Hi y'all. First time posting here.
For most of my life, I've maintained my own pool. Mainly used stabilized pucks, a little acid once in a while, bag of non chlorine shock once a week, and went on my way fat, dumb, and happy. Never bother much with CYA, calcium or alkalinity and pool was always clear and didn't mess with it more than once a week.
Two years ago moved back to Texas and built a new house and pool in the Dallas area. For two years, I've been using Pinch a Penny to maintain my pool since I travel for work almost every week. I also have a stand alone Bullfrog spa. I maintained that myself because the @ease cartridges need to be changed only every three weeks.
Recently got frustrated with Pinch a Penny and got rid of them. They didn't clean the cartridge in more than 14 months, haven't been brushing the pool, and the chemicals were all out of whack when I tested them. The monthly cost didn't justify the seven minutes a week they were here.
I've been following this forum for several weeks now and decided to use the TFP method to maintain the pool and spa.
The first thing I did was to drain about 40% of the water from the pool. The CYA 85 and I wanted to get it down in the 40 - 50 range.
I'm testing the Ph every day and it is constantly above 8.2. I use pool math to add MA but it returns back above 8.2 the next day.
I also noticed that the chlorine isn't holding. I raise it to around 5 ppm and the next day it is below 1.
So, here are the current readings from my TF-Pro test kit:
FC: 0.5
CC: 0.0
TA: 80-90
Ph: 8.5
CH: 150
CYA: 50
Last night I added non chlorine shock to bring the CC down from 1.0 to 0. (I know, next time SLAM instead of this stuff.)
Also added 8 lbs Calcium Hardness yesterday to start bring the CH up. Goal is around 300-350.
I've ordered Boric Acid but it hasn't arrived yet.
Here are my questions:
For most of my life, I've maintained my own pool. Mainly used stabilized pucks, a little acid once in a while, bag of non chlorine shock once a week, and went on my way fat, dumb, and happy. Never bother much with CYA, calcium or alkalinity and pool was always clear and didn't mess with it more than once a week.
Two years ago moved back to Texas and built a new house and pool in the Dallas area. For two years, I've been using Pinch a Penny to maintain my pool since I travel for work almost every week. I also have a stand alone Bullfrog spa. I maintained that myself because the @ease cartridges need to be changed only every three weeks.
Recently got frustrated with Pinch a Penny and got rid of them. They didn't clean the cartridge in more than 14 months, haven't been brushing the pool, and the chemicals were all out of whack when I tested them. The monthly cost didn't justify the seven minutes a week they were here.
I've been following this forum for several weeks now and decided to use the TFP method to maintain the pool and spa.
The first thing I did was to drain about 40% of the water from the pool. The CYA 85 and I wanted to get it down in the 40 - 50 range.
I'm testing the Ph every day and it is constantly above 8.2. I use pool math to add MA but it returns back above 8.2 the next day.
I also noticed that the chlorine isn't holding. I raise it to around 5 ppm and the next day it is below 1.
So, here are the current readings from my TF-Pro test kit:
FC: 0.5
CC: 0.0
TA: 80-90
Ph: 8.5
CH: 150
CYA: 50
Last night I added non chlorine shock to bring the CC down from 1.0 to 0. (I know, next time SLAM instead of this stuff.)
Also added 8 lbs Calcium Hardness yesterday to start bring the CH up. Goal is around 300-350.
I've ordered Boric Acid but it hasn't arrived yet.
Here are my questions:
- What is causing Ph to be so high day after day? I've been putting MA in every day. Could it be from plaster being only 2 years old? It hasn't rained, there is no dirt in the pool, no new water added after the initial drain and fill. I also turned off the water features to reduce the aeration.
- I see that TA could be brought down to around 60. It seems like the TA isn't moving too much after I put in MA. Not sure if that is because the MA is old (bought last season) or if something is causing it to increase. Should I be focused more on TA now rather than Ph?
- I understand that chlorine is going to be reduced by the sun. The CYA is now low but 5 ppm in one day seems like a lot. With the TFP method, do I need to add liquid chlorine every day?
- I still travel all the time so adding liquid chlorine every day is not going to work. Is installing a SWG the only way to go, or dare I say use pucks and drain pool when CYA gets too high?
- I'm about to go on a ten day trip. I'm going to put a puck or two in the chlorinator to maintain the chlorine while I'm gone. That should bring the CYA up to around 54. Is there any kind of slow release chlorine that won't increase the CYA?
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