Gotta start all over

[Richard320]

[attachment=0:1yomhs47]febpool.jpg[/attachment:1yomhs47]
Here's what it looked like at 11:30 this morning. It tested great, nothing needed at all. We haven't seen any rain in quite a while, and it's been warm, so the lawn is starting to get brown tips. Therefore, out of the pool and onto the lawn. Then refill. I sucked the hot tub dry then pulled the pool down as low as I dared. Probably 2000 gallons. Which should do wonders for the high CH and slightly high CYA.

But now I have to start all over getting pH, TA, and FC just right.

 

[carlos31820]

I'm confused... it looked great, tested great... why starting over?

 

[Richard320]

I'm confused... it looked great, tested great... why starting over?

Because I just replaced about 10% of the water - which means 10% of the FC is gone, 10% of the CH is gone, and so on. And I had no idea which way the pH is going to go.

Actually I let it mix for over an hour, including some fierce brushing with a whale brush, and it looks like my guesstimate on the acid was pretty good. I'll check again tomorrow and then adjust the FC.

 

[anonapersona]

Richard has unbelievably high CH, and so he is always working to lower it.

 

[MyBad]

Looks good Richard....nice and sparkly!

 

[JesseJames]

That is a great looking pool.

 

[SCCS]

Don't feel bad Richard I just did the same thing about 2 weeks ago. I drained out about 10,000 gals. Had to add about 1 gal of bleach and 7-40lb bags of salt. Just got everything balance as of last week. I lowered my CH from 500 to about 200 and also lowered my CYA down from about 100. Water is great looking and the weather is just like spring here. You're water looks great also.

 

[Guest]

I drained out about 10,000 gals. I lowered my CH from 500 to about 200 and also lowered my CYA down from about 100.

We just did a pool about your size last week with CH at 800 and 100 CYA. We used up about 2,500 gallons in the process, and gave them back 170 CH and 0 CYA!

I know we are not supposed to "sell" here, but I hate to see 10,000 gallons of water wasted. For those of you in drought areas, please check and see if there are alternatives to dumping all this water (not picking on you, SCCS, but just pointing out that it takes dumping a lot of water to get the chemistry right sometimes, and that there are alternatives available in some parts of the country).

Your pool is looking great, Richard

 

[carlscan26]

I can vouch for Bruce and his RO process. If it's available I highly recommend it.

 

[Richard320]

Richard has unbelievably high CH, and so he is always working to lower it.

That is an understatement. I also had unbelievably high CYA when I started.

This morning's numbers:
FC: 8
CC: .5
TC: 8.5
pH: 7.2
TA: 50
CH: 675
CYA: 50
Temp: 56F
CSI -.58

CC, probably chloramines in the tap water. pH is a little low, but it's where I want it, as is TA. I am actually dissolving scale from the walls, ever so slowly. What used to look like blue-grey walls with white streaks now looks like white walls with some blue-grey marbling.
The spa section is nearly all white, but I attribute that to vigorous brushing when I'm in it. My theory is that microscopic scratches on the scale increase the surface area, so the acidic water can dissolve it faster. And my tests seem to confirm it; CH was at 675 12/23, and rose to 800 by 2/13, and this with only adding about 2" water. Just a slow climb.

Now if we can just get some more rain, I can keep going. I'm quite thrilled that CYA is now down to a reasonable level. I believe it was somewhere between 220-240 when I first got a test kit. Hard to tell when you dilute the sample 1:3.... A little more rain, and I'll have a safety margin, and I'll be able to buy a couple pucks for when I go on vacation in May!

 

[Richard320]

And after the storm

We had a couple days of rain, a few days after I emptied and filled from the tap....grrr. go figure.

Pumped down, circulated, brushed, and finally tested.
FC: 5
CC: 0
TC: 5
pH: 7.5
TA: 40
CH: 600
CYA: call it 48 (3X in a row!)
Temp: 56F
CSI -.49

A quart of 12½% and I'm good for now. I'll give it a few days and see what happends to the TA, if it picks up any carbonate from the walls. I might have to buy something besides bleach and acid and test kit refills!!