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Frankhugus

Frankhugus

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Bronze Supporter
Feb 27, 2016
190
Danville, CA
We've lived in the same house for 28 years now and we built the original pool 25 years ago. Last June '15 we did a complete remodel and replaced old plaster with Pebble-Tec. All other equipment is new too, filter, sweep, solar, and pump. I do the maintenance my self with the help of Leslie's Pool where I take water samples for testing. There are two in this area (Northern California) and I get different reading from each one. The pool looks great! The water is clear and alive. However, I've had high cyanuric acid levels almost from the start. I used granular tablets for chlorine and shock with Leslie's Powder Plus. I also use Phos Free to keep the phosphates in check although I never heard of them before. Anyway, I continue to monitor as I am not going to let anything get out of hand so I'm looking forward to following your Forum to experience what you all are doing. Thanks.
 
Hello Frank and welcome! You're a veteran of sorts to pools and that's great. But you'll hear many times here at TFP, the local pool store simply won't do you justice. Your CYA is high because of the tablets, bags-of-shock, etc. You also don't need Phos-Free if your pool is algae free. I learned that a couple years back. :) Let us help!

We highly encourage you to do your own testing via a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006 from TFTestkits.net. You'll be amazed! Then, stop using any pucks or powders, and use stick to the list of Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals. But as you can imagine, it's hard to know what your pool needs if you can't test it. Unfortunately, the pool store just doesn't give accurate readings and/or their personnel are temp hires that lack experience.

Stick with us for a bit. Read our pages and this thread and you'll hear many more testimonials. We can help you easily. Welcome to TFP!
 
Welcome to TFP!

As others have said, you will be best served by taking control of your own pool water testing using a proper test kit. We are all about making pool care as simple as it can be, so ditch the Phos-Free and focus instead on proper chlorination to avoid algae or other microbial invaders. It is much simpler, and less expensive, to focus on adding one chemical (plain unscented liquid bleach) in the proper amount as opposed to adding several chemicals that can result in moving multiple pool water chemistry parameters. I would suggest reading the ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

One other thing...in your location profile, I would highly suggest adding something more descriptive than "Danville". I initially assumed that this was the town in southern Virginia and I would have been way off if your post didn't mention that you were in Northern CA. If you one day had a pool issue and it was location-based, you would not have received the best advice for your location.
 
I have to say that what I'm seeing is new to me and I hope I can apply it to my situation. I took the chlorine feeder out last Friday (week ago) and have not shocked in two weeks and just today, the test reading is a strong yellow rather than amber. I'm letting it go another week to get it down further and test every day. The water continues to look great and I want to keep it that way. It's going to take me awhile to buy into the "bleach" only method so bear with me. Thanks for your help.20150528_114907.jpg
 
Very nice set-up. Tremendous brick work. Wow. Well, stick close to the TFP pages that we've shown you and please don't forget to get one of the recommended test kits we noted. The OTO testing and such are fine for a quick "snapshot" of sorts, but you'll find with the FAS-DPD (powder and drop reagents) that there's simply nothing as accurate and reassuring when testing your true FC level. In any case, your pool looks great and we hope to help you keep it that way. Stay in touch and have a great weekend.
 
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