You're doing the right thing. :lol: Hang in there. If you drain about 60%, my guess is you'll end up with CYA right around 50-60 and that should be the sweet spot. A little less won't hurt but you don't want more than 60ppm.
High CYA and most likely copper....I need help!
- Thread starter kizerman
- Start date
Drain and fill #2 in two days is complete. Without adding anything, here are the immediate results:
FC 3
TC 3
PH 7.3
TA 60
HC 100
CYA 75
I was hoping to get a lower cya number but I'm not surprised.
FC 3
TC 3
PH 7.3
TA 60
HC 100
CYA 75
I was hoping to get a lower cya number but I'm not surprised.
Just so I'm clear on this, using the trichlor pucks will add CYA to my pool but the granulated chlorine will not? Is this correct?
Tabs (trichlor) will add CYA.
Granulated chlorine (dichlor), will add cya.
Calcium hypochlorite (cal-hypo) has no cya, but adds calcium, and it, too, can only be removed by drain/refill or reverse osmosis.
Sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine, also bleach) adds neither cya nor calcium. It does add some minor amount of salt as sodium, but this is not troublesome.
Granulated chlorine (dichlor), will add cya.
Calcium hypochlorite (cal-hypo) has no cya, but adds calcium, and it, too, can only be removed by drain/refill or reverse osmosis.
Sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine, also bleach) adds neither cya nor calcium. It does add some minor amount of salt as sodium, but this is not troublesome.
Ohm_Boy said:
So for my situation where I am struggling with high cya I should be using straight liquid bleah off the grocery store shelf?
Yes. Tabs and powder both add CYA and you still have too much. Your close now, why don't you drain 1/3 of your pool and get your CYA down to 50ppm? Everything will work better for you from here on out if you do.
duraleigh said:
Ok, thank you. I think next week I will drain a couple feet out and refill and in the mean time, stick to bleach.
So I stopped using trichlor and diclor and swithed to bleach. After a week here are my results:
PH: 7.6
TA: 80
FC: 3
TC: 3
CH: 130
CYA: 50
I don't know if stopping the trichlor lowered my cya from 75 to 50 in a week or if maybe i tested it too soon after the last refill and the water had not circulated enough. All I know is that I tested it today myself and then took a sample to the pool store and we both got the same results.
Also, after the 2 drain and fills I'm getting no copper reading either.
Now if I can just get rid of this brown stain on my liner and steps. It's making me crazy. There is no copper or iron in my water so it has to be organic, right? Now that my water is right it should fade with shock, right?
PH: 7.6
TA: 80
FC: 3
TC: 3
CH: 130
CYA: 50
I don't know if stopping the trichlor lowered my cya from 75 to 50 in a week or if maybe i tested it too soon after the last refill and the water had not circulated enough. All I know is that I tested it today myself and then took a sample to the pool store and we both got the same results.
Also, after the 2 drain and fills I'm getting no copper reading either.
Now if I can just get rid of this brown stain on my liner and steps. It's making me crazy. There is no copper or iron in my water so it has to be organic, right? Now that my water is right it should fade with shock, right?
Looking good! You can try the vitamin C trick on the stain. Put a Vitamin C tab on the stain for minute if the the stain goes away then it's Irons.
That test is for iron....not organics. One of the remaining pucks placed directly on the stain will frequently lighten the stain.....if so, then it is an organic stain.
duraleigh said:
I'll try placing a puck on it today, however the water tested negative for iron and copper recently.
I placed a puck on the liner and on the fiberglass stairs and didn't see any fading of the stain, as far as I could tell. I left the puck on for at least 5 minutes. I've had the water tested several times since this stain arrived and they have always been negative for iron and copper.
About a month ago I had my pool guy treat it with some type of stain remover that worked almost instantly and cleared the stain from the liner, stairs and all plastic in the pool, however it began to slowly return within days. Any thoughts or ideas here would be greatly appreciated.
About a month ago I had my pool guy treat it with some type of stain remover that worked almost instantly and cleared the stain from the liner, stairs and all plastic in the pool, however it began to slowly return within days. Any thoughts or ideas here would be greatly appreciated.
Not necessarily, it is not uncommon for people with iron stains to get no reading on an iron test. The test is only so sensitive, and if you have staining, then most of the iron is usually in the stain, and not in the water.kizerman said:
Try vitamin C on the stain.
Find out what he treated it with and post back. As the stain slowly returned, what was your pH? If your pH has been high, that would explain a metal stain.
duraleigh said:
In the days following the stain treatment, my pH dropped drastically as did my FC. I had to fight to keep them up for a couple days. As the stain began to return my pH was stabilized and held at around 7.6.
I'm trying to get in touch with him and find out what it was. It worked great initially, the stain actually began streaking off the liner the instant he sprinkled the powder around the pool. It is back but not as bad as before.
Most likely, it was ascorbic acid, which is the same thing as vitamin C.
ascorbic-treatment-to-rid-pool-of-metal-stains-t2298.html
ascorbic-treatment-to-rid-pool-of-metal-stains-t2298.html
JamesW said:
You hit the nail on the head my friend. I tried vitamin c and it faded the stain immediately. I found out that the pool guy used ascorbic acid to treat the stain but he never mentioned it being an iron stain, he thought it was organic?? Now I know how to procede. Thanks so much all. I think it's time for me to become a supporter of this great site!
The stain has been tremoved again. It took 1 1/2 pounds of ascobic acid to completely remove it from everywhere. Now the sequestering agent is in and I will start to bring my pH and FC levels back up tomorrow. Hopefully this is the end of this nightmare for me. Thanks again to all that helped.