12,600 gallon pebble tec pool. Drained in April 2016 by pool guy. Pool guy serviced with pucks until October 2017. Then we decided to take care of it on our own but were clueless so used pucks.
Fast forward to now, I have educated myself and got the Taylor kit, the good one. Anyhow, CYA is 100 and we were getting some green algae. Read about the CYA/chlorine relationship. Our CH is also 650 so honestly we intend to drain and refill come October. Right now we are backwashing frequently when the FC falls, adding water, and testing FC and adding bleach/acid. Which is how I know I will proceed once the pool water is new, since I am now educated.
However, my understanding from the charts is that if my CYA is 100 that my min FC is 8 and my target 11-13. Does this mean that from now on I should try to keep my level 11-13 at all times and do not let it fall under 8 under any circumstances? And shock level is 39!!! Seriously? We thought we "shocked" when we added 4 bags of cal hypo and FC only came up to 10. But pool looked sparkling. Few days later, back at 5. So, this week alone we went through 4 bags cal hypo plus nearly 4 gallons 10% bleach to keep FC at highest 10. But most of the time hovering 4-5. You don't have to do the math to realize this is a lot of $$$ on chlorine per week.
Question is: Am I understanding this correctly? Secondly, am I supposed to be testing my FC every night to make sure I balance it so it never falls below 8 but preferably 11-13? We have not been doing it nightly, rather every few days. It's been a time consuming learning project. How often do you all test your water?
Final question: Since we plan to drain in October and start anew, does it make more sense to just to add the pucks we have until then and just throw some cal hypo in it weekly? I mean, that seems like it would be cheaper even though our whole chemistry would be askew. The CH is so high anyway at 650. My tap water is 250, FYI, in Arizona. I just feel like I've learned so much on how to manage the water ongoing but that I am kinda SOL for the rest of the season until I drain.
Any advice you can give would be very appreciated!
Fast forward to now, I have educated myself and got the Taylor kit, the good one. Anyhow, CYA is 100 and we were getting some green algae. Read about the CYA/chlorine relationship. Our CH is also 650 so honestly we intend to drain and refill come October. Right now we are backwashing frequently when the FC falls, adding water, and testing FC and adding bleach/acid. Which is how I know I will proceed once the pool water is new, since I am now educated.
However, my understanding from the charts is that if my CYA is 100 that my min FC is 8 and my target 11-13. Does this mean that from now on I should try to keep my level 11-13 at all times and do not let it fall under 8 under any circumstances? And shock level is 39!!! Seriously? We thought we "shocked" when we added 4 bags of cal hypo and FC only came up to 10. But pool looked sparkling.
Few days later, back at 5. So, this week alone we went through 4 bags cal hypo plus nearly 4 gallons 10% bleach to keep FC at highest 10. But most of the time hovering 4-5. You don't have to do the math to realize this is a lot of $$$ on chlorine per week. Question is: Am I understanding this correctly? Secondly, am I supposed to be testing my FC every night to make sure I balance it so it never falls below 8 but preferably 11-13? We have not been doing it nightly, rather every few days. It's been a time consuming learning project.
How often do you all test your water?Final question: Since we plan to drain in October and start anew, does it make more sense to just to add the pucks we have until then and just throw some cal hypo in it weekly? I mean, that seems like it would be cheaper even though our whole chemistry would be askew. The CH is so high anyway at 650. My tap water is 250, FYI, in Arizona. I just feel like I've learned so much on how to manage the water ongoing but that I am kinda SOL for the rest of the season until I drain.
Any advice you can give would be very appreciated!
