Pool Chemicals Disappearing Quickly

[mutelorelei]

I completely drained and refilled my pool. The pool did not have any algae before it was drained, I just felt better about starting new since it was obvious the previous owners were not taking care of anything around the house properly and were using pucks and all kinds of "pool store" chemicals and the water could have been who knows how many years old.

So with just the fresh water, I had (obviously) no chlorine, no CYA, ok CH around 260, high pH around 8, high TA around 180. I had a pool guy come in to replace the dead pump and do the drain/fill, and I, maybe stupidly, let him start up the chemicals since he basically tossed that in for free. He put in a puck and threw in some dry CYA twice. I did a test almost a week later and the CYA seemed like it was maybe 5 or 10 on my test, but pool guy said his test strip said it was 30. I just wanted him gone, so I just said okay.

Since then I put in, over a few days (I was afraid I would add too much), 1 gallon of liquid CYA. Now I am testing it at 30, which seems low for what I think is the size of my pool -- Going by the pool calculator, I was really expecting the CYA to be higher than that, especially since there was already some dry CYA added earlier. Should I put in more CYA? I wanted it to be at 40 or 45 since I have full desert sun shining on it all day long. Even now, we are having to put in 1/2 to full gallon of 10% chlorine every single day, it's not sticking at all. We've also put in muriatic acid a few times to lower the pH and it hasn't been very effective. The pH has been bouncing around like crazy from 7.2-8.2 from day to day.

Could I be grossly underestimating the gallon size of my pool? Should I have shocked it? If you don't raise your CYA to 30 or more in one go, does it not remain in the water? I feel like everything I'm putting in my pool is not having the expected outcome.

I do not have a pool leak, and have barely had to add more water to the pool at all, so that should not be an issue.

 

[JasonLion]

Allow a full week after adding granular CYA before testing the level.

You will certainly want CYA at least at 50, and probably at 60, especially if your pool doesn't get any shade.

There is no need to shock as long as the water is clear and there is no obvious signs of algae.

As you continue cycling the PH down to 7.2, the TA will slowly come down and the rate at which PH increases will slowly come down.

You are losing all of your chlorine because the CYA level is so low. As CYA comes up that will be much less of an issue.

 

[mutelorelei]

It has been much longer than a week since the granular CYA. How long does liquid CYA take to dissolve?

 

[linen]

Liquid conditioner goes into the water very quickly and should show up in full in a couple of hours.

How did he add the granular cya to your pool? If through the skimmer and if you backwashed the filter, you may have flushed some of it out.

 

[mutelorelei]

He mostly put the granular CYA into the skimmer, though he also flung a few handfuls into the pool.

I have not touched my filter. The pool guy inspected the filters with me and cleaned them and put them back in before putting in chemicals. I will be replacing the cartridges in about another week or so, I didn't have the money right away. The current cartridges appeared to be the original cartridges from 2004 - never changed *shudder*, they are dark brown but miraculously holding together. But I'll be happy when the new cartridges are in.