First Time Tester....CYA HIGH

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mknauss said:
Ok. So once you decide if you want to follow TFPC and drain some water, let us know

Draining - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
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Were you asking about flooding due to the water table? I thought you were wondering about potential the pool had flood water in it in the past, which it hasn't but we are close to Lake Houston. Any idea what the price range is for a DIY switch to SWCG?
 
The saltwater comment was my solution to your exact predicament Last month. I had elevated (95) cya at pool opening this year. The last 2 years I had been using pucks since we traveled extensively. My pool was a salt pool when built and still Has the equipment but hadn’t run it in a few years. I was faced with using liquid chlorine daily or adding pucks and dealing with elevated cya again before the end of the season. I chose to reactivate the swg As the easiest solution for me. After draining 1/2 the pool I was left with 50ppm. Perfect range for my swg. Added salt a Few weeks ago and now back to zero Chlorine addition. Just a cup of acid once a week to control ph.
 
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thecardmaker said:
Were you asking about flooding due to the water table? I thought you were wondering about potential the pool had flood water in it in the past, which it hasn't but we are close to Lake Houston. Any idea what the price range is for a DIY switch to SWCG?
Click to expand...
You need to lower your CYA - 120 is just so high that the FC won't be able to manage and keep the pool sanitary. You want it down around the 50ish range, or 70ish for a SWG (SWG can run higher with a bit lower FC and have less issues). So you need to drain a little more/less than 50% of the pool. If your water table is high, you need to worry about the pool "popping" out of the ground due to the hydrostatic pressure on the pool from the water around it. If it's not high, you could do a quick drain of about 50% in the late afternoon, keeping the plaster wet with a hose, then fill it as quickly as you can overnight when the sun isn't on it.

If your water table is high, you would do a no-drain water exchange, where you have a submersible pump slowly pumping water out of the pool and a hose/etc. refilling the pool at the same time. The goal is to get your water exchanged while not causing your pool to pop out of the ground and not damaging the plaster finish by leaving the dry plaster in the sun.
 
mknauss said:
Yes. If you drain a pool in an area with surface water, the pool can rise out of the ground.
A DIY SWCG would be around $1000 for your size pool.
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Is the following correct?
1) Regardless of if we switch to SWG we need to replace water.
(To be safe will go with the non-draining method.)
2) For the immediate future I need to add liquid chlorine? I will reread the info on that. I know there was mention of the % or concentration of chlorine to buy.
3) Pool Math will help me figure out how much to add?
4) If we don't switch to SWG or until we do I will need to do Pool Math daily & add chlorine daily? Unstabilized tablets aren't a good option?

Thank you so much for your help.
 
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IceShadow said:
You need to lower your CYA - 120 is just so high that the FC won't be able to manage and keep the pool sanitary. You want it down around the 50ish range, or 70ish for a SWG (SWG can run higher with a bit lower FC and have less issues). So you need to drain a little more/less than 50% of the pool. If your water table is high, you need to worry about the pool "popping" out of the ground due to the hydrostatic pressure on the pool from the water around it. If it's not high, you could do a quick drain of about 50% in the late afternoon, keeping the plaster wet with a hose, then fill it as quickly as you can overnight when the sun isn't on it.

If your water table is high, you would do a no-drain water exchange, where you have a submersible pump slowly pumping water out of the pool and a hose/etc. refilling the pool at the same time. The goal is to get your water exchanged while not causing your pool to pop out of the ground and not damaging the plaster finish by leaving the dry plaster in the sun.
Click to expand...
Looks like we'll be doing a no drain water exchange. Thanks for your nice summary!
 
thecardmaker said:
Is the following correct?
1) Regardless of if we switch to SWG we need to replace water.
(To be safe will go with the non-draining method.)
Click to expand...
Yes!
thecardmaker said:
2) For the immediate future I need to add liquid chlorine? I will reread the info on that. I know there was mention of the % or concentration of chlorine to buy.
Click to expand...
Yes!
thecardmaker said:
3) Pool Math will help me figure out how much to add?
Click to expand...
With the right parameters, Yes!!
thecardmaker said:
4) If we don't switch to SWG or until we do I will need to do Pool Math daily & add chlorine daily? Unstabilized tablets aren't a good option?
Click to expand...
Yes and you can use cal-hypo in your pool :)
 
