I took over my pool chemistry after getting fed up with what I saw from 2 different pool companies. My CH was at 600 and CYA at 110! I rented a pump, intending to dump about 3,000 gallons of 10,000 in my pool. My accountant husband had a fit after just under and hour of pumping at a rate of 1,200 gph and made me quit, because he decided "too much water was gone". My CH only dropped to 500, obviously, and not sure about CYA because 2 close Leslie's stores are out of refills for CYA test, including having none of their own to test for me. Any idea how much more water I need to dump to get CH down, so I can show him a professional opinion. Dumb old me only has a masters degree in physics and I have taught AP Physics and AP Chemistry, so he can't trust me being intelligent enough at age 61 and 32 years teaching.
CH and CYA High
- Thread starter notop
- Start date
As has been stated many times on this site, pool store tests are not reliable. If they tell you a CYA level close to 100, it means nothing because most CYA tests max out at 100. Your level could be much higher.
Since you know chemistry and therefore can do the math...
Test your fill water. Then you'll know what the CH of it is. From that, you ought to be able to work backwards and figure out what percentage of water you replaced. Your CYA will have gone down by that much as well. The fill water will have some CH in it, which complicates the math a little, but there will be no CYA in tap water, so that one is easy.
500 CH is easily managed. Just play with poolmath a little and see what raising and lowering pH, TA, CH, and temperature has on CSI. For that matter, even CYA has some effect. You'll quickly see that TA and pH have a lot more effect than the others, and you can do something about them. It may be as simple as lowering your TA a little, or just keeping the pH at the lower end of the acceptable range to prevent scale formation. But like I said, and I speak from experience, 500 CH is easy. Things don't get really hard until CH gets up to 800. If you can keep the CSI between +/- 0.3 you'll be fine.
Test your fill water. Then you'll know what the CH of it is. From that, you ought to be able to work backwards and figure out what percentage of water you replaced. Your CYA will have gone down by that much as well. The fill water will have some CH in it, which complicates the math a little, but there will be no CYA in tap water, so that one is easy.
500 CH is easily managed. Just play with poolmath a little and see what raising and lowering pH, TA, CH, and temperature has on CSI. For that matter, even CYA has some effect. You'll quickly see that TA and pH have a lot more effect than the others, and you can do something about them. It may be as simple as lowering your TA a little, or just keeping the pH at the lower end of the acceptable range to prevent scale formation. But like I said, and I speak from experience, 500 CH is easy. Things don't get really hard until CH gets up to 800. If you can keep the CSI between +/- 0.3 you'll be fine.
I did the testing, and have been doing it. I am out of the drops and Leslie's is also of CYA drops. That is why I am concerned, I believe it is well over 100.
Thanks. I have been keeping pH and TA lower. My biggest problem is my accountant husband not understanding how much water I need to remove, and not trusting my conclusion. I thought if he could see comments concurring that I needed to remove much more than 1000 gallons, he would get it. I'm trying to undo the highs caused by pool companies using hockey pucks, knowing that it just constantly raises CYA, and the damage done when we replasterd last September and the company added too much calcium hardness. I took over in April, but Leslie's tells him the high CYA and Calcium is just fine, so he doesn't realize what the hockey picks do. I add liquid bleach daily.
- Nov 12, 2017
- 12,693
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Are you looking for pool advice, or marital advice?!? How 'bout both? Here's what you do. Dump the husband first, then the water! 
Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously, get your CYA refill (Amazon!), do the test. Don't try and show him a lot of obscure calculations, he'll be off balance, on your turf. Show him PoolMath. An accountant's dream. He'll be on his turf. Let him plug in your pool's numbers, show him what it says about dumping water to reduce CYA. Before he knows it, he'll think it was his idea to dump more water!! The formulas and ranges expressed in Pool Math have been vetted by experts and scientists with qualifications well beyond the very best you'll ever find at a Leslie's. Let alone the pimply-faced summer worker your husband is trusting. TFPC and Pool Math have been used successfully by 10s of thousands of pool owners. How many pools is your local Leslie's servicing? 100? Not even. The advice you'll receive here is untainted by sales quotas, not so of a Leslie's employee whose mandated to sell you things, things you don't need.
