Hello. I bought a house with a pool about a year and a half ago. I had a pool service guy taking care of it until his business fell apart this summer. He left me with a green pool and my SWG wasn't working. This was quite upsetting right during swimming season. Thanks to everything I've read on TFP, I've got that all sorted out now. I shocked the algae, replaced the salinity/flow/temp sensor, and have gotten my water mostly balanced.
I've been using the Taylor K-2006 and some test strips. The test strips show 1000+ CH. I also tested the CH with the taylor kit and when I got to 90 drops it turned purple, not fully blue, and I gave up at that point afraid I was going to run out of drops. So I know my CH is over 900 and probably over 1000. I'm not sure how it got this high but I don't think my pool service guy was doing a good job...
The rest of my levels, using the Taylor kit, are:
FC: 3
CC: 0
PH: 7.5
TA: 60
CYA: 0
CH: 900+
I know I need to get some CYA in there soon, but I think I need to decide what to do about the CH first since I may end up draining and refilling. I've tested my tap water from the kitchen sink and found the CH to be about 350 (using test strips). According to the city website our tap water averages 338 TH. So if I decide to refill I guess this means I'll need to drain fully...?
Now I've read several other threads about CH on TFP and other sites and some people have mentioned a product (can't remember the name) that claims to reduce CH. Some people seem to say it works while others report it's worthless. Also I've seen some mention of reverse osmosis but I don't know if that's available in my area and if it would be more/less expensive than refilling my whole pool.
Basically what I'm looking for is some advice. Should I just drain/refill? Try the CH reducing product? Try to manage the CH somehow? Or something else? What would you do?
Also, as far as draining, I've heard some people mention things like collapsing walls and floating pools. Are these things I should be worried about if I'm fully draining my pool? Anything I should do to prevent/avoid problems that I'm not expecting?
Thanks!
I've been using the Taylor K-2006 and some test strips. The test strips show 1000+ CH. I also tested the CH with the taylor kit and when I got to 90 drops it turned purple, not fully blue, and I gave up at that point afraid I was going to run out of drops. So I know my CH is over 900 and probably over 1000. I'm not sure how it got this high but I don't think my pool service guy was doing a good job...
The rest of my levels, using the Taylor kit, are:
FC: 3
CC: 0
PH: 7.5
TA: 60
CYA: 0
CH: 900+
I know I need to get some CYA in there soon, but I think I need to decide what to do about the CH first since I may end up draining and refilling. I've tested my tap water from the kitchen sink and found the CH to be about 350 (using test strips). According to the city website our tap water averages 338 TH. So if I decide to refill I guess this means I'll need to drain fully...?
Now I've read several other threads about CH on TFP and other sites and some people have mentioned a product (can't remember the name) that claims to reduce CH. Some people seem to say it works while others report it's worthless. Also I've seen some mention of reverse osmosis but I don't know if that's available in my area and if it would be more/less expensive than refilling my whole pool.
Basically what I'm looking for is some advice. Should I just drain/refill? Try the CH reducing product? Try to manage the CH somehow? Or something else? What would you do?
Also, as far as draining, I've heard some people mention things like collapsing walls and floating pools. Are these things I should be worried about if I'm fully draining my pool? Anything I should do to prevent/avoid problems that I'm not expecting?
Thanks!