20,000 in ground. Easy peasy until it wasnt

[kerig01]

Newb here with. 3 year old pool. Used tablets as builder said. No issues until last couple months when yellow algae came and would never go away. Fast forward i appear to have everything under control except cya that is sky high. 100+ in tft test kit. Anyone know how to get accuracy when above 100? Pool store test said 150, I’m guessing that’s accurate.
With summer heat and heavy irrigation use I can conceivably pump and dump until the winter time. My plan is to keep fc 3ish until winter and then pump and dump 50% of the pool to have a clean cya start at beginning of next spring. Hate it? Love it? Other tips I should be aware of?

 

[ajw22]

Newb here with. 3 year old pool. Used tablets as builder said. No issues until last couple months when yellow algae came and would never go away. Fast forward i appear to have everything under control except cya that is sky high. 100+ in tft test kit. Anyone know how to get accuracy when above 100? Pool store test said 150, I’m guessing that’s accurate.

For CYA > 90ppm, repeat the test adjusting the procedure as follows:

1. Fill the mixing bottle to the lower mark with pool water.
2. Continue filling the mixing bottle to the upper mark with tap water.
3. Shake briefly to mix.
4. Pour off half of the contents of the mixing bottle, so it is again filled to the lower mark.
5. Continue the test normally from adding R-0013, but multiply the final result by two.

If you need to dilute the pool water further then apply these ratios:[5]

Pool water	Tap or distilled water	Multiply result by
1	1	2
1	2	3
1	4	5

Note that when doing a diluted test not only do you multiply the range of the test you multiply the error rate of the test, so results are a ballpark - not an absolute.

See CYA Testing for tips in how to read the test results.

With summer heat and heavy irrigation use I can conceivably pump and dump until the winter time. My plan is to keep fc 3ish until winter and then pump and dump 50% of the pool to have a clean cya start at beginning of next spring. Hate it? Love it? Other tips I should be aware of?

Read about the No Drain Water Exchange - Draining - Further Reading

FC of 3 is hardly enough. You need to keep FC at 7.5% to 10% of CYA for proper sanitation.

I suggest you read ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Kerig, you have to understand that tablets/pucks contain not only chlorine but CYA also. Some contain calcium but those are less common. So with each puck used you get almost as much CYA into the water as chlorine. And the CYA doesn't leave easily. It will degrade very slowly but most of it has to be tossed out with water and then the pool refilled.

A Salt Water Chlorinator (SWG) or Liquid Chlorine are the two best methods for sanitation of your pool. They add nothing but chlorine. Yay!

Maddie

 

[kerig01]

For CYA > 90ppm, repeat the test adjusting the procedure as follows:

1. Fill the mixing bottle to the lower mark with pool water.
2. Continue filling the mixing bottle to the upper mark with tap water.
3. Shake briefly to mix.
4. Pour off half of the contents of the mixing bottle, so it is again filled to the lower mark.
5. Continue the test normally from adding R-0013, but multiply the final result by two.

If you need to dilute the pool water further then apply these ratios:[5]

Pool water	Tap or distilled water	Multiply result by
1	1	2
1	2	3
1	4	5

Note that when doing a diluted test not only do you multiply the range of the test you multiply the error rate of the test, so results are a ballpark - not an absolute.

See CYA Testing for tips in how to read the test results.



Read about the No Drain Water Exchange - Draining - Further Reading

FC of 3 is hardly enough. You need to keep FC at 7.5% to 10% of CYA for proper sanitation.

I suggest you read ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

Sounds Great on the diluted test, I’l give it a try and see what the results are. I know I have to dump water, it just isn’t really feasible right now with how much water I’m already using. I need to buy a few more months when I don’t have to use so much water for irrigating the yard.

I have the pool calculator and with all my numbers I do see that the FC target should be 7.5% to 10%. But A - is that practical? With my sized pool that is multiple gallons of bleach, multiple times a week. And B - is that safe to swim in At such high chlorine levels?

Thanks everyone!

 

[kerig01]

Kerig, you have to understand that tablets/pucks contain not only chlorine but CYA also. Some contain calcium but those are less common. So with each puck used you get almost as much CYA into the water as chlorine. And the CYA doesn't leave easily. It will degrade very slowly but most of it has to be tossed out with water and then the pool refilled.

A Salt Water Chlorinator (SWG) or Liquid Chlorine are the two best methods for sanitation of your pool. They add nothing but chlorine. Yay!

Maddie

Sorry, I should have clarified. I have stopped using the pucks and am using liquid chlorine from bleach gallons I’ve been buying at Walmart. Good to go on that front. Just have to buy a little time to be able to drain and back fill with fresh water to get the CYA down. I’m trying to manage a game plan between now and probably November when I can drain and refill.

 

[HermanTX]

I have the pool calculator and with all my numbers I do see that the FC target should be 7.5% to 10%. But A - is that practical? With my sized pool that is multiple gallons of bleach, multiple times a week. And B - is that safe to swim in At such high chlorine levels?

Hi fellow Texan. I think it was just a matter of time that you had algae with the situation of using pucks and creating higher and higher CYA but not raising FC to ensure a sanitized pool. I am happy that you switched to liquid chlorine (LC). I had similar situation several years back but changed over to LC prior to algae breakout. I had high CYA and had to bring up FC level then planned a drain and refill as you are doing.

Once you get your FC to the proper level per the FC/CYA Levels then you only need to add LC to maintain it (depending on your lost per day due to UV and bather load). Currently I am losing 3-4ppm of FC daily so I add sufficient LC - daily - to keep my FC at the proper level. If you dose weekly then you will be on a roller coaster of high to low to high FC levels so really need to add LC daily.

There is no concern about swimming, there is no chlorine smell and per the chart, you can safely swim up to SLAM level (that is 40% of your CYA reading).

Hope this helps.

 

[kerig01]

Hi fellow Texan. I think it was just a matter of time that you had algae with the situation of using pucks and creating higher and higher CYA but not raising FC to ensure a sanitized pool. I am happy that you switched to liquid chlorine (LC). I had similar situation several years back but changed over to LC prior to algae breakout. I had high CYA and had to bring up FC level then planned a drain and refill as you are doing.

Once you get your FC to the proper level per the FC/CYA Levels then you only need to add LC to maintain it (depending on your lost per day due to UV and bather load). Currently I am losing 3-4ppm of FC daily so I add sufficient LC - daily - to keep my FC at the proper level. If you dose weekly then you will be on a roller coaster of high to low to high FC levels so really need to add LC daily.

There is no concern about swimming, there is no chlorine smell and per the chart, you can safely swim up to SLAM level (that is 40% of your CYA reading).

Hope this helps.

Thanks Herman. Is there an easy way for me to calculate how many ppm a day I'm losing? I bought the TFT larger kit which I'll have to use daily b/c the daily chlorine/PH kit maxes out at 3% FC. If I can crank it up to 7% in one shot with 3 or 4 gallons of bleach and then just maintain there it isn't too bad I'm just trying to figure out how much chlorine I need to stock up on to maintain these levels until I can drain and refill. With temperatures already dropping here in Central Texas I should be on the back end of the season for crazy FC daily loss.

 

[HermanTX]

Thanks Herman. Is there an easy way for me to calculate how many ppm a day I'm losing? I bought the TFT larger kit which I'll have to use daily b/c the daily chlorine/PH kit maxes out at 3% FC. If I can crank it up to 7% in one shot with 3 or 4 gallons of bleach and then just maintain there it isn't too bad I'm just trying to figure out how much chlorine I need to stock up on to maintain these levels until I can drain and refill. With temperatures already dropping here in Central Texas I should be on the back end of the season for crazy FC daily loss.

The only way to really know how much FC loss per day is to test daily and also monitor how much you add. Do you have PoolMath app? There is a drop down on menu that shows Effects of Adding.

So for a 20k gal pool, one (1) gallon of 10% LC will raise FC 5ppm So 2 gallons will raise your FC by 10ppm. So you could test your pool in morning, add 1 or 2 gals, then test the next morning. Assuming you have no algae, the change in FC is your loss due to UV. i.e. test FC is 6ppm, then add 1 gallon to raise to 11, next morning FC is 8ppm - then your loss is 3ppm. However, if you have algae, then these calculations go out the window because you have that consuming your FC in addition to UV and bather load. By testing daily and monitoring what you are adding, you can get a good feel of your daily loss due to UV.

If you have the TFT-100 test kit, use the powder method in the 10ml vial. That is your most accurate way to measure FC.

Agree we are on back end of summer but rains also play havoc on water chemistry so you need to keep ahead of it.
We have this storm south of us and I have sufficient LC to dump to keep the FC level up with the dilution of the rain and for whatever blows into the pool.