Hi everyone!
I have been checking in on this site here and there as I get frustrated with pool store advice. I have been to 4 different pool stores this year and all give me different advice. I’m looking for a better way and I think this might be it. A little background:
We have an above ground pool (almost 20 years old). Liner new in 2008, original pump, sand filter has had several revisions including a new valve head this year. We get new sand every year. We live in NE Ohio, shady neighborhood, water is always on the cool side and trees leave droppings constantly.
The last couple years we have struggled with algae.At the end of last season, we were using bagged shock to try to clear it. We could not and closed it anyways looking quite awful.
Opening this year it was green. We scrubbed and vacuumed, used phos away to drop matter to the bottom. Pool store said on paper our water numbers were great. The water was green and cloudy! They suggested filter failure and sold us a ne valve head. Said the water would clear up in a few days. Said it didn’t matter that I had good pressure at the return, sand must not be filtering, just recirculating. A few days went by and the water was still green. Our local hardware store does pool testing. It’s a handyman store. They don’t really make recommendations, they just tell you the results. On a whim, I took our water there. It said our CYA level was over 166 and that we should drain 2/3’s of the water from the pool. I started checking other pool stores. All the pool stores agreed that our CYA was 150 or over but all said that was in good range. Only one pool store recommended draining and that was not because of CYA it was because our nitrates came back as a 10.
We decided to drain the pool as much as we could, probably 80% of our 13,500. We refilled and I have only been to the hardware store since. At first it was still green but now it is a slightly cloudy blue.
We have decided to try liquid chlorine to avoid future CYA problems. I do have a floating container with 3” pucks in it at all times. I am worried about my chlorine levels. Wondering if I could get some advice on these numbers. I don’t have a test kit yet.
FC 6.7
TC 7.1
CC 0.4
ph 7.2
CH 192
TA 51
CYA 21
all numbers are ppm, recommends alkalinity increase, calcium increase and shock. I understand the first 2 but it says the combined chlorine concentration is above recommended levels and I should use one bag of shock or 1 gallon of non chlorine shock. This is spit out by the computer. The sales people have no advice to give nor to they pretend they know. Any advice for me?
Thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read this lengthy post!!
Debbie
I have been checking in on this site here and there as I get frustrated with pool store advice. I have been to 4 different pool stores this year and all give me different advice. I’m looking for a better way and I think this might be it. A little background:
We have an above ground pool (almost 20 years old). Liner new in 2008, original pump, sand filter has had several revisions including a new valve head this year. We get new sand every year. We live in NE Ohio, shady neighborhood, water is always on the cool side and trees leave droppings constantly.
The last couple years we have struggled with algae.At the end of last season, we were using bagged shock to try to clear it. We could not and closed it anyways looking quite awful.
Opening this year it was green. We scrubbed and vacuumed, used phos away to drop matter to the bottom. Pool store said on paper our water numbers were great. The water was green and cloudy! They suggested filter failure and sold us a ne valve head. Said the water would clear up in a few days. Said it didn’t matter that I had good pressure at the return, sand must not be filtering, just recirculating. A few days went by and the water was still green. Our local hardware store does pool testing. It’s a handyman store. They don’t really make recommendations, they just tell you the results. On a whim, I took our water there. It said our CYA level was over 166 and that we should drain 2/3’s of the water from the pool. I started checking other pool stores. All the pool stores agreed that our CYA was 150 or over but all said that was in good range. Only one pool store recommended draining and that was not because of CYA it was because our nitrates came back as a 10.
We decided to drain the pool as much as we could, probably 80% of our 13,500. We refilled and I have only been to the hardware store since. At first it was still green but now it is a slightly cloudy blue.
We have decided to try liquid chlorine to avoid future CYA problems. I do have a floating container with 3” pucks in it at all times. I am worried about my chlorine levels. Wondering if I could get some advice on these numbers. I don’t have a test kit yet.
FC 6.7
TC 7.1
CC 0.4
ph 7.2
CH 192
TA 51
CYA 21
all numbers are ppm, recommends alkalinity increase, calcium increase and shock. I understand the first 2 but it says the combined chlorine concentration is above recommended levels and I should use one bag of shock or 1 gallon of non chlorine shock. This is spit out by the computer. The sales people have no advice to give nor to they pretend they know. Any advice for me?
Thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read this lengthy post!!
Debbie
