Can't balance free chlorine - nothing is working

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Steve, when you get back and test again, I would recommend trying it this way (small differences):
Grab a water sample with a clean container (i.e. small pool store sample bottle or something new/clean. Rinse it once in the pool water THEN dip it in about shoulder length to get a fresh sample. Use that bottle sample to squirt/pour into your 10 ml sample tube. From there, add ONE heaping scoop of powder. Of course let mix, count drops until clear and divide by 2. I don't recall .... do you have the "Speed Stir"?
 
Texas Splash said:
Steve, when you get back and test again, I would recommend trying it this way (small differences):
Grab a water sample with a clean container (i.e. small pool store sample bottle or something new/clean. Rinse it once in the pool water THEN dip it in about shoulder length to get a fresh sample. Use that bottle sample to squirt/pour into your 10 ml sample tube. From there, add ONE heaping scoop of powder. Of course let mix, count drops until clear and divide by 2. I don't recall .... do you have the "Speed Stir"?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what a speed stir is :)
 
Ok. Did add 2 jugs last night to hold me through the night. Tested this morning and I'm at 16 ppm. Which is good.

Leebo, my Calcium Hardness is at 160 ppm. I also did my CYA test and it's off the charts...over 100 according to my kit :( I have no idea why it has climbed. I have not added anything other than liquid chlorine.

You can view my pool here:

http://staging.weedlecomm.com/pool/pool_sat.jpg

It's so yellow, but very clear. I'm getting concerned here and fear that this will never clear up. Even small water samples have a tint of yellow. Is this normal? Today I'm going to monitor my FC all day and clean my filter.

Would love to hear your thoughts. I know this will take time but I'm feeling frustrated...even a little change would help.
 
scoobasteve1982 said:
I also did my CYA test and it's off the charts...over 100 according to my kit :( I have no idea why it has climbed. I have not added anything other than liquid chlorine.
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This is GREATLY concerning to me. At 60ppm CYA you would be an underdog but if you'd put up a strong fight you'd have some hope. At 100ppm+ it's highly unlikely you will see much progress. The amount of chlorine needed to convert is going to be sky high. Before you do anything at this point is suggest you do another CYA test to verify your current level. Draining some water will be your best option if CYA is over 100. All your work and chlorine will not be wasted however as even with a total drain/refill there will be some Baqua left in the plumbing. The work over the past few days likely has started to already break that down.


I wish I had good news.......I truly do. :(
 
Unfortunately I ran out of the CYA testing reagent :( Bummer. I was able to perform one last normal test and it was the same - over 100. I'm going to go to the pool store to get a CYA reading from them. I have two nearby so I will go to both likely and post results.

I did test my FC a moment ago and it's still at 15.5 - so it's only dropped .5 in the last 3 hours. It's cloudy today. The FC does seem to be holding better, but not sure if this matters. Not really sure what to do here. I've never drained the pool and don't even know how to go about doing that. Do I get the pool company to come and drain with a pump and then fill or do I drain just to the skimmer and then fill with the hose? I have well water.
 
scoobasteve1982 said:
Pool store has my CYA at 90. I'm going to try to keep shocking for a couple more days and see if it gets me anything...possibly draining some water and refilling from well and cleaning my filter.
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DE filter cleaned and recharged. It was easier than I thought. Didn't really see any Baqua gook. Some pinkish spots on the actual filter itself - tried to hose off all I could.

FC is at 18ppm.
 
While I seldom (or never) trust Pool Store test results them putting your CYA level around 90 confirms your testing that your current level is WAY to high for converting to Chlorine. The amount of chlorine likely needed to break down all the Baqua will likely exceed the price of water by a good bit. There are various ways you can drain/refill your pool while greatly minimizing the risk of any liner damage and I hope somebody chimes in shortly to assist you with that if you wish to learn about that process. The weekends I'm stuck at work most of the day and it's difficult for me to respond. I urge others to help out where they can.
 
