Probably screwed this up already :(

[niget2002]

Hello All,

We just moved in to our house with a pool two weeks ago. I added a pool cleaner (barracuda G2 with leaf canister), which has done an awesome job of cleaning the bottom of the pool, and I can start to see the bottom of the deep end. I do have some experience with pools, as we had a small above ground at the last place, but it had a SWG, and this one does not (yet).

The problem is, to get to this point, I've basically been putting two bags of 'shock' powder into the pool each day. Which, by reading this site, I just found is probably raising my CYA also .

The pool is between 15-20k gallons. (I need to get in it with a tape measure and get real depths and measurements). I bought the big measuring kit from Leslie's, so I'll take full measurements tomorrow morning. Last Saturday, I had them test the water and the CYA was 'around 30'. There has not been any 'chlorine smell'.

Does anyone have an idea of how badly I've screwed my CYA by putting 10 bags of shock in my pool?

Thanks in advance.

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, niget2002

If the shock powder is dichlor (look at the label and post what is says), then 10 lbs would have raised a 15k pools cya level by 40 ppm...so that is on top of whatever cya was in the pool. I would purchase an appropriate test kit, so that you know for sure what level you are at. Pool store test results can be very inconsistent,and cya is one that they often get wrong the most.

Other than the shock, how are you chlorinating?

 

[Bjarni]

Hi niget and welcome to the forum.
Was going to reply and see that linen beat me to it. I 2nd everything he said.

 

[niget2002]

The powder is Trichlor

http://www.lowes.com/pd_233620-1772-255 ... facetInfo=

I've been using 10% Liquid bleach as well, but only the powder this week.

 

[linen]

The powder is Trichlor

Then the 10 lbs of trichlor powder would have raised your cya by 44 ppm on top of what was already in the pool.

 

[Bjarni]

Like linen said, without a good test kit and reliable numbers its going to be just about impossible to know how to help you. How have you come up with how much liquid bleach or powder to add each day? Is it based on something?

 

[niget2002]

The highly scientific method of tlar. I won't be home tonight, so I will take measurements in the morning and start adjusting appropriately. With us still moving in, my thought was to use the shock to at least get something into the pool. I'm finding that I should have just been pouring bleach in instead of the shock.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[linen]

Make sure you get familiar with The Pool Calculator, that is also where I got the calculations you asked for above (in "The effects of adding chemicals" section).

 

[niget2002]

Here were my values from Saturday morning. I need to get some distilled water for testing the higher FC counts:

FC 5+
pH 7.5
TA 80
CH 230
CYA 60

Sunday evening
FC .5
CC .5
(TC 1)
Other values were the same

I've stopped using the powder shock and I bought some 10% chlorine from Lowe's. I'll start dosing this instead of the powder shock. The slightly high CYA does not bother me as the plan is to install a SWG for Christmas.

Regarding the Pool Calculator, I have an app on the Andriod, 'Pool Pal', that I've been using that looks to give similar/same results. I didn't think to start plugging in values to see what 'could' happen.

Thanks for the added information, guys.

 

[Leebo]

Which test kit are you using?

 

[niget2002]

A Leslie's test kit, which from the pool school I read, "The Leslie's kit is just a private label Taylor K-2006".

 

[Bama Rambler]

Looks like you've been sold the wrong kit. That sounds like the K-2005 equivalent. You can add the FAS-DPD test from tftestkits to make it the equivalent of the K-2006.

 

[niget2002]

Yup. You're right. Mine's just the drop checks. I wasn't sure what the difference was, but looking at pics on google, I can see the difference now.

I'll get a fas-dpd test ordered.

 

[niget2002]

OK. Stopped using 'shock' and started using straight liquid bleach.

Pool is still clearing, but I can finally see the drains at the bottom of the pool. Since I can see the bottom of the pool, I can see the few places the pool cleaner doesn't always catch and have been hitting those with a brush when I clean the walls.

Went ahead and swam in the pool a couple of times this week, and haven't had any irritations. Will wait for the pool to completely clear before having the pool party. It is getting near the end of the season, though.

In the pic, you can see the cleaner going to work. You can also see that my hot tub has some sand/silt in the bottom I need to vacuum to waste. You can't make out the drains mostly due to the ripples in the water.

 

[Bama Rambler]

It's definitely looking better.

Did you ever get the FAS-DPD test?

 

[niget2002]

The test kit is on order. Right now, I'm using the '5' as a worst case and adjusting chlorine based on it... rounding down to the next gallon. As long as I don't drop below '5', I think I'm at least doing OK.

Once the new test comes in, I'll start being more accurate.