Hi everyone,
I’m a relative novice- I’ve had this pool for two years now but this year is giving me terrible grief. My pool heater broke this season and I am not using it (installed a solar cover instead and it’s fine). The insides were completely corroded and falling apart- I suspect as previous owners used Trichor tablets directly in skimmer (it’s a SWG pool…) and probably weren’t educated much on how it can damage the heater. The heater does not have a bypass. This becomes possibly relevant soon…
We had a lot of storms recently and I noticed the pool was cloudy. I had backwashed a lot to keep water level down as it was getting too high. We had a hot day leading up to it and a swimming day with a few people in the pool. Was running the SWG at 3/5 level and didn’t superchlorinate. So suspecting that possibly FC was low and/or filter needed more time to run to clear cloudy water. I ran the filter for about 4-5 days straight and water still cloudy. So I tested it at pool store and I got crazy low CYA of 5 and FC of 0.1, no CC. I had shocked it once prior but still cloudy so when I saw the CYA it made sense that possibly chlorine was just being broken down. As a result I calculated had to add a lot of stabilizer according to pool math around 5kg but only added about 3.6kg to be safe (could always add more after). I also ran the SWG on superchlorinate. 24h later and now got a CYA of 31 (will probably keep going up because still some undissolved- aiming for about 50), but FC 0.3 and CC 1.08! So I figured that any chlorine being generated by SWG was being converted by algae possibly.. so I shocked the water today. Prior to shock, pH was 7.3, calcium 145ppm, TA 129ppm, iron 0.1ppm, copper 0.1ppm (interestingly 0ppm day prior to this), phosphate 14ppb (0ppb day before), salt 3164ppm. Turned off SWG and I used CalHypo. About 2 min after adding shock, pool turned totally green. I can still see to bottom but it’s as if cloudy has now been tinted really green.
Based on my reading, this could be either too much CYA or copper. Copper leaching I wonder is a possibility given the heater issue above. But confusing me why reading is low at either 0 or 0.1ppm? I did read somewhere that testing can “underestimate” the true copper levels?
What are your suggestions? I can have someone come install a bypass on my heater, which will cost a fair bit and I hope can be compatible with a future heater I may purchase, if this is a copper issue, and put in a copper sequestrant? I think having a bypass on any pool heater is important anyway as water chemistry isn’t perfect all the time and will extend heater life. Or should I keep retesting the water to see where CYA settles out and if it’s crazy high and that’s the problem, then have to drain and refill?
Desperate for smarter people than me to help out…. Thanks a lot!
I’m a relative novice- I’ve had this pool for two years now but this year is giving me terrible grief. My pool heater broke this season and I am not using it (installed a solar cover instead and it’s fine). The insides were completely corroded and falling apart- I suspect as previous owners used Trichor tablets directly in skimmer (it’s a SWG pool…) and probably weren’t educated much on how it can damage the heater. The heater does not have a bypass. This becomes possibly relevant soon…
We had a lot of storms recently and I noticed the pool was cloudy. I had backwashed a lot to keep water level down as it was getting too high. We had a hot day leading up to it and a swimming day with a few people in the pool. Was running the SWG at 3/5 level and didn’t superchlorinate. So suspecting that possibly FC was low and/or filter needed more time to run to clear cloudy water. I ran the filter for about 4-5 days straight and water still cloudy. So I tested it at pool store and I got crazy low CYA of 5 and FC of 0.1, no CC. I had shocked it once prior but still cloudy so when I saw the CYA it made sense that possibly chlorine was just being broken down. As a result I calculated had to add a lot of stabilizer according to pool math around 5kg but only added about 3.6kg to be safe (could always add more after). I also ran the SWG on superchlorinate. 24h later and now got a CYA of 31 (will probably keep going up because still some undissolved- aiming for about 50), but FC 0.3 and CC 1.08! So I figured that any chlorine being generated by SWG was being converted by algae possibly.. so I shocked the water today. Prior to shock, pH was 7.3, calcium 145ppm, TA 129ppm, iron 0.1ppm, copper 0.1ppm (interestingly 0ppm day prior to this), phosphate 14ppb (0ppb day before), salt 3164ppm. Turned off SWG and I used CalHypo. About 2 min after adding shock, pool turned totally green. I can still see to bottom but it’s as if cloudy has now been tinted really green.
Based on my reading, this could be either too much CYA or copper. Copper leaching I wonder is a possibility given the heater issue above. But confusing me why reading is low at either 0 or 0.1ppm? I did read somewhere that testing can “underestimate” the true copper levels?
What are your suggestions? I can have someone come install a bypass on my heater, which will cost a fair bit and I hope can be compatible with a future heater I may purchase, if this is a copper issue, and put in a copper sequestrant? I think having a bypass on any pool heater is important anyway as water chemistry isn’t perfect all the time and will extend heater life. Or should I keep retesting the water to see where CYA settles out and if it’s crazy high and that’s the problem, then have to drain and refill?
Desperate for smarter people than me to help out…. Thanks a lot!
