Help me Rhonda.

[goldencivic]

Wuz up Y'all? I came across this website/forum today after a shocking (no pun intended, or maybe there is) discovery from having my pool water tested at the local joint. My CYA is 300ppm!!!!!! In all honesty, this is the first time I had the water tested (professionally, although the lady who performed the test tried to tell me that stabilizer and CYA were not the same!) I was there to pick up some Yellow Treat as I noticed some yellow algae on the walls of the pool. I have a basic test kit and always keep my chlorine and PH as they should be (median range). SOOOOOO, she tells me to completely drain the pool and start over. I didn't say a word, just turned and walked out. Been surfing your site all afternoon and I read the same thing........drain it, or most of it. My question is this. The water is crystal clear. I have been throwing a LOT of tabs at it to keep it that way and I now know how my CYA got to where it is (no more tabs?) Anyway, I'm wondering, since the Yellow Treat always worked and treated the algae. AND, the active ingredient is Sodium Bromine. Could I switch to Bromine and/or liquid chlorine as a sanitizer while I wait for my STABILIZER to come down? Or, should I bite the bullet and drain the pool???

Quick info about the pool. Its a freeform, inground gunite w/ marcite, approximately 10k gallons. It was already installed at the house I purchased as a short sale 2yrs ago. The pool was a nightmare as you can imagine when I purchased....GREEN. The Jandy Aquapure salt system didn't work anymore. The filter housing was split and the solar (heliomatic) didn't work either. After dumping a ton of $ into the salt system, I gave it up when the service light came back on last summer and switched to a floater and tablets.

Any thoughts you guys have would be great. The thought of draining the pool pisses me off to be honest. Especially considering I live in FL and UV is CYA's biggest killer.... Thanks in advance! :handshake:

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You now have a bromine pool, not a chlorine pool. They're more difficult to test from what I understand, and the bromine will take *for-evah!* to go away. The only way to deal with that is to drain and refill. The byproduct benefit is that you're also getting rid of CYA.

Suggestion: NEVER add bromine products to your freshly filled pool again. Really unfortunate move there. Chlorine is 90% of what pools need. That's it.

Maddie

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Stop using the Yellow-Out....FOREVER!!! Sodium bromide in a chlorine pool is a really, really, REALLY BAD idea. As Maddie has said, you now have a bromine pool and it's impossible to manage a bromine pool. UV has nothing to do with CYA oxidation, CYA is what protects chlorine against UV loss. But you know what bromine does?? It raises your UV loss rate because chlorine converts bromide into bromine (thus using up the chlorine) and bromine CAN NOT be stabilized against UV loss and so the UV turns the bromine back into bromide (and the cycle repeats on and on and on). So all of the "killer UV loss" of your sanitizer is because you have bromine in the water!

So yes, drain the pool (as long as it is safe to do so, ground water table must be far below the pool). The water in there is so larded-up with CYA and bromide that trying to resurrect it will be impossible. If draining is not an option but reverse-osmosis (RO) filtration is available in your area, you could do that as well.

Once you come up with a drain and refill plan, let us know and we'll help you with the rest.

 

[chiefwej]

Draining is your only real choice for lowering CYA. About the only good thing is at only 10,000 gallons, the water cost won't be that bad. With a CYA of 300, you would be waiting a very long time for CYA to drop to any acceptable level. Sorry about your experience with a SWG system. The Jandy systems do not get very much praise around here. There are definitely more dependable systems. If you do much reading here, you will see that SWG is one of the best choices for chlorinating a pool. In fact, without a SWG, I'm not so sure I would even have a pool. The upfront cost is high because you are paying for several years of chlorine in advance. UV does not break down CYA. CYA actually protects chlorine from UV.

 

[goldencivic]

Well, I thank you all for your help and insight. Never knew that about bromine. Just saw that it was used in spas and figured it would work in my situation, but I guess not.
Also, chiefwej, the Jandy was already installed on the pool when I purchased the house. I didn't know any better about Jandy from any other maker and purchased a new flow sensor and back board to get the system running and it didn't last 6months and service light back on. If you don't mind me asking what SWG you have or would recommend?
Until next time, I guess I better plan on a drain and refill......

 

[chiefwej]

Once you have the pool up and running using bleach (AKA liquid chlorine), we can look at switching to a salt system. There may be some Jandy user who can help you get your current system back up and running. If not the system I'm using, and the one that is most commonly recommended is the Hayward AQR-15.

Although it may seem to be overkill at a rating of up to 40k gallons, those ratings are based on running at 100% capacity 24 hours a day. The output can always be turned down or run time shortened. Best long term economy is always achieved by purchase of the largest capacity cell. It lasts much longer and puts out much more chlorine before it's exhausted and only costs a bit more up front.

Full system costs less than $850 online, if you're up to DIY install. Replacement cells run under $450. So once installed, your chlorine cost is replacement cell cost divided by the service life. Since I've had mine in service I seem to be averaging about 6 years or so on a cell, if I keep the water properly balanced. Operating costs are $450/6.5 years = $69 per year, and that's for chlorine in a pool twice the size of yours, here in very sunny Tucson AZ.