High CYA - Green algae - First Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD test

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southflorida427

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Apr 27, 2017
103
Miami FL
I'm new to the forum. I'm new to testing the pool water myself. I'm new to pool water issues. I've already had to replace my pump motor, did it myself, very proud of it.

The story

About 8 months ago I started maintaining my pool. I've been adding 1.25 gallons (half a jug) of pool store liquid chlorine (12% I believe) and refill the floater with 1-2 3" stabilized tablets. I started with two tables but in the south Florida "winter" days they were not completely consumed so I started adding just one. I do this once a week. I also add 2-4oz of pool store algae preventer every other week.

Up to about a month ago I never had issues. Blue water/no algae. A month ago I noticed green algae in the pool bench (the one at the deep end of the pool). The water looked OK though (in my novice opinion). Pool store guy gave me this "powerful" granulated chlorine to (the one they advertise to clean black algae and remove stains). Told me to brush off the algae and run my pump 24 hours. And yes, the algae was gone the next day (as expected since all that was done was to add massive amounts of chlorine).

Long story short (kind of), green algae keeps coming back on a 10-ish day basis around the deep end bench and now also around the shallow end steps. After mentioning this to the pool store guy in my weekendly visit to the store to get my "free" water test he (very informally) mentioned that my CYA levels were high. He suggested I drained/replace some water of the pool to lower it. I drained/replace about two feet's about two weeks ago. next checkup I asked about the CYA and they said "yeah it's better, but still over 100". I also stopped adding the 3" tables. On my last visit I ended up being the proud owner of a bottle of phosphate remover which was instructed to pour in entirely. Yes, it clogged the filter in less than a day. Cleaned the filter afterwards.

After googling about these symptoms I got here. I learned about the ABC's and also read further about high CYA levels. I learned that my high CYA levels are kind of reducing my FC power and probably the cause of the algae coming back. And also about not trusting the pool store tests. I also learned to be careful with the 3" stabilized tables as they bring lots of CYA (and also granulated chlorine).

What I'm doing

As mentioned before: about two weeks ago I drained/replace 2 feet of water. Stopped the 3" tablets. Added the phosphate remover the guy sold me. Also the unintended water replaced from last weekend rain.

I'm adding a whole jug 2.5 gal 12% once a week. Occasionally the algae preventer.

I got a Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD kit. Last night's (Wednesday) test results as follows. This was my first time using the kit.
FC 4.2
CC 0.4 (let's say 0.3 - not sure if the second drop was absolutely necessary but I ended up adding it)
pH 7.5
TA 100 (at 9 drops I got transparent water, the 10th drop changed the color)
CH 350
CYA - very high, not even close to the 100 mark.
Note: last time I added liquid chlorine was Sunday evening, 1.25 gal 12%.

I was expecting my own CYA test to be lower than the pool store (as from reading others comments). Because it wasn't last night I freaked out and added another jug 2.5 gal 12% chlorine.

Today I will repeat the FC/CC test and also do a diluted CYA test (add 7ml of pool water, plus 7ml of tap water, mix, remove half of the resulting mix and continue with the test).

From reading posts I should remove a lot of water. Playing with the math tool if I guesstimate my CYA at 200ppm seems like I have to replace 75% of the water to bring it to 50ppm (I will get a better number today after I repeat my test). That is going to cost me a fortune. Rain season is around the corner on south Florida (actually last weekend we got so much rain it almost overflows the pool, had to drain about half feet to take it back to regular water levels).

Questions

Am I on the right track?

Can I get by "safely" with just adding 2.5 gal 12% and algaecide on a once per week basis while rain season slowly brings CYA down? I'm debating replacing 2 feet this weekend to give it a boots, but budget is a concern. As I mentioned before my water looks good, even when there is visible algae on the steps.

I appreciate your time and suggestions. Thank you all!
 
Hello and welcome to TFP! :wave:
I got a Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD kit.
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Fantastic! Best move you cold make right now. At the same time, stay out of the pool store and don't waste anymore money on those pool store products.
I guesstimate my CYA at 200ppm seems like I have to replace 75% of the water to bring it to 50ppm
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You got it. :goodjob: That's priority #1. Exchange the water to lower CYA first, THEN begin adjusting levels and get ready for the TFP SLAM (link below) to make the water clean & clear.
Can I get by "safely" with just adding 2.5 gal 12% and algaecide on a once per week basis while rain season slowly brings CYA down?
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Not advised. Many algaecides add copper to water which only adds to your problems. Adding some water after a heavy rain is a slow process of lowering a very high CYA. That's assuming you lowered water before the rain. A simple overflow won't do much at all. Unfortunately, your most efficient way is to exchange a good hunk of water on your own. At least enough to get the CYA under 100, then you can let Mother Nature slowly try to exchange more water over the season.

Let us know if you still have questions. Nice to have you with us.
 
It looks like you're on the right track. I would drain and refill until you CYA gets down to 50 PPM and then do a SLAM to clear the pool of any remaining algae. I don't think you'll need the algaecide once you get everything locked in. Just make sure to keep your FC in the 6-8 range and never below 4.

You definitely made the right decision by getting a good test kit and doing your own tests. Those pool store tests are unreliable as you've already found out with your CYA test. It's just a way to for them to get you to buy their magic potions like Phosfate remover. Also, stop using those stabilized pucks and stick to liquid chlorine or bleach so your CYA doesn't climb up again. That's how you got in this mess.

