Help me keep my pool clear!

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Dose for at least 11.5% of your current cya & you’ll be in the clear until nightfall since cya will be continuously falling. Re check cya when u think it will be fully exchanged if u are getting close to being out of reagent.
 
My FC this morning was at 17. So. Much. Chlorine. Will be nice to maintain levels much lower than that and stop burning through my chemicals so fast.

pH was getting higher around 8. I was going to add some MA, but didn't want to open my bottle because I didn't have a good place to store it, and it's stupid hot here right now so didn't want it venting out the cap somewhere it shouldn't be. Figured it could wait a day or two if needed.. I ordered a smaller deck box to get here to store my MA away from the other chemicals. My 4 pack boxes of chlorine stay in the dark cool basement and I pull a single bottle out as needed. Usually maintaining these high FC levels I'm going through a gallon every day or two easy.
 
Also, I'm going to begin my water exchange here tonight. I've ordered more 0871 and 0013 reagent so I have plenty to test CYA and FC levels immediately and into the future. When you're maintaining FC levels at 17-19 you go through a lot of reagent...

Couple questions on the water exchange:
1) How probable is it that during this exchange I experience algae growth? Do I just maintain proper FC levels as often as I'm able?
2) Once the exchange is complete and I check CYA and add the appropriate level of liquid chlorine, what do I do about all the other tests? Which are the ones I need to focus on outside of FC, CYA, and pH once I've exchanged water to get CYA levels between 30 and 50?
3) Do I turn the pump off during the exchange, or keep it going?

edited to add - I just reviewed this thread too Finally using a real test and super high CYA
I'm going to test my tap water to prep a little more and make sure I have everything I need.
 
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zimdogg said:
What if the resin container is near objects such as bbq grille, umbrella, outdoor furniture, etc? Will it rust these metal items outdoors if the container is near them?
Click to expand...
I am not 100% sure but I have to imagine if it’s not immediately under them it should be fine. Outdoors, the fumes dissipate quickly. Indoors they can accumulate in one area.
 
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Checked a couple things while I was home for lunch.

My hose is capable of filling a 5 gallon bucket in 45 seconds.
My submersible pump is pumping out 5 gallons in 50 seconds... this close enough if I keep an eye on it? How can I slow down the pump? Longer hose?

Also tested FC/pH of my tap water. 0 FC, 8+ pH. That normal?
 
Sounds standard for the tap water. You probably should test the TA and CH to see what those are too, just for future knowledge.

Your pool pump should be off during the exchange process anyway, so you only have to worry about exposing the plaster - you might need to unplug the pump a bit every now and then and let the hose catch up as you can.
 
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IceShadow said:
Sounds standard for the tap water. You probably should test the TA and CH to see what those are too, just for future knowledge.

Your pool pump should be off during the exchange process anyway, so you only have to worry about exposing the plaster - you might need to unplug the pump a bit every now and then and let the hose catch up as you can.
Click to expand...
My thought was to let the pump run for a couple hours pumping water OUT first before I turned the inflow water on. It took longer to fill the bucket with my sump pump I'll be using, which tells me its slower than my spigot that will be filling the pool by about 10%... 45 seconds for the spigot vs 50 seconds for the sump pump.

That should give it a head start on draining (it's actually a little low as it is from evaporation the last few days) before I turn on the water to fill up and can just fill til it reaches the right level if it doesn't by the time my calculated time is up.
 

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Question about FC/CYA relationship. I keep seeing people mention that a pool will normally lose 2-4ppm of FC per day from sun/swimmers. I'm losing far more than that (starting at 19, ending the day at 10-12). I also had a CYA of 160 (but currently exchanging water to get CYA down).

Is there more FC loss with higher CYA levels? Will I start losing only the 2-4ppm range once my CYA is at a more manageable level?
 
zimdogg said:
Question about FC/CYA relationship. I keep seeing people mention that a pool will normally lose 2-4ppm of FC per day from sun/swimmers. I'm losing far more than that (starting at 19, ending the day at 10-12). I also had a CYA of 160 (but currently exchanging water to get CYA down).

