Increasingly difficult pool to balance, keep chlorinated

[Fuzzytuna]

Hello -- first time posting. We have a 12-year old pool in No. Calif. For about the last year or two we have had increasing green algae, powdery/sandy substance collection daily on bottom of pool, excessive chlorine consumption, and cannot get it to balance, continues to need more and more soda ash. The plaster is beginning to erode, is very rough all over the place so I do believe we need to replaster but I also think that from what I read on this forum, the use of trichlor/dichlor floating auto feeder tablets (which we have done exclusively for all 12 years, daily) has caused some of the erosion and problems with have with balance and algae.

So here is my question, once we invest in replastering the pool using DiamondBrite this Fall, what are the best ways to keep a well-balanced, pool with good chlorine levels? When it was a new pool we did not have any of the problems we are seeing now. We would just put a few tabs in the auto chlorinator, add some liquid chlorine and acid about once a week and things were great. Now, can't get it balanced, horrible little bugs that bite in it all the time, lots of green algae, and needs to be shocked all the time to get it to good levels. Very discouraging.

We don't know anything about this topic of CYA levels but it seems pertinent from what I am reading.
Thanks.

 

[duraleigh]

what are the best ways to keep a well-balanced, pool with good chlorine levels?

That's an easy one. Test your water accurately and then understand what to do with your test results.

There's lots of ways to keep your water where it belongs but you must, must find out where it is by testing.

 

[sbn56]

Greeting and welcome to TFP - simply the best pool-related resource around!

It would appear you are suffering the typical case of ever-increasing CYA (stabilizer) in your pool, which in turn causes your minimum CL levels to continually increase - using more trichlor / dichlor to maintain those higher CL levels just puts more CYA into your pool - vicious downward spiral!

If you want to continue to use the pool before you replaster, first obtain a quality test kit like the TF-100, and while you are waiting for its arrival, read Pool School. And read it again. Repeat as necessary. Absolutely priceless resource.

Ultimately you will likely need to drain a bunch of water to get your pool manageable again - since you mentioned replastering this fall, that might be the time to do it if you want to conserve a little.

The methods outlined hereabouts will save you money (lots of it), save you grief, and produce a pool that's the envy of the neighborhood!

Feel free to ask questions, but I needed to put in my 2 cents worth!