Chlorine demand for years

[CUTiger78]

I think Durk's on to something. Don't worry about running your well pump long enough to fill up your pool. But, you can run it for an hour, can't ya?

Drain your pool an inch or three each day and fill it up for about an hour. You'll figure it out after the first or second time. Since your pool & mine are roughly the same size, I'm thinking you'll replace around 1,000 gallons each day this way. After 3 or 4 weeks, you should have the CYA level down to a manageable level. Measure the CYA weekly to check your progress.

A CYA of 50 - 80 will be cheaper & easier to manage (you spend less on bleach & have fewer gallon jugs to schlep.) A CYA of 30 - 50 is probably a better target, but sometimes you take what you can get.

Good luck!

P.S. - I'm pretty sure this will work. I've done the same thing, but without the draining part - I had a leak last year. Had to run the hose about an hour each day to maintain the water level. Over 2 months, my CYA went from about 80 to about 30 due to water replacement. And, I was using pucks (trichlor?) as my main Cl source the whole time.

 

[mapace83]

Poolrunsme, I'm the member that posted the tarp water replacement that a few members have mentioned to you. If you decide to go this route, here are a few items that I'd like to share from my experience last year.

My total cost of water replacement (tarp, new water, and fresh chemicals for new water) was less than 250 dollars for a 24,300 gallon pool. Most of that was my cost of water. The tarp that I bought can be found here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-40X60-C...19305?pt=BI_Books_Manuals&hash=item3cd1e58b49

It cost me 85 dollars, shipping included. One thing to note about this tarp is that it's very thin. Though it did make a water-tight seal between the old and new water, I took great care to make sure that I didn't tear it during the process. I'd recommend folding the edges up so that it lies near the edge of your pool (so that you don't have to walk on it), just make sure that the edges of the tarp remain above the pool's shoulder.

Next, to drain my pool I used the pool's existing pump and plumbing to drain from under the tarp while adding water, thus maintaining a constant water level. I noticed that you are using a DE filter - does your plumbing allow you to pump water out of the pool? If not, you will need to use some sort of high-volume pump (such as a trash pump or pool pump that has a foot which can be placed under your tarp) in order to keep up with the high rate of flow that a water truck will have. Something to think about.

Next, if you drain your pool's water down to the bottom, make sure that you shut your drain pump off quickly should the tarp stop the flow of water into the pump. In my case, I turned my skimmer return off and drained only from my main drain at the bottom of the deep end. I was watching the tarp as it fell down onto the main drain and it nearly caused my pump to stop completely. I quickly shut the pump off to prevent damage to it.

Overall, my experience was a great one as my water quality problem was solved almost instantly. The people here at this forum walked me through the process and quickly answered all the questions that I had, and DEFINITELY helped me to save for MY son's college fund rather than the pool store's kid, haha :-D

Best of luck!!

 

[Swampwoman]

My only caveat to add is please test your well water first! Because THE ONLY REASONABLE WAY TO GET RID OF IRON IN THE WATER IS AGAIN...YOU GUESSED IT...DRAINING AND REFILLING WITH TRUCKED WATER

In the Hudson Valley, I would think your wells are pretty robust. (I'm guessing your geology is similar to what I see here in north-central NJ.) If the water is good pool quality (low in iron and other metals) and not too bad on calcium, consider doing 2-3 feet every week or so. I'm thinking 5-6k gallons or so, equivalent to a donut pool, is probably no sweat in your area unless you have a very poor well. By mid-summer you could put a good dent in your CYA.

While your well head could certainly take this in terms of volume without running dry, if your well is like MY well...iron city! If you use a robust water softening unit, you could fill from that, as the majority of iron (if it exists) will be removed. But you will find that you need to regenerate a lot, etc.

 

[mapace83]

Just had a thought. You could drain your water level down to about a foot low in the shallow end, or down by the volume of your water truck BEFORE the water truck shows up. That way you wouldn't be concerned with drain/fill ratios. I'm guessing that a foot of water from your pool is probably close to (if not more than) what the water truck will be carrying, so that may work for you.

 

[Poolrunsme]

Wow...I am overwhelmed by all of the great advice and all of the people on this forum that want to help those of us in need. I have switched to liquid chlorine from tablets so hopefully my CYA will start to drop as I continue to top off my pool with welll water{which I will test for metals). The tarp idea is genious. I can pump from main drains while adding to top.I think I will plan to get some water deliverd also to speed up the process. I think I can lower it down to a foot from shallow end and get 2 trucks or so then I will drain as much at closing. I will keep everyone posted on my progress.

