Please help with targets.

[mhinson1]

Here are my current readings:

FC: 7
CC: 0
PH: 7.6
TA: 100
CH: 250
CYA: 60
Borates - Currently not using.

I'm going to be draining and replacing water very soon to get my CYA down and start fresh. I've read through the pool school and am aware of the general targets. I'd like to know if they will serve me well or if I should adjust any up or down. My pool is plaster, about 15 years old, and has full sun most of the morning and all afternoon. Once I get everything back up and in line I would like to add borates as per the posts on this site. Any tips you might have on my proper targets would be appreciated. Please let me know if you need any additional info. Thanks!

 

[linen]

How does your water look?

Your levels seem good to me. Even your cya is not too bad, in fact in areas like Arizona and parts of California (and other very southern places) that get direct sun all day, we actually suggest slightly higher levels then normal of 60-80. You just need to make sure that you keep your FC up appropriately.

 

[rjward]

Honestly I think that looks pretty good. CYA could be lower but if I were in that situation I don't know if I would drain. Maybe see how the chlorine demand is in the first few weeks of summer and then drain a little at a time if needed? I did borates recently and went with Boric Acid. Very straight forward using the pool calculator.

 

[fast1971chevelle]

It looks fine to me, how r u chlorinating your pool and how does the water look?

 

[ping]

Being in Bakersfield I'd say your levels are fine. If your chlorine source has CYA in it, then you will want to lower your CYA so it doesn't get too high. If you are using liquid chlorine, I'd leave the pool as it is.

 

[mhinson1]

Thanks so much for the great, and fast, information! I'm using liquid chlorine so no additional CYA there. My water looks good. I was curious about which way is more economical as far as buying more or less chlorine, having a low CYA which is less "stabilized" but not having to keep such a high chlorine level in the pool, or keeping my higher CYA figure which keeps the water more stabilized but having to keep a higher amount of chlorine in the water. Any idea which approach would have me buying less chlorine? Lastly, from what I saw, the recommended TA for a plaster pool pool is in the 70 - 90 range. Mine is at approx 100-110. Should I work on getting that down around 80? Thanks again!

 

[rjward]

Bringing down your TA will help if you are having pH fluctuations. Head over to the poolcalculator and type in your current readings, then enter your target and you can see the variation on the CSI. As long as your CSI is slightly negative you are in good shape. With that being said I like to keep my TA low as my calcium is a little high. How old is the pool? That is one factor that may affect changes in readings if the finish is still curing.

Regarding the bleach, I will have to defer to longer term BBB'ers on that.

Are you manually adding the bleach or do you use an automated system (Liquidator, Stenner pump, Autochem etc)?

 

[ping]

If you are having to add acid more often than you would like to, then lower TA to the 70-90 range. If your pH is stable, then you don't have to adjust the TA lower. Some pools have their pH locked in almost all summer long and add very little acid. A lot depends on the fill water and how old their plaster is.

I believe a 2 ppm loss of chlorine a day is a decent amount during the summer. Monitor your usage and use the 2 ppm loss a day as a reference. If you are losing more than that, then we could investigate some more.

 

[mhinson1]

According to the pool calculator, my CSI is -0.17 so that looks ok, right? My plaster pool is about 15 years old. I manually pour in the liquid chlorine. I very rarely have to add acid, the PH is very stable. From all your good advice, it appears my current targets are just fine. Thanks again!

 

[ping]