Hello,
Just a quick background because I am kind of embarrassed over the problems I had last Summer maintaining my pool.
I am from Hawaii and always had a beach out my backdoor. Moved to Arizona about 12 years ago and after 7 years of no summer relief, I finally got a home with a pool. I knew nothing about maintaining it but, somehow, got lucky the first few summers.
I was just testing PH and Chlorine with the simple red and yellow reagents. And, yes, regardless of a decent looking pool for most of the long Arizona summer (May -mid July and then mid Aug- Oct) I had problems after every monsoon (generally mid July - mid Aug) with green algae.
The pool store remedy was to throw 12 bags of shock and a bottle of algaecide in. It always seemed to work after running the pump for 2 weeks and killing every bird in the neighborhood, as my neighbor has a 40+ foot Pine tree that hangs over my pool. So my pool is the watering hole for his pigeons.
Yes, I have to skim my pool 2 or 3 times daily at the beginning of spring and during monsoon because of his pine tree. No HOA here. So it's just a problem I have to deal with. All attempts to get cooperation from my neighbor have failed. I hope this isn't too much info but I just wanted to put in as much as possible so the picture is clear as to what I am dealing with.
OK - the summer before last, I had some algae issues earlier than normal and after doing the slam to get Chlorine and PH back to correct numbers per my method at the time (red and yellow reagent tests) the pool store had me get a PoolRX mineral unit to put in my pump filter basket. It reduced my Chlorine usage a ton. I was refilling my floater about every 2nd week and throwing 1 lb of shock in every 2nd week. I run my pump for 10 hours in the summer. I didn't have a problem the rest of the summer.
Last summer was a nightmare. I didn't start prepping the pool early enough and it was green right from the start of summer and every time I thought I had it cleared up it would happen again and I just could not keep it balanced. I didn't buy a mineral unit last summer because they went up in price but I still ended up spending way too much money last year and got very little swim time. The chlorine was literally diminishing before my eyes.
Forward to the present - I found TFP while looking online for solutions. It's a little much for me to take in but I bought a Taylor FAS-DPD kit and did all the tests after I started my spring ritual of hitting the pool with a ton of shock. I know - liquid chlorine or bleach is what I should be using. Problem is last year at the end of the summer I bought 100lbs of shock (73% calcium hypochloride) before I found TFP and I really don't want it to go to waste.
I've discovered that my water hardness in the pool is ridiculously high (aprox 925) I tested the fill water (240.)
I will give you my numbers. I need to know what to do next and I have some questions that may sound pretty ignorant.
FC - 5
CC - 1.5
CYA - 55
PH - 9+
TA - 80
Hardness - 925
Here come the questions -
*Is there any way to bring the hardness down without refilling the pool or some other expensive method? (I really have to avoid spending a lot of money right now)
*Is there a way to make liquid chlorine or filter the calcium hypochloride to make it less dense?
*What is my least expensive course of action, in your opinion? Basically, what do I do next? I know I need to bring the PH down? But while I am out tomorrow, I want to try to get everything I need.
Thank you for any suggestions, thoughts, HELP, etc.
Just a quick background because I am kind of embarrassed over the problems I had last Summer maintaining my pool.
I am from Hawaii and always had a beach out my backdoor. Moved to Arizona about 12 years ago and after 7 years of no summer relief, I finally got a home with a pool. I knew nothing about maintaining it but, somehow, got lucky the first few summers.
I was just testing PH and Chlorine with the simple red and yellow reagents. And, yes, regardless of a decent looking pool for most of the long Arizona summer (May -mid July and then mid Aug- Oct) I had problems after every monsoon (generally mid July - mid Aug) with green algae.
The pool store remedy was to throw 12 bags of shock and a bottle of algaecide in. It always seemed to work after running the pump for 2 weeks and killing every bird in the neighborhood, as my neighbor has a 40+ foot Pine tree that hangs over my pool. So my pool is the watering hole for his pigeons.
Yes, I have to skim my pool 2 or 3 times daily at the beginning of spring and during monsoon because of his pine tree. No HOA here. So it's just a problem I have to deal with. All attempts to get cooperation from my neighbor have failed. I hope this isn't too much info but I just wanted to put in as much as possible so the picture is clear as to what I am dealing with.
OK - the summer before last, I had some algae issues earlier than normal and after doing the slam to get Chlorine and PH back to correct numbers per my method at the time (red and yellow reagent tests) the pool store had me get a PoolRX mineral unit to put in my pump filter basket. It reduced my Chlorine usage a ton. I was refilling my floater about every 2nd week and throwing 1 lb of shock in every 2nd week. I run my pump for 10 hours in the summer. I didn't have a problem the rest of the summer.
Last summer was a nightmare. I didn't start prepping the pool early enough and it was green right from the start of summer and every time I thought I had it cleared up it would happen again and I just could not keep it balanced. I didn't buy a mineral unit last summer because they went up in price but I still ended up spending way too much money last year and got very little swim time. The chlorine was literally diminishing before my eyes.
Forward to the present - I found TFP while looking online for solutions. It's a little much for me to take in but I bought a Taylor FAS-DPD kit and did all the tests after I started my spring ritual of hitting the pool with a ton of shock. I know - liquid chlorine or bleach is what I should be using. Problem is last year at the end of the summer I bought 100lbs of shock (73% calcium hypochloride) before I found TFP and I really don't want it to go to waste.
I've discovered that my water hardness in the pool is ridiculously high (aprox 925) I tested the fill water (240.)
I will give you my numbers. I need to know what to do next and I have some questions that may sound pretty ignorant.
FC - 5
CC - 1.5
CYA - 55
PH - 9+
TA - 80
Hardness - 925
Here come the questions -
*Is there any way to bring the hardness down without refilling the pool or some other expensive method? (I really have to avoid spending a lot of money right now)
*Is there a way to make liquid chlorine or filter the calcium hypochloride to make it less dense?
*What is my least expensive course of action, in your opinion? Basically, what do I do next? I know I need to bring the PH down? But while I am out tomorrow, I want to try to get everything I need.
Thank you for any suggestions, thoughts, HELP, etc.