FC not registering; pH 7.6; TA 110; CYA > 100; CH 425; temp 74

[DesertGolfGuy]

Until yesterday, I relied on my local pool store to test my water, and tell me what to do.

Last week, before my K-2006 kit arrived, they told me my chlorine was perfect (whatever that meant to them), my CYA was at 40, and all other metrics were in range.

Yesterday, doing the testing myself for the first time, I showed no FC (I would have run-through the whole DPD powder to get any pink); my CYA was > 100; and my CH was 425.
Two side-notes, we have very-hard town water, and I now use bleach as my sanitizer (I used 3" tablets in a floater until about a month ago).

I was fat, dumb, and happy until yesterday, because my water has been crystal clear for the past six months.

Understanding that the only way to address high levels of CYA and CH is to replace water, I did. Two questions (okay three):
1. How long after partial-drain/replace should I wait to get reliable test results?
2. Should I continue to drain/replace until I get a CYA of around 40 before trying to get everything else in line?
3. Any other insights that may help?

Thanks so much!

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

What to do next depends a lot on how your water looks. If it's cloudy or greenish, that's something else.

Otherwise...
a couple hours with the pump on ought to mix things well enough. Get in there with the brush and you can improve that. If you have a wall whale brush, you can send tidal waves across the pool. But I digress.

If there's no algae, you can stop anywhere between 40 and 60 CYA. How much water is that? Don't know. Try repeating the CYA test using the dilution method in step 8 here
It's straight arithmetic -- tap water will have no CYA.

If you have algae, taking things down to 40 CYA will make things easier. Post back and let us know.

Other insights? Yes. It's not all that hard to maintain a neutral CSI up to about 800 CH. I've been doing it for years.

 

[DesertGolfGuy]

Richard thanks for your help. Good-to-go now.

Extrapolating how much water I had to swap, my guess is my CYA was around 400.......no more trips to the pool store with battles of water!

Thanks again for your insights!