Okay. So I've been running my pool religiously with the philosophy from POOL SCHOOL. It's been working great for 3 years.
I opened my pool early May, tested and balanced the water to within 1 hair of perfection. Set my settings on the SWG just like last year as my CYA was 60 (it was 70 last year)... Swam a few times, water was up to 90F the last 2-3 weeks. Kids loved it. Added water a few times as my kids and the deck jets splashed a little bit out. Water was clear and balanced (or so I thought it seems)
Which brings us to this week...
This week was a little cold/windy/rainy. I was away for work the whole week, and the wife and kids didn't go swimming. The solar cover was on the whole time. Today was a beautiful and sunny day, so I pulled the cover and Lo! and Behold! The water is all cloudy! What?! Everything was balanced, what gives?! Allright, no time to figure it out, time to SLAM! I've SLAMmed before and I'll SLAM again... First thing I do is measure my CYA to figure out the exact level of FC I need to shoot for to SLAM. I do the test with the TFT test kit as I've done 1000 times before... Water is clear to the top of the test tube.. What?! I must've done it wrong... Read the instructions, nope, I did it right... All right, I do the CYA test again.... still clear to the top of the tube... Hmmm... Maybe the reagent has gone bad... I throw some CYA granules in the test bottle, shake it up for 20 minutes, do the test again, and the first drops in the tube are so cloudy that I can't see the black dot already. Ok, then the reagent is good... This is weird.
Test my FC... Ooh Myy! 0.5 or less.... Boom goes bleach in the pool. A whole gallon. Surely this will make a bit of a difference... About two hours later, I test the FC again. Still less the 0.5.... What gives? Another gallon! An hour later, I test chlorine again. Pfew, 2.0. Okay, it's starting to mix and show... For good measure, I throw in the 5 drops of the other reagent (003?) to test the CC... TURNS BRIGHT RED, just like when I shock the pool to 28 and measure FC with the FAS/DPD Powder... I've never had the mix turn this red when I throw in the 5 drops of 003. NEVER. Actually, I've never had CC more than 0.5 or 1.0 before, so this is a first too...
So... A few questions arise from this for me...
1. Where did my CYA go? Or, more importantly, why am I showing no CYA in my pool when I was showing 60 a month ago?
2. What does the bright red after the 5 drops mean? lots of bad stuff in the pool I need to kill?
3. Should I add CYA right away or wait until I figure this out since I don't want to empty my pool if there is too much CYA in there after I add some more.
4. What can destroy CYA? Is there such a thing? I didn'T think it was evan possible to lose salt or CYA since it was in your pool until you emptied it (or splashed it out!)
Footnotes. I did a few things different in the last month as I did before, in the lsat 3 years.
1. I added a liquid solar blanket for about 2 weeks. Seemed to be working fine until the wind howled one night and tons of water evaporated and the pool lost 15F.
2. I added a skimmer sock which I needed to clean daily as the pollen around here was crazy and was clogging the sock. Since I was gone for a week, it wasn't cleaned, and the thing was full! So full, that I couldn'T pull the skimmer out without stopping the pump there was so much suction. Sock's in the garbage if you must know. No more socks for me, too much hassle.
3. Nope, that's it.... can't think of anything else different.
Thoughts are much appreciated. Especially about the CYA.
Thanks,
JF
I opened my pool early May, tested and balanced the water to within 1 hair of perfection. Set my settings on the SWG just like last year as my CYA was 60 (it was 70 last year)... Swam a few times, water was up to 90F the last 2-3 weeks. Kids loved it. Added water a few times as my kids and the deck jets splashed a little bit out. Water was clear and balanced (or so I thought it seems)
Which brings us to this week...
This week was a little cold/windy/rainy. I was away for work the whole week, and the wife and kids didn't go swimming. The solar cover was on the whole time. Today was a beautiful and sunny day, so I pulled the cover and Lo! and Behold! The water is all cloudy! What?! Everything was balanced, what gives?! Allright, no time to figure it out, time to SLAM! I've SLAMmed before and I'll SLAM again... First thing I do is measure my CYA to figure out the exact level of FC I need to shoot for to SLAM. I do the test with the TFT test kit as I've done 1000 times before... Water is clear to the top of the test tube.. What?! I must've done it wrong... Read the instructions, nope, I did it right... All right, I do the CYA test again.... still clear to the top of the tube... Hmmm... Maybe the reagent has gone bad... I throw some CYA granules in the test bottle, shake it up for 20 minutes, do the test again, and the first drops in the tube are so cloudy that I can't see the black dot already. Ok, then the reagent is good... This is weird.
Test my FC... Ooh Myy! 0.5 or less.... Boom goes bleach in the pool. A whole gallon. Surely this will make a bit of a difference... About two hours later, I test the FC again. Still less the 0.5.... What gives? Another gallon! An hour later, I test chlorine again. Pfew, 2.0. Okay, it's starting to mix and show... For good measure, I throw in the 5 drops of the other reagent (003?) to test the CC... TURNS BRIGHT RED, just like when I shock the pool to 28 and measure FC with the FAS/DPD Powder... I've never had the mix turn this red when I throw in the 5 drops of 003. NEVER. Actually, I've never had CC more than 0.5 or 1.0 before, so this is a first too...
So... A few questions arise from this for me...
1. Where did my CYA go? Or, more importantly, why am I showing no CYA in my pool when I was showing 60 a month ago?
2. What does the bright red after the 5 drops mean? lots of bad stuff in the pool I need to kill?
3. Should I add CYA right away or wait until I figure this out since I don't want to empty my pool if there is too much CYA in there after I add some more.
4. What can destroy CYA? Is there such a thing? I didn'T think it was evan possible to lose salt or CYA since it was in your pool until you emptied it (or splashed it out!)
Footnotes. I did a few things different in the last month as I did before, in the lsat 3 years.
1. I added a liquid solar blanket for about 2 weeks. Seemed to be working fine until the wind howled one night and tons of water evaporated and the pool lost 15F.
2. I added a skimmer sock which I needed to clean daily as the pollen around here was crazy and was clogging the sock. Since I was gone for a week, it wasn't cleaned, and the thing was full! So full, that I couldn'T pull the skimmer out without stopping the pump there was so much suction. Sock's in the garbage if you must know. No more socks for me, too much hassle.
3. Nope, that's it.... can't think of anything else different.
Thoughts are much appreciated. Especially about the CYA.
Thanks,
JF
