Hello all, my pool chemistry is out of whack and I would appreciate any advice.
Our CYA is 185 ppm with Free Chlorine of 27ppm. Our PH is also very low based on using a test strip and from the Leslie's pool store test, which yielded a PH of 6.4. I tried to test PH with our Taylor kit but the color value is yellow, and doesn't match any of the colors on the comparator tube so I couldn't get an exact value.
On one hand, I know I need to do a partial drain and refill of the pool due to the high CYA value. On the other hand, I'm a little concerned about doing that being that we are in the middle of a Texas summer and I worry that the high heat could damage any plaster that gets exposed in the draining process. According to the pool calculator the optimal FC range for this amount of CYA is 14-22 which we are not far from. Our water also looks great - it's not cloudy, it has no algae. So part of me wonders if I should add something to increase the PH so that the water isn't so acidic, and let the FC levels drop naturally until they're in the proper range for that level of CYA, and then drain / refill the pool in the September time frame when the temperatures start to go down. Ultimately my questions are:
1) Should I go ahead and drain the pool now, or should we maintain the recommended level of FC for this high of an amount of CYA and wait until temperatures fall to drain and refill so that there is less risk of damaging the plaster?
2) If we wait to drain the pool, would it be safe for swimming if we maintain the FC in the 14-22 ppm range and increase the PH to between 7.2 - 7.8?
Thanks in advance!
Our CYA is 185 ppm with Free Chlorine of 27ppm. Our PH is also very low based on using a test strip and from the Leslie's pool store test, which yielded a PH of 6.4. I tried to test PH with our Taylor kit but the color value is yellow, and doesn't match any of the colors on the comparator tube so I couldn't get an exact value.
On one hand, I know I need to do a partial drain and refill of the pool due to the high CYA value. On the other hand, I'm a little concerned about doing that being that we are in the middle of a Texas summer and I worry that the high heat could damage any plaster that gets exposed in the draining process. According to the pool calculator the optimal FC range for this amount of CYA is 14-22 which we are not far from. Our water also looks great - it's not cloudy, it has no algae. So part of me wonders if I should add something to increase the PH so that the water isn't so acidic, and let the FC levels drop naturally until they're in the proper range for that level of CYA, and then drain / refill the pool in the September time frame when the temperatures start to go down. Ultimately my questions are:
1) Should I go ahead and drain the pool now, or should we maintain the recommended level of FC for this high of an amount of CYA and wait until temperatures fall to drain and refill so that there is less risk of damaging the plaster?
2) If we wait to drain the pool, would it be safe for swimming if we maintain the FC in the 14-22 ppm range and increase the PH to between 7.2 - 7.8?
Thanks in advance!