Water Replacement or Reverse Osmosis?

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xiaobulu

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Jul 18, 2012
51
Riverside, CA
Test results from yesterday:
FC=0,
pH=7.4
TA=130
CH=600
CYA=130

To get rid of the CYA alone, I need to replace 70% of the water. I don't even know how to drain it, not to mention the huge waste of water in a close-to-desert area. Is their a way use the water to power wash my deck or even the exterior of my house?

Since the TA and CH are also high, maybe Reverse Osmosis is a good option? Also, the tap water here is high CH for sure. So water replacement may not lower CH. We actually had a company re-tiled a section of our pool last December. They brought a pump and drained about 70% of the water in order to do their job. Yet 7 months later, CH and CYA are still so high. Now the CYA must come from the pucks our poor guys put in the floating thing every week. After reading pool school here, I will never do it again. But high CH is in my tap water. Is there anything to soften it before filling the pool?

I took in a lot of information this past 2 days since I came across this forum. I am excited to take over control of my pool but I am also a bit overwhelmed and do not know where to start. Any suggestions or references will be greatly appreciated.
 
my cya has been over ~200. the only thing i have come across is to drain the pool. i drained 1/3 a few days ago and 1/3 today. its ~180 before todays drain. I was throwing in granular shock and tablets like crazy and had no clue that would add to my cya. as soon as i get my cya under control i will start the BBB method. seems easy enough. I know nothing about reverse osmosis, sounds like it could be expensive.
 
Since your CH is high out of your tap, R/O (Reverse Osmosis) might be a better option for you if it's available. Once you've had the R/O done you could use softened water if you have a softener to refill from evaporation. That would keep your CH from rising too fast.
 
You are right, the only option to lower CH and CYA is either drain and refill or RO (which should be available where you live).

You can certainly use the pool water for irrigation, but I just had a though on the deck and house. If you have a water spigot after your pool pump (some builder put these there), you could use a hose from it to a pressure washer (may not want to open the spigot all the way depending on the pressure) and then use the pressure washer to wash the deck or house. Although, the pressure washer will not likely actually use that much water. Also, this will not work if the water level in the pool is below the skimmer and you are not able to only have suction from the floor.
 
jblizzle said:
You are right, the only option to lower CH and CYA is either drain and refill or RO (which should be available where you live).

You can certainly use the pool water for irrigation, but I just had a though on the deck and house. If you have a water spigot after your pool pump (some builder put these there), you could use a hose from it to a pressure washer (may not want to open the spigot all the way depending on the pressure) and then use the pressure washer to wash the deck or house. Although, the pressure washer will not likely actually use that much water. Also, this will not work if the water level in the pool is below the skimmer and you are not able to only have suction from the floor.
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She doesn't have any easy way to use the pool pump to empty it. I looked. The backwash line is in a planter, and probably farther from the sewer than the pool is, so that won't even work.

Have you made the calls yet? Unless the R/O guys will travel to Riverside, that option is out. And if the tile guys are too busy to blast the floor, they won't be available to empty it, which means renting or buying a pump.
 
xiaobulu said:
I just talked to Sal at PST for R/O. He said there was a possibility they could come to Riverside. He will discuss with Bruce and get back to me on Monday. His quote is $475.

And he knows you, Richard. Are Sal and Bruce on this forum too?
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They used to be. You'd need to ask them why they're not anymore, I don't want to speculate.

We don't really know each other, some emails and phone calls. I'm contemplating setting myself up with a R/O business in LA County, so I talked to them a little about it.
 
Should I be worried about the scary floated pool scenario if I choose to drain and fill?

I came across some person's post on another forum:"I ended up buying a $20-30 submersible pump. I'd stick it in just below the water line (since the CYA is on the top layer) and left it over night. It would drain out maybe 3-4 inches. Filled it back up the next day and continued that cycle for a couple of weeks. It finally got my CYA down to an acceptable level where I could fight the algae." Do you think it's a safer way to achieve similar effect of drain and fill?
 
A full drain certainly has risks if you do not know the ground water table line. Here I have fully drained 2 pools (1 was intentional) without problems, but the water table is VERY low.

Certainly doing repeated partial drains is safer ... going down 2-3 feet each time in unlikely to result in a problem.

Also, the line about the CYA being on the top layer is totally incorrect. It is evenly distributed throughout the body of water.
 

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How to find out the water table line? Also, should I worry about the plaster drying out? Thank you!

jblizzle said:
A full drain certainly has risks if you do not know the ground water table line. Here I have fully drained 2 pools (1 was intentional) without problems, but the water table is VERY low.

Certainly doing repeated partial drains is safer ... going down 2-3 feet each time in unlikely to result in a problem.

Also, the line about the CYA being on the top layer is totally incorrect. It is evenly distributed throughout the body of water.
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Someone at the county (I am not sure what department) might be able to give you an idea ... if most of the county is at a few 100 feet, you would be fine.

There may be a risk to the plaster drying out if it is already in pretty bad shape (flaking).
 
xiaobulu said:
How to find out the water table line? Also, should I worry about the plaster drying out? Thank you!

jblizzle said:
A full drain certainly has risks if you do not know the ground water table line. Here I have fully drained 2 pools (1 was intentional) without problems, but the water table is VERY low.

Certainly doing repeated partial drains is safer ... going down 2-3 feet each time in unlikely to result in a problem.

Also, the line about the CYA being on the top layer is totally incorrect. It is evenly distributed throughout the body of water.
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I doubt you'll have any problem with ground water where you live. There's a creek just north of you. (Not the canal - that's man-made) Is there any water in it? Is that wash brown or green? If it's all dried up and there are no green bushes indicating water is close to the surface, you should be fine.

If you're really worried, you can try the State Engineer http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/gro ... s_info.cfm I was all over that website, even registered to get into the database. If I'm reading it right, the shallowest well in Riverside County is 26 feet. Most are several hundred feet.
 
I checked the website and found this data: http://www.water.ca.gov/waterdatalibrar ... 05W32B001S

If I am reading correctly, the depth to water is about 40 feet. Is this okay?

I'm gonna have to check out the creek.

Richard320 said:
I doubt you'll have any problem with ground water where you live. There's a creek just north of you. (Not the canal - that's man-made) Is there any water in it? Is that wash brown or green? If it's all dried up and there are no green bushes indicating water is close to the surface, you should be fine.

If you're really worried, you can try the State Engineer http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/gro ... s_info.cfm I was all over that website, even registered to get into the database. If I'm reading it right, the shallowest well in Riverside County is 26 feet. Most are several hundred feet.
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Is it a good idea to clean the plaster when the pool is drained? We have stains/algae/scaling on the bottom and the side walls. The tile guys can do acid wash, but not sand blast. I did some reading on acid wash on this forum. Seems like risky for old plaster. Our pool is probably as old as the house, 26 years. What do you think? Thank you!
 
I just replaced the water in my 12000 gallon in-ground pool. I'm hardly an expert to talk about "floating pools", but we were concerned about the walls collapsing if I'm understanding you correctly. I read somewhere online about covering the top of the surface of the pool with plastic and start filling as you stick a sump pump underneath to drain the bottom. 40x50 ft piece. Worked fantastically. Drained and filled at the same time. Took about a day.
KW
 
When I drained mine, I sprayed everything down with a pressure water ... it was a swamp (did this before I found this forum). The plaster was old but did fine with the water spray. And cleaned up pretty well. We have since installed pebble sheen.

If your plaster is not green after you drain, there is no need to really clean anything out, but it would clear of anything that is loose.

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

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