Help with pool water issues.

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sylvester

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Apr 3, 2015
14
Scottsdale, AZ
After just dismissing my pool man, I am about to begin handling my own pool maintenance. I purchased Hach AquaChek 7 test strips which revealed so many issues, I'm not sure where to start.
I have an in ground, pebbletec free form pool, of 10,000 gallons and attached infinity spa of 900 gallons, total at about 11,000 gallons. The filter is a Pentair CCP 520 [4 cartridges] and a Whisperflow 2HP pump, 3" return lines. I have a Hayward pool sweep, as well. The pool & spa also has a gas heater.
Chlorination is by 3" tablets in a floater.

When I bought the home, Nov 2011, I had the pool drained and acid washed. At that time they installed a new pool light and also replaced my ozone generator. No drain and fill of the pool since and our water is exceptionally hard here in AZ. I plan to replace the filter cartridges as they were last replaced in Nov. 2011.

Here are the Aquachek readings:

Total Hardness: High
Total Chlorine: High
Free Chlorine: Very High
pH: OK
Total Alkalinity: OK to High
Cyanuric Acid: Very High

I figured there might be one area of concern but now that I see all these crazy readings, I'm unsure where to begin. Any help and insight is very much appreciated.
Many Thanks.
 
Welcome to TFP!

Unfortunately those test results are about as helpful as a speedometer that only said "slow" or "fast".

We are all about knowledge here. You need to know what your water is like and you need to know what the chemicals you add to your water will do to it.

For example, your tablets add both chlorine and cyanuric acid to your water. Since you are in a low rain area, the CYA is going to keep building up until it gets to problematic levels.

To really know what you need, you need numeric test results. We recommend the TF-100 from TFTeskits.net. It uses Taylor reagents for results that will be substantially better than you can get at a pool store.
 
What he said. You really need to have "numbers".

Since you dumped the pool guy it's time to get a TF-100 and learn to test your pool and we can walk you through what those numbers indicate and what you need to do to get them in the right place and keep them there.

http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html There are videos on that site to help you with the tests.

At the least you need to take a sample to a pool store that will at least give you values. We don't like using pool store results as they are know to be wrong a lot of the time but you have to do what you have to do.
 
sylvester said:
Thanks everyone. I actually ordered that kit based on what TFP recommended when I first read about pool care on this site. The kit hasn't arrived yet but when it does, I will test again and re submit.
Click to expand...

Excellent, and congratulations!

Only thing left to do is spending all the time you can spend in pool school. :study: :lol:

Good on you for taking this over yourself! :goodjob:
 
Results of TF 100 kit

Hello again.
Not sure if I need to start a new post or go back to the previous, so bear with me.

Previously, I wrote advising that I had dismissed my pool man after 2 years and I submitted results for my pool that were not from the TF 100 test kit. As an fyi, I timed my pool man's last two visits, he comes weekly, one visit was 6 minutes, his last visit was 5.5 minutes. He wold never brush the sides and steps of the pool nor the spa unless I asked, he would do a very rushed skim, stick a test strip in the water, generally add 1-2 pints of acid, perhaps 1 chlorine tablet to the feeder and run. Literally run. He never checked the Hayward sweep and I discovered that the pads wore through, down to the arms and I had to order all new parts and rebuild it. He charges an extra $140 every six months to clean my filter cartridges. Too, often he left my key in the access gate and that could have spelled disaster had a child gotten into the backyard. And so, I will be doing the pool chemistry and maintenance for now and submit the following for your guidance.

History: The pool was drained November 2011, acid washed, and refilled. No refill or draining since. Filter cartridges were replaced at that time as was the Ozone Generator. The pool is in Arizona and the water here is quite hard.

Thank you for any help.

Cl...the color is so dark yellow, it is off the test kit's ability to read. I removed the floating chlorinator about 5 days ago.
pH...7.5

FC= 5 ppm
CC= 0 ppm
TC= 5 ppm
Calcium= 2375...yes 2375
TA= 140
CYA= note: the black dot was invisible with 1/2 inch of solution in the CYA viewing tube, the 100 reading was more than 1/2 inch from the solution, so I have
no idea of the numerical value.
 
