Hi all - I've been lurking in the shadows, consuming the wealth of information on here and I have something that I can't seem to find a similar situation of and decided to post.
First off, as some background - I've been using the evil chlorine tabs, powdered shock and a multitude of different algaecide since purchasing our house about four years ago (with pool - my first pool). I decided to make the move to a SWG about a month or so ago and have been trying to get the pool to a solid base level before making the switch. In the process, I found that my CYA levels were somewhere between 100 and 200.
I've also been trying to get the pool warm enough for some upcoming swimming lessons for the kid, so I've had a solar blanket on it. When I took the blanket off to start draining the pool to address the CYA levels, I had a mess of yellow algae to deal with as well....Sooooo to the point - after draining/refilling (getting the CYA to 40-45 per my testing), I started a slam with liquid chlorine and tried to keep the FC between 16-20. There were some swings during the days where it got below that level (low to mid teens), but it wouldn't have been there for very long. I assumed this was part of the SLAM process with the chlorine eating all of the nastiness. After two days, I had no overnight loss of FC, the water was clear and no CCs in the morning of the clean OVCLT. I started the day on Sunday with a FC reading of 14 and assumed it would slowly regulate from there. Mid-day on Sunday, the FC dropped to 10 and then by the time the sun went below the trees, it was all the way down to 5.
Is that a normal amount of FC loss during the day? I'm not getting any loss at night, so I think the pool is ok, but it seems like the sun is destroying my chlorine. I verified the CYA readings a couple of times (again somewhere in the 40-45 range each time) and I didn't have and CCs coming back to indicate that the FC was actually working that hard. I'm still just using liquid chlorine (the stuff made for pools, purchased at the home improvement store). I should mention that my pool is completely exposed, no screen, and no shade for the majority of the day and I'm in Florida...so the sun was pretty intense this weekend.
Having just wasted a s-ton of water with the pool draining, I'm terrified to start jacking the CYA back up, but is that what I'm missing here?
If it helps, here are the numbers from this morning:
FC - 4.5 (brought up to 9 after taking these readings)
CC - 0
pH - 7.5
TA - 120
CH - 350-375
CYA - 40-45
First off, as some background - I've been using the evil chlorine tabs, powdered shock and a multitude of different algaecide since purchasing our house about four years ago (with pool - my first pool). I decided to make the move to a SWG about a month or so ago and have been trying to get the pool to a solid base level before making the switch. In the process, I found that my CYA levels were somewhere between 100 and 200.
I've also been trying to get the pool warm enough for some upcoming swimming lessons for the kid, so I've had a solar blanket on it. When I took the blanket off to start draining the pool to address the CYA levels, I had a mess of yellow algae to deal with as well....Sooooo to the point - after draining/refilling (getting the CYA to 40-45 per my testing), I started a slam with liquid chlorine and tried to keep the FC between 16-20. There were some swings during the days where it got below that level (low to mid teens), but it wouldn't have been there for very long. I assumed this was part of the SLAM process with the chlorine eating all of the nastiness. After two days, I had no overnight loss of FC, the water was clear and no CCs in the morning of the clean OVCLT. I started the day on Sunday with a FC reading of 14 and assumed it would slowly regulate from there. Mid-day on Sunday, the FC dropped to 10 and then by the time the sun went below the trees, it was all the way down to 5.
Is that a normal amount of FC loss during the day? I'm not getting any loss at night, so I think the pool is ok, but it seems like the sun is destroying my chlorine. I verified the CYA readings a couple of times (again somewhere in the 40-45 range each time) and I didn't have and CCs coming back to indicate that the FC was actually working that hard. I'm still just using liquid chlorine (the stuff made for pools, purchased at the home improvement store). I should mention that my pool is completely exposed, no screen, and no shade for the majority of the day and I'm in Florida...so the sun was pretty intense this weekend.
Having just wasted a s-ton of water with the pool draining, I'm terrified to start jacking the CYA back up, but is that what I'm missing here?
If it helps, here are the numbers from this morning:
FC - 4.5 (brought up to 9 after taking these readings)
CC - 0
pH - 7.5
TA - 120
CH - 350-375
CYA - 40-45