Newb here am I crazy or should I bite the bullet

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

JJA

0
Oct 9, 2014
13
Las Vegas nevada
I would like to start by saying thank all of you for all your help and thank you for letting me join this awesome community.

FC-22
CC-.5
PH-7.6
TA-100
CYA-160
CH-900
CSI-.18

So me and my wife bought this house 6 months ago and it came with our first pool. After listening to leslies for 6 months and getting no where is when I found this site and have not been back to leslies. The previous owner was using tri chlor pucks and di chlor shock so I naturally started using the same method. I have recently switched to the bbb and testing myself. As of now my pool is clean and clear but I know I have issues with my ch and cya and I know the only sure way to lower them is to drain and fill. I was hoping that with the insane evaporation (about an inch a day during summer months) I could just let it evaporate and refill to lower cya and ch or am I just crazy to try and maintain a pool with that high of levels. I have also read testing ph above 10ppm fc is inaccurate but does that hold true with high cya ?

Thank you all again for you have turned my nightmare of a first pool experience into a great first pool experience.
 
welcome to TFP,
sorry to burst your bubble but CH and CYA do not evaporate out of the water
only practical way is drain and fill as required
evaporation only removes water
TA, CH and CYA will remain
as water evaporates concentrations will increase then as you top up they will go back to original level and maybe even higher depending on fill water concentrations
 
This^^. If you have a salt water pool you will only have to half your cya. If non SWG pool I would drain off close to 3/4 and start there. Pool math will let you know what exact % you need to replace. Also check your fill water ch level. If you refill with water with similarly hard water it will fix your cya problem but not your ch.
My ch was almost that high at one point. I refill with an outside spigot that is run thru my water softener after lengthily backwash/rinse sessions to drain off some water.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thank you both so much!

I think trying to maintain the pool with the required fc level based on my cya is just asking for trouble.
Went out tonight and bought a pump and started draining which brought up another question.
When I was looking up cost of water and waste water to figure my total cost to drain the pool the city says to drain no more than 12 gallons per minute. How do I figure out if I'm draining to fast ? The pump I got is a 3/4 hp and claims 2866 gallons per hour (48 gallons per minute rounding up) but I would think size of hose and length would play a big roll in that. I got a 1 1/2 inch hose and had to run it 125 feet. Does anyone think I would be draining too fast ?
 
See how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Divide that time into 60 (seconds) and multiply that number times 5.
So if it takes 20 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket, that is 15 gallons per minute. I don't think that you have to do it all at once. Do a chunk now and a little over time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If you are within 10ppm of your target CYA go ahead and use the pucks. If there is a need for more CYA you should buy some and add it to bring up the CYA level. The pucks will last for years as long as they are stored in a dry, sealed container. You can use them when your CYA needs a little boost, or when you need to be away from the pool for several days.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
JJA:

How did you test for CYA? And did you do a diluted CYA test? If so, was it with 50% Tap Water and 50% Pool Water or some other combination. Is your water still clear? And I am assuming you are testing with the Taylor test kit?

If you have to lower your CYA, the amount of water you need to drain out of the pool is a lot. The pump you are using is the pool pump, correct? If you try to do this in stages the amount of time you will take will be many hours upon hours.

I have a small pump with a hose that I use in the summer to drain (if needed) instead of running the backwash hose (My pressure really never changed) at all. But more importantly in the winter water sits on my cover and that is when I use the pump. This pump is about 15 gallons per minute through a regular garden hose and you can place the pump on the pool steps and as the water lowers then you can move the pump to the next lower step and so on. Then shut off pump and fill pool up. One of the ways to slow the flow of a pump with a garden hose hooked up is to place a diverter or on/off switch to turn on water & shut water off. If you only open the valve up 1/2 of the way you will slow the rate of water to 12 GPM or lower, which is exactly what you need and you will be complying with any township ordinances.

