draining the pool?

[Spiny Norman]

Guys - I'm being advised by Leslie's to partially drain and refill my pool. Apparently I have very high metals and very high Cyanuric acid. Is there anything I should be wary of? Is it a good thing to do?

Appreciate any thoughts, Thanks

 

[JJ_Tex]

While those are good reasons to do a partial drain, I would be leery of doing something that drastic based on Leslie's "fee" testing. Do you have your own test kit?

Also, do you know where the metals and CYA came from that Leslie's says is in your pool?

 

[Mdragger88]

What he said
after confirming the need for said water exchange with a proper kit
Test Kits Compared
You are going to want to ensure you stop adding metals & excess cya to the water going forward or you’ll be doing this again shortly.
Here’s the details of exchanging water safely, the safest method is the no drain water exchange - section 3.5

Draining - Further Reading

www.google.com

Metals - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship

Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Spiny Norman]

While those are good reasons to do a partial drain, I would be leery of doing something that drastic based on Leslie's "fee" testing. Do you have your own test kit?

Also, do you know where the metals and CYA came from that Leslie's says is in your pool?

Hi yes I have my own test kit but not one of the good ones. However I did test the water and Chlorine was really high and alkalinity, pH was ok but alkalinity was really and that's what prompted my trip to the Pool Supply store. I don't know here the metals would have come from. The only thing I've added over the past year has been chlorine tablets, occasional acid, and that Pool Perfect stuff every other week. I have a guy come quarterly to clean the filter. My pump did fail at the end of last tear and it took an age to source a new one, get it installed and then repeat the process when the first new pump also failed. So the pool probably sat with no water movement for 6 weeks or so.

Yes I'm leery of the advice also but they have to be better than me right?

 

[Spiny Norman]

What he said
after confirming the need for said water exchange with a proper kit
Test Kits Compared
You are going to want to ensure you stop adding metals & excess cya to the water going forward or you’ll be doing this again shortly.
Here’s the details of exchanging water safely, the safest method is the no drain water exchange - section 3.5

Draining - Further Reading

www.google.com

Metals - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship

Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.

www.troublefreepool.com

I guess I have to get another pool water check and see if there is some consistency. Or get a better kit and test it myself. I need to find out as well where the metals and the Cya comes from so I don't repeat the mistakes I've made. Do you have any suggestions where they may have come from? Also I read your article on draining. It was little technical for me but do I understand that I can drain the pool and fill it at the same time? That's interesting.

If I drain it first, then replace is that a major problem? I'm in southern California. I'd avoid a hot day. Do I need to check the height of the water table and sorry to ask so many questions but how would I do that?

I appreciate the help

 

[dfwnoob]

What metals are they showing in the water, and how much of them? That will help identify a source.

Just simply draining a pool is risky and is rarely recommended. It sounds like you've found the article, but review the directions for a No-Drain Water Exchange and let us know if you have any questions. Additionally, I would probably stop visiting the pool store as they're how you got into this mess in the first place. If you're going to put up the money to refill your pool (which can't be cheap in California), I would recommend that you re-review our Pool Care Basics and make the relatively small investment in your OWN test kit - either a Taylor K-2006C or a TFTestKits.net TF-100/TF-Pro.

If you are, ultimately, stuck draining and refilling, you may as well use this time to get on the right track and break the dependency on pool store testing and methods.

 

[JJ_Tex]

I need to find out as well where the metals and the Cya comes from so I don't repeat the mistakes I've made. Do you have any suggestions where they may have come from?

CYA can be added directly to the pool in the form of chlorine stabilizer, but the pucks also contain CYA and your CYA can get out of control quickly if you only use pucks.

For the metals:
Iron usually comes from well water
Copper can come from the heater, but most of the time it is something added to the pool either algaecide or anything else "blue".

 

[Spiny Norman]

What metals are they showing in the water, and how much of them? That will help identify a source.

Just simply draining a pool is risky and is rarely recommended. It sounds like you've found the article, but review the directions for a No-Drain Water Exchange and let us know if you have any questions. Additionally, I would probably stop visiting the pool store as they're how you got into this mess in the first place. If you're going to put up the money to refill your pool (which can't be cheap in California), I would recommend that you re-review our Pool Care Basics and make the relatively small investment in your OWN test kit - either a Taylor K-2006C or a TFTestKits.net TF-100/TF-Pro.

If you are, ultimately, stuck draining and refilling, you may as well use this time to get on the right track and break the dependency on pool store testing and methods.

wow, quick reply thanks.

Iron is zero so I think that's ok?
Copper says 5.5 so that's really very high right? I'm thinking that's coming from the chlorine tablets?
I'm thinking the no drain exchange is the way I'll go and I'm wondering how I'll know when to stop the process if I'm draining and filling at the same time and I won't see the pool level going down. Also, how can we avoid draining clean water we've just added?

 

[Spiny Norman]

CYA can be added directly to the pool in the form of chlorine stabilizer, but the pucks also contain CYA and your CYA can get out of control quickly if you only use pucks.