Re: Results of TF 100 kit

Welcome to the forum :wave:

Remember to thank yourself for sending the pool guy on his way, best thing you can do to maintain your pool is maintain it yourself.

You need to dilute some pool water with the same amount tap water. You want a 1:1 mix of pool and tap. Mix the pool and tap water together and take a sample out of that. Whatever you come up with for a CYA number you need to multiply by 2. What you are saying is that your sample is way above 100 and this is the way to measure it. If it's really bad you may need to go 1:2 or even 1:3
 
Re: Results of TF 100 kit

Well hello there! So glad to see you doing a great job already! Nice to see a pool person who cares LOL Oh wait it is YOUR pool so of course you care.

Under 10 mins a visit???????? WOW! NOT worth the money or time for sure. He cost you more than just the monthly visits for sure with the repairs to the cleaner.

You are going to have to replace some of the water. Do like Kiss said and do a new test using 1:1 mix.

I am not sure what to tell you about the high calcium. Have you tested your fill water? If your fill is lower in calcium than your refill will help with that.

GREAT job taking over your pool!

Kim
 

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Sylvester, I'm subscribing to your thread to see how things go.

Can you run a TA and CH on your fill water please? Your pool CH needs immediate attention and reduction. Was the last FC from the color block or the FAS DPD?
 
Aloha again. I have following to add, per your suggestions:

CYA: readings with 1 part pool water and 2 parts tap water= 90 on the CYA view tube.

Tap water tests:

TA=140
CH=300

I'm gathering that my pool water is very much out of whack. [So much for professional pool service.] I am anxious to get this pool corrected as soon as possible.
Mahalo for all of the help.
 
Your CYA is way high. You are going to have to drain quite a bit of your water :( I do not know about your water table I will leave it to others to help you figure out how much you should drain at a time. It might take a couple of drains and refills to get it down to a normal level.

It is not a big deal but IS a pain.

It will be easier from now on. Once you get the CYA down your will not need as much chlorine to maintain your pool!

The CYA is caused by pucks and powder shock. Since you will will now be using chlorine for your daily "feeding" of you pool this will not be a problem for you going forward!

Kim
 
That would put your CYA up around 270ppm ... as Kim said, way too high. You need to replace about 80% of the water to get that down to something reasonable.

- - - Updated - - -

FYI, mine was up near 300ppm too when I fired the pool service.
 
Now that water replacement is suggested, aside from using a pump, etc., what is a safe method? eg, drain 30%, refill, run pump, drain X%, refill start pump, etc. or drain the entire pool and refill? What precautions are there with both procedures? If partial drain and refill, what chemicals to add? If full drain and refill, how and what to add to prevent any algae, etc.. I have a clean pool and would not want to introduce algae or anything else.
Many Thanks
 
Well you do not have a high water table to worry about, but the intense sun can affect your pools surface. I drained mine with a pump rented from Home Depot. Started at about 6PM and was near empty by midnight and I started filling with 3 hoses. No real need to add chemicals until it is filled and circulating, but you could add a couple ppm of FC with bleach while filling if you are really worried.
 
Pool has been drained and refilled. Got a chance to seal under the boulders that intrude into the pool edge, as well as, seal between the tiles and pool deck. I had a pool person come in to acid wash some heavy duty calcium deposits, again where the boulders fo the wall fall meet the pebble tec surface.
I allowed the pool person to set up the water. He left me a gallon of liquid chlorine and a mix of stabilizer/conditioner and Tri clor. At his instruction, when the pool was 1/2 full, I added 1/2 of the powdered mix that was dissolved in water. When the pool was completely full, he instructed me to add the rest of the dissolved powder mix and the chlorine.

The pool is remarkably clear but I seem to be adding acid about every three days and I cannot seem to reduce the pH. The readings that will follow show my Cl high. I had a .06 reading and based on the pool calculator, I added the prescribed amount of bleach but as you can see, way too high now. Any ideas on how to get my pH to behave?
Also, I see a constant reference to using bleach vs liquid pool chlorine, is there a particular reason?
Many thanks for the help.

Here are the reading from my testing:

Cl drop: 9 ppm
CC drop: .05 ppm
Calcium hardness: 325
TA: 100
CYA: 38
 

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