Bought house with pool, high CyA, TDS, etc... need to drain?

[iamwayne]

Howdy,

We just bought a house with a in ground pool.

Took the water sample to get tested with these results from Warehouse Pools in Austin:

Free Chlorine 0.2ppm
Total Chlorine 3.0ppm
Combined Chlorine 2.8ppm
pH 7.6
Hardness 1025ppm
Alkalinity 95ppm
Cyanuric Acid 300ppm
Copper 0.0ppm
Iron 0.0ppm
Total Dissolved Solids 2200ppm

I'm around 1/3 draining the pool right now and then found this forum. Am I doing the right thing? Draining and starting from scratch? From what I've been able to gather since yesterday is that I have to drain the pool completely because of the CyA level and switch to liquid chlorine.

Don't know much about pools besides doing flips into them.. :-D

Water is scare in Texas right now and I really don't want to waste and drain the pool if I don't have to, but from what I can gather, I just might have to because of health reasons if I have kids or multiple people using the pool. It'll cost me over $800 to fill the pool back up with bulk water delivery as I'm on a well and don't want to tap 20,000 gallons out of it...

 

[jblizzle]

Re: Bought house with pool, high CyA, TDS, etc... need to dr

Welcome to TFP!

If that CYA is to be believed (we don't trust pool stores), then the first step we would recommend is replacing a lot of water to lower the CYA into the recommended 30-50ppm.

Read Pool School and stop trusting the pool store. Also order one of the recommended test kits asap.

 

[Isaac-1]

Re: Bought house with pool, high CyA, TDS, etc... need to dr

What he said

 

[iamwayne]

Re: Bought house with pool, high CyA, TDS, etc... need to dr

Hahaha, thanks.

Been reading up on the Pool School section.

We drive by Leslie's and Warehouse Pool Supply in Austin everyday so I brought them the sample and they both said to drain...

I'm ordering a TF100 kit. Really hated to waste all that water especially in a drought but when health reasons are involved, it's a must.

Saw these while reading the pool school section:

• Free chlorine shows the level of disinfecting chlorine available (active plus reserve) to keep your pool sanitary.
  In nearly all cases the best way to lower CYA is to replace water.
  At very high CYA levels, over 80, a partial drain/refill to lower the CYA level is usually required.

Too bad there is no R.O. trailer rentals around here that I can find...

 

[jblizzle]

Re: Bought house with pool, high CyA, TDS, etc... need to dr

Too bad there is no R.O. trailer rentals around here that I can find...

could be a business opportunity

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Bought house with pool, high CyA, TDS, etc... need to dr

Saw these while reading the pool school section:
Free chlorine shows the level of disinfecting chlorine available (active plus reserve) to keep your pool sanitary.
In nearly all cases the best way to lower CYA is to replace water.
At very high CYA levels, over 80, a partial drain/refill to lower the CYA level is usually required.

That's all good stuff. Don't fret much over the R/O.........you could likely drain your pool 8 times to break even, if even then.