Leebo said:
While I seldom (or never) trust Pool Store test results them putting your CYA level around 90 confirms your testing that your current level is WAY to high for converting to Chlorine. The amount of chlorine likely needed to break down all the Baqua will likely exceed the price of water by a good bit. There are various ways you can drain/refill your pool while greatly minimizing the risk of any liner damage and I hope somebody chimes in shortly to assist you with that if you wish to learn about that process. The weekends I'm stuck at work most of the day and it's difficult for me to respond. I urge others to help out where they can.
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Thanks, Leebo. I thought it might go this way.

I'd like to learn about the ways to drain and refill the pool if anyone cars to shine any light on that. I'm happy to provide any equipment / pool info. you need.

I'm going to give it a couple more days though and try to train some tomorrow and refill with my hose...doubt that will help...I already got some pricing today and it was $300 for 6000 gallons of water.
 

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Good morning Steve. A healthy drain does indeed look to be your best option now that you've confirmed your CYA is so high. There are a couple ways to drain water from your pool. First by pumping/backwashing to waste from your filter. If you have an operating main drain, then you can take the water level down below the poolside skimmer with no problems. But if you only have a poolside skimmer like me, you're stuck draining a little, refilling, then repeat dozens of times which is no good. In that case, it's just best to buy a small submersible pump or just rent one from a local hardware store. If you get one with a fairly good GPH capacity, it will go fairly quickly. You could use hoses and siphon, but that's slow.

In your pool, you don't want to drain any lower than about 12 inches, or if you have steps in the shallow end no lower than the last step. You want some water remaining to retain the structural integrity of the pool and prevent any liner damage as applicable - not to mention pool "floating" up & out of it's hole.

So other than that, the more you can replace out of the 24K pool, the lower your CYA will go and quicker your conversion will wrap up. Hope that helps.
 
Texas Splash said:
Good morning Steve. A healthy drain does indeed look to be your best option now that you've confirmed your CYA is so high. There are a couple ways to drain water from your pool. First by pumping/backwashing to waste from your filter. If you have an operating main drain, then you can take the water level down below the poolside skimmer with no problems. But if you only have a poolside skimmer like me, you're stuck draining a little, refilling, then repeat dozens of times which is no good. In that case, it's just best to buy a small submersible pump or just rent one from a local hardware store. If you get one with a fairly good GPH capacity, it will go fairly quickly. You could use hoses and siphon, but that's slow.

In your pool, you don't want to drain any lower than about 12 inches, or if you have steps in the shallow end no lower than the last step. You want some water remaining to retain the structural integrity of the pool and prevent any liner damage as applicable - not to mention pool "floating" up & out of it's hole.

So other than that, the more you can replace out of the 24K pool, the lower your CYA will go and quicker your conversion will wrap up. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the reply! Assuming at this point it's wasteful to stop adding liquid chlorine so I've stopped that. Once I get my CYA levels down I'll check back for advice on shocking, etc. With that said, couple more quick questions:

Regarding a main drain, I do have one, and I don't haha. So it appears the pool company that installed my new equipment didn't allow me to bypass BOTH the near and far skimmer. I've attached a link to the photo below. Ugh! In the photo you essentially see I can turn off the main drain and near skimmer, but not the far skimmer. The other option is to turn off both the near skimmer and main drain but can not turn off the far. Ugh! So, I think I have a solution but want to make sure it will work. What if I turn off the far and then in the near, attach my vacuum setup with the hose stretched out to the very bottom of the deep end? That way water that drops below the near skimmer will be sucked from the bottom of the pool. I'm just not sure if when the water level drops below the skimmers if I'll lose suction :( I'm really hoping not! What do you think?

Here's the photo: http://staging.weedlecomm.com/pool/skimmers.jpg

Another question regarding my returns / jets. Is it safe to turn all those off? The pool company told me that my setup was strange because apparently I have too many return shut offs - not that it was a bad thing, but strange. They said I guess most people just have one. Who knows if they knew what they were talking about - I doubt it! Anyway, assuming I need to turn off these jets while draining? Here's a picture of that. A couple of the handles are broken but I think they work. I've never shut off the jets before. It just seems strange that while draining to leave the jets on. But what do I know, never done this before so maybe it does :)

Here's that photo:

http://staging.weedlecomm.com/pool/pool_returns.jpg

FINALLY, is it safe to drain and wait like 24 hours before filling? I have to call some water companies and do not know what they will tell me in regards to "when" they can deliver water.

