New to BBB | Few Questions

[kendjelic]

Hi Everyone,

I just switched from Trichlor Tabs in a floater to 8.25% bleach. The reason I switched was due to increasing CYA numbers from the tabs. Our pool is crystal clear but want to ensure I am not doing anything incorrectly seeing our CYA is now just over 100. I figured that switching out the tabs for bleach and enforcing splash-out should eventually lower the number a bit without requiring draining?

If draining out some water is required, could I turn my pump to only use the in-floor drain and use the spigot built into the pump to drain out the water? Is that what that spigot is for?

Any assistance would be awesome and thanks ahead of time!!

My test results from tonight:

FC - 3.23
pH - 7.4
TA - 109
CH - 87 <-- is this bad? Our pool was filled using water mostly from a soft water tank. It start out at 34 about 2 months ago.
CYA - 107

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum.

The Color Q has a bad habit of testing CYA poorly. I would get a second test from another source to confirm you are 100+ and then decide to drain or not.

 

[Charlie_R]

If I am reading your sig right, you have an IG gunite with pebbletec plaster. Yes, your CH will need to come up.

pool-school/recommended_levels will have the answer you need for your CH level.

Highly recommend you read all of Pool School and ask questions here for anything you are unsure about.

I don't have any experience with Color Q test kits, but I DO know that the TF-100 and K-2006 as recommended here in TFP and other forums are great value for your $$, and in my opinion are the best, short of precision lab testing. Anything that relies on color matching is suspect, be it read by human eyes or photometers. A little testing residue in the test cylinder can throw the results rather far out of actual measurement.

If you should ever have to SLAM your pool, you will need a kit that reads much higher than 10 ppm. With a CYA of 100+, that is actually likely, given that your recommended FC level for that high CYA, as shown in this chart -- pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock -- suggests that you need an FC of 9 - 12, and possibly higher depending on your actual CYA, just for normal operation.

If there is someone local to you with a test kit similar to what most here use, with a turbidity CYA test, it would be a good idea to retest the CYA, to know what the actual level is. If it is as high as is suspected, you may have to partially drain and refill your pool to bring it down to a more manageable level.

 

[JohnN]

Don't get your CYA tested by a pool storm because they are more often wrong than right. It would be best if you could get the K-2006 or TF-100, but if not, Walmart makes a 6 way test that is good for everything except chlorine.

 

[kendjelic]

Thanks for the replies! After spending $150 on my ColorQ Pro I will not be able to purchase another test kit for quite some time. Is it really an inaccurate way to test or only the CYA portion?

Pool store got a reading of 90 for CYA just now.

 

[JohnN]

We had another user with a ColorQ who got so fed up with it in less than a month he sent it back. colorq-pro-7-debate-and-results-t65965.html#p552628

 

[kendjelic]

So should I purchase a K-2006 kit at least to validate the ColorQ Pro results? Also having a IG gunite PebbleTec pool, with a CH of only 87 should I raise it asap to around 200?

 

[JohnN]

The K-2006 is definitely more reliable than a ColorQ. The TF-100 is the better value. If you can't afford a K-2006 or TF-100, you could get the hth 6 way kit from Walmart for now. It will do for now, and I have a suspicion that it is made by Taylor.

 

[Richard320]

So should I purchase a K-2006 kit at least to validate the ColorQ Pro results? Also having a IG gunite PebbleTec pool, with a CH of only 87 should I raise it asap to around 200?

Yes.

You can buy Calcium Increaser or just switch to chlorinating with Cal-hypo for a while.

 

[kendjelic]

Thanks Richard as well as everyone else. So Amazon for the K-2006? Also, to lower the CYA is it safe to just use the spigot on the pump and just shut off the skimmer?

 

[kendjelic]

Update.

I ordered the Taylor K-2006 Kit and 25lbs of Calcium Increaser. Will report back in a week or so.

 

[kendjelic]

Just wanted to follow up to my previous question about draining. Is it safe to use my pumps built in spigot to drain the water with a hose attached instead of renting a sump pump?

 

[jblizzle]

Yes ... if you can isolate the floor drain when the water gets below the skimmer.

 

[kendjelic]

Yeah I have a manual valve that is currently set partial towards drain than skimmer at the moment. Turning that to only main drain should do the trick then.

 

[kendjelic]

So this morning I just started to pump out some pool water via my built in spigot. The pump is currently running at 3300 rpm and only pulling from the main drain.

My concern is since the in-floor cleaning system runs when the pump is on, should I be worried when the water level drops below the returns and pop-ups on the baja step?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Since those are returns they'll just spew out water if you leave the 3-way valve on.

 

[kendjelic]

Perfect. Thanks for the quick reply! Time to lower this dang CYA.

 

[kendjelic]

So I received my K-2006 kit and my Calcium Hardness increaser today. I drained my pool about 16" today and my CYA seems to have decreased from about 100 to 70. Still more to go but at least that's a start.

Also this was a great time to test my ColorQ Pro against the K-2006. The ColorQ tested my CH at 105 and CYA at 72. The Taylor kit was only a few ppm off, with CH at 100 and CYA at 70. For me this is great news and makes me feel like I didn't waste my money on the ColorQ.

Thank you all for getting me started!