First my chemistry, which will tell you why I want to drain:
FC - 3.5ppm
CC - 0
PH - 7.6 (5 drops to 7.2 acid demand)
TA - 130ppm
CH - 1675. Seriously
CYA - off the scale, well over 100. Pool store said 120, k2006 reads half way to 100, so maybe 150
I bought this house with pool a couple months ago, water was green by the time we closed on the house. My pool guy shocked (I think with dichlor) and cleaned, but when I asked what the black specs were, he said "black algae, so you will need to drain and acid wash". Then he took a sample to the pool store and said my TDS was 1300 so I really needed to drain, and "oh yeah, CYA is 120". Drain and acid wash estimate 600, 200 is for draining. He added copper algicide so that I "wouldn't need to keep your chlorine so high". He is using trichlor.
Ok, so I never had a pool before and this all sounded like greek to me and I am not acid washing until I know what is what so I got on the internet and read and read, which led me here. I am probably going to fire the pool guy, but I find it unlikely I will want to add liquid bleach every day in the summer so we shall see. No acid wash for me, but the pool bottom looks somewhat stained (black and bits of brown here and there). House built in early 90s, not sure when pool was made. Probably same time, Shasta Pool.
Anyway, so I still have black algae, getting worse. I have been supplementing the trichlor with liquid bleach to keep it at 10ppm but I didn't bother last week so it is now 3.5ppm. Pool guy says "I am liking the water better now." It was worse before, at least it is stable now.
So, instead of using many bottles of bleach to shock to remove the black algae, I figure I have to at least partially drain to get that CYA down so I can shock the heck out of it and kill that black algae. Also, calcium down should help with the staining?
The problem: My backwash hose goes to one side of the yard, or the jandy valve? can be changed to go under the pool and backwash to the other side of the yard. Small yard with a wall (Scottsdale), so I don't think I can drain enough in the yard, and city ordinances require me to drain to the yard or sewer clean out, but max to the sewer clean out is 12 ga a minute. Clean out is about 75ft from pool filter, maybe 100ft from pool. SO . . .
Options I can think of:
1. If I run a 2" hose for 75 feet to the sewer cleanout from the Hayward sand filter, and set it to waste, it will be too fast for the sewer and apparently back up. Can I use the jandy valve to partially slow the flow or will this hurt my pump?
2. I could buy (or rent) a sump pump and run a garden hose the 100 feet or so to the sewer clean out. I am thinking to buy one, since I will do this pretty often (I plan to use trichlor because I am lazy and the sun is so dang strong here and I don't want to be adding stuff every night!). I see cheap weak pumps for as low as 35 bucks on Amazon, and I can get a long garden hose or two and do it that way. That should be slow enough for the sewer clean out. Anyone try the cheap pump route - any recommendations on which one is good or what to avoid?
3. I could dump from the pump to the sides of the yard over and over and hope it doesn't flood the neighbors or damage the concrete walls on the edges of my property. I think the ground will become waterlogged pretty quickly though, even though this is desert out here. My usually backwash location is already pretty water logged and takes all day to drain sometimes from a few minutes of backwash.
4. I could use RO, I just contacted them for a quote. Anyone know what that costs on average?
On top of all this, our water is pretty hard here and I am a bit nervous about re balancing fresh water, but has to be better than what I have!
Total noob here, looking for comments. Am I missing anything?
FC - 3.5ppm
CC - 0
PH - 7.6 (5 drops to 7.2 acid demand)
TA - 130ppm
CH - 1675. Seriously
CYA - off the scale, well over 100. Pool store said 120, k2006 reads half way to 100, so maybe 150
I bought this house with pool a couple months ago, water was green by the time we closed on the house. My pool guy shocked (I think with dichlor) and cleaned, but when I asked what the black specs were, he said "black algae, so you will need to drain and acid wash". Then he took a sample to the pool store and said my TDS was 1300 so I really needed to drain, and "oh yeah, CYA is 120". Drain and acid wash estimate 600, 200 is for draining. He added copper algicide so that I "wouldn't need to keep your chlorine so high". He is using trichlor.
Ok, so I never had a pool before and this all sounded like greek to me and I am not acid washing until I know what is what so I got on the internet and read and read, which led me here. I am probably going to fire the pool guy, but I find it unlikely I will want to add liquid bleach every day in the summer so we shall see. No acid wash for me, but the pool bottom looks somewhat stained (black and bits of brown here and there). House built in early 90s, not sure when pool was made. Probably same time, Shasta Pool.
Anyway, so I still have black algae, getting worse. I have been supplementing the trichlor with liquid bleach to keep it at 10ppm but I didn't bother last week so it is now 3.5ppm. Pool guy says "I am liking the water better now." It was worse before, at least it is stable now.
So, instead of using many bottles of bleach to shock to remove the black algae, I figure I have to at least partially drain to get that CYA down so I can shock the heck out of it and kill that black algae. Also, calcium down should help with the staining?
The problem: My backwash hose goes to one side of the yard, or the jandy valve? can be changed to go under the pool and backwash to the other side of the yard. Small yard with a wall (Scottsdale), so I don't think I can drain enough in the yard, and city ordinances require me to drain to the yard or sewer clean out, but max to the sewer clean out is 12 ga a minute. Clean out is about 75ft from pool filter, maybe 100ft from pool. SO . . .
Options I can think of:
1. If I run a 2" hose for 75 feet to the sewer cleanout from the Hayward sand filter, and set it to waste, it will be too fast for the sewer and apparently back up. Can I use the jandy valve to partially slow the flow or will this hurt my pump?
2. I could buy (or rent) a sump pump and run a garden hose the 100 feet or so to the sewer clean out. I am thinking to buy one, since I will do this pretty often (I plan to use trichlor because I am lazy and the sun is so dang strong here and I don't want to be adding stuff every night!). I see cheap weak pumps for as low as 35 bucks on Amazon, and I can get a long garden hose or two and do it that way. That should be slow enough for the sewer clean out. Anyone try the cheap pump route - any recommendations on which one is good or what to avoid?
3. I could dump from the pump to the sides of the yard over and over and hope it doesn't flood the neighbors or damage the concrete walls on the edges of my property. I think the ground will become waterlogged pretty quickly though, even though this is desert out here. My usually backwash location is already pretty water logged and takes all day to drain sometimes from a few minutes of backwash.
4. I could use RO, I just contacted them for a quote. Anyone know what that costs on average?
On top of all this, our water is pretty hard here and I am a bit nervous about re balancing fresh water, but has to be better than what I have!
Total noob here, looking for comments. Am I missing anything?