 

[Poolrunsme]

Hi again, I am back with an update. Since my CYA was so high I needed to replace water. I did this by 1.) Using nothing but bleach all last season ans so far this year and 2.) When I closed last fall I dropped the water level down to about 6 inches from shallow end. It was still down about 18inches when I opened(usually it is full) so I put my hose in there to get it up with a little help from mother nature. I put 5 gallons in last 2 days, Here are my latest readings:
FC: .5
CC: .5
TA: 240
CH: 100
PH: 7.8
CYA: 30 !

I have been reading forums and pool school and think it is time to SLAM. I ordered chlorine test reagent refills and bought 50 gallons of 12.5% shock at Ocean state job lot (2.99 gal). I am concerned about how much I will need to get it to my shock level, according to chart it is 12. I added 10 gallons the other day and it only rose to 2ppm...am I gonna need 60 gallons to get there? I could use some reassurance before diving into slam mode.
Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

What was your FC and CC 30 minutes after you added 10 gallons?

You certainly need to follow the ShockLevelAndMAINTAIN Process. Just keep testing and dosing for a FC of 12ppm.

It should only take 4 gallons of 12.5% bleach to raise your FC by 12ppm.

How old is the bleach and how was it stored? Higher % degrades much more quickly than lower %.

 

[Poolrunsme]

I tested about an hour after adding 10 gallons and FC was 2.0 and CC was 1.5. I am not sure about the bleach, I had just bought it from the pool store in 5 gallon container. The 12.5 I just bought from ocean state has }une 2014 date on the boxes.

 

[jblizzle]

Keep adding bleach and testing every 30 minutes until you start to get the expected FC rise and the CC drops.

 

[Poolrunsme]

So far, so good. I have been SLAMming for 2 days now, am still losing about 1ppm every hour but my CC this morning was between .5 and 1. I am checking every 3-4 hours and adding bleach to keep above 12. 1 gallon gets me 3-4 ppm rise which is better than I was seeing before. Pool is crystal clear so I am hoping overnight I get some good results.

 

[Poolrunsme]

Day 4 of my SLAM and frustration is setting in. I just did my overnight test and here are the results, last night the FC was 20 and this morning it is 9.5. The good news is that on my CC test the water barely turned pink, one drop easily cleared it so that is .5 or less. My chlorine is also more effective, 1 gallon gets me a bump of aabout 5ppm (it was 3ppm when I started). The water has been crystal clear for days and the last brush I did bbarely stirred up anything. Yesterday I raised my shock level to 16 to account for a CYA mis calculation. Is this thing gonna stop gobbling up my chlorine?

 

[karmabiker]

No need to get frustrated at day 4, you are rocking it! Sounds like you may have another couple of days to go. If I were a betting man I would say OCLT passes Saturday or Sunday evening. Sooner if you can dose more often.

 

[Smykowski]

Is this thing gonna stop gobbling up my chlorine?

Yes. Everything you're posting is normal. Did you keep a log of your tests for the last 4 days? You can probably go back and look at the numbers and see that the rate is slowing down dramatically.

 

[Poolrunsme]

Yes, I record all tests, the CC was over 1.0 when I started and has headed downward slowly. My FC has been dropping roughly 1ppm per hour since I started but it seems I need less chlorine to get it back up. When I started Monday night my target shock level was 12 since I measured the cya at 30...but that test is a little subjective, so now I am trying to keep my shock above 16. I have gone through 32 gallons of chlorine since Monday night. I am getting pressure from kids because it has been hot and humid this week and school is ending so kids want to swim! Thanks for the encouraging words, makes me want to keep at it.

 

[Smykowski]

... but it seems I need less chlorine to get it back up.

That right there tells us you're making progress.

How does your water look?

 

[Poolrunsme]

Water is crystal clear, probably best it has looked in a couple years, which is misleading because obviously I still have something in there consuming my chlorine.

 

[ping]

When I first found TFP my pool was behaving very similar to yours, clear yet consuming a lot of chlorine. I just kept up the SLAM procedure and in about a week it passed the OCLT. Don't stop now as this is the best method to get your pool back in perfect shape.

 

[Poolrunsme]

Thank you, that what I was hoping to hear....I don't want to drop out of the race before I cross the finish line. I do need to go buy some more chlorine now

 

[Poolrunsme]

Last night at 7:30 my FC was 18.0, this morning at 6:00am FC was 12.5 and CC less than .5. I am REALLY starting to think I have hit a plateau with this process. I added more Chlorine and at 12:00pm the FC was 16. I am going to keep it above 16 again today and see what happens tonight, but will be shocked if it does not drop again overnight. I don't know what else I can do. That will be a week of SLAM...this process is wearing me out.

 

[jblizzle]

A week is not a long time ... sometimes the process takes a good bit of time.
What does the water look like?
Have you been brushing?
Have you looked behind the lights?