Is there more FC loss with higher CYA levels? Will I start losing only the 2-4ppm range once my CYA is at a more manageable level?
Click to expand...
I don't think we have a lot of data on sustained CYA and FC that high. So it's hard to say. Have you done an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to verify you aren't losing due to algae?
 
I sort of got sidetracked piggybacking on another thread, but thought it might be helpful to recap the other steps here to keep everything in one place.

  • I completed my water exchange which took about 22 hours
  • Tested CYA again and THOUGHT I had 60CYA. Turns out I have around 40CYA once I figured out the correct way to do the test. My 60 reading came from doing the test in my garage under bright LED lights, but nothing beats sunlight
  • I was losing chlorine fast with that low CYA, started slamming to rule out algae and was losing chlorine very fast on sunny days. My unproven hypothesis here is that my CYA might actually be lower than I thought it was therefor losing chlorine much faster in addition to the heat and 12 hours of sunlight the pool gets every day
  • After pausing the SLAM process, I retested CYA and found out I was only at 40CYA
  • Performed OCLT and passed
  • Calcium Harness was the only other reading that was really out of spec. I was at 150 with a plaster pool so bought some variety of deicer pellets at Lowe's that had a 94% Calcium Chloride rating (thanks to a user for looking up the MSDS here) Here's the product if anyone's in need. 50lb bag for about $20 - https://www.lowes.com/pd/50-lbs-Fast-Acting-Calcium-Chloride-Ice-Melt/3540820
  • Pool Math stated I needed to add 37lbs to reach my target of 450 CH. I added 25lbs yesterday and retested this morning getting a 360 reading. Added 11 more pounds this morning per Pool Math and will retest tomorrow

I think I'm almost there. My test tomorrow will include the full barrage of tests, but as of now I think I'm looking pretty good! Any suggestions based on the below numbers? (this was prior to adding my chlorine for the day). I do feel like I lose more than the 2-4ppm of chlorine per day that I keep reading about, but I'm chalking that up to the pool being in the sun so long and only being 5 feet deep at its deepest point. Does a deeper pool make it harder for UV rays to penetrate the "high quality h2o" and zap away the LC? I just overshoot the high target for each day and so far I've been fairly close to the low target by the next morning, sometimes a little below, sometimes a little above, just depends what the day before's weather was like.

Test numbers here.
 

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Zimm,
U need fc STAT
you have to keep fc above min for your cya at all times lest algae & nasties 🤢 will grow. Minimum is hot lava.
Always Aim for the high target or a scootch above 🎯 on the FC/CYA Levels when dosing. Whatever will prevent u from playing kissy face with minimum for your cya.
Due to the intense uv You may need to aim for cya of 50 - but before u do - perform another Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to rule out organics as u have dipped below min.
 
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Mdragger88 said:
Zimm,
U need fc STAT
you have to keep fc above min for your cya at all times lest algae & nasties 🤢 will grow. Minimum is hot lava.
Always Aim for the high target or a scootch above 🎯 on the FC/CYA Levels when dosing. Whatever will prevent u from playing kissy face with minimum for your cya.
Due to the intense uv You may need to aim for cya of 50 - but before u do - perform another Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to rule out organics as u have dipped below min.
Click to expand...
FC seems to remain my problem area. I was told by pool math to add 74oz this morning (after my test indicated 1.5FC). I added 80. I also have my pool set as a 13,000 gallon pool in pool math to give me higher than normal recommendations to ensure I don't dip below, but as you can see that does happen.

I'll do another OCLT this evening to be sure, but I just think the sun eats away pretty hard at the pool being exposed to UV from about 7am to sunset. It's nice and clear!

I don't really have anywhere that algae can hide. No ladder, no niche on my light, no weird crevices or anything. 1 skimmer that looks clean to the eye test, and I always empty out the contents.
 
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