"No CYA Blues?"

[zdylan]

Hello again. Last year, my first as a pool owner, I had great success with the BBB method. I made the foolish decision to let the pool turn into a swamp over the winter, but I got it back to blue, if not clear, at the beginning of this season with bleach and some dichlor shock (I never got it to hold FC over night). I chose the dichlor because my CYA dropped to zero. Zero CYA is the hallmark of my pool frustrations this season.
I added 8 pounds of dry stabilizer (purchased at Lowe's) along with many pounds of dichlor, and now probably 20 or so trichlor pucks, all in an effort to get some CYA in the water. My tests keep reading zero. I would like to get my sparkling clear pool back, but I'm not sure where to begin when I probably need to shock but I can't get any CYA into the pool.
Any thoughts about what could be wrong? I've considered that it could be my test kits, both of which are over a year old, but I have no idea about their shelf life. I've read around and seen that it could be some horrendous and unidentified bacteria (or maybe ammonia?) in my pool that will take an Olympian volume of chlorine to clear. I'm considering draining and refilling the pool, which costs around $250, if I recall rightly, instead of buying and lugging 100s of bottles of bleach.
Here is a current set of readings, assuming the test kit is not kaput:
FC 0
CC 1
TC 1
pH 8.2 (or more?)
T/A 210
CYA below 30 (0?)

As always, thanks for your help.

 

[JasonLion]

The first thing to do is to lower the PH to around 7.4 to 7.6.

After that I suggest doing an extreme chlorine demand test. There is a write up in this post. That will give you an estimate of how much chlorine you are going to need to use. Then you will have a much better idea if a drain/refill is a good idea or not.

 

[zdylan]

Trying to get the pH under control, I put about 3 quarts of muriatic acid in yesterday. I checked the pH today, and the test still reads at 8.2. Does such a non-reaction to the MA point to any other underlying problem here, or is the pH maybe dramatically higher and in need of far more acid than I've put in so far?

 

[Suziqzer]

With your TA that high too, your pH could be really high as well. I would keep plugging away at it slowly to see if you get some changes. It took me awhile to get mine under control last year.. our first season, but it did work and by the end of the season I was getting close to needing to raise my pH levels.

Another note...I don't think you specified how long you've been working at the Cya levels. CYA can take awhile (up to a week) to read on any test as it takes some time to really dissolve into the water. Be careful or you will have too much and have to drain some water. Give it some time to register before you add more. It could be your test, but I purchased mine for the first time last season and used it again at start up and it seems to be alright. I think they "recommend" new test reagents every year but not sure if they are truly needed.

 

[Suziqzer]

Also.. if your Chlorine levels are high it can throw off your pH testing.

You might go back through and re-read the pool school notes here on the site. I had to refresh my memory again this season.