First Sample Advice - Conversion to TFP Method

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J

jfuredy

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Jul 17, 2015
12
Phoenix, AZ
So, I got tired of fighting algae in my pool, so I did some research and found this forum. I loved the idea of using cheap generic chemicals (rather than expensive proprietary mixes of chemicals) that will allow me to adjust one single parameter at a time. I figured I couldn't do any worse than the pool store, so I bought the K-2006 kit. (I'd quit doing my own testing because I always had trouble with the color matching tests.) Here are the results from my first sample:

FC: 0.2ppm
CC: 2+ppm
pH: 6.8
TA: 30ppm
CH: 800ppm
CYA: 200ppm

Obviously I need a SLAM. And either I really messed up the CYA test, or two years of 3" pucks have really put me in a tough position. I know the CYA is way too high, which will result in a really high chlorine demand, right? So my thought was to try to get the CYA down to a more reasonable level before I do a SLAM so I don't need a truckload of bleach. I have started to do some water exchanges, but since it's summer in Phoenix I can only do about 5-6 inches per day (which is about 10% of my pool volume). It looks like I would need to do this about 13 times in order to get my CYA from 200 down to 50ppm, so I'll check it again in about a week to gauge my progress.

So, am I on the right track? Or should I be making other adjustments first? Or in parallel with the water replacement? I just figured there wasn't much point in putting chemicals into water that I'm going to be dumping out tomorrow.
 
First bit of advice is to stop using the 25ml sample when checking FC and use the 10ml sample. It saves on reagents...

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Have you read POOL SCHOOL yet? If not, do, and get the recommended levels. Then, go here http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html and enter your data. I have no experience with plaster pools. Your CYA is way too high. Just keep at it, lowering a bit at a time and you will get there. I maintained a high CYA pool at 12-14ppm FC one summer. It will also take a truckload of bleach to SLAM that pool. Not fun, but no algae either...
 
Great! Thanks for the feedback. I have read through Pool School, and I have some water chemistry background already, but I'm new to pool care. So I just wanted to make sure I was going about this in the right order, and I wasn't overlooking something I just haven't learned yet. I'll keep pounding away at it.
 
So, I finally got my CYA down in the 30-40ppm range, so I started my SLAM. (It's hard to tell what my CYA really is given how cloudy/green my water was from the algae. I'll test and adjust the CYA once my SLAM is done.) I started my SLAM four days ago, and have put in a total of 23 gallons of 10% bleach. At the beginning I was burning through about 10ppm of chlorine per hour, and today I am down to less than 0.5ppm per hour of consumption. After reading other threads on here I decided it was time to look for hideouts of algae, so I made sure I had flow through all of the lines (including the vacuum port that I don't normally use), and I removed the pool light. I read that the pool light is a good place for algae to hide, but I didn't expect it to be this bad given how clear the rest of the pool looks! Look at the pics below.

Now that I've done all of this, I'm hoping that when I do my OCLT tonight I will pass. Then I can move on to balancing everything else more carefully. Thanks to everyone for providing this GREAT resource. You have no idea how satisfying it is watch your pool go from nasty green to crystal clear in just three days. And to have the data to backup that it is truly CLEAN. Thanks again.

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