Just opened- Need to stabilize

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Trudy.Riehl

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Jun 25, 2014
28
Bismarck, North Dakota
Hello, this is my first summer after leaving above ground pool up for winter. Uncovered, added water back to half way up skimmer. 8,000 gal. above ground pool. Hooked up pump. Here is where I may have screwed up... Pool was GREEN and smelly- Added 1 gallon of bleach and sock full of CYA (hanging by input) and ran filter for 48 hrs. Have backwashed several times. Just checked chemical with my Taylor kit and here is where I am:
FC .5 ppm
CC 1 ppm

Can this be possible to have hardly any chlorine with my CYA being so high?
Ph 7.2
TA 125
CYA 100

Pool Math says replace 60% of water and add 41 oz of bleach...Help please
 
Hi Trudy. Yes, your CYA is through the roof, and the only way to reduce really is to drain (partially anyways). Until you lower that CYA, it will be very difficult to SLAM properly.... and you DO need to SLAM. I suspect you will see more advice to drain water first to lower CYA them start SLAM right away. Let's watch for confirmation.

By the way .. are you using anything else in your pool other than liquid bleach (i.e. tabs or bags of "sock" from the pool store)?

HERE was a previous discussion about the relationship between CYA and FC. But in short, when CYA gets as high as yours is, it will cause you problems when trying to maintain FC.
 
Only using bleach. Last year someone advised me to put the stabilizer in a sock, so that is what I did this year. I guess I should have checked CYA first, but assumed since there was none in there all winter, I would need to add bleach and CYA. Guess I should have checked chemicals before adding... my bad. What is the point of keeping water in all winter if I now have to drain 60%???? arghh..
 
Typically, once CYA is at a good level, it does not increase on its own - certainly not by using just bleach. That's why I asked about pucks or anything else. I was wondering if there was anything else you may have added to the pool to make the CYA go up. Your pool is not too incredibly large, so perhaps that "full sock" really increased most of your current CYA? No way for me to know at this point. And assuming you are comfortable with CYA testing, and the 100 reading is accurate, then draining is your best bet. But once it's back down, and you continue to use only bleach, it should stay down and you should not have that problem again .. unless you use another big sock. :)

Typically when a pool is covered and/or winterized by boosting FC, it requires less maintenance to start back up the next season.
 
Update, I just read the suggested thread and here is what I get from it...If I do not get rid of a bunch of the stabilizer, the bleach will not kill the algea...it will only appear that way and my pool will not be sanitized? Am I right? So, start pumping water out? When do I stop? How do I know I have enough out and can start adding new?

One more question... What did I do wrong? How did my CYA get so high? I removed all chemicals when I winterized. When I opened I had a green swamp. Did I cause this by doing something wrong?

Thanks for all the help!

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So I should have just added the bleach to start and NOT the stabilizer?
 
Trudy, a few things make that hard to know for sure. For example:
- When you added a "full sock", I don't think any of us really know how much exactly (by weight) that was; so we're kind of guessing there which isn't good.
- When you say you "removed all the chemicals" to winterize, that seems a bit confusing. Not sure how you remove chemicals already in the water. Maybe we're just mixing-up terminology. :)

But yes, you'll need to drain a good bit of water for now then refill. Once it's full again, check the CYA. Since we know you need to SLAM (because of algae), the "ideal" CYA level would be 30. Yo can SLAM at a higher CYA, but then it requires much more bleach (see the Chlorine/CYA Chart below), and the process could take longer.

Please don't be to hard on yourself about all of this. :calm: After the drain, give us some new numbers and we can help you to ensure this never happens again.

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Would've been best (at first) to share the test readings first. More than likely (yes) bleach would have been the primary area of focus. But no problem, we'll help you get through this. :)
 
Should I re-do the CYA test? From the way I understand you do it is to add the water to the tube until the black dot just disappears. Do I wait till it disappears and stays away or just till it initially disappears? I stopped adding because it looked like it disappeared under the cloudy water but it doesn't stay hidden. An I doing the test wrong?

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Sorry, I was unclear... I didn't remove chemicals, I just quit adding any and removed my sock of stabilizer ...
 
Mix the solution real well, let sit for 30 seconds, then mix again real well. Then hold the skinny tube at waist level (best to be outside with the sun at your back) as you start pouring the mixed solution into the skinny tube. At waist level, once the dot disappears check your reading. What many of us do is pour the solution back into the mixing bottle, shake, and test it a second time. We do that just because that dot test can play tricks on your eye, and sometimes after repeating the test 2-3 times you know for sure what your reading is.

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Once the dot initially disappears, that's your reading. :)
 

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