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No, that's because it's easier to shock at lower CYA levels. After the pool is cleaned up and balanced, you can bring CYA up to the SWG target level. --paulr

Vaccuum to waste sounds like it would help, as its clogging the filter so fast. Once the stabilizer is in there, that will help, as you've probably been losing significant FC to sunlight. --paulr

Re. the high TA, when you do the R-0009 drops, do they look normal size? That reagent has a static buildup problem sometimes, you wipe the tip with a damp cloth or tissue every few drops to take care of it. --paulr

Usually we say to put the CYA granules into an old sock and hang it in front of a return, because it dissolves relatively slowly. Sometimes it takes up to a week for the CYA to really register so we say don't bother testing for it right away. But, for purposes of figuring your shock level...

You don't have to dump and refill the whole amount at once; you can do it in stages, say 10%-15% of the pool at a time. You end up using more total water in that case, but the pace is slower, and with a well that is probably what you want. Where did you see CYA 80 recommended? That would be...

Some people are happy swimming in any FC up to your shock level. When adding acid, people should stay out of the pool for at least half an hour afterward, give the acid time to mix in. --paulr

No rush on the baking soda. What FPM said; no reason to dump in chems if you're just going to pump half the water out anyway. --paulr

MA and dry acid both work, I prefer MA because the pool already has hydrogen and chlorine in it but over time using dry acid will build up sulfates. Your procedure looks good, assuming you have a "test pH/TA" step before you start adding acid. --paulr

I have my lifetime supply of pucks out in the shed too. Expanding on what mynewpool said... - they are ideal for vacations - if you keep the bucket sealed up they should last for years - if your CYA drops a bit over the winter, you can switch to pucks for a while in the spring to boost it back...

pH a little on the high side, CYA is anybody's guess, other stuff is okay. Waiting on the test kit should be fine. --paulr

Yeah, I got a can't-search-now message a couple minutes ago. User load doesn't look excessive though, around 100. --paulr

Well, that's not too different from the situation in my spa. Borates should help. Make sure your pH/TA are pretty balanced before you add borates, because that will make pH and TA harder to adjust afterward. --paulr

I use borates in my spa, because the aeration was making the pH go up enough to be annoying. It worked for me. Proteam Supreme Plus, if that's what you mean by the pH neutral product, has no CYA in it. --paulr

A water department or pool store should be able to test for iron. --paulr

That can happen with the DPD chlorine test (add drops to the sample to turn it shades of pink, and compare to a color block). The other chlorine tests (OTO and FAS-DPD) don't have that problem. --paulr

If you don't have a main drain or can't shut off the skimmers, then you'd need a sump pump or submersible or something. But, before you do that... do you know whether your well water has iron in it? That's common with well water and leads to other hassles. --paulr

With CYA 40, the recommended shock level is 16, so you're in the right ballpark there. pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock Yes it can take a while. As long as you are losing FC overnight, or you see CC over 0.5, then there is still crud in the water to kill off with chlorine. What kind of...

If we go with 20,000 gallons, then the pool calculator shows 12 lb baking soda to raise TA from 0 to 40. You'll also want to bring up your CYA, which would have to come from a pool store or pool department in a big-box store. It's usually called "stabilizer" or "conditioner" but look at the...

Re: Aerating ABG Pool...Bad idea? Unless the kids are really in the pool all day, it should be fine to play with during a swim and point it back down afterward. Monitor pH as NWMNMom said. --paulr

You can, but that might not completely clear up the algae. You do not have to replace the water before you go to a salt system. Clearing the pool with chlorine first will work just fine. --paulr

First I'd look for liquid chlorine (10%-12% bleach). With low CH, cal-hypo is a reasonable alternative. I would probably accept that the fates are against me, if that doesn't work out. --paulr

The Chlorine/CYA chart shows that for CYA 40, shock level is 16. How much bleach you need depends on where you're starting from. Use the Pool Calculator to figure it out. Combating the pH rise usually means lowering your TA. Don't try that while you're shocking, though; the pH test is not so...

"Shock" is a marketing term; it doesn't distinguish one kind of chlorine from another. Every pool-chlorine compound adds a little salt as well as chlorine; sodium hypochlorite (bleach/liquid chlorine) and lithium hypochlorite (typically very expensive) are the only kinds that don't add anything...

If it's from tftestkits, check out this post and if it's the same problem, send a PM to duraleigh and he'll get you new ones. --paulr

If you're using a Taylor or TF kit to test TA, and it comes out unusually high, the first thing to suspect is a problem where the drops of R-0009 are unusually small or uneven in size. Redo the TA test, and this time wipe the dropper tip with a damp clean cloth every 3-4 drops. --paulr

When I test CH, the blue color is pretty faint, and I found that the builtin light on the speed-stir washed it out. So I tend not to use the light. Decent ambient light and a white background works really well for the color-change tests. --paulr

Another purpose of the skimmer flap is to increase the rate of flow right at the surface, which helps suck floating stuff into the skimmer. If you get enough skimming action without it, then no big deal. --paulr

Slugging, however, is not really such a good technique. Acid should be mixed as quickly as feasible. --paulr

If you use a 25ml sample, then both FC and CC parts of the FAS-DPD test would be at 0.2 ppm per drop of R-0871. But really, it's not that useful in most cases, the 10ml sample is perfectly adequate. --paulr

Welcome to TFP! :wave: We'll try to get your pool tuned up. Do you have your own test kit, or are you relying just on the pool store? At the very least you need to be able to test your own pH and chlorine. The pool store's advice so far is fine, raising your TA and CYA up to reasonable...