Test results, and what type of pool do I have?

[ridefst]

Hello all,
First post here, and already looking for help
I've had trouble with my pool ever since we moved in five years ago, for the first few years I took samples to the pool store regularly, and put in whatever they told me too. Cost lots of money, and I never had a clean pool.
Last year I gave up on the store, and put three floaties in loaded with trichlor tabs, much better than the pool store method, but still never got sparkling clear, always kinda cloudy.
So, now I just bought the TF-100 kit and am trying to analyze my results.
Looks to me like I might have been building up calcium over the years, causing the cloudiness, but I'd like that confimed.

Also, I have no idea what type of pool I have. It's IG (no doubt about that ) but vinyl/plaster/concrete???
I attached a crappy photo. It's got a blue plastic/vinyl strip around the top, then has white plastic "panels" covering the sided (looks like raised panel doors), the bottom appears to be blue painted concrete as far as I can tell. Not sure what to call this odd mixture in the pool calculator, so I went with Plaster for the moment.

My test results are:
FC - 2
CC - 1
TC - 3
pH - 6.8
T/A - 70
CH - 600 :!:
CYA - 70
Temp - 53F - lovely Ohio weather right there...

What I'm getting from this is that I need to drain and replace 57% of my water, some 18,000 gallons in my 32,000 gal pool.
Probably not worth fixing anything else before this, as it's gonna go right down the drain anyways, right?

Just looking for some confirmation before I start dumping water, I have never dropped the water more than an inch or two below the skimmer before, gonna look a little weird. Might have to pay for some fill water, that'll take a while from the garden hose!

Thanks for any help,
Franklin

EDIT: I'm out in the country with my own well, definitely some hard water here, I notice lots of iron stains on the bathroom fixtures, etc.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Welcome to TFP.

There are a few thing wrong with your results so lets attack them one at a time.
pH 6.8 is low BUT with a CH of 600 low pH is your friend. The problem is that since the pH test only reads as low as 6.8 it may be lower so you should bring it up to 7.2.
FC is too low for a CYA of seventy and with a CC of 1 you need to shock but we'll get to that later. Just bring your FC up to 6 ppm for now.
A TA of 70 is great!
A CH of 600 is high but manageable if you keep everything in check.
A CYA of 70 is a little high for a non-swcg pool so draining and refilling will help that too.

Before you drain and refill you should test your fill water for everything except CYA, there won't be any of that in it.

Where does your fill water come from (public, well, lake, etc)?

 

[JamesW]

It looks like you have fiberglass panels and a painted concrete floor. I would say to call it fiberglass.

You should double check your calcium result by doing this:

1) Add 5 drops of reagent R-0012 and swirl to mix
2) Add 20 drops of reagent R-0010 and swirl to mix
3) Add 5 drops of R-0011 and swirl to mix
4) Add reagent R-0012 drop by drop, swirling and mixing between each drop until the color changes from red to blue.
5) Add the initial 5 drops of R-0012 to the number of drops of R-0012 needed in step 4 to get the total number of drops of R-0012 needed to change the color from red to blue.
6) Multiply the total number of drops of R-0012 by 10 to get your calcium result.

The cloudiness could be from algae, high calcium levels and/or paint chalking. Since your pH is so low, it is probably not calcium causing the cloudiness. It's most likely algae and chalky paint.

 

[JasonLion]

From your description it is a mixture of fiberglass and plaster. I would call it plaster, since plaster is at the most risk from the water chemistry being off.

 

[Isaac-1]

What type of filter do you have, if sand when was the sand last changed?

Ike

 

[ridefst]

Thanks for all the input so quickly.

@Bama Rambler - I've always filled with well water, though if I end up dumping half of it I'll probably get some hauled in, and I don't know the source of that. Guess I'll start working on the chlorine before draining, see if it comes around. I've put 5lb of shock in last week when I took the cover off, but that's all I've done so far

@JamesW - I think I did this already, I tried the basic instructions but gave up when I hit 60 drops of R-0012 with no change. I then tried the alternate version of putting two drops R-0012 prior to adding R-0011L and got the color change at 60 total drops - I think this is what you're suggesting, right?

@Isaac-1 - Sand filter, changed last spring

 

[ridefst]

Based on advice above, and the pool calculator, I think I'm gonna hit the store and put in 2lb of borax and 1 gal of 6% chlorine to get FC and pH headed in the right direction, then retest the next day.

 

[Bama Rambler]

While you're out getting your borax and chlorine take a sample of the pool water & well water and go by a local pool store and have them check it for metals specifically iron, unless you already know whether it has any or not. If there's iron in the well water then, in my personal opinion, it would be much better to have the water hauled in if you can make sure it doesn't have metals.

 

[ridefst]

So, I'm having a terrible time finding borax anywhere...
After looking at a few different stores, I finally gave up (temporarily) and bought "pH up" from Walmart, along with my 6% chlorine
According to the packaging, I needed about 10lb of the pH up, and I also put in 3 gal of chlorine to bring it up a little high hopefully.

Results are:
FC went from 2 to 4
CC stayed at 1
TC from 3 to 5
pH from 6.8 to 7.8
T/A from 70 to 160
CH from 600 to 620
CYA stayed at 70

Pool calculator keeps telling me to drain and replace half of the water, but it's not really looking all that bad. Little cloudy, but I can just barely see the bottom in the deep end (10'), so that's encouraging.

 

[thunderkyss]

Pool calculator keeps telling me to drain and replace half of the water, but it's not really looking all that bad. Little cloudy, but I can just barely see the bottom in the deep end (10'), so that's encouraging.

The calculator will keep telling you to change the water as long as your CH goal and CYA goal is less than actual values.

High calcium right now isn't a big issue for you, since your PH is low. Look at the bottom of the pool calculator, at the CSI number. As long as you are between -0.6 & 0.6 we assume your chemistry is neutral. I think.

With a CYA of 70, you need to get that FC up a little higher. Check out the Chlorine/CYA chart. With a 32,000 gallon pool, you'll have to dump in about 3 gallons of bleach to get to where you need to be.

I would definitely get the water checked for iron & pray for rain.

 

[JasonLion]

PH and TA are both too high now. It is best to make large adjustments in several steps least you overshoot like that. The combination of high PH, TA, and CH levels could lead to CH scaling. I suggest bringing PH down to 7.5 soon.