Dont' Want to Drain my Pool

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bswicht

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Jul 2, 2014
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Middletown, MD
OK group, I have a question. The CYA level in my pool is about 90. I know my options are limited (tons of chlorine or partially drain the pool). Since we have about a month at most (probably about half that before water becomes too cool to swim in), and my DH doesn't use it that much other than dive in, cool off then come out again, it doesn't make sense to me to spend over $1000 for water. So my question: Can we keep throwing in algicide to prevent the pool from turning green?
The last test if did was as follows:

FC 0
CC 1
pH 7.4
TA 110
CH 220
CYA 90

The CYA is so high because I stupidly decided to go the easy route in the spring and shock it with shock and granules, both of which had created high CYA. I also used an automatic chlorinator which added even more CYA to the mix. So now I'm paying for my foolishness in not following the BBB method. I've more or less written off this swimming season. I plan to drain 1/2 the water when I close the pool, then if last winter is any indicator, it will fill up fast. Then I'll start the SLAM in the spring.
Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated. It's all I think about and it's making me crazy.
 
First of all, we don't recommend using algaecides. They have nothing to do with your FC being ZERO. You don't have to drain it half way down all at once at the moment to help your cya out. spread out a couple of "mini" drains and live with it till the end of season. Why wait on a SLAM if you will use the pool? It's gonna be one heckuva lot worse in the spring. It is currently unsanitary. How are you testing?
 
Thanks for the response. Since my test kit (TF1005) is pretty old, I ordered the TF100 Test Kit and Speed Stir yesterday. I'll test again once I get my kit. I'm on well water and it takes a long time to fill even a mini drain, but I'll give it a try. While waiting for the TF100, should I add chlorine this evening and do the overnight test?
 
Why is FC 0? The only reason algae grows is inadequate chlorine levels. The only way to prevent algae is to maintain chlorine at the appropriate level. The only way to kill algae is to SLAM the pool. Even the algaecide bottles say not to add to pools with algae.

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Having the chlorine level below minimum for your CYA will let algae grow and the pool will be unsanitary with greatly increased risk of person to person disease, bacteria and virus transmission.

Chlorine level is set based on CYA and the Chlorine CYA Chart. Always keep chlorine at target level and never let it drop to minimum level. Now that algae is present it is necessary to SLAM to kill the algae or it will continue to grow and consume your chlorine at a rapid rate. Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
 
First off 90 is not as bad as some I've heard.

SLAM level is 35 and target is 10. Minimum is 7. With a 35,000 gallon pool you'll need a LOT of bleach to complete the SLAM process. Then you'll need to bring it to 10 every day once stabilized and make sure it never drops below 7.

If you only have a month left and you definitely won't use the pool until next year, it would be tempting (to me) to just drain the whole thing and start over in the spring. I don't know what your water costs though and I don't know if there's any downside to leaving it empty. I guess you get rain there (unlike us out West haha) so it won't stay empty. In that case you'll have a mess in there so perhaps that's a bad idea.

The alternative is partial drain now to get CYA down, or just deal with high CYA level. I'm surprised it would cost $1000 to replace half your water. That's more than water costs in Arizona!
You can buy a LOT of bleach for $1000. Good luck!
 
bswicht said:
Can't the FC be 0 because of high CYA? I thought I read in Pool School that if the CYA is high it take much more chlorine to get a sustained FC level. I'm so confused!
Click to expand...
CYA buffers chlorine so you need more to get results. At your CYA level of 90 you need 35 FC to get the same results as someone with 30 CYA and 12 FC. CYA does not cause FC to read any differently on the test, it just buffers its affect on sanitation and oxidation.

This chart shows you what your Minimum, Target, and SLAM FC is for different CYA levels: Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart. Essentially all of the minimums, all of the targets, and all of the SLAM numbers provide the same active chlorine levels.
 
I just did a SLAM with CYA level of 80. It wasn't that bad- spent about $75 on bleach, far less than the stuff Leslie's wanted to sell me. Also didn't need to add any chlorine for nearly 3 weeks after that which was a decent savings as well. Pool is consuming far less chlorine than in the past.


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Thanks everyone. PoolESQ, I'm afraid if I added approx. 17500 gallons of well water, the well might run dry, besides taking forever to fill it.
jmorgans, how long did it take you to SLAM your pool? I added 10 lbs. of 12.5% chlorine yesterday and a couple hours later the FC was 0 and CC was 1. You're giving me hope that the cost of chlorine (even at $1.99 a gallon) would cost more than refilling the pool.
 
What did you add 10lbs of? Cal-hypo? Dichlor? Trichlor?
Dry forms of chlorine all add other things to your pool. TFP prefers liquid chlorine because it does not add other chemicals to the pool. Liquid chlorine, liquid shock or bleach are all chemically the same with different percentages of chlorine.
Calhypo adds quite a bit of calcium hardness to your pool.
Dichlor and trichlor both add CYA to your pool.
More here, Pool School - How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Your FC is dropping to 0 because there is algae in the pool consuming it rapidly and you are not adding enough chlorine fast enough to keep up with it. The high CYA actually helps to keep FC in your pool by protecting it from sunlight. You need to SLAM the pool to kill the algae, here's how, Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
 
bswicht said:
pooldv, no I added 10 lbs. of liquid chlorine (2 carboys). Nothing but liquid chlorine from now on.
Click to expand...
The confusion comes from the fact that normally liquid chlorine is sold by volume, And solid chlorine by weight.

Looks like "carboy" is another name for a jug. And since bleach (liquid chlorine) is mostly water, and water is a little over 8lbs per gallon, 10 lbs of liquid bleach would be a little over a gallon.

If something in your pool is eating chlorine, it will take many gallons to get it straight.

Sean
 
It took me about 10 days but probably could have been quicker. I ran out of FAS-DPD reagent in the middle and had to wait a few days. Definitely recommend the 2 oz bottle if working with high chlorine levels.


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Boburk, my mistake for typing pounds instead of gallons. Tim 5055, the carboy is 5 gallons at 12.5% chlorine. I'm expecting my TF200 test kit today, so I can finally see if my tests were based on old reagents. I also ran out of CYA reagent so I can test that one again. I'll post my results when I get the kit.
 
I'm baack! I finally got my TF100 test kit and speed stir.
I measured my chemicals at 1:30 and they are as following:
FC - 0
CC - 0
pH - 7.7
TA - 130
CH - 300
CYA - 100
I added two carboys of 12.5% chlorine (10 gallons)
Considering the high CYA, this is going to be an expensive endeavor.
I'll test again in a few hours, then add 2 more carboys of chlorine this evening.
Like the wonderful posts by dakemi, my dh has been against adding liquid chlorine. He's still skeptical that this will work (I'm not sure myself, considering the high CYA). I also do not go in the pool, just take care of it. Because I've been going crazy over the add chlorine/replace water debate, I haven't done anything to it for about three days and now the algae is appearing. Because I haven't added chlorine, I think ammonia is in the pool. While I'm at the pool store getting more carboys, I'll stop in at walmart or the pet store and get an ammonia test kit.
 

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