Need help with my pool - and questions about testing

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JackHarkness

JackHarkness

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2010
73
Temecula, CA
Hey All,

1. Somehow my pool has a CYA of 250 [been using dichlor trichlor for years (was none the wiser)] - I decided to drain most of it (smart or not?). I realized CYA 250 is way too high. Also a lot of my water (40%) evaporated in this summer heat...is this normal?

Anyways - I'll be pressure washing the pool once drained and chlorine washing it. (The pool has algae and looks like a green lagoon). The water evaporated a lot (not sure how) and ended up being more prone to the sun's effects (am I right?).

2. Do you all actually recommend testing daily?

3. Lastly, am I in trouble if I can't afford to run my pool pump everyday? It's a fixed-speed pump.........draws about 2000W. It's a Jandy....
 
Welcome to the TFP pool! :splash:


1. DiChlor and TriChlor are both about 50% (give or take) CYA, so it's easy to get above 200. I took over my pool with a CYA of about 250 (CYA tests above 100 are just a guess, not very specific contrary to what the pool store says). With a CYA of 250 I had to keep my chlorine level at around 20 just to keep algae away.

2. Yes, until you learn your pool. After a few weeks or a month you can generally continue to add chlorine daily, but back the testing off to a few times a week.

3. How long are you running it each day? Have you seen these two articles?

VSP Rebates

Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time
 
Welcome to the forum! :handshake:

How did you get the CYA test result? Pool stores are notoriously wrong.

Order a TF100 test kit
The only other real option for a test kit is a Taylor K-2006-C. Be careful comparing prices because the K-2006 comes in sizes, designated by a letter. The basic K-2006 has .75oz bottles. You need to get the K-2006-C to get the larger bottles that you want. Even then it is a little short on the reagent & powder for the FAS/DPD test.

I also have the SpeedStir. It makes testing much easier.

I would not recommend draining your pool and cleaning it as you state. You can easily damage your plaster with a pressure washer. This time of year you are better off exchanging your water, once you know how much to do.

If you place a low volume sub pump in the deep end and pull water from there while adding water in the shallow end you can do a fairly efficient exchange. That is assuming the water you are filling with is the same temperature or warmer than your pool water. If your fill water is much cooler than your pool water, then switch it. Add the water to the deep end (hose on bottom) and pull water from the top step.

The location of the pump and fill hose may change if you have salt water, high calcium, etc.
In my pool, with saltwater and high calcium when I drain, I put the pump in the deep end and hose in shallow end. The water in the pool weighs more per unit volume than the fill water from the hose.

Be sure to balance the water out and water in so the pool level stays the same.
Do not stop the process until you have exchanged the amount of water you want.
Be sure your pool pump is OFF for the entire exchange. Turn it off at the electrical breakers.

Until you understand your pool water chemistry really well, we do recommend testing your FC and pH daily.

In the summer time you will need to run your pump each day to mix your daily addition of liquid chlorine and to skim the surface of debris.

Digest all that and post up some more questions!!

Take care.
 
Hi everyone! Super glad my old account got merged. Now a question I wonder - the pool is drained (super algae) - I have to clean the walls with bleach and a brush.

What do you all recommend? Should I even bother to refill it if I can't afford to run the fixed-speed pool pump more than once a week for 5-6 hours? Aka only 28 hours a month?

Thank you!

Picture of pool currently


Mz8eLT.jpg
 
Pool has been drained + cleaned & chlorine rinsed.

Now....I'm curious - I read not filling it up can lead to plaster issues. I don't want that. So - do I have to fill it up all the way? Summer seems to have evaporated almost 1/2 the water in this pool....a lot of water $$$......


Also - what are recommended levels for TA, CYA, PH in plaster? Previously my CYA was 220 (I know this is bad).
 
Jack,

You can take this for what it worth as I'm a frustrated pool owner myself at times. With the help of the resident experts here, I hope to have less frustration and more enjoyment. With that said...

Now is not the time to drain the pool, although it sounds like you've already done this. It's a little cooler today, but you need to get this filled up as quickly as possible. At our current temperatures bad things happen to plaster - it dries out, shrinks and cracks.

It sounds like you've already made a decision though. If you're having a hard time keeping up with things, a pool is a luxury that requires some disposable income to keep up. If I had to make a choice between having a roof over my head and food, or keep the pool going, I'm choosing the home and food. I hope I'm not speaking out of place here, but I'm thinking at a bare minimum that pool needs to be run at least 2 hours a day and probably closer to 4 hours to maintain water quality. This will also mean replenishing the hundred gallons a day, possibly more, due to evaporation, and the chemicals needed as well. Pretty much bleach & MA.

