Hello to the TFP community,
I took over my pool maintenance having recently retired and am willing to put in the time to keep my pool looking beautiful. I've had pool service for 20 years and he sure made it look easy....the 5-6 minute weekly visit included dropping in a cup of premeasured chlorine granules, emptying the skimmer basket and using the Polaris 280 hose to wash down the deck. Water testing was just dropping chlorine and PH drops directly into the pool. Now that I've done some research, I wonder how my pool only had two bouts of algae in the past ten years. I don't have any trees or plants that drop organic material into the pool and the Polaris does a great job daily.
The pool is more of an expensive yard decoration that adds tranquility-we rarely use it for swimming. (It came with the house 23 years ago and we completely remodeled/updated it in 2008.)
I'm fortunate that I found TFP and learned how water testing at Pool Companies varies and I don't need all the things they try to sell. I just received my new Taylor K-2006C kit so I can test for more than just Chlorine, PH and Acid demand. Thanks for reading my long winded post. I sincerely appreciate all your invaluable information.
Denise
20K gal, Pebbletec, A.O. Smith Corp. pump (not sure on HP), Pentair Cartridge filter, AquaRite SWGz (not currently in use), Polaris 280 sweep, Taylor K2006C Test Kit
I took over my pool maintenance having recently retired and am willing to put in the time to keep my pool looking beautiful. I've had pool service for 20 years and he sure made it look easy....the 5-6 minute weekly visit included dropping in a cup of premeasured chlorine granules, emptying the skimmer basket and using the Polaris 280 hose to wash down the deck. Water testing was just dropping chlorine and PH drops directly into the pool. Now that I've done some research, I wonder how my pool only had two bouts of algae in the past ten years. I don't have any trees or plants that drop organic material into the pool and the Polaris does a great job daily.
The pool is more of an expensive yard decoration that adds tranquility-we rarely use it for swimming. (It came with the house 23 years ago and we completely remodeled/updated it in 2008.)
I'm fortunate that I found TFP and learned how water testing at Pool Companies varies and I don't need all the things they try to sell. I just received my new Taylor K-2006C kit so I can test for more than just Chlorine, PH and Acid demand. Thanks for reading my long winded post. I sincerely appreciate all your invaluable information.
Denise
20K gal, Pebbletec, A.O. Smith Corp. pump (not sure on HP), Pentair Cartridge filter, AquaRite SWGz (not currently in use), Polaris 280 sweep, Taylor K2006C Test Kit
Keep the link below handy. Lots of good reference material there. Enjoy. 
Well, since you are "stuck" with the no drain situation, you'll want to increase the FC for sure. You'll be plenty safe increasing the FC to 10. You really need a higher FC level based on that CYA, but an FC over 10 will skew your pH readings making it difficult to manage that portion of chemistry. You're lucky to not have an algae bloom yet. But the sooner you can exchange the water to lower the CYA the better. That would be priority one as soon as you can.