New Pool Owner Needing Help

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jbbarto

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Dec 21, 2012
20
Houston, TX
I'm new to TFP and this is my first post about my new pool. I don't have any previous experience with pools, but I'm looking forward to learning and am excited to have found this site.

We just bought this house a couple of months ago and I'm ready to get the pool under control. The pool has a Polaris Watermatic automated chlorinator that is not working correctly as the last couple of times I have added the granules to it, it dumped it almost immediately. I tested the ORP sensors and them seem to be good, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Based on my reading here, I have decided to try the BBB method instead of messing with the Watermatic. I have a couple of issues that I want to try and tackle...

1. I'm trying to get the chems balanced. I bought a DPD test kit from Leslie's, which I think is the same as the Taylor kit. Below are the results. I think the CYA is way too high. When I had it tested a Leslie's they had it at ~150. Should I go ahead with a partial drain / refill? The water looks Ok, but there is definitely a little bit of algea.

FC 6
pH 7.8
TA 120
CH 300
CYA 100+

2. Second question is on my primary pump. It's not priming / filling up with water completely when on. The water gets about 2 inches from the top. I'm going to try and replace the gasket today and see if that is the problem. I don't see any leaks, etc. but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it. I will post later if a new gasket solves the problem.
 
Welcome to the forum. :lol:

1. Yes....drain and refill enough water to get your CYA down to around 50 for now. The kit you purchased is not correct for the type of chlorine testing we suggest but you can correct that later by purchasing and FAS/DPD chlorine test separately. Soon, you will need to correctly shock the pool.

2. You have a suction side air leak. Somewhere between the pump and the skimmer(s), air is being sucked into the system. Find that leak and the pump basket will fill to the top with water.

When you shut the pump off, does the pump basket drain or does it stay partially full?
 
As Dave says above you need to figure out how much water you need to replace in your pool to bring CYA under control if the CYA is 100 you need to replace 50% to bring it to 50ppm, if the CYA is 200 you need to replace 75% of your water and so on.

In order to get an idea of CYA level I would recommend a dilution test, first off mix around a jug of tap water with a jug of pool water (ie 1:1) then test, the result is multiplied by 2 for the current CYA, if it is still above 100 CYA then you need 3:1 for a reading which is multiplied by 4 and so on.
 
Thanks for the information and tips. You guys are great! The CYA test came out to 120, so I'm planning to partial drain and fill in the next few days. I have the ability to drain from the water wall pump, but I read here that it's best to drain from the top down because the CYA rises to the top. Is that true? It's been raining a lot in Houston this week, so I'm a little nervous about draining because I don't know what the water table is? If I'm only planning to drain 3 ft. to the bottom of the shallow end, do you think it will be a problem?

I did some inspection on the suction side of my pump and noticed that when I switch from pool to spa, etc. that some water came out around the actuator shaft. I read on some other threads about using shaving cream to identify a leak. I tried it in that area and the pump actually got very close to no bubbles, so it must be the gasket. The actuator housing says that it's a Polaris S-10, which appears to be the same as the Jandy JVA 2444. I'm going to try to find the gaskets at Warehouse Pools tomorrow if they're open. I assume it's not to hard to replace the gaskets.

[attachment=0:3bm6r4vt]IMG_1085.jpg[/attachment:3bm6r4vt]
 

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duraleigh said:
but I read here that it's best to drain from the top down because the CYA rises to the top. Is that true?
Click to expand...
No, it is not true. AS UWV states, CYA is dispersed evenly in your pool.
Click to expand...
Could that method help with avoiding over draining a pool and floating it? I've often wondered how to avoid draining too far. I'm happy the CYA thing is debunked.

Sent via Tapatalk...
 
Just wanted to post an update. I successfully got the CYA down in the pool by draining about 4 feet. The black dot completely disappears from view at around 50. I added bleach and the current FC is 4 and the PH is around 7.8. Based on the Chlorine / CYA Chart, my FC needs to be at around 6, right? Another question that I had from the chart was how often should I shock the pool?

The CH is at 120, so I think that is the next thing I need to tackle. I assume I should by some calcium chloride from a pool store to increase it. Once I get this right, I think I will be entering maintenance mode. Thanks again for the help.
 
Yup, now get the CH correct.

Then keep a close eye on the pH as it is driven by the TA value. You will slowly see the TA drop over time as you use muriatic acid to adjust the pH back to 7.5 when it gets to 7.8+. For me the sweet spot is at TA 70, but with tap water at TA 340, TA is always rising unless we have a LOT of rain.
 

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anonapersona, thanks for your post. I have continued to work on the chemicals and I think I'm making progress, but the PH keeps rising after it initially drops from the muriatic acid. This morning the PH is back up to 7.8 but the TA has gone from 180 to 130 since I added acid last week. Do I continue to add acid until the TA eventually reaches ~70? I assume it's a cycle and I need to just keep it. I did get the CH up to 270, so I think I'm good there.

Also, my CYA is down around 20. I have some granule dichlor from when before I was doing BBB that I could add to try and get the CYA up closer to 50, but I'm nervous about getting it too high again after the drain/refill. Any thoughts? I guess I could add small amounts and keep measuring the CYA. Or, should I play it safe and get liquid stabilizer as per the pool calculator.
 
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