Another, hopefully I'm not speaking out of place, but if you bought a luxury car and all you could afford was the payments, but you couldn't drive it because there was no money left for gas, maintenance, insurance...Why bother?
 
Great advice, but the last part is nonsense. You assume I came into it with no money and went "durp I don't want to maintain it." Situations change. Clearly I have to prioritize. But I agree - I wouldn't buy a luxury car if I had no other money to drive around with it. That's assuming I started out broke.

I contacted a few plaster company's and they disagree with you. According to them, the pool can remain drained for 3-4 days with no damage.

Other than that - I just need numbers. As for the pool being run a minimum of 2 hours a day - that's just not gonna fly. I don't have your variable speed luxury to be running my fixed speed at 2 hours a day.

So either I can make this work on a reasonable budget for me (what I consider reasonable for me right now) - or it's a Catch-22 and I'm screwed either way unless I run a 3000W fixed speed pump for 2 hours a day for 30 days (aka $120 hike in Electric bill) not to mention replenishing "hundreds of gallons" of water which will cost a pretty penny every week. My 10,000 gallon pool went to 7,500 in 1 week with our weather.

By that logic you're talking 10,000 gallons a month. That's almost $200 to keep it "filled"....this isn't making any financial sense or motivating me to even keep up with it if I don't have many choices.

I agree...why bother then
 
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Yeah, I'm just talking nonsense. As I said, "I hope I'm not speaking out of place."

I'm also not making any assumptions other than it sounds like you can't afford this now. I'm not speaking down to you as I'm thankful for what I have, but I'm also aware that things could change, and if they do, I could be faced with similar choices. So today I have money tomorrow I might not.

As I also stated I am not an expert, but from what I've heard you do not want to leave your pool drained when it's summer time and the temperatures are 100 - 115* F. If you've talked to people that said you can do this safely for 3 - 4 days, great, but that is coming from the place that stands to make money if something bad does happen.

Not hypothetical
 
scgms1 said:
Yeah, I'm just talking nonsense. As I said, "I hope I'm not speaking out of place."

I'm also not making any assumptions other than it sounds like you can't afford this now. I'm not speaking down to you as I'm thankful for what I have, but I'm also aware that things could change, and if they do, I could be faced with similar choices. So today I have money tomorrow I might not.

As I also stated I am not an expert, but from what I've heard you do not want to leave your pool drained when it's summer time and the temperatures are 100 - 115* F. If you've talked to people that said you can do this safely for 3 - 4 days, great, but that is coming from the place that stands to make money if something bad does happen.

Not hypothetical
Click to expand...


I mean again I get you're trying to help - but it's up for interpretation or you didn't clarify it enough with details for me to consider otherwise.

Even if I can't afford a pool now, your responses are really not contributing anything other than telling me to "fill it up." OK. But you should add MORE detail to that. Like what happens if I can't run the pump as long as you think I should? Do the ends justify the means in that case to even fill the pool up if it's "doomed no matter what" and I can't even do it's upkeep?

Should I just let the plaster crack and save myself the water bill? Is it possible to fill it up somewhat and hey....maybe make it work even if the outcome isn't "super spectacular shiny pool"?

I mean I get what you're saying, but again it's not helping at all when you're not considering the potential effects/outcomes of my particular budgetary situation. There's no additional details at all that help me in your responses.

That link also says run time is purely aesthetics which is subjective per pool owner. Just became mine doesn't sparkle and glisten, doesn't mean I'll be unhappy with it. I thought proper chemicals + pH is all thats necessary to keep a pool looking decent.
 

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That's part of the problem with trying to communicate over the internet. You lose the face to face, tonal inflections, and voice cues so misunderstandings can happen. I am not jerk, although some people think I am. :p

Based on what you are telling me you can refer back to this picture if you want to do what you are saying you can afford to do as this will happen again. If you don't want this to happen again there are experts here that will get you going in the right direction. That will mean that you'll need to maintain the chemicals, run the pump, and maintain the water level. If that is financially not feasible, you really only have one choice at this point. I'm sorry, maybe an expert can chime in here if I'm wrong.

Take care,

JackHarkness said:
Picture of pool currently


Mz8eLT.jpg
Click to expand...
 
scgms1 said:
If that is financially not feasible, you really only have one choice at this point. I'm sorry, maybe an expert can chime in here if I'm wrong.

Take care,
Click to expand...


What's that one choice? lol Also if you mean the picture - that's just completely arrogant. That happened as a result of me not putting chemicals in it and the CYA being through the roof to the point I didn't even bother AT ALL. Are you trying to say even if I bother, but it's not up to your standards, I'll end up with a green swamp again? That has nothing to do with not running the pump for hours a day. Now you just sound silly, even if it is the internet. lol
 
JackHarkness said:
So either I can make this work on a reasonable budget for me (what I consider reasonable for me right now)
Click to expand...