I was in the same boat. I had a pool guy who would use nothing but pucks in a floater. Once I fired him and took over, I realized that my CYA was over 200 like yours. I had no choice but to drain and start over.
 
southflorida427 said:
Can I get by "safely" with just adding 2.5 gal 12% and algaecide on a once per week basis while rain season slowly brings CYA down? I'm debating replacing 2 feet this weekend to give it a boots, but budget is a concern. As I mentioned before my water looks good, even when there is visible algae on the steps.
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To add to Pat's great response, you're not going to be able to add chlorine once per week. A large amount of the overage is going to burn off, and if you couple that with about 2-4ppm of "normal" loss per day due to the sun and the chlorine doing its job of keeping the pool clean, you're likely going to end up underchlorinated.

You'll need to add chlorine daily until you get a good handle on your pool's consumption, then it is possible you might be able to go to every-other-day additions of chlorine based on your experience with your pool.
 
southflorida427 said:
Are u saying that even after taking the CYA back to normal levels I should be adding chlorine on a every-other-day? Like forever?
Thnx!
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Unless you convert your pool to a salt water pool and add a salt water generator, then you don't have to manually add the chlorine the salt water generator makes it.
 
How much chlorine a day? Assuming a well balanced 13K gal pool in south Florida? Just a ballpark to understand what I might be getting into. I understand that the real number will be driven by testing and experience.
On a separate note, quick googling shows SWG systems go around 700$. Does anyone have a ballpark on how much installation would cost?
Thnx,
 
If you are somewhat handy, you can install yourself. I did mine, super easy. Love my SWG. Now, don't get the wrong impression with a SWG. Having one doesn't mean you get to forget about your pool. You will still want to test daily for a while to get a good feel for how your pool responds to weather and heavy bather load. I know my pool pretty well now, but still check FC and pH at least twice per week.
 
In the hottest part of summer I probably add about 48-60oz of 8.25% bleach to my 14k gallon pool each day. A clean and properly maintained pool will typically consume 2-4 ppm of chlorine each day, a little more when the water temps are hot and the sun is intense and a little less when the water cools or the sky is gray.

The higher your CYA the higher you need to maintain FC to compensate as you can see in this chart. With my CYA at 40, I maintain 7 ppm and try to never let it drop below 4.

When you over-chlorinate like pouring in a whole gallon of 12.5%, all the chlorine that is over and above what your stabilizer can protect will burn off very fast in the sun. If you add it in the morning it is probably for the most part consumed by evening and you are down near target, low the next day and for the next 5 days you are pretty much without. I accidentally pumped in about 2.5 gallons one day by setting my timer wrong. I had FC of about 19 that morning, by that evening it was down to about 9ppm.

There are ways to automate, you can install a SWG or a liquid dosing pump like I did. I have about $250 in the pump and tank, it's hooked to my timer and I set how long I want it to run each day. There are many similar installs in the SWG section of the forum.

A SWG would require routine maintenance to clean the cell, salinity monitoring and replacement of the cell every few years. The dosing pump requires you to buy and haul home gallons of bleach along with some occasional parts for the pump. Either way you need to test the pool at least every other day with a test kit that will give you accurate test results, either way it's the price of having a clean and safe pool.
 

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Tested again this evening:
17.4 FC
0.2 CC (maybe 0.4 - (*) follow up question on this)
200 CYA :shock: (diluted test barely passed the 100 mark)

I need to drain 60% - 70% of the pool. Can someone share a light of how many feet of water would this be? My shallow end is 2.5 feet and the deep end 5.5. Irregular shape (kind of a trapezoid, but not quite).

(*) When testing CC with Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD per instructions after obtaining FC value you need to add 5 drops of R-0003 and if CC is present water will turn pink. Is very (very) light pink still considered presence of CC? That very light shade of pink didn't go away after first drop, took a second one to turn it clear.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
 
Likely need to drain until the shallow end just gets empty, need to drop about 2.5 feet.

If 2 drops to clear, then your cc is 0.4.

Btw, use a 10ml water smoke 2 so each drop is 0.5ppm, saves reagent.
 
Good morning.
I drained as suggested. Removed 2.5 feet of water util shallow end started to show. It just finished replenishing the water.
Unfortunatelly water is greenish right now.
How long should I wait for the first test to see my new levels (so I can start SLAM)? I'm guessing new water needs to run for a bit to mix with the old water. Is this how it goes? Pump was not running while filling, just started it.
I would like to start SLAM ASAP.
Thnx,
 
OK new test results as follows:

0 FC
0.4 CC
pH high of the chart, took 3 drops R-005 to drop it around 7.4 - 7.6
90 TA
175 CH
CYA 70 (better right?)

Couple of questions to follow, thnx in advance.

So, need to start by adjusting pH. Reading Taylor documentation it says for 3 drops of R-0005 use 1.72pt for 10K gal and 1.72qt for 20K gal (qt vs pt, took me 5 seconds to note the difference).

Since I have 13K gal, it is direct math? 1.12qt is what I need of Muriatic Acid? Pool Store to get it?

Also, what's the procedure here? I pour in the acid. How long until I retest?

Then after pH is in place I will start the SLAM right away?

Per Chlorine / CYA Chart to take my 70 CYA pool to shock level I need 28 FC. Per poolmath I will add 3 gal 12.5% pool store chlorine (around 5$ for 2.5gal sounds like a good deal).

Big thank you.
 
Muriatic Acid is cheapest at the pool store around here. You can get it at hardware stores, but often half strength. Slowly pour it in front of a return jet in the deep end. Retest after at least 30 minutes. If in the lower 7s, then start the SLAM. Retest FC and CC after am hour or so and readjust.
 

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