Hi everyone. I recently bought a house with an inground pool. I previously had an above ground pool at my old house so I'm not new to the chemistry, just the inground equipment.
I am guessing that the pool holds around 15,000 gallons, but I have not gotten the specs on it yet to be sure. It has a cartridge filter and a salt water generator. I had all intex stuff previously with a salt water generator and Hayward skimmer. Everything I know I learned here.
When I first moved in, I did a cursory test of the chlorine and found it was 11ppm with no CCs. Yay no CCs I thought. The pump was running 10 hours a day so I scaled it back to 6. The timer is new to me so I've been researching it. It's the dial type.
I just finished running a full battery of tests using my Taylor test kit. All tests were performed using the drop tests, not strips, and OMG. Here are my results:
Salt: 4200 high if memory serves
FC: 4.5 - ok
CC: 0 - good
PH: 8 - a little high, but not unmanageable
TA: 200 - high if memory serves
CYA: waaaaaaay over 100. hmmmm I mixed half tap water and half pool water and it was still waaaay over 100 and yes, I know how to do the test properly.
Calcium/Hardness: 2000 (that is not a typo)
I tested the tap water and hardness is 125. I expected it to be over 200 so I'm good with the tap water number.
I think I need to tackle the CYA first. I know it will come down some naturally because the water will evaporate and the new water added won't have any CYA so it will dilute what's left, but I suspect that will take 10 years with these numbers even in the desert in the summer. I have to do it slowly so I don't end up with a huge water bill though. I haven't sold my old house yet.
I read somewhere that the calcium will come under control once the CYA is brought under control. I assume that's because you are diluting both. What I'm wondering is how the calcium even got that high. Is it artificially high because of the CYA? Could the CYA reading affect the salt reading too?
Have I missed anything important besides getting the specs on the pool?
I am guessing that the pool holds around 15,000 gallons, but I have not gotten the specs on it yet to be sure. It has a cartridge filter and a salt water generator. I had all intex stuff previously with a salt water generator and Hayward skimmer. Everything I know I learned here.
When I first moved in, I did a cursory test of the chlorine and found it was 11ppm with no CCs. Yay no CCs I thought. The pump was running 10 hours a day so I scaled it back to 6. The timer is new to me so I've been researching it. It's the dial type.
I just finished running a full battery of tests using my Taylor test kit. All tests were performed using the drop tests, not strips, and OMG. Here are my results:
Salt: 4200 high if memory serves
FC: 4.5 - ok
CC: 0 - good
PH: 8 - a little high, but not unmanageable
TA: 200 - high if memory serves
CYA: waaaaaaay over 100. hmmmm I mixed half tap water and half pool water and it was still waaaay over 100 and yes, I know how to do the test properly.
Calcium/Hardness: 2000 (that is not a typo)
I tested the tap water and hardness is 125. I expected it to be over 200 so I'm good with the tap water number.
I think I need to tackle the CYA first. I know it will come down some naturally because the water will evaporate and the new water added won't have any CYA so it will dilute what's left, but I suspect that will take 10 years with these numbers even in the desert in the summer. I have to do it slowly so I don't end up with a huge water bill though. I haven't sold my old house yet.
I read somewhere that the calcium will come under control once the CYA is brought under control. I assume that's because you are diluting both. What I'm wondering is how the calcium even got that high. Is it artificially high because of the CYA? Could the CYA reading affect the salt reading too?
Have I missed anything important besides getting the specs on the pool?