For the metals:
Iron usually comes from well water
Copper can come from the heater, but most of the time it is something added to the pool either algaecide or anything else "blue".

ok I've been using those puck things exclusively for the past couple of years. That's probably the course of my high Cya I assume. My iron is ok but my copper is high though I've never heated the pool with the heater and I have used 'blue' stuff but not much at all. I read that copper can be deposited by the chlorine tablets? So should I always use liquid chlorine? I did that for years but more recently the pucks seemed so much more convenient. hmm

 

[Newdude]

I read that copper can be deposited by the chlorine tablets?

Most of them are Xtra blue. Most everything in the pool aisle is blue this or that.

We don't put any faith in the pool stores CYA test, its their worst out of none of them are great tests, but out of morbid curiosity, what did they claim it was ?

 

[JJ_Tex]

ok I've been using those puck things exclusively for the past couple of years. That's probably the course of my high Cya I assume. My iron is ok but my copper is high though I've never heated the pool with the heater and I have used 'blue' stuff but not much at all. I read that copper can be deposited by the chlorine tablets? So should I always use liquid chlorine? I did that for years but more recently the pucks seemed so much more convenient. hmm

Some pucks can contain copper, and are generally marketed as "blue" something or other like these:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Clorox-Pool-Spa-0-375-lb-Individual-3-in-Pool-Chlorine-Tabs/1002042604?

The preference is liquid chlorine since that only adds chlorine to your pool. Yes the pucks are more convenient, but save them for when you go out of town and cannot add liquid chlorine on a regular basis (assuming your CYA is not sky high).

 

[Mdragger88]

To avoid the pitfalls of high cya use liquid chlorine or a salt water chlorine generator for daily chlorination.
Save the pucks for vacation & then only use the plain ones without blu stuff in them.
For the no drain exchange you can use a bucket to determine how many gallons per minute you’re draining with your submersible pump (if it takes 1 minute to fill 1 gallon then that’s 1 gal/min) you will then adjust your fill hose to that same rate & it will take approximately 14,000 minutes for your 14k gallon pool. These numbers are just an example of how to do the math

 

[Spiny Norman]

Most of them are Xtra blue. Most everything in the pool aisle is blue this or that.

We don't put any faith in the pool stores CYA test, its their worst out of none of them are great tests, but out of morbid curiosity, what did they claim it was ?

Cya on the report was 149 against a quoted ideal range of 30-100ppm

 

[Mdragger88]

Cya on the report was 149 against a quoted ideal range of 30-100ppm

Yeah, ummm any thing over 60 in a manually chlorinated pool is not ideal & makes it hard to keep the pool sanitary.
FC/CYA Levels
Time to ditch them & their recommendations. They tell you this so they can keep selling you pucks/stabilized products along with all the other things “needed” to keep a pool with such high cya clear or at least keep it from going full swamp.
Btw- clear doesn’t mean sanitary.
The only tests results that we recommend using from the pool store are for metals. Yours indicate that you need to exchange pretty much all your water as you want the copper level to be zero ideally.
.5 or below is somewhat acceptable but if you’re already draining 90% of the water might as well go whole hog & get all that copper gone.
I suggest that you get a test kit on order asap so you can properly balance your pool as soon as the exchange is completed. It is also a great idea to test your fill water with your kit so you know what you’re working with.
Do you know if you will be using softened or unsoftened water for filling the pool?

 

[Spiny Norman]

is it possible to replace all the old pool water doing this No Drain water Exchange?
I don't know about softened or unsoftened, it'll be whatever comes out of the faucet in San Diego.

 

[Mdragger88]

Yes, a full exchange is possible.
Do you have a water softener in your home? They’re pretty big, you would probably notice it.

 

[Spiny Norman]

ok I'm exchanging as we speak, no water softener though. I figured out this whole thing is going to be about 7-8 hours. I'm finding that the pump works faster than my fill so I have to pause the pumping from time to time. Pretty excited to see the results tonight.

 

[Mdragger88]

Did you obtain a recommended test kit so you can test the water once the process is complete? If not, get one on order asap so you can start out on the right foot.

 

[Spiny Norman]

Hi again, yes I ordered a test kit. The pool looks great, really clear. I did a bit of a test with a home depot kit to see if it's different, the last time. I'll also have the pool company do another test for comparison with their previous test. So far it looks promising. I'm hoping for an improvement on the results of a week ago.

Meantime, using the Home Depot kit:
Chlorine is ideal
pH is also ideal
alkalinity is 130 ppm (which I think is a little high)

 

[Mdragger88]

Hi again, yes I ordered a test kit. The pool looks great, really clear. I did a bit of a test with a home depot kit to see if it's different, the last time. I'll also have the pool company do another test for comparison with their previous test. So far it looks promising. I'm hoping for an improvement on the results of a week ago.

Use your kit when it comes - don’t even bother with the pool store test.

Meantime, using the Home Depot kit:
Chlorine is ideal

Their ideal is likely not ideal - always follow the
FC/CYA Levels

pH is also ideal

Not sure what that means but anywhere in the 7’s is fine

alkalinity is 130 ppm (which I think is a little high)

Thats fine, it will come down as you maintain ph.