What to do?

[RH60]

Need help
Pool has been clear all year.
I have been using 3” tabs from Sams club.
POOLBRAND - Sodium Dichloro-s-Triazinetrione Hydrated=99% , 90% available chlorine
And
POOLBRAND Quick Dissolving Shock- Sodium Dichloro-s-Triazinetrione Hydrated=99% with 55.5% available chlorine.

Always clear and tested fine with about 1 tab a week in a floating chorlrnator
and then 1lb. shock every 2 weeks.
Vinyl pool 7500 gallons.

Anyway out of town weather got very hot and water got a cloudy. Tested and no chlorine.
Added 2 tablets and a ½ gallon of bleach
Added one pound package of shock twice after a couple of days.

Tested water and chlorine was good and started to clear just a little after a week.

Then tested again chlorine was low so add to more tablets.
After two days it is now very cloudy.

Took sample to pool store.
Free available chlorine = 5.77
Total Chlorine= 5.77
Combined= 0
Total A = 112
Calcuium Hardness = 54
CYA = 156


They say I need to drain pool and buy their chemicals. That the stuff from Sams has too much cya in it and that’s what caused my problem. They said mostly the Shock has too much CYA.

Neighbor uses same Tablets but uses Bleach for shock treatment. Should I do the same after I drain?

Thanks for any help

 

[Richard320]

You're done with pucks and powdered shocks from here on out.



The single best thing you can do is get a proper test kit. Be sure to read the article in Pool School.

 

[J20832]

I agree, in part. However, don't throw out your pucks and powdered shock, just safely store them until next start up season. For now, follow the pool school as Richard posted and by next year you will understand why you shouldn't be using the pucks and dichlor right now.

 

[RH60]

I agree, in part. However, don't throw out your pucks and powdered shock, just safely store them until next start up season. For now, follow the pool school as Richard posted and by next year you will understand why you shouldn't be using the pucks and dichlor right now.

I think I understand so I do need to go ahead and drain the pool.
Since I did not use that many tablets this year does that mean most of my problem came from the shock.
My neighbor has same size pool. Has not had a problem. But just uses bleach to shock. But he keeps levels on the high side and uses 50% more of the same tablets than I do.

Thanks for all the help

 

[jblizzle]

the problem is your CYA. The powdered chlorine dichlor adds if quickly. The pucks add it slowly.

We recommend a level not more than 50ppm and you are at least triple that. So you need to replace at least 2/3 of the water and then stick to only liquid chlorine.

Get a test kit.
Read Pool School.
Replace water.
Go through the shock PROCESS.
Enjoy your clear pool spending much less than your neighbor.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

 

[techguy]

I feel your pain... until this year, I had been in the vicious circle of pucks, floaters and green pools. You have a good pool store that recommended you drain your pool and that your problem was too much CYA. Most stores do not understand this relationship.

The stuff in the puck and bags is commonly referred to as "dichlor". As you noted, it is 55%-90% available chlorine... and about 45%-10% stabilizing ingredients. As you know the sun, bathers, and algae consume your chlorine. You need to add more chlorine to make it stay clear and sparkly. The challenge is the stabilizer, mainly CYA, does not go away on it's own and is not consumed by the sun, bathers or algae. It builds in the pool and weakens the sanitizing effectiveness of your chlorine. The chlorine is there, is just less effective. What used to clean your pool at 3 ppm now requires 10-20 ppm and the more dichlor use add to your floater, the more chlorine you need to stay clear. You have reached the point where it almost longer matters how much chlorine, liquid or solid, you add will be effective.

Why replace your water? With only 7,500 gallons and you will spend more time and money on chemicals than on new water. How much to replace, I say nearly all of it but the PoolCalculator.com recommends you replace at least 87% of your water to get down to a 20 PPM CYA (that would be most effective to the shock process). 75% would get you close to 40PPM , a good place to stabilize but a little harder for your shock process and it will require more chlorine to get you clear and sparkly. This all assumes your fill water is relatively cheap, clean, and not full of metals (like it can be when from a well or spring).

Can you fill in your profile with where you are and what pool type (abg or Intex I assume) and what pump and filter you have. I helps us to help you.

