New pool owner

[Rwagen]

Never owned a pool before but over the last month I have learned that the supposed experts at the pool store do not know any more than me. The previous owner used trichlor tablets and calcium hypo for shock. I am using liquid chlorine.

Test results

FC 5
CC. 0.5
PH- 7.7
TA. 170
CH. 460
CYA. 120

I am losing 3ppm chlorine daily and have significant white scale around the edge of the pool.

Here is my plan. Please correct me if I am screwing something up.

Drain 10k gallons then refill two times which should be about 60% water change. Hopefully this will get my CYA and CH back in order and make everything else easier. When I drain the water, will scrubbing with muriatic take off the white scale?

After the water change, I will test again to see what my TA is the start lowering that with the muriatic/aerate technique. Hopefully that will reduce my chlorine input.

Re. The Liquidator- From reading all of the posts about installation, I picked up that I would not need the check-valves with a below ground pool. With my pool, without the valves installed, the Liquidator allowed a bunch of air into the system when the pump shut off. After I put them in, problem solved. Question. When adjusting the flow rate, are we supposed to look at the ball in the meter, or the water level in the meter? I thought the ball would be floating in top but it isn't.

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, Rwagen

Drain 10k gallons then refill two times which should be about 60% water change. Hopefully this will get my CYA and CH back in order and make everything else easier. When I drain the water, will scrubbing with muriatic take off the white scale?

This should get you to ~53 ppm cya which is good.

After the water change, I will test again to see what my TA is the start lowering that with the muriatic/aerate technique. Hopefully that will reduce my chlorine input.

TA does not affect chlorine usage. It does however effect the potential for scaling. Keeping ph down around 7.2 should help with that though.

I don't have experience with the liquidator so someone else will have to answer that question.

 

[Rwagen]

Thank you. Reducing the CYA was what I was hoping would lower my chlorine usage. I just put that comment in the wrong section.

 

[linen]

Thank you. Reducing the CYA was what I was hoping would lower my chlorine usage. I just put that comment in the wrong section.

Well this is a little off as well. If you pool is algae free, then a higher cya level will typically reduce your chlorine consumption. The tfp recommendation of 30-50 ppm cya (we lean more towards 50 ppm cya) is to balance sun protection with reasonable maintenance FC levels and SLAM levels. You will use less FC if you go a bit higher in cya level, but you will also have to maintain a higher minimum FC level...and if you need to SLAM, then you will have to use much higher FC levels.

I would guess that you do have a low level algae growth that is using up some of your chlorine right now since at 120 ppm the sun won't use much (probably around 10%-15%). Another good reason to lower the cya, since it is likely you will need the SLAM process.

 

[Rwagen]

I had not realized that about my chlorine usage but that informations matches what I think I determined last night. I took chlorine measurements after dark and lost about 2ppm throughout the night. According to the pool school, that indicates that something is growing even if my water is clear. I might be keeping just ahead of it.

Now I just need to figure out when I am allowed to fill a pool in El Paso so I can do my first drain then slam the pool.

I appreciate your assistance.

Rick