New User Question... Water Ballance / shock

[columbiapool]

Hi,

I help my parents take care of their their Pool and have a quick question. We had the water tested today:

Saturation idx 0.4
TDS 4800
CYA 116
Tot. Chlorine 4.6
Free Chlorine 4
PH 8.1
Tot Alkalinity 99
Adj. Total Alk 64
Total Hardness 213
Salt 3200

The pool store says that the saturation index is high and that I need to to add 26.5 lbs of balance pak 100, then add 6.75 lbs Lo 'N Slo and then 7 bags of burnout3 to eliminate the combined chlorine. The water is clear and looks good, but I do not want to do anything that will hurt the newer plaster that was recently done. So far I have only used Murtic Acid to adjust the PH to 7.5. Do you think I need to add more alkalinity or do I need to just shock the pool with bleach? The pool was filled with well water that has little to no minerals. The pool has been monitored via test strips and monthly pool store analysis. I will be getting a test kit soon. I checked and saw that Burnout 3 is 1lb of 47% Calcium hypochlorite. Using the Pool Calculator it says that 7 bags will bring up the Chlorine to 15, but I noticed that with the data I put in the pool calculator, it says shock level is 27.

Thanks for your help!

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: What does your water look like?

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

My take is that the CYA is too high.

The FC is too low for that CYA as well.

pH needs to come down. TA is fine where it is.

All of this has a HUGE caveat: those are pool store results, which I don't trust. Here's why. As far as test strips go, you'd probably do about as well by swishing a mouthful of pool water around in your mouth and tasting it.

Save yourself the grief and order your test kit from http://tftestkits.net. No one who has a speedstir regrets it, either.

 

[PridgNYC]

Don't order a test kit soon, order a test kit now, it will take a couple of days to get it. You need to have accurate test numbers to take control of the pool. The problem with pool store testing (besides the fact that they tend to be inaccurate) is that you can't bring your samples in at the ideal time to be testing, which is after sundown, and before sunup for FC/CC. Ideally your sample should be tested almost immediately after removing from the pool, unless it is below 70F in temp, in which case you should let it warm up to room temp. CYA needs to be tested in full sunlight with your back to the sun and the sample tube at arms length. pH should also be tested during the day under natural light, overcast is actually best for color comparators.

 

[columbiapool]

Thanks everyone for all the info. My brother is going to bring over a test kit tat he has and said that I can use it until mine arrives. The company that did the new plaster told my parents that they should just use the test strips and monthly pool store test as the test kits are to complicated. We will change that though... They also said that we should keep the CH at 200.

Considering all the rain we have had, to me, the pool water looks great. Since my CYA is on the high side, do I need to address it by draining water, or can I let is slowly go down as we add more water do to evaporation? If I can let it go down slowly, should I just use the Chlorine / CYA Chart and keep the the chlorine between 8 - 12 until the CYA goes down to the correct level? Last question, do I need to shock the pool to get rid of the combined chlorine and then keep a higher free chlorine level or do I just need to bring up the free chlorine level up?

I will try and get a picture taken of the pool today so that you guys can see it. Also, if anyone wants to share target levels that I should keep or work toward, I would appreciate it! Thanks again!

 

[PridgNYC]

CYA won't go down unless you actually drain some water out, evaporation won't do it since only the water evaporates leaving the CYA in the pool, when you top it back up, you end up with the same concentration.