If your CYA is over 100 (or whatever it is now), you're not a few percentage points off. Your pool is waaaay off! It's as simple as that. It's not going to go away on its own (not anytime soon). It needs to be removed, and there's only one way to do that. By replacing water. A lot of water.
Good luck...
Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously, get your CYA refill (Amazon!), do the test. Don't try and show him a lot of obscure calculations, he'll be off balance, on your turf. Show him PoolMath. An accountant's dream. He'll be on his turf. Let him plug in your pool's numbers, show him what it says about dumping water to reduce CYA. Before he knows it, he'll think it was his idea to dump more water!! The formulas and ranges expressed in Pool Math have been vetted by experts and scientists with qualifications well beyond the very best you'll ever find at a Leslie's. Let alone the pimply-faced summer worker your husband is trusting. TFPC and Pool Math have been used successfully by 10s of thousands of pool owners. How many pools is your local Leslie's servicing? 100? Not even. The advice you'll receive here is untainted by sales quotas, not so of a Leslie's employee whose mandated to sell you things, things you don't need.
If your CYA is over 100 (or whatever it is now), you're not a few percentage points off. Your pool is waaaay off! It's as simple as that. It's not going to go away on its own (not anytime soon). It needs to be removed, and there's only one way to do that. By replacing water. A lot of water.
Good luck...
I did two 2/3 drain/refills of my 8700 gallon pool, here, in Plano. Rented a submersible pump from Home Depot and it went quickly. A slight ($15?) change in my water bill. The key is not to do the drain/refill when our cities are doing that "winter averaging" or the high usage will affect the rest of the year. Now is the perfect time to drain.
Once you've determined your correct CYA level, start draining. Ex. If 2/3 is needed, do it all at once. Doing it a foot at a time means you'll use more water since you're continually diluting what's in the pool instead of removing it *then* filling. Leave a few feet in it to prevent any potential issues with water table pushing the pool up or shifting it.
I would give the City of Garland Water Dept. a call to verify the water cost. Then you, and hubby, can decide the plan!
Good luck neighbor!
Once you've determined your correct CYA level, start draining. Ex. If 2/3 is needed, do it all at once. Doing it a foot at a time means you'll use more water since you're continually diluting what's in the pool instead of removing it *then* filling. Leave a few feet in it to prevent any potential issues with water table pushing the pool up or shifting it.
I would give the City of Garland Water Dept. a call to verify the water cost. Then you, and hubby, can decide the plan!
Good luck neighbor!
I give up. I just showed him the pool calculator, and he pulled out a Leslie's test he had run yesterday that now claims CH is 300 and CYA is 70! We just had another fight. He says I am talking to stupid people telling me stupid things. I just give up.
- Nov 12, 2017
- 12,693
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
What humor?
Zing! I gotta million of 'em.
Let him and Leslie's take care of the pool then, 100%. Offer to do it, your way, no intervention from him, or offer to let him do it his way, no intervention from you.
Or a long-term project. He likes accounting? Start a ledger, include images. Track how much it costs running a Leslie's pool with hubbie at the helm for one year. Or what it costs if he goes back to the pool guy. You may or may not want to swim in it. If he makes it a year, then you get your turn (and get to drain the mess he's made, on his ledger, include that expense). It's just as likely the pool will be trashed in short order, before his year is up. Perhaps a ground rule is: first one that lets it get green has to pass the baton to the other. When you get your turn, and a fresh fill, that'll be the end of the debate, and you won't have to refill the pool again at the end of your year. Your TFP pool will be clear and clean and look and smell and feel fantastic, at a fraction of the cost of any other method or service he may have tried. He won't ask for the task back...
If it's any consolation, I've yet to convince a family member or neighbor or friend to convert. In fairness to your husband, his resistance is not uncommon. TFP methods are, at first glance and without understanding the science, almost too good to be true. No pool guy? No pool store? A fraction of the cost? Better, healthier water? When people have been using pool guys and Leslie's for decades? It can be a tough sell, and sometimes it takes a completely failed pool to get them to try something else.
