I have a fiberglass pool with an automatic safety cover; the pool is primarily kept closed as a safety issue to keep my kids, particularly my son who has autism, away from the danger of drowning. We've had the pool for 4 years now, but just recently discovered your sight! The bane of my existence has been trying to lower my alkalinity which has been around 220+ PPM for years now - I would add the acid, it would go down along with the PH, I would add borax or ph up and the alkality would go up again - a complete nightmare. My local water in Poolesville, MD is very high in TA, usually at 230 PPM. I gave up last year and stopped testing for it, and would only make sure my FC and Ph were good. Your site showed me how to use the Muriatic acid and then boost the pH with the aeration (which I did by closing off one of my returns and pointing the other one straight up). Thanx to you I'm now holding steady at 100 PPM.
I've never understood what CC was until I started to read this site, and then realized that my CC was around 5 PPM about a week ago! That would probably explain some eye irritation and funky smell when the cover comes off all last year, and now this year! For the past week I have been lowering the TA with the acid and left the pool uncovered for several days while I treated it. For whatever reason, the FC then increased by itself to 2 to 4 ppm, then 5 ppm and is now at 2 ppm. During these same several days my CC has dropped from 5 ppm to now 2 ppm. Do you guys know how that happened even though I never added any chlorine?
That brings me to the CYA issue. No one has ever told me to use CYA, and I've never added or tested for it. Over the years the pool has been crystal clear most of the time, with an occasional hiccup that I could solve by a bag of burnout. The swimming experiences over the past several years have been wonderful, although I think the high CC issue has always been there, I just didn't understand it until I found you folks.
I have the high end Taylor test kit and ran my numbers today:
FC .5
TC 2.5
CC 2.0
CH 240
TA 100
pH 7.3
CYA is negligible. I poured the cloudy solution in the test vial and filled it completely up -- I could clearly see the black dot although the solution was a bit cloudy.
I'm trying to follow the BBB now, so to burn out the CC of 2.0 I added 3.5 gallons of liquid chlorine tonight and will keep the pool open for several days as it does its work.
So, here is my question. Once I get this CC out of the picture, do I need to add CYA if I'm going to use the BBB method and the pool remains covered most of the week? I have yet to find any forums or even the folks at my Leslies or Contemporary Watercrafters (local pool store) who seem to understand what covering the pool most of the time does to the chemistry.
San Juan Luxor Deep Fiberglass
22,000
Sta-Rite System 3 Cartridge Filter
Polaris 280
Sta-Rite 3/4 hp Pump Running 24/7 for right now till I figure out the BBB Method - not sure about the flow rate.
I'm keeping the pool frog mineral pack in, but will try and use BBB and forget the BacPacs of chlorine.
PS - my son is 7 and an absolute self taught fish! Dives to the bottom of the deep end, and just loves the water! My daughter, 9, also loves to swim...
I've never understood what CC was until I started to read this site, and then realized that my CC was around 5 PPM about a week ago! That would probably explain some eye irritation and funky smell when the cover comes off all last year, and now this year! For the past week I have been lowering the TA with the acid and left the pool uncovered for several days while I treated it. For whatever reason, the FC then increased by itself to 2 to 4 ppm, then 5 ppm and is now at 2 ppm. During these same several days my CC has dropped from 5 ppm to now 2 ppm. Do you guys know how that happened even though I never added any chlorine?
That brings me to the CYA issue. No one has ever told me to use CYA, and I've never added or tested for it. Over the years the pool has been crystal clear most of the time, with an occasional hiccup that I could solve by a bag of burnout. The swimming experiences over the past several years have been wonderful, although I think the high CC issue has always been there, I just didn't understand it until I found you folks.
I have the high end Taylor test kit and ran my numbers today:
FC .5
TC 2.5
CC 2.0
CH 240
TA 100
pH 7.3
CYA is negligible. I poured the cloudy solution in the test vial and filled it completely up -- I could clearly see the black dot although the solution was a bit cloudy.
I'm trying to follow the BBB now, so to burn out the CC of 2.0 I added 3.5 gallons of liquid chlorine tonight and will keep the pool open for several days as it does its work.
So, here is my question. Once I get this CC out of the picture, do I need to add CYA if I'm going to use the BBB method and the pool remains covered most of the week? I have yet to find any forums or even the folks at my Leslies or Contemporary Watercrafters (local pool store) who seem to understand what covering the pool most of the time does to the chemistry.
San Juan Luxor Deep Fiberglass
22,000
Sta-Rite System 3 Cartridge Filter
Polaris 280
Sta-Rite 3/4 hp Pump Running 24/7 for right now till I figure out the BBB Method - not sure about the flow rate.
I'm keeping the pool frog mineral pack in, but will try and use BBB and forget the BacPacs of chlorine.
PS - my son is 7 and an absolute self taught fish! Dives to the bottom of the deep end, and just loves the water! My daughter, 9, also loves to swim...
