Balancing Pool Myself

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ejs873 said:
Thanks. My goal was to keep the chlorine low in this pool so I just ordered a submersible pump and will pump out 4-5000 gallons and refill at the same time, to keep my levels the same. I am glad I found this website otherwise I would have kept paying the pool guy $100 a month to trash my water!
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If you haven't already ... go and download the Troublefree Pool "PoolMath" app on your mobile. This app will track your test results and chemical additions, as well as calculate the amount of chemicals needed.

For Android devices: Pool Math by TroubleFreePool - Apps on Google Play
For Apple devices: ‎Pool Math by TroubleFreePool

It is tied to the FC/CYA chart too. Definitely worth the couple of dollars for the annual subscription.

If you begin using this, then you can also enable sharing with the forum, which maes it very easy for folks here to see your logs and history. Hover your mouse over my user name, then the "PoolMath Logs" button to see what I mean.

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Stoopalini said:
If you haven't already ... go and download the Troublefree Pool "PoolMath" app on your mobile. This app will track your test results and chemical additions, as well as calculate the amount of chemicals needed.

For Android devices: Pool Math by TroubleFreePool - Apps on Google Play
For Apple devices: ‎Pool Math by TroubleFreePool

It is tied to the FC/CYA chart too. Definitely worth the couple of dollars for the annual subscription.

If you begin using this, then you can also enable sharing with the forum, which maes it very easy for folks here to see your logs and history. Hover your mouse over my user name, then the "PoolMath Logs" button to see what I mean.
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Awesome, thanks.
 
Once you get your pool chemicals in balance, you're gonna find out you will be adding a lot of liquid chlorine during the summer swim season. Make a mental note that once you get there start researching SWG (salt water generating) systems. Went through the same "learning" process you are going through, don't worry there is light at the end of the tunnel
 
JonoVegas said:
Once you get your pool chemicals in balance, you're gonna find out you will be adding a lot of liquid chlorine during the summer swim season. Make a mental note that once you get there start researching SWG (salt water generating) systems. Went through the same "learning" process you are going through, don't worry there is light at the end of the tunnel
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Thats a good point. Once the chemicals are in line, wouldn't the CYA allow the liquid chlorine to stay longer? Lets say I had a CYA of 40 and kept my FC at 5, would I still need to add liquid chlorine daily? Does it burn off that fast even with a consistent CYA level? Thanks
 
The FC will always "burn" off. The experts can provide the exact details, but think of the FC burn as primarily related to sun intensity, swimming activity and other things (think algae) that are consuming FC. The "rate" of burn is primarily those 3 things. You are confusing the FC starting point / baseline in a puck pool (high CYA and rising CYA) with a non-puck pool (stable CYA). In very basic terms, puck pool baseline FC is high and rising. Rate of FC consumption is different factor.

Welcome to the pool party of self manage pool owners!
 
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ejs873 said:
Thats a good point. Once the chemicals are in line, wouldn't the CYA allow the liquid chlorine to stay longer? Lets say I had a CYA of 40 and kept my FC at 5, would I still need to add liquid chlorine daily? Does it burn off that fast even with a consistent CYA level? Thanks
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Chlorine is consumed by two things: UV light and Organic material.

In the summer, you have high UV, and high organic material (due to people using the pool); so chlorine consumption is higher in the summer.

The CYA protects the chlorine from UV, but also limits it's ability to sanitize any organics (ie: limits its ability to turn into HOCl acid, which is what actually sanitizes the water). So there is a balance between too little CYA (where UV will burn it off too fast) and too high CYA (where too much chlorine is required to keep the water sanitized). This is why the FC/CYA chart is so handy.

When you lower your CYA, the chlorine won't last longer in the pool; it'll actually be consumed faster by UV.

During swim season, you will need to add liquid chlorine every day (or posibly every 2 days depending on UV intensity and swimmer load). This is why a lot of us have gone to a salt water chlorine generator; since it produces chlorine on a constant basis. You just dial the production % to offset the UV and swimmer load consumption, and adjust it per season.
 
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Stoopalini said:
Chlorine is consumed by two things: UV light and Organic material.

In the summer, you have high UV, and high organic material (due to people using the pool); so chlorine consumption is higher in the summer.

The CYA protects the chlorine from UV, but also limits it's ability to sanitize any organics (ie: limits its ability to turn into HOCl acid, which is what actually sanitizes the water). So there is a balance between too little CYA (where UV will burn it off too fast) and too high CYA (where too much chlorine is required to keep the water sanitized). This is why the FC/CYA chart is so handy.

When you lower your CYA, the chlorine won't last longer in the pool; it'll actually be consumed faster by UV.

During swim season, you will need to add liquid chlorine every day (or posibly every 2 days depending on UV intensity and swimmer load). This is why a lot of us have gone to a salt water chlorine generator; since it produces chlorine on a constant basis. You just dial the production % to offset the UV and swimmer load consumption, and adjust it per season.
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Thanks for the info. Would have been nice to have all this info when we built the pool! Since it is only 10 months old, Ill be keeping the chlorine system for now, but definitely switching to liquid chlorine. 10 mins a day in the summer isn't that bad!
 
ejs873 said:
Thats a good point. Once the chemicals are in line, wouldn't the CYA allow the liquid chlorine to stay longer? Lets say I had a CYA of 40 and kept my FC at 5, would I still need to add liquid chlorine daily? Does it burn off that fast even with a consistent CYA level? Thanks
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CYA slows FC decay by UV down (a lot), but doesn't stop it completely. There is the active chlorine that's not bound to CYA (called "active" because that's the stuff doing all the sanitizing and oxidizing) that will keep getting destroyed by UV. As it gets destroyed, more will be released from the CYA-protected reservoir. But even the chlorine that's actually tied up with CYA will break down in UV, just a lot slower.

Put it like that: Without any CYA, you will basically loose all of your chlorine over the course of a sunny day, you needed to constantly add new chlorine. With CYA, you will only loose let's say 15-20% of your chlorine over a day, which allows for daily chlorine additions instead of hourly.

Even that is not sufficient for a weekly maintenance schedule, which is why pool services use pucks.

Avoiding the pucks due to their long-term problems leaves to options:

1) Liquid chlorine, either manual daily additions, or automation with a Stenner Pump.

2) Salt Water Chlorine Generator (SWCG, often just SWG). That's the path that many forum members eventually decide to follow - but one step at a time...
 
Did a drain and fill of about 25% of the pool last night. Updated numbers today:

FC - 4.8
CC - 0
PH >8
Acid Demand 6 drops
CYA 75

On the right path! Is the pool math app the best way to find out how much liquid chlorine to add?
 

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ejs873 said:
Sounds good. The app says to add only 1.5oz of Muriatic Acid to lower the pH. That seems like such a small amount. Am I reading this wrong? Thanks
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You must test and enter your TA into the App to get a proper acid calculation.
 
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ejs873 said:
Yes I have. I forgot the TA in the log, that's why. Water here is Crud.. that addition last night pushed the TA to 290!
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That doesn't seem right to me. What is the TA of your fill water? I'm not sure where in area you are in, but I would imagine all of the lakes around here have similar chemistry. My TA has always been around 60, so 290 would seem to be something other than the fill water.
 
JJ_Tex said:
That doesn't seem right to me. What is the TA of your fill water? I'm not sure where in area you are in, but I would imagine all of the lakes around here have similar chemistry. My TA has always been around 60, so 290 would seem to be something other than the fill water.
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We are in Ellis county and our water company uses wells... That could be the issue.. I will test again with a different kit to verify... Seems very high!
 
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