No FC and no CYA HELP!

[MirellaJoe]

It all began yesterday morning when I woke up and went to look at my pool etc as i normally do and i noticed on my intex swg the "low salt" red light was on, which i thought was odd but since we have a pool heater we have been using it more often and i have had to add more water since the kids keep splashing etc. SO i thought ok I will add more salt. looked into the imy intex manual and read i only needed to add 15kg when the " low salt" comes on. So i shut off my swg and had my intex sandfilter pump run for 24 hrs and then this morning i turned on my swg. Anyways, i noticed the water being cloudy ( which is obviously since we've been using it more often) , i tested the pool water and these are the results i'm getting

FC-none
PH-7.8
TA-160
CYA-0

I ran my swg for over 10 hrs and the "low salt" light is still on....obviously because there is no FC!!!! i'm currently cleaning my swg as recommended in the manual ( i'm thinking it's not producing either because it's dirty or it's broken)

My question is how do i raise my FC and CYA? do i need to add more salt? like a fresh start? and add the cya like i do when i open up the pool???

Please help i'm lost here....

 

[MirellaJoe]

i've just finished cleaning my swg ( as to what the manual says) i'm crossing my fingers it works if it does work does that mean i need to add cya? since its 0?

any help would be appreciate thanks

 

[Texas Splash]

For now, while your SWG is giving you problems, raise your FC with regular liquid bleach. Do it right away. Cloudiness means algae is trying to brew. Use the Poolmath calculator to calculate your doses with a beginning target of about 4 ppm.

To increase CYA via granular stabilizer, simply place the required amount as calculated by the Poolmath calculator into a white sock and suspend it near a return jet. You can squeeze the sock occasionally to help it dissipate. Once dissolved, it may take about a week for the CYA readings to fully adjust. Normally, your target CYA for a SWG system would be 70, but if you have to do a "SLAM" soon because of the cloudy water, 30 might be a better target and save you on bleach later. So lets start at 30 and see if your water gets better. If the cloudiness stays or gets worse, you'll need to Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain.

Let's start there and keep us posted on the condition of your water and equipment.

 

[MirellaJoe]

thanks for the reply.

AS of now my swg seems to be working, just tested the water again and now i do have FC and it's at 4 but my cya is still low.....so do i still add the bleach? because the water still seems a bit cloudy or do i just add the cya through the sock method?

 

[jaduck]

I would get your CYA to 30 ppm by adding stabilizer to the pool via the sock method. Seeing that your pool is already cloudy you should perform a SLAM until you pass the three citeria:

CC is less than or equal to 0.5
Pass the OCLT
Water is crystal clear

Keep your pump running 24 / 7 and turn off your SWG. Once you have finished the SLAM add stabilizer to 70 ppm and turn the SWG back on to maintain your FC as usual. Should be a relatively short SLAM...

 

[MirellaJoe]

i've never really slammed my pool before so i'm sort of lost here, i guess i should read the pool school again but i'm sorry if i sound stupid but it sounds jibberish to me. What is CC? and how do i test that?

 

[jaduck]

No problem! First add stabilizer and target a CYA of 30 ppm using pool math. Don't worry if your CYA does not register on your test kit just assume 30 ppm after you have added the stabilizer. Test your pH and bring the pH down to 7.2 using pool math and muriatic acid. Test you FC using the Taylor kit and get your current FC level. 10 ml of pool water + 1 heaping scoop of r0870. Add r0871 drop by drop until the pink goes away, count the number of drops and multiply by 0.5. Add 5 drops of r0003, if the solution stays clear then your CC is 0, if it turns pink add r0871 until the sample goes clear again. Count the number of drops and multiply by 0.5, this is your CC.

Once you have a baseline free chlorine use pool math to determine how much bleach you will need to bring your FC to a target of 12 ppm. Maintain this FC level of 12 at all times by testing at least twice per day and no more than once per hour. Keep doing this until you have meet the three citeria I mentioned. Remember the key is to MAINTAIN your FC.

 

[jaduck]

From my calculations based on a 6500 gallon pool:

Adding 27 FL oz of stabilizer will raise you CYA to 30 ppm.

Assuming your starting FC is 4 you would add 75 oz of bleach to raise your FC to 12.

If, for example your pH is 7.8, you would add 16 oz of muriatic acid to get your pH to 7.2.

 

[pooldv]

i've never really slammed my pool before so i'm sort of lost here, i guess i should read the pool school again but i'm sorry if i sound stupid but it sounds jibberish to me. What is CC? and how do i test that?

Here you go, have a look at these. I had to read them 30 or 40 times before it all made sense.
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

 

[MirellaJoe]

thanks so much!! i will do that