Thanks for this forum

[tylin805]

Long story short. Pool sat uncovered and untreated for 2 years. Part of a deal I inherited with a relationship with my partner. I grew tired of looking at a swamp and breeding mosquitoes so offered to fix the pool up. Most people who know nothing about pools go to a pool supply store and that is exactly what I did. They asked me to bring in a water bottle full of the pool water so they could test it. I did. Then I received what looked like a contract about what I needed to purchase, when to put it in the water, etc. All the chemicals totaled well over $400. I started to think this is not a project I should have signed up for.

As with everything now in my life, I check the internet before making commitments. I'm glad I did. 2 months ago I started reading pool care forums and feel I have a decent education now about at least the elementals to having a nice pool.

I won't bore you with what the pool store tests told me. But this is what I did.

Repaired electrical damage for pool equipment that had been sabotaged. It was all computer controlled with remotes. Now its all manual. It was the scope of my abilities. Maybe someday I will pay the pool tech the $1200 he wanted to sort it out, or I will educate myself on how to do it.

Put in 24 pounds of shock, the basic granule stuff, I think it was chlor brite or something like that. If I had to do it over, I would consider pouring in gallons of sodium HChl.

In 24 hours the water went from swamp fluorescent forest green to cloudy turquoise that looked like blue milk. 48 hours later it was still the same. Thats when I started reading online. Cloudy pools is a popular subject. What I learned that I put into practice was check the filter.

I pulled the filter apart. Kind of a pain but I would get used to it. Basically unscrew a dozen clamp like parts and the lid pops off. There's the filter cartridges. The biggest one was so heavy it took everything I had to get it out and over to the lawn. There was at least a half an inch layer of green clay like material encasing both filters. I used a high pressure garden hose nozzle and rinsed them down. They turned white after a while.

I put it all back together turned everything on 24/7. After 5 days the water became less cloudy and today i tried the quarter test. At the deep end I could clearly see heads. Comments were made that the water has never been this clear.

Sounds like a success story. But here are my issues.

PH fluctuates between 7.6 and +8
Alk is being raised slowly currently at 60 (baking soda)
CH 160
TC 18
FC 18
CYA 130

Im in S California, I can't drain and refill. Have considered Bio Active but the reviews are all over the map.

The MA drops my ALK. Its like a yo yo.
Im using S HypC may use CHypC to bump up the CH

Want to get everything dialed in before tackling the SWCG.

Need a borate test kit and a salinity tester. I dumped in 24 lbs of Borax because I liked what I read. No doubt it is driving my PH up.

Am I on the right track? Everyone wants to get in the water and I am the bad guy because my chems are not right.

Any input would be appreciated.

I am using a Taylor 2005 kit.

 

[cowboycasey]

Welcome to TFP

You have a pool restore in process

PH: it will always read high when free chlorine is over 10, this is your problem with CYA at 130 and your FC at 18, it will always read high

as you drop your PH your TA will also drop, do you have a waterfall, spillover spa, something that is breaking or rippling the water? if so you PH will raise all the time, try to run those things as little as possible

how are you testing your FC so high, did you add the FAS-DPD test?

If your CYA is actually at 130 your free chlorine is going to be between 15 and 19 at all times and to get rid of algae what we call SLAM your FC needs to be about 46

That is a lot of bleach, even if you get the 12.5% from hasa or another place you're still going to be using it fast..

I hope this helps

 

[tim5055]

I would ignore TA for now, and maybe forever. The higher the TA the more you have the yo-yo effect you are talking about. The pool industry like you to keep TA above 100 but many of us find that the TA where yours is, 60 is great. Mine is actually happier at about 50. When in the 50-60 range my pH becomes solid, only requiring minimal pH adjustments because of my sheer decent waterfall.

As Casey asked, did you add the FAS-DPD test to your K-2005? That is what you need to measure FC up to 50.

Unless you have passed all three tests to end the SLAM in the How To section of Pool School you may have issues down the road. To conduct the OCLT you need the FAS=DPD test.

• CC is 0.5 or lower;
  
• You pass an OCLT (ie overnight FC loss test shows a loss of 1.0 ppm or less);
  
• The water is clear.

Right now you have clear water, but can't really test CC and OCLT. There have been many pools, mine included that have had perfectly clear water with something growing in them.

 

[mgmoore7]

The CYA is too high to manage. Can you replace a little water at a time. Maybe 10% each week until you at least get it below 100 to help but really you need to get it down to around 80 so that you can reliable test PH. It will still be hard since 30-50 is the Pool School - Recommended Levels

 

[tylin805]

Thank you for your replies. Yes I am using the FAS-DPD kit 1515. I did not realize it was not part of the k-2005. This pool was maintained by a C-53 contractor and the kits were in the supply shed. I was concerned about reagents being bad and read about how to test them. Also took the kit into a contractor pool supply and they tested it comparing with theirs. One bottle of r-0002 was on its way out so I replaced it for $3. I also have aquacheck strips that I use for quick checks to gauge changes, for instance it has been helpful in raising the alkalinity and then after 5 days I verify with the k2005.

