Hello pool-goers,
I am doing my 1st opening and think I have a situation I've read about on the boards. When I closed the pool last fall, I had a CYA of 60. I started the opening process about 3 days ago (of mostly cleaning and filtering only) and today I read my CYA at 0 (or at least less than 20 which is the maximum of the test kit sight glass). Also, my pH is high, above 8.0. I'm guessing that the algae over the winter consumed my CYA and converted it into ammonia, which would explain the low CYA and high pH readings.
I have added 2 10ppm additions of 12.5% bleach to my pool over the past hour. I didn't bother doing a FC test yet, because I can't even see the bottom of my pool so I'm assuming the ammonia and/or algae are consuming all of it at these early shocks.
Should I be trying to lower the pH right now? Should I also be adding CYA right now? I don't know if that would be worth the effort until I break down the ammonia (I don't have an ammonia test strip, so I'm just assuming it's there). Or should I just continue to shock with chlorine every 30 min-1hr?
p.s. - did not adjust chemistry over winter, and did not cover the pool (this pain of cleaning has convinced me of the need to upgrade that before next season).
Thanks,
I am doing my 1st opening and think I have a situation I've read about on the boards. When I closed the pool last fall, I had a CYA of 60. I started the opening process about 3 days ago (of mostly cleaning and filtering only) and today I read my CYA at 0 (or at least less than 20 which is the maximum of the test kit sight glass). Also, my pH is high, above 8.0. I'm guessing that the algae over the winter consumed my CYA and converted it into ammonia, which would explain the low CYA and high pH readings.
I have added 2 10ppm additions of 12.5% bleach to my pool over the past hour. I didn't bother doing a FC test yet, because I can't even see the bottom of my pool so I'm assuming the ammonia and/or algae are consuming all of it at these early shocks.
Should I be trying to lower the pH right now? Should I also be adding CYA right now? I don't know if that would be worth the effort until I break down the ammonia (I don't have an ammonia test strip, so I'm just assuming it's there). Or should I just continue to shock with chlorine every 30 min-1hr?
p.s. - did not adjust chemistry over winter, and did not cover the pool (this pain of cleaning has convinced me of the need to upgrade that before next season).
Thanks,