Spring advice in switching to BBB

[AV8TOR]

I have been following this wonderful forum since we purchased our house with pool back at the end of November. The pool I know has been feed a steady diet of Trichlor pucks prior to us moving in. I am starting to plan out my early spring plan of attack but I want to bounce it off of the forum. My plans are definitely to go BBB.

First off the pool looks fantastic any if not for the 48º water it looks mighty inviting. It has looked this was since we moved in. I knew my chlorine was high because I could not read the values on a standard test kit so I bought a TF100. The first FC value was 16ppm and the CYA was 100. CC has always been 0. (Note though that the first CYA reading of 100 was read indoors at night and I have later tested it closer to 80ppm outside in the sun) I removed the last puck from the auto dispenser and no chlorine has been added in 1-1/2 months. The FC has only dropped to 12ppm. OK I know with high CYA the FC needs to be higher also.

My question is would you do a partial water change to bring down the CYA thus the FC requirement as well? My TA has been bouncing between 100-110 (the color change seems right on the edge). My tap water is 110ppm so a water change will do nothing there. With my tap water that high is it futile to lower the TA via lowering the pH than aerate or leave it at 100-110ppm? CH is 320ppm by the way.

So my thoughts are doing a 50% water change early spring to bring down the CYA from 80ppm to 40ppm. If I do the 50% change that will also bring down my CA to 160 ppm so I will have to add calcium chloride to get it back up to 300ppm. So my question to you is what would you do just switch to BBB and not change the water or do the 50% change? Also when would be the best time to do the water change? I am thinking soon so I don’t have to wait for the water temp to rise again.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[Butterfly]

So my thoughts are doing a 50% water change early spring to bring down the CYA from 80ppm to 40ppm.

My suggestion would be to wait until early spring *, retest, and then determine the amount of water change you will need. CYA will probably drop during the winter......mine does; however as you know, all pools are different. Also, an important test item to remember is to let your pool water reach Room Temperature BEFORE testing for CYA.

*early spring? Based on experience with my pool, to me 'early spring' means when my pool water starts to get close to 60 degrees!

Just my .02

 

[duraleigh]

If I do the 50% change that will also bring down my CA to 160 ppm so I will have to add calcium chloride to get it back up to 300ppm.

Not necessarily. Your fill water will naturally contain calcium (mine is 80ppm) so you will see much less affect. I'm with Butterfly to wait until Spring to balance your pool. It will be an opportunity to fine tune all your test results.

I would leave the TA alone as well. 100 is perfectly normal and I wouldn't change it unless you had fluctuating pH issues in the Summer.

Just a note on your CYA test. It'll be more meaningful to you to test in the same lighting conditions each time. That way your looking for any change in the results rather than trying to pinpoint the precise number. It's a very inexact test by it's nature but changes are pretty easy to detect.

Incidentally, you may see a CYA test posted on the forum of say....."92" or "131". You can be sure that is, in reality, a much less accurate test than the one you do yourself.....it is a computer interpretation of a test strip and can easily be off by far more than your tests will be.

 

[Guest]

Do the water change when the weather warms up some, then rebalance the pool as needed.

The first FC value was 16ppm and the CYA was 100. TC has always been 0.

I think you meant that your CC was 0, not that your TC was 0. Remember, FC + CC = TC!

 

[AV8TOR]

The first FC value was 16ppm and the CYA was 100. TC has always been 0.

I think you meant that your CC was 0, not that your TC was 0. Remember, FC + CC = TC!

Yes my bad thanks for catching that.

One thing I forgot to ask was when I do the water change is it okay to use the main pump to discharge the water? I was thinking of turning off the skimmers and basically do a backwash till 50% is gone or should I buy a separate water transfer pump?
Harbor Freight has some inexpensive pumps and was looking a few but for $50 this looked pretty good.

 

[JasonLion]

Using the regular pump as you describe is fine. You should keep in mind that you can't stop in the middle. Once the water level goes below the skimmers it is likely that if you stop, the pump will lose prime and you will be unable to get it back. If the valves leak there is a chance you will lose prime even if you don't stop, but that is unlikely.