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Rossterman said:
The saltwater comment was my solution to your exact predicament Last month. I had elevated (95) cya at pool opening this year. The last 2 years I had been using pucks since we traveled extensively. My pool was a salt pool when built and still Has the equipment but hadn’t run it in a few years. I was faced with using liquid chlorine daily or adding pucks and dealing with elevated cya again before the end of the season. I chose to reactivate the swg As the easiest solution for me. After draining 1/2 the pool I was left with 50ppm. Perfect range for my swg. Added salt a Few weeks ago and now back to zero Chlorine addition. Just a cup of acid once a week to control ph.
Click to expand...
Ok, I understand better now. Without switching to SWG I have to put a "bandaid" on every day by adding liquid chlorine. I was hoping unstabilized tablets would do that for me. Thanks for explaining.
 
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thecardmaker said:
Is the following correct?
1) Regardless of if we switch to SWG we need to replace water.
(To be safe will go with the non-draining method.)
2) For the immediate future I need to add liquid chlorine? I will reread the info on that. I know there was mention of the % or concentration of chlorine to buy.
3) Pool Math will help me figure out how much to add?
4) If we don't switch to SWG or until we do I will need to do Pool Math daily & add chlorine daily? Unstabilized tablets aren't a good option?

Thank you so much for your help.
Click to expand...
1) Yes. I do the no drain way. Get it set up properly and it will work fine. You will use more water, but not a huge amount.
2). yes. you can get 10% at Walmart, Home Depot, etc. There is a chemical company in Spring, Napco, that sells 12.5% in bulk.
3) Yes
4) Best is liquid chlorine. You can try the cal hypo compressed tablets. I do not know your current CH so you need to monitor that.
 
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mknauss said:
1) Yes. I do the no drain way. Get it set up properly and it will work fine. You will use more water, but not a huge amount.
2). yes. you can get 10% at Walmart, Home Depot, etc. There is a chemical company in Spring, Napco, that sells 12.5% in bulk.
3) Yes
4) Best is liquid chlorine. You can try the cal hypo compressed tablets. I do not know your current CH so you need to monitor that.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU!!!

CH is 420

If Cal Hypo could put me in a position to have to replace water again, or something more difficult than adjusting chemicals I want to stay away from it. But if its a safe convenience I'm all for it.
 
Fellow Houstonian here. I think you've figured out what you need to do, but just as a sanity check, I think you need to get some liquid chlorine in the pool asap. You do need to drain a lot of water to decrease your CYA, but get that chlorine in there now to keep that water clean.

Once you get your CYA down to a more manageable level, you'll have to decide a path forward on how you want to add chlorine to the pool. Someone else above already laid out your options pretty well. A salt water chlorine generator is by far the most convenient way to do it, but with a big up front cost. Adding liquid chlorine every day works great but is not convenient.

Or you can continue with tablets, knowing that you'll have to monitor your CYA and drain every once in a while.
 
Dtkokay said:
Fellow Houstonian here. I think you've figured out what you need to do, but just as a sanity check, I think you need to get some liquid chlorine in the pool asap. You do need to drain a lot of water to decrease your CYA, but get that chlorine in there now to keep that water clean.

Once you get your CYA down to a more manageable level, you'll have to decide a path forward on how you want to add chlorine to the pool. Someone else above already laid out your options pretty well. A salt water chlorine generator is by far the most convenient way to do it, but with a big up front cost. Adding liquid chlorine every day works great but is not convenient.

Or you can continue with tablets, knowing that you'll have to monitor your CYA and drain every once in a while.
Click to expand...

I appreciate this. I feel a a bit needy. Funny how nice it is to have you restate what I thought I understood. Its good reassurance. I added liquid chlorine last night according to Pool Math. We may end up switching to salt water but I figure that decision can wait awhile. We need to get a handle on the CYA first. Then we'll see how it feels to add liquid chlorine daily and go from there. We'll take care of replacing water this weekend.
 

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