Hello Capn, wading in...what is your budget to get the pool going and what is your budget for monthly maintenance?

Seems to me that scgms1 is trying to guide you in the TFP "right" way, which s/he should do on this forum. You are asking for guidance for how to go about it in the "wrong" way. Going the wrong way, you risk swamping again. If you want to risk a few hundred on water, test kit, SLAM bleach and 24/7 pump power for days while you SLAM, and try to get it looking good and see if you can maintain it on 1 hour pump run per day, go for it. Its your pool. But the chance of success may not be high.

Sorry you are in this situation and hopefully someone will come along and tell you specifics for the other option, which is filling it and covering it to preserve the asset until such time you can adequately maintain it.
 
Unfortunately, I think running your fixed pump only that short amount of time will eventually lead to algae. The chemicals keep the pool safe but the chemicals have to circulate around the pool to be effective. If chlorine is not getting to parts of your pool you will likely develop algae in that area. You need to run your pump enough to circulate your chemicals.
 
MannyT said:
Unfortunately, I think running your fixed pump only that short amount of time will eventually lead to algae. The chemicals keep the pool safe but the chemicals have to circulate around the pool to be effective. If chlorine is not getting to parts of your pool you will likely develop algae in that area. You need to run your pump enough to circulate your chemicals.
Click to expand...

Hi All...

Manny - thanks for this answer. I understand...So it's either run it at least 4 hours or run it 1 hour and notice marginal gains. I suppose it makes a lot of sense! Also to @cantplay - thank you and I understand. I do wonder if covering the pool is a good idea? I one time covered a pool here - a long time ago during summer - and it ended up being a black algae lagoon underneath.
 
Jack

Read this article. https://consensus.fsu.edu/FBC/Pool-...4_study-efficiency_of_circulation_systems.pdf

If it was me I’d fill the pool add cya to get to 40 and the run chlorine 2 ppm above the recommended levle of 5-7 so 7-9 and run the pump after adding chlorine in the morning for the 30-45 min. In the evening either go swimming or use the brush and stir around the water. If you have a cover you could cover during the day to help stop evaporation.

The water may get “dirty” from not being circulated for a longer time but I think you can keep it algae free and properly sanitized. You’d only gphave to worry about that if you let the fc get below recommended levels and this is why I’d add a little extra to keep from dropping below 3ppm
 
SpringPool said:
Jack

Read this article. https://consensus.fsu.edu/FBC/Pool-...4_study-efficiency_of_circulation_systems.pdf

If it was me I’d fill the pool add cya to get to 40 and the run chlorine 2 ppm above the recommended levle of 5-7 so 7-9 and run the pump after adding chlorine in the morning for the 30-45 min. In the evening either go swimming or use the brush and stir around the water. If you have a cover you could cover during the day to help stop evaporation.

The water may get “dirty” from not being circulated for a longer time but I think you can keep it algae free and properly sanitized. You’d only gphave to worry about that if you let the fc get below recommended levels and this is why I’d add a little extra to keep from dropping below 3ppm
Click to expand...

Interesting. When you say run the pump after adding chlorine - do you mean 30-45 minutes a day? or when I make the chlorine addition? You're the only one to give me a great plan and something I think I can definitely do!

I heard "shocking" the pool when CYA is low aka CYA 0 in my pool currently will be a good idea? Your thoughts? temps approach 100F here.
 
The half life of chlorine in a pool with 0 CYA is minutes when sun is shining on the pool. Always have 30-40 ppm CYA in pool water to shield the chlorine from the UV impact.
 
Yes run the pump as you add the chlorine and run it for the 30-45 min. This should help distribute it throughout the pool. The first time you add it to get to the 7-9ppm after having added the cya you may want to run for a little longer to ensure it’s distributed well (again swimming in the pool can help to)

i think the only thing that will help with evaporation is cover (maybe a solar cover?). It may also help keep more FC in the pool but I don’t have a cover so can’t comment on that.
 
SpringPool said:
Yes run the pump as you add the chlorine and run it for the 30-45 min. This should help distribute it throughout the pool. The first time you add it to get to the 7-9ppm after having added the cya you may want to run for a little longer to ensure it’s distributed well (again swimming in the pool can help to)

i think the only thing that will help with evaporation is cover (maybe a solar cover?). It may also help keep more FC in the pool but I don’t have a cover so can’t comment on that.
Click to expand...

How much do you think I shoudl run my pump besides chlorination? Just 1 hour a day? I can do maybe 4 hours a week tops.
 

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