Hoping to be able to do this without renting equipment to offset some of the cost. If I have to, I will but using my current pump is obviously more attractive :)

Thanks again everyone for all your help!
 
OK Steve, I'm still following this with interest.....

That does appear to be a strange way to set the valves up for the skimmers/drain. Maybe because it is the way mine is set up, but I have a single valve for each source so that I can select where I want the water to come from. I guess I thought this would be a common way to do it.

So, what do you do. I'm going to throw this out there and hope others comment because I'm thinking outside the box a little and I'm looking for the perspectives of other folks. You live in CT, so I assume you winterize each year. You probably alrady have skimmer plugs, something like this Rubber Winterizing Expansion Plug 1.5 Fitting, Plug Size 10 - Bathtub Drains - Amazon.com

If you close one of the skimmers with he black Jandy valve and install a skimmer plug on the other skimmer you are now just drawing from the main drain. My fear, and this is where I'm looking from input from others is that the pressure may pull that plug a little too hard and make it difficult to remove once you want to.

I wall also leave the "how long can the pool be empty" question to those more versed in liner pools. I know the shorter amount of time the better, but how long I'm not sure.
 
Thank you Tim! Things have changed a bit in the last few minutes haha. My father in-law called me and he has a submersible pump!!! It does 1,200 an hour but this is faster than my pump will drain I believe so this is the route I'm going to go. After all I've been through this is just easier for me. I'm going to coordinate with some water delivery services to minimize time the pool is left drained.

I'm still interested in answers though regarding my previous questions if anyone wants to chime in :) I'd love to hear about how long the water level can be dropped. More to come :)
 
scoobasteve1982 said:
Thank you Tim! Things have changed a bit in the last few minutes haha. My father in-law called me and he has a submersible pump!!! It does 1,200 an hour but this is faster than my pump will drain I believe so this is the route I'm going to go. After all I've been through this is just easier for me. I'm going to coordinate with some water delivery services to minimize time the pool is left drained.

I'm still interested in answers though regarding my previous questions if anyone wants to chime in :) I'd love to hear about how long the water level can be dropped. More to come :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, another question. The water company will delivery 100% clear but chlorinated water. I'm assuming that's okay. Should be asking them what the CYA level or would that not be in the water delivered? I'm thinking no but want to make sure.
 
There should not be any CYA in the water they deliver. Most water delivery companies have a bulk purchase agreement with a municipal water supply and pull the water from a fire hydrant. It will be sanitized in whatever manner that water system uses, which may not be chlorine.

The water will be fine for your needs.
 
pooldv said:
No, it is not safe. See Pat's post #71 above for more details on safe draining.
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Pooldv - I did see he wrote this:

In your pool, you don't want to drain any lower than about 12 inches, or if you have steps in the shallow end no lower than the last step. You want some water remaining to retain the structural integrity of the pool and prevent any liner damage as applicable - not to mention pool "floating" up & out of it's hole.
Click to expand...


I didn't plan on emptying the whole pool, just leave like 15 inches or something in the shallow end. I wanted to know if I do this and wait 24 hours is that okay. I have a submersible pump.
 
Just to jump in here after reading all of this:

1, You never said if the powdered "shock" you added at the beginning of this thread was Cal-Hypo or Dichlor, if Dichlor chances are that is what sent your CYA so high, or at least a good part of the reason.

2, This is the Speed Stir, it lets you pretend to be a professional chemist / mad scientist at home, no one on here has ever been disappointed with the purchase of one
TFTestkits.net

Using Taylor’s SpeedStir to Incorporate Reagents - YouTube

3, Yes it is safe to drain the day before delivery as long as you leave about a foot of water in the shallow end

Ike

p.s. I must take back part of statement 2, the one thing I don't like about the Speed Stir is you must have a small Phillips screwdriver to open the battery compartment
 
Thanks everyone for your insight. So just a quick update...I'm doing a partial drain tonight and getting a top off tomorrow morning. Then I'm going to circulate and have another delivery the following day. Then I'm going to circulate, drain and have a delivery the following day (Thursday). So three partial drains and refills. After that I will test my CYA and report back here. I'm assuming with a 24K pool that should help out an awful lot. I sure hope so!
 

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