One unfortunate caveat to my advice... Mismanaging pool water is one of the primary reasons for premature failure of a pool's surface, including the kind you have. Mine (just like yours) lasted only six years because of pool guy methods. It cost $9000 to make that right. Your husband's stubborn resistance will result in unnecessary out-of-pocket expenses, and quite possibly very high expenses. And will possibly (probably) cause some amount of permanent damage. Hopefully the damage will be negligible. I hope his stint doesn't cost you too much before he can be "led to the light."
Good luck.
Zing! I gotta million of 'em.
Let him and Leslie's take care of the pool then, 100%. Offer to do it, your way, no intervention from him, or offer to let him do it his way, no intervention from you.
Or a long-term project. He likes accounting? Start a ledger, include images. Track how much it costs running a Leslie's pool with hubbie at the helm for one year. Or what it costs if he goes back to the pool guy. You may or may not want to swim in it. If he makes it a year, then you get your turn (and get to drain the mess he's made, on his ledger, include that expense). It's just as likely the pool will be trashed in short order, before his year is up. Perhaps a ground rule is: first one that lets it get green has to pass the baton to the other. When you get your turn, and a fresh fill, that'll be the end of the debate, and you won't have to refill the pool again at the end of your year. Your TFP pool will be clear and clean and look and smell and feel fantastic, at a fraction of the cost of any other method or service he may have tried. He won't ask for the task back...
If it's any consolation, I've yet to convince a family member or neighbor or friend to convert. In fairness to your husband, his resistance is not uncommon. TFP methods are, at first glance and without understanding the science, almost too good to be true. No pool guy? No pool store? A fraction of the cost? Better, healthier water? When people have been using pool guys and Leslie's for decades? It can be a tough sell, and sometimes it takes a completely failed pool to get them to try something else.
One unfortunate caveat to my advice... Mismanaging pool water is one of the primary reasons for premature failure of a pool's surface, including the kind you have. Mine (just like yours) lasted only six years because of pool guy methods. It cost $9000 to make that right. Your husband's stubborn resistance will result in unnecessary out-of-pocket expenses, and quite possibly very high expenses. And will possibly (probably) cause some amount of permanent damage. Hopefully the damage will be negligible. I hope his stint doesn't cost you too much before he can be "led to the light."
Good luck.
Thousands and thousands of TFP pools are pristine clean using our advice. We are not selling you anything. We *do* require the use of one of two test kits that we trust so that we're all speaking the same test kit language.
Leslie's pool store is in business to sell products. That free testing they offer usually costs a LOT in product sales they tell you you need. Often when you do NOT!
They perform their testing in a rushed fashion, not cleaning their tubes and calibrating their devices often. You can take the exact same water to three different pool stores and get three different results. Try that. Prove to him that they're all a bit off.
No one cares for your pool more than the owners. Your own testing will always be superior to pool store testing.
Maddie
- - - Updated - - -
I'll also add that I spend about $100/year on my pool. And about 10 minutes a week testing and pushing the button on the robot cleaner. I've never once had alage.
I would think an accountant would appreciate such time and money savings, huh?
M.
Leslie's pool store is in business to sell products. That free testing they offer usually costs a LOT in product sales they tell you you need. Often when you do NOT!
They perform their testing in a rushed fashion, not cleaning their tubes and calibrating their devices often. You can take the exact same water to three different pool stores and get three different results. Try that. Prove to him that they're all a bit off.
No one cares for your pool more than the owners. Your own testing will always be superior to pool store testing.
Maddie
- - - Updated - - -
I'll also add that I spend about $100/year on my pool. And about 10 minutes a week testing and pushing the button on the robot cleaner. I've never once had alage.
I would think an accountant would appreciate such time and money savings, huh?
M.
Thank you. After resurfacing I watched the pool guy pour acid straight into the pool from his measuring cup into one spot. Before and after resurfacing last September, I was constantly scraping calcium from the sides, and the overflow from the spa looked like stalagmites! Since he's an accountant, he already has seen the cost decrease since I took over, and the pool sparkles now. I'll just have to keep pH and alkalinity low to keep my lsi and csi right every day, to keep down scaling.
- - - Updated - - -
Excellent.
- - - Updated - - -
Excellent.