New Pool, High CH - Drain/refill?

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fliplap

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Dec 19, 2011
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Phoenix, AZ
Just bought a new house with a pebbletec salt pool. I ordered my TFT-100 today, but I took water over to Leslie's to be tested in the meantime. There's a number of issues, but the one I'm most concerned about is the 800 CH. I figure before I go adding chemicals, I should probably correct that first, otherwise I'm just pouring money down the drain, literally, right?

I know I have 2 options, RO and drain. Calsaway quoted me $475 to RO. Ouch.

So I want to drain, at least mostly. My pump has a tap for connecting a regular garden hose, can I use that to mostly drain the pool? If so, I have an in-floor cleaning system, will that be an issue? Will it harm the pump?

I don't mind renting a sump pump, but I can only drain at 12gpm (720gph) into the sewer cleanout, so a faster pump won't do me much good.

Also, the new house has a water softener. Should I use that to refill? If so, should I connect it to one of the taps in the house or will that just take forever?
 
First, welcome to the forum!! :lol:

I would sit tight until you verify that CH reading with your own testing. (see the extended test kit directions so you can test CH in 25ppm increments instead of 10ppm) I expect Leslies to be correct (at least in this case) but it is ALWAYS a good idea to trust your own testing.

Also test the CH of your fill water (unsoftened) while you have the kit out.

Your water softener will not have the capacity to refill your pool. Let's wait and confirm the testing, report those numbers, and we'll all try to figure a good path to take after that.
 
fliplap said:
I don't mind renting a sump pump, but I can only drain at 12gpm (720gph) into the sewer cleanout, so a faster pump won't do me much good.
Click to expand...
12 GPM is a perfect drain rate for an in-place refill. Last year I did an experiment refilling and draining at the same time in this post -> Refill Experiment

I used my pool pump on low speed but you could also use a sump pump or even a siphon. As long as the drain rate is less than what you can get out of the hose, you can adjust the hose to match. I plan on using a siphon this year to see how it goes.

Also, another advantage of this method is you don't have to worry about water tables or exposing the pool surface.
 
Ok, I'll wait until my kit gets here, hopefully this weekend, maybe not. I suspect the fill water is very hard, Phoenix water tends to be. I couldn't say where the water table is, but being the desert I'm probably OK there.

The pool is still very clear, though there's quite a bit of debris at the bottom that I'm going to try to scoop out this weekend. The house had been vacant for several months, though the utilities were on and the pump was on a timer. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Here are the rest of the numbers from Leslie's:

FC: 0 (yikes)
Salt: 2100ppm
CH: 800
CYA: 0 (Hmm?)
TA: 120
pH: 8.0
Pho: 300 (Does this matter?)

And here are the recommended values from the SWG manual:
FC: 1.0 to 3.0 ppm
Salt: 2700 to 3400 ppm
CYA: 60 to 90 ppm (90 best)
TA: 120 to 150 ppm (this says for plaster pools. Is Pebbletec treated the same as plaster?)
CH: 200 to 275 ppm (ditto)
 
pH is one test in which the pool stores are normally pretty accurate. Yours is too high.

I suggest you make it your number one priority to get your pH down around 7.2 ASAP. The pump works, correct?

Start the pump, run it a lot, start removing debris mechanically and get your filter system removing the dirt you can't get by scooping.

The high CH by itself is a small problem but combined with that pH it is NOW a large problem.

Start reading ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry in Pool School. Assuming your water temp is above 50 or so, you want to get some chlorine in there, too. I would add chlorine (clorox) in the evening just after sunset in a big enough dose to get to 2-3ppm or thereabouts and plan on doing that roughly every other evening until you can test your water and posat those results.

Again, lower your pH. Post back if you need help with the pool calculator in figuring the dosage of muriatic acid you'll need.

I am sending you a PM...check for "new messages", upper left corner. :lol:
 
Ok, I added a cup of granular dichlor and 2 cups of 29% muriatic acid. According to the calculator that should bring me down to 7.6 pH and up to 3ppm FC. I also need to grab 90lbs of salt. I can just use water softener granules for that right?
 
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