Check my numbers?

[calebmallen]

Hey everyone. Y’all were so helpful last year, but I feel like I forgot everything I had learned over the winter break while the pool is closed. Let me give some context! I covered the pool with the autocover in October last year. I’m in West Texas and the pool is filled by well water. Weather here is nice, we are mostly past the cold season - call it 40º to 85º currently. I have the pump running around 12 hours a day, but could easily bump that up. I have kept the pool running since at around 12 hours a day. About a week ago the pool guy came and vacuumed for me. I realized I was out of the powder needed to do the chlorine tests, so I just dumped a gallon of chlorine in and covered it back up while on order. Today it came in, here are the numbers:

• pH 7.5
• FC 10.5
• CC 0
• TC 10.5
• CH 375
• TA 270
• CYA <20 (I filled the tube all the way and could still see the black dot @ about 50%)

So. What do you brilliant minds recommend? Was my winter break a catastrophe? Water looks good, but it is a tiny bit cloudy in the deep end. I need to address the CC, I’m guessing - but I’m not sure. Should I start by adding ~3.5lbs of stabilizer?

Edit to add. I just plugged the numbers into a new log, duh. Do I need to address the CYA before fooling with the pH to get the TA back down?

 

[Texas Splash]

I would definitely get the CYA up to at least 30, perhaps even just go right to 40 since it's getting hot. Your number above show zero CC which is good, but with cloudy water it may be struggling from hibernation. You could go ahead and run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to rule-out algae. But other than the CYA for now, the numbers look great. Your TA is elevated only because you're on a well, but that's not a priority at all. Good job with the testing.

 

[calebmallen]

Sweet. Remind me - I can do an overnight test with the pool covered? The wind here is blowing sustained like 25mph+ today, if I leave it open I’ll have 300lbs of blow sand in the bottom of the pool by midnight.

Regarding CYA - If I am unable to accurately measure as it is, should I start with 3.5lbs of stabilizer and go from there? I will need to pick up some stabilizer tomorrow before I can do anything. Just thinking through how much I should buy. If memory serves, it’s sold at my store in 8lb containers.

 

[Texas Splash]

Soon we will be in full-blown hot TX mode, so once you have the CYA adjusted and confirm the pool is algae free with crystal clear water, you might consider increasing the CYA to 50, maybe even 60 in Jun - Sep just because it's so hot. But if you do increase the CYA, always be sure to go back to the FC/CYA Levels to see what FC level you need to maintain.

 

[Texas Splash]

I can do an overnight test with the pool covered?

Sure

 

[calebmallen]

Alright, understood.

Off to the pool store I go. Just to confirm:

Step one - overnight test
Step two - boost CYA to ~50 range (use the chart to maintain chlorine once there)
Step three - reduce pH (add appropriate acid per poolmath and aerate)
Step four - profit?

 

[Texas Splash]

A little slower. Ha ha.

1. Increase CYA to 30 - 40; (hold off on the pH)
2. Perform Overnight Chlorine Loss Test
3. If you pass the OCLT, then you can increase the CYA to 50 if you wish with no need to lower the pH; if you fail the OCLT, then it's best to have the lower CYA which requires a lower FC SLAM level. That would also be when you lower the pH to 7.2 for the SLAM Process.

Hopefully you pass the OCLT and the slight cloudiness will go away now that the pool is up & running. If not, just do the SLAM thing per that page and you should get past is in good time.

Final step .......