 

[frogabog]

Click on that white button in Richard's post above, please read the information within Pool School. Read it many times, it's a lot to take in at first.

Stop thinking about your neighbors pool too. The shock product you've been using has CYA in it, but so do the pucks. Maybe you've put more CYA into your pool than he has by using the shock product, but it's not what's making the difference between his pool and yours. We don't know how often he drains and refills, and it's not exactly uncommon for people to run with pucks for years without a problem... till there is a problem and they go get pool stored for many dollars and maybe or maybe not clear it up. Many of those people wind up here when the pool goes wonky. And they find out how it happened, how to fix it, how to prevent it, and most importantly WHY it happened. All this information is in Pool School, so do take a few read throughs.

I'll answer your questions with information.

CYA does not disappear. If you add CYA to the pool, even if it was in the form of a puck ten years ago... it's still in the pool today unless you have drained. It doesn't matter how much has been added from solidified chlorine sources (trichlor or dichlor) this year, or even last year. It's a sum total from the beginning of the current water's existence, minus drains and refills.

Pucks contain CYA. For every 10ppm of chlorine that a trichlor puck adds to your pool, it also adds 6ppm of CYA. More specifically, every 1ppm of chlorine from a trichlor puck adds .6ppm CYA.

Dichlor on the other hand, contributes .9ppm of CYA for every 1ppm of chlorine. So, yes if you're using a lot of dichlor shock product you've added more CYA than you would have just using pucks.

All that being said however, your CYA is over 100ppm higher than it should be. And even that number is suspect since CYA really can't be measured with much accuracy over 100ppm. Even (especially) with those fancy machines at the pool store.

So now we're talking about testing your pool. Around here, we've taken control of our pools by doing our own accurate testing with a test kit that tells us everything we need to know to manage a pool. It is the single most effective tool you'll have for your pool, so please while you're reading pool school and asking questions, drainign your pool by 2/3 (total, you'll want to do this in phases), and absorbing all the great information here... your kit should be flying through the sky on it's way to you. The TF100 is the best deal around and ships fast, btw.

 

[RH60]

Will get started draining the pool and doing the reading.
Thanks for all the quick help

 

[RH60]

This is my new reading after draining about 75% and adding 1 gallon of 6% bleach.
After running pump 12 hours its still cloudy.
Do I need to add anything or just keep running pump until clear.
Thanks again

Free available chlorine = 7.6
Total Chlorine= 7.6
Combined= 0
Total A = 91
Calcuium Hardness = 45
CYA = 50

 

[techguy]

The cloudy simple indicates you need to keep filtering. Nothing you add can make the cloudy go away. That's the filters role in the shocking process. Keep filtering and clean it when the pressures suggest, 25% over clean pressure.

 

[RH60]

Also forgot to list PH is 7.9
thanks again

 

[JasonLion]

The water should improve visibly each day. As long as you are seeing some improvement (even fairly small) let the filter do it's job. If it stops improving, something more complex might be happening.

 

[RH60]

Ordered a test kit. The one I have only goes up to 5.0
Could run another sample to the pool store but think it will be about the same.
Been about 2 1/2 days now. And pool is back to being just as cloudy as when I started and before draining 75%.
I guess the mistake was not draining the rest of the way.
Added a gallon of bleach today to try and shock it more.
How long should I wait, before biting the bullet and re - draining the pool but 100% this time?
Hate to waste the water again but the weather is suppose to be overcast the next couple of day and maybe my best time so liner does not dry out. Can drain in 2 hours but take about 12 hours to refill.

Thanks

 

[supertune]

Hi rayh78 and welcome to TFP!
I would retest CYA and see where you are and find out if you need to drain more.
I most likely would NOT use the pool store and wait for your own test kit if you got the proper one from pool school, TF-100 or Taylor K-2006.
Kit shouldn't take more than a few days to get most of the time.
In the meantime just add a gallon of GV plain 6% bleach every evening.
Once you get the test kit post your results here and we can help guide you, in the time your waiting, read through Pool School or pick a mod out that you like and read all of their postings... this is why they are mods they know there stuff!
There are so very good... All of them!

See this too:
what-we-need-to-know-to-answer-your-questions-t10341.html
Chuck