIENDS ABOUT THIS SIGHT. IT ROCKS!!!!
 
The advice on this site is that you can swim up to the shock level of your pool per this chart in Pool School pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock

Now since you don't know exactly what your CYA level is you won't be able to calculate your Shock Level and thus the safe limit for swimming (some people will swim in higher levels) but the chart does indicate you'll be fine at levels a lot higher that 3 especially with your presumably high CYA levels.
 
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