I have come to regard my pool as an enemy with whom I am at war. And the pool is winning.
It seems like no matter how much chlorine I put in, nothing works. I've been doing this every spring for several years now. It's time to start looking for new answers.
Details:
My pool is 16x32 rectangular, in-ground, from 3 feet to 5 feet depth. Around 15,000 gallons I think.
It has a vinyl liner.
I'm in Champaign, Illinois. This weekend it's sunny and in the upper 80s.
Our house is somewhat "out in the country". We don't have city water, but our well water is actually pretty good. The well is around 330 feet deep, going straight down into the Mahomet aquifer.
The pool has an automatic cover on it, so it is covered most of the time.
It's a sand filter.
I have a Polaris 280 with a booster pump.
The pool was opened for the season about 3 weeks ago. I have thrown in about 25 pounds of dichlor before yesterday.
Yesterday morning, I began to work on getting the pool ready for the holiday weekend. I put in a bunch more dichlor, probably 5 pounds. No effect at all.
Starting to get frustrated, I began searching the internet and found this site. I decided to adopt the bleach religion. I convinced myself that after years of tossing in huge amounts of dichlor, my CYA must be sky high. So I ran out and bought 12 bottles of 6% bleach, 96oz each. The pool calculator seemed to think I should put in 5 of them, so I put in 6.
No effect. Still no free chlorine.
To get rid of the CYA, I started draining water and replacing it. I've probably replaced around 2,400 gallons of water.
I read something about doing chlorine after dark. So I waited until late evening and threw in 8 pounds of lithium shock, after reading that it wouldn't increase the CYA.
No effect. Still no free chlorine.
So today I went out to find a way to test for Cyanuric acid, to confirm the diagnosis. I got some cheapie little test strips that told me it was normal. I didn't believe that, so I took a water sample to a pool store:
Test results:
Total Alkalinity: 379
Free Chlorine: 0
pH: 7.4
CYA: 100
Total hardness: 298
I've also done a couple of test strips of different brands, with similar results. I'll be ordering one of the better test kits recommended here on this site, but I don't have it yet.
I expected to see a CYA number which would see a record here on tfp.com. If the number had said 500, everything would make sense. But I apparently do not have a CYA problem, at least not right now.
Anyway, the guy at the pool store couldn't tell me why my pool seems so resistant to chlorine, but he said, "I've seen this before. Sometimes it just takes a huge amount of chlorine to get a pool going in the spring. You just need to chlorine the living daylights out of it."
So I came home and assaulted my pool with everything I had left. Since the CYA didn't seem to be a problem, I tossed in about 18 pounds of dichlor. And I poured in 16 bottles of 6% bleach (96 oz each).
Ten minutes later, just for fun, I stuck in a test strip. No FC.
An hour later, I did a test strip. No FC.
My pool is now more irritating than my teenage daughter, and believe me, that's saying something.
Any advice how I can beat this thing?
It seems like no matter how much chlorine I put in, nothing works. I've been doing this every spring for several years now. It's time to start looking for new answers.
Details:
My pool is 16x32 rectangular, in-ground, from 3 feet to 5 feet depth. Around 15,000 gallons I think.
It has a vinyl liner.
I'm in Champaign, Illinois. This weekend it's sunny and in the upper 80s.
Our house is somewhat "out in the country". We don't have city water, but our well water is actually pretty good. The well is around 330 feet deep, going straight down into the Mahomet aquifer.
The pool has an automatic cover on it, so it is covered most of the time.
It's a sand filter.
I have a Polaris 280 with a booster pump.
The pool was opened for the season about 3 weeks ago. I have thrown in about 25 pounds of dichlor before yesterday.
Yesterday morning, I began to work on getting the pool ready for the holiday weekend. I put in a bunch more dichlor, probably 5 pounds. No effect at all.
Starting to get frustrated, I began searching the internet and found this site. I decided to adopt the bleach religion. I convinced myself that after years of tossing in huge amounts of dichlor, my CYA must be sky high. So I ran out and bought 12 bottles of 6% bleach, 96oz each. The pool calculator seemed to think I should put in 5 of them, so I put in 6.
No effect. Still no free chlorine.
To get rid of the CYA, I started draining water and replacing it. I've probably replaced around 2,400 gallons of water.
I read something about doing chlorine after dark. So I waited until late evening and threw in 8 pounds of lithium shock, after reading that it wouldn't increase the CYA.
No effect. Still no free chlorine.
So today I went out to find a way to test for Cyanuric acid, to confirm the diagnosis. I got some cheapie little test strips that told me it was normal. I didn't believe that, so I took a water sample to a pool store:
Test results:
Total Alkalinity: 379
Free Chlorine: 0
pH: 7.4
CYA: 100
Total hardness: 298
I've also done a couple of test strips of different brands, with similar results. I'll be ordering one of the better test kits recommended here on this site, but I don't have it yet.
I expected to see a CYA number which would see a record here on tfp.com. If the number had said 500, everything would make sense. But I apparently do not have a CYA problem, at least not right now.
Anyway, the guy at the pool store couldn't tell me why my pool seems so resistant to chlorine, but he said, "I've seen this before. Sometimes it just takes a huge amount of chlorine to get a pool going in the spring. You just need to chlorine the living daylights out of it."
So I came home and assaulted my pool with everything I had left. Since the CYA didn't seem to be a problem, I tossed in about 18 pounds of dichlor. And I poured in 16 bottles of 6% bleach (96 oz each).
Ten minutes later, just for fun, I stuck in a test strip. No FC.
An hour later, I did a test strip. No FC.
My pool is now more irritating than my teenage daughter, and believe me, that's saying something.
Any advice how I can beat this thing?