Hope this helps. I can get you the name of the pump tomorrow and take a picture as well. Please note that you can purchase this kind of pump @ Home Depot or Lowes and you must manually shut it off, so it always has to be submersed in water while running. It really is a life saver and last winter I had so much water on my cover that this pump took over an hour to remove most of the water. That is over 900 gallons on the cover. You will move very quickly with this pump. You may use the pump for 2 hours and then have to fill for 4-6 hours and in a few days be done lowering your CYA.
 
Hello catanzaro
Yes is used the Taylor k-2006 to test and I did a 50/50 dilution. My water was still clear however I think I was in the beginning stages of algae, whenever I would brush i would get very cloudy water. I was also using ALOT do bleach to maintain levels to keep it clean but I was concerned about the cost of a drain and fill in my area however I looked up the cost on the city website and found I'm only charged a flate fee for waste and to fill would only be about $80. I have a cartridge type filter so no back wash and no option to use the pool pump so I went to harbor frieght and bought a pump for $50 but the PVC hose cost more than the pump :( but the drain went smooth just got done took about 12 hours to drain at 15gpm. Now just filling back up but I was also draining due to the high ch and my fill water is already 300ppm ch so I just drained it all.

Is there any special process I should follow for the new water when full ? Get all my level correct and be done ? Or should I slam it after just to be safe ?

Again thank you all this forum is the best and it truly saved me time money and a huge headache
 
Please test your levels and adjust accordingly. With CH and a plaster pool I would recommend having someone else with more experience chime in. My water here in NJ is not hard at all as I would not run into this problem. Luckily I found TFP early on. The main reason is that the Pool Store phosphate levels kept changing and I new that the testing was wrong and in addition I do not need or use any more phosphate remover.

Please provide us with updated test results to determine what the next step is. Based on my calculations you dumped 10,000 gallons out of 14,000 gallons so you CYA may be lower then you want it, not sure? This is the reason why now after this process test results are important. You will always find the first few questions are always what are your results and which test kit did you use? Without this data no one can really assist you. Thank you.
 
JJA said:
Hello catanzaro
Yes is used the Taylor k-2006 to test and I did a 50/50 dilution. My water was still clear however I think I was in the beginning stages of algae, whenever I would brush i would get very cloudy water. I was also using ALOT do bleach to maintain levels to keep it clean ...

Is there any special process I should follow for the new water when full ? Get all my level correct and be done ? Or should I slam it after just to be safe ?
...
Click to expand...
Certainly the first step after refill would be to measure everything with your test kit. Given that you already had evidence of algae, planning on a SLAM sounds appropriate. A partial drain doesn't eliminate your algae problem -- there would be plenty of algae organisms left to repopulate quickly. If your fill water is cooler than typical pool temperature, the algae will be growing more slowly, for the moment. The sooner you do the SLAM, the sooner you can nip that population increase in the bud. Please feel free to post your new test results first, if you would like feedback on the levels prior to SLAM.

It might be worth doing an overnight chlorine loss test (OCLT) prior to SLAM, to confirm your impression that something is using extra chlorine in the pool.
 
I used the ova hose because the pump I got did not have a regular hose hook up and also thought a regular hose might take to long.

However I'm all filled back up and tested water !
Fc-0
Cc-0 gotta have fc first before i can get cc I guess
Ph-8
Ta-175
Ch-275
Cya-0
Just added all my chemicals based on pool math and will retest later tonight.
However while adding chemical I noticed I am getting bubble out of 2 of my return jets. They never bubbled before the drain and fill. How long does it take to blow all the air out of the lines after refilling ? I wouldn't think more that a couple minutes. Do I have a leak in a suction line ? If so how serious is that kind of issue ?
 
Never mind about the air bubbles. While I was investigating I notice I didn't open the vacuum port to cycle water threw after I did the bubble went away. Must have been air traped in the vacuum port. Here's a picture of my new bbb tfp begining. Spa style return jets on in an effort to raise ph after lowering alk.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply