New to pools and forum w/ a question

[Rkeylor]

I recently purchased a house with an existing pool. The previous owner left me a bucket of pucks and told me all I had to do was keep one in the skimmer at all times. Sounded very easy. Well I have now, thanks to a few buddies at work, read through pool school and researched some of my other questions through prior forum posts. I seem to, based on what I learned here, have everything with the pool doing well.

The only question I have is my CYA level is still 0 ppm or undetectable even though I added stabilizer a week and a half ago, but using bleach at around 9pm every night I raise my FC level to 3 ppm and by the following night I am still around 1 to 1.5 ppm FC. With that being said do I need to address the very low CYA level? I am using the taylor t-100 test kit for both FC, CC and CYA. Here are my levels of what I measure from tonight if that will help at all:

FC - 1 - 1.5 ppm
CC - 0
PH - 7.8
TA - 100 ppm
CYA - 0 or undetectable

Thanks for your time and all the valuable information that has already been provided.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Just to clarify you have the TF 100 from TF testkits? It uses Taylor reagents but is not packaged by Taylor. Not trying to be picky, but it helps us to answer questions if we know exactly which kit you have. Taylor makes a 1001 that does not have the sames tests as the TF 100.

When you added CYA did you broadcast it into the pool or did you put it in a sock and let it soak in the skimmer or in front of a return? If you broadcast it into the pool did you vacuum and/or backwash before 7 days had passed? How much CYA did you add?

 

[Rkeylor]

It is the T-100 from TF testkits. I put it in a sock and then into the skimmer. That was last Monday night. I have not yet backwashed the filter but I did vacuum the pool today. I added about 2 lbs of stabilizer.

 

[zea3]

2 pounds should have raised the CYA to around 30 ppm. Does the solution get cloudy at all when you run the test? Which brand of CYA did you use?

 

[Rkeylor]

It was hth stabilizer and conditioner. The last quarter of the viewing tube it does get cloudy but never enough that I can't see the black circle.

 

[Rkeylor]

I guess all I'm really looking for is should I add more stabilizer or am I fine considering my chlorine level doesn't drop drastically during the day.

 

[jblizzle]

So it has been less than a week since you added the CYA? It may not all be showing up in the test yet. Since your FC is holding, I would just leave it as is for now and maybe check it next week.

Of course the season is winding down, not sure if you need to worry about raising it this year still or not.

 

[AimeeH]

Welcome to TFP

And all that stabilizer in the sock is dissolved? Silly question but mine will sit there a week if I don't massage that sock once in a while.

 

[Rkeylor]

Yes I took the sock out last night before I posted and everything appeared to be dissolved. However it was in the skimmer for 10 days. Is it better to leave it in a sock or dissolve it in a bucket and dump it in for next time? And thank you everyone that replied I appreciate all the advice.