Vacation Home in Virginia Beach

[X-PertPool]

So I'm on vacation at virgina beach and the beach home has a vinyl lined pool and a inground spa that has its own seperate plumbing and equipment. Anyways both the spa and the pool have a hayward superpump, the spa has an electric hayward heater and a hayward cart filter as well as a cl200 chlorinator. The pool also has the same chlorinator and a s244t sand filter. I brought my color q to test the water along with a turbidity test kit for cya, since the color q's I found to be basically useless. Here are the results
Pool
Fc 5.20
TC 5.71
pH 7.5
Alk 104
CH 25
Cya 100+

Spa
FC 8.01
TC High (above 8)
pH 7.3
Alk 78
CH 15
Cya 100+

I also backwashed the filter to get some extra water out from the rain. I had to touch it

 

[JasonLion]

The very high CYA levels combined with insufficient FC levels are causing some excess CC.

You might want to try doing a CYA test with a 1 to 1 dilution with tap water (multiply the result by two) to get a sense of just how high the CYA level really is.

 

[X-PertPool]

Hehehe, I was running low on reagent so I was only able to dilute properly once. The pool tested very close to 200 ppm maybe even slightly more. The spa was harder to test since I ran out of regeant but I found out from the pool guy that they don't actually drain the tub they just drain it back to the pool and vice versa. I tested the spa and used 1 part pool water to 3 parts tap water. and then I was only able to fill the reagent area half way so I filled the rest of that with tap water; the result was about 40ppm. So yeah, regardless very high... at first I played dumb with the pool guy and asked what he likes to keep the levels at (around 40-60 ish) and what happens if it gets too high, he mentioned something about it being toxic and doing something with the alkalinity? Is any of that true? Anyways no one got any rashes and the pool stayed clear so I guess that's good

By the way, just an idea I was looking at how the turbidity test works and apparently it uses melamine to precipitate the cyanuric acid which I assume makes Melamine cyanurate? Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is if Melamine was added to pool water and then flocing agent was used could it possibly take the precipitated cya and drop it to the bottom of the pool to be vacuumed out to reduce the level of cya in a high cya pool?

 

[zea3]

You could always set up a "test pool" and find out!

 

[spishex]

Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is if Melamine was added to pool water and then flocing agent was used could it possibly take the precipitated cya and drop it to the bottom of the pool to be vacuumed out to reduce the level of cya in a high cya pool?

It's been done but is no longer available:

http://www.intheswim.com/shopping/produ ... aid=108873

Concerining CYA remover I spoke to the president of the company that originally make the stuff a while back and he told me that it was a propriatary and patented secret but it was NOT melamine (the stuff we use to precipitate out CYA when we do the 'disappearing black dot' test). Last week I spoke to the president of the company that manufactures the O-ACE-SIS products and questioned him about the CYA remover. I told him that I was under the impression it had been developed by another company and that I had spoken to the president of that company about it and was told that it was not melamine. He not only knew the name of the company but also the name of the president (I didn't mention it) and he told me that it was this man's idea but they had worked on it together and that it WAS basically melamine with other ingredeints. He said there were about 6 things in it (I was able to get out of him that besides the melamine there was some type of floc or clarifier in it also). He said the stuff would lower about 20-30 ppm CYA in 10k water so it was really only useful if the CYA was not that high to begin with. He said that if the CYA was 100 ppm or higher NOT to recommend it since it would take a lot to be effective and, unless the correct amount was added there would be no detectable change. Also, he pointed out (correctly) that if the CYA was above 100 ppm that there was no way of really knowing how much above 100 ppm it is due to the limits of CYA testing and it would be possible for the CYA to actually be several hundred ppm. He said that it was really most useful if the CYA was no more than 20-30 ppm above the desired range and the proper amount was added. If the CYA is higher than that he said the best thing to do was the drain and refill.

 

[X-PertPool]

I feel like a genius!

....Or actually the guy who came up with E = MC² two and a half weeks after Einstein

I've spoken on several occasions with the local rep from United Chemicals, he mentioned they had a CYA reducer coming out (this was a few years ago) and now every time I ask him about it he says he kicks himself for mentioning it because they have the chemical developed but according to him they can't sell it yet because of the higher than normal EPA regulations that California has (the home base of united chem) He also mentioned that another thing that is delaying the process is another company claims it invented the chemical in question but they use it for an entirely different application.

Hopefully soon it will be released and when it does I'll be looking at the ingredients list (lets hope the ingredients list isn't as follows)

• anaerobic bacteria wearing tiny gas masks 60%
  Inert ingredients 40%

 

[spishex]

• anaerobic bacteria wearing tiny gas masks 60%
  Inert ingredients 40%

Ha! Made me think of the lamisil toe fungus things: