Calcium and CYA .. my pool has none of either?

[Jeannie]

Hi everyone. Alkalinity level and ph levels are fine, but my pool water won't hold chlorine! I went through 8 1.42 gallons of bleach in 3 days. This was perplexing and had never happened before. To the eye the water looks OK, swimable. I wouldn't call the water cloudy, but let's say it doesn't have that sparkling crystal clear look to it. I took out my quality portable Taylor "chemical lab" that someone recommended I buy and tested for calcium hardness and CYA. Unless there is a typo on the Taylor directions, it states that 200-400 is a good reading. It took two drops of R-0012 for my pool water sample to change from red to blue. Directions say to multiply that # by 10 which gives me 20. A mere 20!? My CYA test, that was even worse! I added the appropriate chemicals, shook, and slowly filled the plastic tube with the black dot on the bottom with the water sample. Usually the black dot gets harder and harder to see. Not this time!! I filled that tube to the very top and could still see that black dot at the bottom as clear as day. That can't be good. Do I need to grab the checkbook and hit my local pool store guys? Or can these issues be resolved with products I can purchase cheaper at the grocery store? Thank you in advance for any help you can offer. (P.S. we did add about 6-8,000 gallons of fresh water to our pool upon opening it if that has anything to do with it). Sincerely, Jeannie

 

[257WbyMag]

Re: Calcium Hardness Test and CYA .. my pool has none of either?

Sounds like you have almost no CYA and a very low CH.

Unless your testing reagents are too old or you didn't follow the directions to test, I would consider those to be valid test results. Very low or no CYA at all can mean that you can lose your entire amount of FC to the sun in as little as 30 minutes. CYA is required to help prevent dramatic FC loss to the sun and you need to raise your level to between 30 to 50 ppm.

Depending on your pool type, the CH may be important or it may not. If you have a vinyl lined pool with no heater, then the CH is pretty irrelevant. But if you have a plaster pool, you will need more CH.

Please read Pool School to learn more about the different chemicals involved in pool maintenance and how to adjust their levels. I think that once you get a handle on these things, you will have less to worry about and your water will sparkle.

 

[Jeannie]

Thank you so much. I'm off to pool school

 

[rastoma]

Re: Calcium Hardness Test and CYA .. my pool has none of either?

Depending on your pool type, the CH may be important or it may not. If you have a vinyl lined pool with no heater, then the CH is pretty irrelevant. But if you have a plaster pool, you will need more CH.

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