CYA jumped up WAY too high

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T

tfrain

0
Jun 30, 2014
13
Olive Branch, MS
I drained my pool down to 6" above shallow end to try and dilute iron in my pool (didn't want to add sequestrant all summer). Replaced the water and turned it over 24 hours, pump on the whole time, pulling from skimmer and drain.

Started to rebalance water to get ready for SWG that I just installed. First thing I did was check chlorine and dump 3 of the 1/2 size bleaches from aldi in the pool just to kill anything if it was trying to start (took a while for hose to refill).

FC 6.5
CC 0
TA 50
CH 50
CYA 0 (more on this)
PH 7.5

My CYA had been low all winter, nearly 0. Pool was left open as I'm in the south. Added bleach as needed, usually every 2 to 3 days. Had some water get behind the liner once, I believe from overflowing when I was out of town (I think wife didn't notice until it was too late).

First thing I did was start to get CYA back up. Since I am going salt, I was going to start by getting close to 60. Per calculator, I would need 15lbs of granular CYA. I checked levels with TF100 (overflowed the tube and could still see dot) as well as aquacheck strips. 18" dip from pool after turning new water for 24 hours.

Instead of 15, I only added 12 to see where it would be. Slowly added to skimmer last night. I also added 10 bags of salt (all I could get in car - I need 11 more).

Just out of curiosity, i went to check it this morning and it was somewhere around 90!!! I checked both sides, hoping it might be higher on the return side. NOPE. STILL 90.

I immediately went and backwashed hoping to get whatever was left in the filter out of there and hopefully not have to drain it again. I probably washed out a bunch of salt as well, but oh well.

My question is, WHAT GIVES?!?

I thought I was being conservative by only adding 12lbs!

Does the CYA levels spike or something for a little while?

I don't really understand how it could happen.

Thanks,
Tom

PS - I forgot to mention that the PH went down to 6.8. I recall reading that the CYA test is not as accurate unless above 7? Could this and/or the cold water affect the readings??
 
What are your pool details?

Please add them to your forum signature. Need to know the volume of your pool and the dimensions to get in the same ballpark with you.

Also, please add your state to your profile so we can help you better.
 
We need to know your pool volume to have a chance at sorting this out. Also, I have no idea where Olive Branch is.

Please add your location (City, State or City, Country) to your profile and pool details to your signature as described HERE as it will help us help you.
 
Sorry Guys!! I got pulled away and forgot to type that in. I think I saved my signature correctly now.

If not:
18 X 36 Vinyl Rectangular with Fiberglass End Steps and a Swimout
~29,000 Gallons
2 Skimmers/1 Drain
Pentair Easytouch 4 w/IC40 SWG
Pentair Intellflo VS
Pentair Kreepy Krawly 820 Robot
1 1/2" PVC Plumbing
Waterfall/Sheer
Hayward Sand Filter

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whoops - had too many lines
 
tfrain,

There is a shiny, Gold Star going into your membership folder for reading and following our (sometimes a bit picky) rules. Thanks!:mrgreen:

Now when did you put the CYA in? No, it does not jump all over the place but it tends not to register for often as long as a week and the test itself is somewhat difficult to master when you first start.

Since your calculations look correct, I think you are safe to assume there is that the CYA is at the dosage you calculated. I'd give it at leqast four days to get a good reading and sometimes a bit longer up to a week.
 
How deep is the pool? I have a feeling it is not nearly 29k gallons. Even if it was 8 foot deep on one end that would only be about 24k gallons. If it is only 5 foot deep, that would be about 20k gallons.
 
You may be right aboit gallons. I was just going off pool guy. I measured and it was 3 feet deep in shallow and 8 in deep end. According to poolcalc it would be 26700. I've been using 29k since last year. I guess I've just been getting lucky and shortchanging when adding chemicals. Even so, I don't get how it is reading 90 to 100 now. I just checked it again. Showing 100. Oh and I backwashed when I saw it was so high so hopefully it won't climb anymore. My wife has something planned for 8th. I guess I'll drain some down to try to meet that date if too high in a few days. Is frustrating when I thought I was on right path. Live and learn I guess. Thanks for the help!
 

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Any guesses on how far down to drain to remove 30% of water? I've been looking at the intelliflo chart and arguably I'm either moving 36 or 50 GPM, depending on how I setup the estimate. I was going to shoot for right between that and run it for 3 hours on waste.

But if you have experience with it, how far down the steps would that be? I'm not sure how many gallons would be in the hopper and how many would be in the rest.
 
Just an FYI here, I used the test strips upon opening of my pool. A quick test (just a dip of the strip) and I thought the CYA was also at zero (0). It was 100 last year. I thought , wow, it went down over the winter, great ! I tested the water again, 10 minutes later maybe, using the test strip as direction stated to, wait 15 seconds than compare on chart, and it was at 100 !!! My point here: You may have done just the same exact thing as I did with the test strips, which was just too quick of a dip and immediately read the chart for comparison. Just a thought.
 
Here's me sending from my phone...

# Sent from mobile device. Beware of brevity and spelling errors!

Browser Edit: Phone works just fine with signature. Maybe their is a syncing delay between updating signature through browser versus Tapatalk app (which I assume you're using)?
 
I have those same strips - the wait 15 second kind - I only use those for a quick "am I in range with most stuff" checks. In this case, I did the TF100 test with the dot test at waist level, and overflowed the tube and could still see the dot, which means 0 - correct? I did a strip test to confirm this reading.

The only thing I can think of is the batch I got must have been more concentrated or something, or my water wasn't thoroughly mixed when i tested (although I let it run for 24 hours at a speed really fast enough to turn it twice). Even factoring in my miscalculation on how many gallons are in my pool, I should have ended up around 60 or 70ppm CYA, not 100.

Weird.

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JVTrain said:
Here's me sending from my phone...

# Sent from mobile device. Beware of brevity and spelling errors!

Browser Edit: Phone works just fine with signature. Maybe their is a syncing delay between updating signature through browser versus Tapatalk app (which I assume you're using)?
Click to expand...

no - was using firefox beta from android
 

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