Taking care of our own pool now - do we need a partial drain?

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makmon

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Mar 10, 2025
3
Mesa, AZ
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
First time pool owners here!
We just ended service with a local pool maintenance company. They’ve “taken care” of everything to this point, but we didn’t love the experience overall and we just ended their service this week. The pool has had chlorine pucks continually since we drained and filled last summer. We are ready to maintain the pool ourselves and ordered the Pro kit to check all our levels. Would love some advice as to where to get started. From the looks of high CYA and high calcium, it seems like a partial pool drain is in order so that we can get both of those levels lower. Thoughts?

FC: 5.5
CC: 0.5
CYA: 120
TA: 120
Cl: 5
Br: 10
pH: ~8.2
CH: 825 ppm
Tap water CH: 312 ppm

Thanks in advance!

14k gal, IG pebbletec w/aerator, Pentair IntelliFlo Pro 3 pump, Jacuzzi 420sqft filter, Hayward TracVac suction vacuum, TF Pro Test Kit
 

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makmon said:
CYA: 120
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WELCOME TO TFP!!!

With a CH that high, and CH input water that high, and CYA that high, I would replace 75% of your pool water to get CYA down to 30 and CH down to 200, and start from there.

Read no drain water exchange here:

Draining - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

For AZ and other high CH locations, we recommend that you install a water softener on your fill line. Without it, you will have to drain and replace water often with CH of 300+. It will be an ongoing issue without the softener.
 
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With a CH of 825, do a full drain and refill.
Do you have a whole house water softener? You really need to use softened water for your make up water due to evaporation.
 
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mknauss said:
With a CH of 825, do a full drain and refill.
Do you have a whole house water softener? You really need to use softened water for your make up water due to evaporation.
Click to expand...
Why would our pool’s CH have increased so much when it was filled with 300CH water? Is that solely the effect of the evaporation? If we get a whole-house water softener for our drain+fill, and the make-up water is also softer, would that in theory keep our calcium levels low enough to not have to refill the pool every year? Thanks!
 
makmon said:
Is that solely the effect of the evaporation? If we get a whole-house water softener for our drain+fill, and the make-up water is also softer, would that in theory keep our calcium levels low enough to not have to refill the pool every year? Thanks!
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Yes. Yes. I would fill with the un-softened water (you want some calcium for your pebble and 300 is just fine...also, your water softener will not handle a fill...has to regen multiple times), and use the softened water for make-up. Should keep your CH around 300...
 
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makmon said:
Why would our pool’s CH have increased so much when it was filled with 300CH water? Is that solely the effect of the evaporation?
Click to expand...
Your pool evaporates 1.5 to 2 pool volumes of water each year. Thus evaporation will raise your CH quickly.
 
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