Chemicals out of whack

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Lizzard6975

Lizzard6975

Active member
May 6, 2019
25
Mesa Az
I had my pool drained and filled less than a year ago and all my chemicals are out of whack again. My Cya is over 100 and can not seem to balance anything. Took my water to Leslie's and they have me adding soda ash and all kinda of other Crud. This is the second time in two years of draining, refilling and starting over again. I am using a hth 6 test kit at home but nothing seems to be right. Any suggestions would be great.
 
IF you are confident of the CYA test, you need to drain/exchange a significant portion of your pool water. The problem with that kit is you get Total hardness, which is not real useful. Calcium hardness is what you want, but it will be the majority of the TH, so a drain/exchange is warranted because of that parameter.

I would suggest you get a more robust test kit. But right now, I suspect you can easily do a 75% or greater drain/exchange of your pool water to fresh.
 
I received my TF100 test kit and went to work testing. Here are my results
Free clorhine 4ppm
CC 0
PH 7.2
CH 900
TA 140
CYA well over 100
I have been using Leslie's 3" tabs and like I said earlier I have drained my pool twice in last 2 years. I am using Pool Math app now but not sure where to really start. Any help would be great.
 

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Griswald said:
First step is to stop using those tablets. They add almost as much CYA as chlorine, and, as you now know, CYA just keeps adding up.
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I have stopped using them. I know I will probably have to drain at least half way. Any suggestions on what to do until I can do That? I have never used liquid clorhine. My pool is crystal clear. I am very New to all of this. Sorry if I sound clueless.
 
YOu need to decide if you will abandon pool stores and follow TFPC methods. No matter what you do you need to drain your pool about 50% to get your CH down and CYA around 50.

Follow step 8 in CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test - Trouble Free Pool and do a 50% dilution test of your CYA and then multiply the result by 2. This will give you a better idea of how high your CYA really is and how much you need to drain or exchnage water.

You can exchange some water without draining.

If you place a low volume sub pump in the deep end and pull water from there while adding water in the shallow end (through a skimmer or into a bucket on a step so you lessen the water disturbance) you can do a fairly efficient exchange. That is assuming the water you are filling with is the same temperature or warmer than your pool water. If your fill water is much cooler than your pool water, then switch it. Add the water to the deep end (hose on bottom) and pull water from the top step.

The location of the pump and fill hose may change if you have salt water, high calcium, etc.
In my pool, with saltwater and high calcium when I drain, I put the pump in the deep end and hose in shallow end. The water in the pool weighs more per unit volume than the fill water from the hose.

Be sure to balance the water out and water in so the pool level stays the same. Also be sure your pool pump is disabled during this process. Once started do not stop until you have exchanged the amount of water you wish.

I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook.
 
Lizzard6975 said:
I have stopped using them. I know I will probably have to drain at least half way. Any suggestions on what to do until I can do That? I have never used liquid clorhine. My pool is crystal clear. I am very New to all of this. Sorry if I sound clueless.
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Find a local source for liquid chlorine. Could be Pool Essentials Chlorinating Liquid - Walmart.com or HDX 128 oz. Chlorinating Liquid (3-Pack)-30128HDX - The Home Depot There are a few where to buy chlorine threads going on here.

Download PoolMath and use it to track your test results and it will calculate how much chemicals you need to add.

Once you have your LC pull the pucks out of your pool and you will need to test your FC every day and maintain your FC level following the FC/CYA Levels

You will also need to keep an eye on your pH and use muriatic acid to lower it. Your tablets contain acid which has been automatically lowering your pH.
 
ajw22 said:
Find a local source for liquid chlorine. Could be Pool Essentials Chlorinating Liquid - Walmart.com or HDX 128 oz. Chlorinating Liquid (3-Pack)-30128HDX - The Home Depot There are a few where to buy chlorine threads going on here.

Download PoolMath and use it to track your test results and it will calculate how much chemicals you need to add.

Once you have your LC pull the pucks out of your pool and you will need to test your FC every day and maintain your FC level following the FC/CYA Levels

You will also need to keep an eye on your pH and use muriatic acid to lower it. Your tablets contain acid which has been automatically lowering your pH.
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Just got 2 gallons from Wal-Mart. According to pool math I should add 249oz. To bring my FC to 19 does that sound right? Should I worry about CH, TA, or Ph?
 
Lizzard6975 said:
Just got 2 gallons from Wal-Mart. According to pool math I should add 249oz. To bring my FC to 19 does that sound right? Should I worry about CH, TA, or Ph?
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You said your results were:

Free clorhine 4ppm
CC 0
PH 7.2
CH 900
TA 140
CYA well over 100
Click to expand...

You should do the diluted CYA test that I described in post #12 to get a better read on your CYA. The FC/CYA Levels only goes up to CYA 100. Your minimum FC should be 7.5% of your CYA and your target should be the 7.5% of CYA + 3 to 5 ppm.

Your pH is fine. It will rise some with the CL addition. Your TA is fine. You can't do anything about your CH until you drain.

Every gallon of 10% LC will raise your FC by 7.7 ppm.
 
ajw22 said:
You said your results were:



You should do the diluted CYA test that I described in post #12 to get a better read on your CYA. The FC/CYA Levels only goes up to CYA 100. Your minimum FC should be 7.5% of your CYA and your target should be the 7.5% of CYA + 3 to 5 ppm.

Your pH is fine. It will rise some with the CL addition. Your TA is fine. You can't do anything about your CH until you drain.

Every gallon of 10% LC will raise your FC by 7.7 ppm.
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Thank you so much. At this point I will try anything.
 
I'm having the same problem that Lizzard6975 is having so this advice is much appreciated!!

I have a question about the water exchange you described above. If I need to exchange 50% of my water, and I use a sump pump on the deep end and allow the auto-fill to replenish water in the shallow end, how will I know what % of my water has turned over? Is it as simple as taking the # gallons my sump pump can spit out / minute and just timing the whole operation? Any pointers for a first-time-water-exchange would be helpful.

thank you!
 
Do not use the autofill. It puts water in the pool several inches below the surface.

Once you have the effluent from the sump pump balanced with the addition from a hose into the shallow end as described, you take one of the hoses and time filling a 5 gallon bucket. Convert that to Gallons Per Minute. Use that with the number of gallons you want to exchange, and you know how long to run the process.
 
I have my test kit and I am renting a sump pump today from home depot. Once the pool is filled is there any special chemicals I will need to add or just test and add what pool math say? This is the first time doing this on my our.
 
Once filled, be sure any water you left in the pool is well mixed with the new water.

Test all parameters with your TF100. Post them up here. Have liquid chlorine, muriatic acid, and cyanuric acid (stabilizer) on hand.
 

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