High CYA, starting over, ditching the pool companies!

[DMorris]

Hello all,
First timer here! We have had our pool for almost three years now. I have been maintaining it myself with the occasional trips to Leslie Pools. A few weeks ago, we had four inches of rain, and of course, we were leaving town the next morning for a week. So...I thought I would save us from a green pool upon return and added like 5 bags of the shock and a lot of stabilizer to keep the chlorine in there. Reason being is, I seem to continuously have high phosphate levels and chlorine seems to deplete easily due to this. I knew the phosphates were up at that time, but wasn't able to add anymore Phosfree until we got back.
Long story short...came back and pool was pretty cloudy. Had water tested and CYA levels were over 150. They told me to drain the pool down about a foot-which I did-but the next test came back the same. So this time I drained it close to two feet.
It is refilling right now. What is my next step? It now has green on the walls and bottom since there is no chlorine in it.
I didn't realize the stabilizer would raise my CYA along with the bags of shock and the 3" pucks.
What do I need to do first please? I am making a trip to the store here shortly to get the liquid chlorine. Just any brand?

 

[Razorhog]

Welcome to TFP! Step one is to order a good test kit, either a TF100 or a Taylor K2006. Step two is to never go back to the pool store. Step three is to read pool school.
Ok so that's the basics You can buy liquid chlorine at the pool store but walmart has good prices, probably better prices. You are going to need to SLAM the pool so buy a lot!!! Especially with a pool that big, you will need a lot of bleach. Order a test kit ASAP!

 

[Richard320]

First you need a proper test kit. Then you have no reason to go near the pool store. As you've just discovered, their "free" testing isn't really free. Hunt for a Taylor K-2006C online or go to TFTestkits.net fora TF100. I suggest you get the XL option now so you aren't one of the people who posts in a week that you've run out of reagent and what can you do until the refill arrives.

For bleach, anything that is plain and unscented. For a jumbo pool like yours, I'd look for 10 or 12.5% pool chlorine, because it will mean fewer jugs to haul than if you buy 8.25% laundry bleach.

Until you get a test kit, you're going to be working blind, so you can;t really SLAM Process. All you can do is try to keep things from getting worse. To that end, 2 jugs of 8.25% bleach every day or the equivalent of stronger stuff and brush and vacuum.

 

[DMorris]

Thank you for coming to my aid! Ok, going to order a kit in just a minute-do any of those test for phosphates or do I need to get a different kit to test for that? We are on a farm, so guessing somehow phosphates get into our pool...we are organic and just have horses, but there are others around us that are not.

Also, I've been to Walmart and have seen the jugs of liquid chlorine in the pool section-will that work or can I just grab the generic Clorox from the cleaning aisle?

Ha, and yes, our pool is on the large side...

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to TFP

Yes you can use generic bleach from Walmart, Aldi, (grocery store) or something saying liquid pool shock which is also bleach but usually a higher concentration so price can be confusing. I use this calculator to compare apples to oranges as it's the only way to get a price for the actual bleach you're buying. Different size containers, different strengths it's pretty confusing without it.

Chlorine Price Per Ounce Calculator


I highly recommend the TF100 kit. I love mine and I went one step further and got the magnetic stirrer.

You need to start brushing that monster to loosen up any green stuff.

 

[Richard320]

Both of those are the same chemicals. Whichever is cheaper per %-ounce is the one to buy.

Phosphates? Never had mine tested. Don't know what to tell you, there. Although even the Phos-free instructions tell you not to add it of there is visible algae. So you can put off that decision for a few weeks.

 

[Rollercoastr]

uh-oh! You may want to stop refilling! If you have reason to believe CYA is 150, then you could be looking at a 50% water replacement to correct it. Do you run a SWG?

 

[Razorhog]

Thank you for coming to my aid! Ok, going to order a kit in just a minute-do any of those test for phosphates or do I need to get a different kit to test for that? We are on a farm, so guessing somehow phosphates get into our pool...we are organic and just have horses, but there are others around us that are not.

Also, I've been to Walmart and have seen the jugs of liquid chlorine in the pool section-will that work or can I just grab the generic Clorox from the cleaning aisle?

Ha, and yes, our pool is on the large side...

Don't worry about phosphates, pool stores use them as scare tactics basically. Right now just focus on getting the test kit and bleach. You can use the walmart liquid chlorine - it is 10% and comes in a true gallon. Here it is $3.64. The generic clorox is 8.25% and only 121 oz so not a full gallon but it is $3. For a pool your size I would go with the 10%. And you'll need to buy a lot of them. One gallon of 10% will only raise FC by 2.9 ppm in your pool.