The writing is on the wall for me and I am just going to have to suck it up. I screwed up by jacking the CYA up because I was hasty and now I need to rectify it. Water fines in LA County are serious. Just from using extra water the past month rinsing the filter cartridges(about 8 times) we received a notice that we were over our allotment and faced a $1000 fine. Ouch! We contacted DWP and were actually guided along to explain that there were 4 extra adults in the house on and extended stay-cation. They waived the fine and told us to let them know when the body count goes down. Craziness. Needless to say I am petrified to drain any water to refill but I know it has to be done. Everyone will have to take military showers(likely not to happen with 5 women), I can let the yard suffer a bit, I can beg the neighbors for help, I will come up with something. The suggestion to do small water changes is what I will do.

I needed your input to validate what I was trying to avoid so thanks again!

 

[cowboycasey]

can you bring in water? I am not sure how much but TX and OK were doing it by the truckload until this last year... 7000 gallon truck load would do ya

 

[tylin805]

I can truck in water from Kern County. It is about 2 hours north. The trucks can deliver 2,500 or 5,000 gallons. $350 and $500 for the water, $250 for delivery. Is it ironic that it is exactly the same amount as the fine I would receive from DWP by using my tap water? Really wish this drought would end....

 

[proavia]

You may wish to look into having an RO treatment done on your pool water. Hopefully the cost would be less than the fine or trucking water in.

Google - swimming pool RO treatment los angeles

 

[tylin805]

Reverse Osmosis in my area is @ $800 for 15,000 gallons. That includes pre testing and post testing and replenishing proper chemical levels including SWCG needs. It is completed in 8 hours. Sounds like a fair option because the water would likely be more pure than it has ever been.

But here is the rub.

10% - 30% of the water goes to "waste" in the process. Guess what they use to replace it? My tap water. FML.

 

[proavia]

Even if you elect to go the RO route - do NOT let them replenish the chemicals. Much better if you do it yourself so you're sure of exactly what you put in and how those additions affect the pool.

I see you have the K2005 kit. They make several sizes of that kit - Do you know which size yours is? You can add the TFTestkits.net - FAS-DPD chlorine test - which will give you much better accuracy and allow testing up to 50ppm FC.

Stay away for the pool store and their "free" testing. No granular shock or granular/solid forms of chlorine. You can easily maintain the pool with liquid chlorine/bleach, muriatic acid and possibly one or two other items that are readily available at the local Walmart, Home Depot/Lowes and grocery store. You will be in much better control of your pool and save money to boot.

 

[tylin805]

I've had a few day to play around. I purchased the Taylor k-2006c kit and some various other drop kits needed or not. I am pleasantly surprised by my new accurate readings. My older 2005 kit indeed had expired reagents which was giving me fits.

FC=15
TC= 16
PH=7.4
CH=280
ALK=100
CYA= 100
Copper=0
Iron=0
Phosphates=0
Borates= 60
TDS= 800
Salinity= 1000

I severely over shocked the pool with CHypC. That was actually a lucky mistake. My CH must have been hovering around 100 before the over shock. Not good for the pebbletec. Now its decent. I feared I had introduced a bunch of stabilizer with the shock. That was not the case. My elevated stabilizer was from me using a left over bucket of pucks in an attempt to shock before going with the CHypC. With the algae levels, the pucks disappeared in 24 hours, all the stabilizer did not. Lesson learned. Now I have a full bucket of stabilized pucks(new because I replaced the depleted bucket) that I can't return and will likely never use.

I am going to monitor the CYA over a month before I make a decision on draining water and refilling. If it drops to 80 I will leave it alone. Splash out and evaporation and degradation will lower it slowly if at all. I'm curious to see how much. If it is still at 100 after 30 days I will start 1 foot water changes and haggle with the department of water and power....

Also on the table is the local contractor pool supply. They apparently have an overstock of BIO ACTIVE and want to move it and offered to use my pool as a guinea pig as testimony it works. Free product. I am a bit hesitant because I have read horror stories, some dealing with ammonia level residuals. Like I said previously, the reviews for that product are all over the map.

At this point, I am committed to using SHypC, MA, BS and Borax because I am literally blown away at the clarity, feel and smell of the water. I am up in the air about the SWCG right now. There is residual salt levels from its function before. I will have to add to that substantially before I fire it up. There is also the possibility the cell is bad. At this point I am not convinced it would be worth replacing it at close to $1200.00.

There was a dozen people in the pool today. They all said the water felt great but could "taste" slight chlorine on their lips. No complaints about eyes or skin or smell.