What Should I Do? Indoor Pool

[ipoolman]

Hi Everyone,

We have just purchased a house with an indoor pool. The pool itself is in great condition and the equipment all runs but the water is a different story. The pool had been closed for several months before we bought it (they just did not run the pump or chlorinate it for this time). The water is cloudy but not green. It seems that the previous used trichlor tablets exclusively. All that they had used for the years before was trichlor tablets (Bio Guard), copper algicide (there were many bottles of different algicides), poly 40 algicide, and pH up. I knew I was going to have a problem right when I saw the amount of algicide as the pool gets very little sun light.

I have not done any work on the pool yet but wanted to see what is was up against so I tested the water with my new Taylor K2006 test kit. These are the results.

Temperature - 68 Deg F
FC - 5.5 ppm
CC - 0 ppm
pH - >8.0 (The test i have only goes up to 8. It took over 15 drops of the acid demand reagent to even bring it down to 7.8)
TA - 200 ppm
CH - 625 ppm
CYA - 280 ( This is an approximation as it took a 4:1 dilution before I could even fill it over the 100 mark - with the 1:1 dilution I could only fill it to half way to 100 ppm)

We intend to move into this house for 6 months then move out while it is renovated. We would like to use the pool for the 6 months then the pool will be renovated as well. I have two major concerns however. The first is with the CSI so high for the pool, is the pool and the equipment likely to be damaged. The second is with the CYA so high, what is the easiest way to get it into a safe state for 6 months. Does the pool need to be drained completely or can I get away with just draining and refiling enough to get the CYA around 50-60. Is a CYA of 50 acceptable on an indoor pool or should we really lower it to 20?

Thanks in advanced for your help :-D (I will post pictures of the pool in the next couple of days)

 

[GuinnessPhish]

Re: What Should I Do?

You need to do a partial drain and refill.

Enter your info into the pool calculator to see how much you need to drain:

calc.html

 

[ipoolman]

Re: What Should I Do?

I understand I will have to drain and refill but is it fine if i target my CYA to 50 on an indoor pool or should I target 20. Second, seeing how the CSI for the pool will be over 1.0, is there likely to be damage to the pool or equipment that I should look for?

 

[Isaac-1]

Re: What Should I Do?

You would probably be better off with a CYA level of 20-30 on your indoor pool, I think the K-2006 only tests down to 30 ppm CYA, therefore you want want to get the TF-Testkit's CYA measuring cylinder which reads down to 20. I keep the CYA level in my indoor pool between 20-30, usually closer to 20, this has the side benefit of minimizing chlorine use, while maintaining an ample chlorine reserve in the water.

Ike

p.s. to reach this level your looking a 90%+ water replacement, at that point you may want to just drain it all and start over

 

[jblizzle]

Re: What Should I Do?

There is no reason you can not use a CYA of 50-60ppm or even a little higher if you are going to renovate later. Just would need higher FC levels, especially if you have to SLAM. The thing is you need to replace 75% to get to a CYA of 70. And just going to 90% to get a lower CYA is not that much more water.

When you replace the water, that will also lower the CH, so your CSI we be in much better shape as well.

And of course lowering the pH will help the CSI a lot also.