New pool owner……aaaggghhh

[Donldson]

The minerals are bad, the expense is bad, and any trichlor (whether powder, tabs, sticks, etc) adds CYA. Occasional use of trichlor is fine, usually when you will be away for a few days, but if trichlor is your primary source of chlorine then the CYA will build up. High CYA and proportionally low FC leads to bad things.

And while Rick's suggestion is fine, I say just buy an inexpensive floater if you go away for a few days. A lot less work for only a few dollars.

From my HTC One via Tapatalk

 

[Defgufman]

Leave the frog in place, it can't hurt your pool if It's empty. I use it as a chlorinator when I go out of town. Just don't put mineral PACs in there. Like the comment above, I removed the minerals but leave the empty Pac in place.

 

[pool$123]

So I just did my first test without the Frog and here is what I found:
FC: 5.5
CC: .5
PH 7.7 (2 drops needed to get it to 7.4)
TA: 170
CYA: 68
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. They are calling for thunderstorms today so I'm not sure if that would alter anything?

 

[pool$123]

Should I be concerned with TA?

 

[pooldv]

That level of TA will cause your PH to increase faster. So, you need to test regularly and add acid to bring PH to 7.2-7.4. This wil slowly reduce your TA over time. If you want to speed it up try this, Process to Lower Total Alkalinity

 

[JVTrain]

You could try to actively lower TA by pointing up returns etc to increase aeration but if you just lower pH to 7.2-7.4 when it gets to 7.8 or over, TA will come down. Only lower TA until your pH stabilizes at your pools "happy place" for TA versus pH rise.

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

 

[pool$123]

Thanks so much! Do my other numbers look ok?

 

[TH1Racer]

Nope, it's 1 inch pucks in there, they last forever.

BTW, I took one of the bac pac's when it was empty, cut in half, then filled it with 1" tabs from the store and sealed it up with electrical tape. Works great for the few times I need to use it and it's much cheaper.

You could take those back if the store will take them.

When i used the frog I cut a 1.5 Dia hole in the top to fill with tablets then used a 1.5 tapered plastic plug to seal it. Cut the top 2/3 rd off of the mineral pac removing the mineral BS out of the housing so the chlorine pac would seat correctly. Kept it inline but turned the dial to bypass. Worked great but the BBB method is way Better ! If i ever get a vacation I may use it but I am looking into a cheap DIY liquid chlorinator.

 

[Donldson]

Your CYA is a bit high, it would be helpful to lower it but 70 (always round CYA up to the nearest ten) is manageable. At that CYA you want to make sure your FC never drops below 5 ppm. You will want to raise it up to around 8 every day to keep it from dropping below 5. Other than that everything looks fine, like JV said your TA will drop just from you keeping your pH in check.

 

[pool$123]

Do I add chlorine everyday even if I don't test?

 

[Mr Bruce]

How much would you know how to add if you didn't test?

Mostly joking but it's going to take you a while to "learn" your pool's "diet". I can guess pretty good my now, but generally after a year I test every other day, I know about how much to add daily, I just recheck myself 4 times a week. CL and pH daily, full test weekly.

 

[pool$123]

A few more questions: It is raining hard here and in between rains I tested FC and PH. The FC was 5.5 so I put in bleach to increase it to 8. It continued to rain after I put the bleach. So here are my questions:
1/ If we have a few days of rain, should I still be testing and adding the necessary ingredients?
2/ What if the water level goes above the skimmer…..is that ok?
3/ Should I be running the filter during rain?
Thanks!

 

[JVTrain]

You should test pH and TC daily at least with the K-1000 test block. Adjust pH and chlorine as needed. If your pool is uncovered and your TA is marginally high or high, you will likely get a decent pH rise from rain. Not because of the rain water itself but because of the large amount of aeration from all those drops hitting the pool surface.

If the water goes above the skimmer, the skimming action will be reduced. Take that opportunity of excess water to backwash if necessary or just lower water by setting filter to Waste for a while.

Run your filter as you normally would, regardless of rain.

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

 

[pool$123]

Not sure what I need to do…..we just got a bunch of rain and here are my numbers:
FC 7.5
CC 0
PH 8.0
TA 120
CYA 90
And water is at the top of the skimmer and I don't know how to backwash, etc.? Are my numbers ok? If not, what should I do? We are expecting more rain overnight and tomorrow.

- - - Updated - - -

why does my cya keep increasing? It's causing me to increase FC? Im so confused

 

[pooldv]

There are only a couple of ways to increase CYA.

Adding stabilizer/CYA in a sock or skimmer basket. It takes about a week after you add it to fully dissolve and show up on
the test.
Or using dichlor/trichlor pucks or granular shock. Those add CYA every time you use them.

PH is too high, it is important to keep PH between 7.2 and 7.8

Here are the Recommended Levels for your pool.

 

[pool$123]

But I haven't been adding trichlor or stabilizer so I'm not sure why it's increasing? I did add acid to bring ph down

 

[ship of fools]

But I haven't been adding trichlor or stabilizer so I'm not sure why it's increasing? I did add acid to bring ph down

You mentioned your first test was inside. The CYA test should be done in direct sunlight so it is quite possible the lighting was different if your second test was outside.

If neither were outside you should really do one per the instructions to get an accurate reading.

 

[pool$123]

Actually this most recent test was inside so perhaps that is the difference......thanks!

 

[pooldv]

Yes, I did forget to mention testing variation. Thanks for that.

 

[pool$123]

I have a 24' round pool with 54" walls.....the pool store told me 13,600 gallons but I'm calculating 15,200......am I calculating incorrectly?