If the pool store test of CYA is even close to being accurate, you're going to need to drain a lot of water before you do anything else. Otherwise you would have to put insane amounts of chlorine in there to get it to shock level. if your CYA level is say, 100, you'd need 13.5 gallons of 10% to get it to shock level...

 

[DMorris]

Oh my...13.5 gallons?? Ok, we are off to Walmart to pick some up then! I drained about about 18 inches the first time. Went back and had the CYA tested again, and they were still saying 150. So last night I drained almost two feet. Hoping this does the trick...

I am ordering a test kit off Amazon today, so should have that here in a couple days.

Thank you!!

 

[mknauss]

I am ordering a test kit off Amazon today, so should have that here in a couple days.

Thank you!!

Be sure that was the Taylor K2006C - the C makes a difference. You will most likely need additional FAS-DPD reagents as you will be testing high FC during the SLAM. A better buy would be the TF 100 with XL option from TFTestkits.net

Take care.

 

[crocop]

Oh my...13.5 gallons?? Ok, we are off to Walmart to pick some up then! I drained about about 18 inches the first time. Went back and had the CYA tested again, and they were still saying 150. So last night I drained almost two feet. Hoping this does the trick...

I am ordering a test kit off Amazon today, so should have that here in a couple days.

Thank you!!

If the 150 CYA is true, even draining 2 ft off a 35,000 gallon pool would not do much. I would suggest you stop filling your pool with fresh water as you will most likely need to drain about 50-70% of your water to get a manageable CYA.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Yup, TF100XL is more expensive but it's more economical in the long run.

 

[DMorris]

Hi all, ok yesterday I put 9 of the 14 gallons of 10% chlorine in the pool, brushed the entire thing twice and have kept it running throughout the night. Was hoping to see some grayish water this morning indicting that the algae is dead, but its still green. I just backwashed it-lots of green water came out, and then put the remaining 5 jugs of chlorine in the pool and brushed again.
The only test kit I have at the moment are the strips (I know, awful). The strips showed yesterday that I had plenty of chlorine, but registered almost nothing this morning. The CYA was, thankfully, in the low range 30-40.
Question is...what now? More chlorine? What about the algae remover that you can buy-is that a no no? In the past, when I had some algae show up, I would put the algae remover in.
And yes, I've ordered a real test kit and it is on it's way!

 

[Demegrad9]

How much water did you replace? To go from 150ppm CYA to 30-40ppm would mean replacing ~75% of the water. Unless you have reason to not believe the 150ppm CYA number you had earlier. The other possibility is that the algae might be reducing CYA but I'll leave that to someone else to comment.

Looks like you need more chlorine. Don't get frustrated and stop. You need to get the chlorine up to shock level from the CYA/Chlorine chart and keep it up until it stops dropping so fast. Algae is growing, fast, and you have to overtake it. If you let the FC level reduce drop the Algae will just keep grow faster than the chlorine is killing it and it just adds to more frustration. So right now it's just important to get a CYA measurement you're fairly confident in and use the aforementioned chart to determine your Shock level.

 

[jaduck]

Test strips are called guess strips in these parts, so take the results with a grain of salt. I would continue to follow Richards advice, two jugs of chlorine per day, until your kit comes in! Brush and vacuum the pool as well...adding all that chlorine maybe a waste.

 

[DMorris]

We ended up dumping almost 4 feet of water over a couple of days.
I will look for the cya/cl chart, thank you!

 

[Richard320]

we ended up dumping almost 4 feet of water over a couple of days.
I will look for the cya/cl chart, thank you!

[fc/cya][/fc/cya]

 

[DMorris]

Ok, received my test kit today, yay! Here are my numbers. FC 5.6 CC .6 PH 7.8 CYA 90 TA 70 CH 270
My CYA is still pretty high. Was hoping it was lower... The big question is-what next? Appreciate all the help in advance!

Oh, and I do have the TFP app which has the calculator on it, but just want to get some good advice from this forum first!

 

[DeanP66]

You really want to get that CYA down to around 50, otherwise you'll be using tons of chlorine for the slam.i would drain some more water, lower your ph down to 7.2 and SLAM away. Check your FC level often and keep adding chlorine to keep it topped up at your SLAM level (20). Once your pool starts getting clearer, the FC will start holding longer, so you wont have to top it off as often.

 

[DMorris]

Ha, that's what I figured I would hear! Has anyone tried the product to lower CYA? It's called Bio Active. Just wondering which would be cheaper-the $50 bag of CYA remover or draining and refilling my 35,000 gallon pool (not counting the spa) yet again...
Thank you!