CYA & CH way too high, AquaPure broken, need to close pool down for winter

[paddy0furniture]

We used the pool all summer but I did a poor job at maintaining chemical levels. Any time the algae started to flare up I would scrub & use 2-3 chlorine pucks in my floater. Now my CYA level is probably in the 175+ range and the chlorine demand is unsustainable, even with the pool hovering around 53ºF.

I have an AquaPure, but it doesn't generate chlorine. It throws system fault errors. The plates inside are horribly crusted over. I'm willing to spend the time and money to replace it, which I think is the right way to go to save $$ on chems. I think the right path forward is doing a partial drain/fill, get all the chem levels where they should be, then replace the AquaPure & sensor.

The CYA level being too high is on me, but the CH being too high is my municipal water. The fill water is 175 CH, and I believe the pool is currently around 800+ CH. I have a whole-house water softener system (currently not in use) that can use either potassium chloride (super expensive right now) or salt. I had to drain my pool 2 years ago because of the CH being too high, and would really like to avoid doing this every 2 years. Using the water softener for the fill water should solve the CH issue, but is trying to balance the softened water's added salt level with my new AquaPure more trouble than it's worth?

 

[PoolStored]

I think the right path forward is doing a partial drain/fill, get all the chem levels where they should be, then replace the AquaPure & sensor.

Yes.

Using the water softener for the fill water should solve the CH issue, but is trying to balance the softened water's added salt level with my new AquaPure more trouble than it's worth?

Softened water has about 115ppm of salt. You run you pool much higher than that to run the Aquapure. You will have to ADD salt to added softened water.

LOTS of folks here use softened water exactly for this reason.

 

[Chris_Porter]

Drain and refill with softened water to lower CYA and CH. Fix the AquaPure, and use softened water for top-offs to avoid future CH buildup. The added salt won’t be an issue for the system.

 

[proavia]

Drain and refill with softened water to lower CYA and CH. Fix the AquaPure, and use softened water for top-offs to avoid future CH buildup. The added salt won’t be an issue for the system.

Nope - drain and refill with UN-softened water. The OPs fill water is in the 175 ppm range.
And the water softener will run out of soft water and need a recharge at least every 2000 gallons.

One the pool is refilled, you can use softened water for make up water due to evaporation. But first, get the CH in range.

A properly functioning water softener won't add salt to the pool. It may increase the sodium level a little, but doesn't add salt.

 

[PoolStored]

Drain and refill with softened water to lower CYA and CH.

We don't recommend draining a pool. Better to do a no drain water exchange.

All the deets on why and how:

Draining - Further Reading

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