I recently took over care of my parents pool. They had a "pool guy" who was apparently coming weekly, dumping in chlorine and 3 Aqua Chem tabs and going home. When the pool started turning green I took over. The filter had never been cleaned and he basically just constantly shocked the pool to compensate. When I first tested, pH was at least 8.4...out of range of the cheap Home Depot kit I was using. So I changed the filter and added ~24oz of dry acid and now chemicals seem to be better. pH is 7.6, 1.5ppm FC and <0.5ppm CC (do those numbers seem right? I expected more combined). TA is 80ppm. I had difficulty with the calcium test; the sample turned almost unnoticably pink and didn't change color after 10 drops of reagent. Does this just mean there's little to no calcium? That would explain the plaster deteriorating rapidly over the last 2 years.
CYA was initially showing 0...no reaction whatsoever. I added 5lb of 100% cyanuric acid and retested today to find that the water clouds just slightly but not enough to cover the dot in the Taylor kit. Am I doing the test wrong or do you really need to add that much CYA? I also thought the Aqua Chem tabs broke down into CYA and chlorine. Thanks for your help guys; this is a little more complicated than I expected!
For reference, I live right outside Miami and it's been alternating intense heat and pouring rain for the last 2 months.
CYA was initially showing 0...no reaction whatsoever. I added 5lb of 100% cyanuric acid and retested today to find that the water clouds just slightly but not enough to cover the dot in the Taylor kit. Am I doing the test wrong or do you really need to add that much CYA? I also thought the Aqua Chem tabs broke down into CYA and chlorine. Thanks for your help guys; this is a little more complicated than I expected!
For reference, I live right outside Miami and it's been alternating intense heat and pouring rain for the last 2 months.
