Drained, Repaired, & Refilled Pool...What's next?

[bonnieandrusty]

So our pool was full of algae again. It gets away from us every time the weather starts to change. The steps were badly cracked and a chunk of the plaster was cracking and about to fall off the wall. We heavily chlorinated the pool for a couple of days and then drained it completely. Rusty repaired the steps and wall, then rinsed/scrubbed the walls with water and bleach. We then started refilling with tap water. He also emptied the sand filter and refilled with new sand. The pool is almost full now. We decided to do all of the tests and here are the results:

FC 0.5
CC 0.5
TC 1
CH 350
TA 110
CYA nonexistent... he filled the tube completely and the dot was still completely visible

So what is the next step in this process to get the water chemistry balanced?

 

[Texas Splash]

Re: Drained, Repaired, & Refilled Pool...What's next?

Hello and welcome to TFP! About your latest test results.....
- Please confirm which test kit you used
- CYA will no zero because new water has none. So use the Poolmath calculator (below in my signature and above) to increase your CYA with granular stabilizer. Shoot for a CYA goal of at least 30. Summer's coming so you might chose to go to 40. Use the sock-soaking method discussed here. If you don't know about that, just ask.
- Add more regular bleach now to increase the FC to about 3 ppm for today. Once the stabilizer above is dissolved in the water, increase the FC to about 5 and never let it drop below 3 ppm.
- PH? That's the next big one. It needs to be in the mid-7 range. If it's too high, use muriatic acid to lower it. Again, use the Poolmath calculator.

Having said all that, let's re-cap a few TFP principles:
- Except for a pool repair, you don't need to drain your pool for algae. We use the "SLAM" technique for that (link below)
- Sand almost never goes bad unless an owner added some pool store prodducts that ruined it. So if you find yourself in this situation again, let us know before you dump the sand and go through all that work.
- Please update your signature with all of your pool info - including your test kit. Very important for us as we review your posts.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, make sure to read/bookmark all the vital links you see below in my signature. They will help you later. Always refer to those links.

 

[bonnieandrusty]

We used the TF-100 test kit. Sorry forgot to list the PH which is 7.4

We haven't been on here for a while so I guess our signature disappeared. I just went back in and added it again so I hope it shows up now. When we were on before we were in a mess with algae but the members talked us through a long slam process. We were in good shape for a long time after that. We do great through the winter when it's too cold to swim, but come summer we have a lot of problems keeping the chlorine level up. I guess it's the Arizona sun eating up our chlorine. We use at least a half gallon a day in the summer. In the winter we only use about 1/4 gallon every other day. We almost had to drain the pool when we were talked through the slam, but we finally got the pool in good shape without draining. It's probably a good thing we emptied the sand filter. When we opened it up the pipe that is supposed to be straight up in the middle was laying off to the side. We also had to drain the pool to repair the steps and side wall. Keeping our fingers crossed that our repairs hold up!

Where do I find the sock-soaking method you mentioned above?
'

 

[Arizonarob]

Like Texas said, being in AZ you’re going to need to bring that cya up to 40 or so, otherwise you’re going to burn off chlorine like crazy from the sun.
Sock method = taking an old sock, fill it with stabilizer, and hang it off the end of a stick in front of one of your returns. Give the sock a squeeze or two every now and then to help dissolve it faster.

~Rob

 

[Texas Splash]

Looks like this:

In the blistering summer, I adjust my CYA higher to protect the FC from the sun. As Rob noted above, you will too. For now, always keep the FC at the proper level for your "current" CYA as noted on the Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart. That is very important. As we go through the year, we can help you with advice if you believe you are still using too much bleach per day.