I can’t afford my pool..or can I?

[Yinn]

Ok waiting for the test kit. I took readings with the strips again and either it’s settling from the circulation or the strips are just that off (or both)

FC = 0
Ph = 6.8
TA = 80
TH = 400
CYA = 100

Nothing added, just brushing, circulating and vacuuming. I also turned off my solar recirc so the returns are running now.




I am a little worried about doing an 80% drain. The water table by me is high, and I’m on well. I’d have to get someone to pump out and pump in.

Is it something I can manage and hope evaporation/fills/rain will take care of some of it? I know I’ll be fighting FC the entire time, but I’m not sure if that would be more expensive than pumping thirty thousand gallons of water.

 

[ajw22]

Is it something I can manage and hope evaporation/fills/rain will take care of some of it? I know I’ll be fighting FC the entire time, but I’m not sure if that would be more expensive than pumping thirty thousand gallons of water.

The test strips are unreliable. Let’s see what your test kit says once you get it.

If you can gather rain runoff off your roof in large barells it may help a bit. But nothing short of a large drain will probably work.

Ask around your area for what trucking water in would cost. Do you have fire hydrants around you? Ask your local fire department what they could do?

 

[cfherrman]

Does your water have metals in it?

Just toss the strips, they are really that bad.

Pour in 1/2 gallon of 6% bleach a day to keep FC up untill kit arrives.

Do the diluted cya test first when you get the kit.

Do you have a water softener?

You could possibly ride out your water instead of a exchange. Possibly

 

[Yinn]

Does your water have metals in it?

Just toss the strips, they are really that bad.

Pour in 1/2 gallon of 6% bleach a day to keep FC up untill kit arrives.

Do the diluted cya test first when you get the kit.

Do you have a water softener?

You could possibly ride out your water instead of a exchange. Possibly

My natural water has iron in it. I have a house filter and softener system. Just dumped some 10% LC in.

The test strips are unreliable. Let’s see what your test kit says once you get it.

If you can gather rain runoff off your roof in large barells it may help a bit. But nothing short of a large drain will probably work.

Ask around your area for what trucking water in would cost. Do you have fire hydrants around you? Ask your local fire department what they could do?

No fire hydrants, and the local FD doesn’t fill around me. When the pool was built, we had to truck it in. I think it cost about $3,000 to fill the pool, and that was the cheapest of the dozen people I reached out to.

 

[cfherrman]

Does your house filter remove some iron (can't remember if that was you or someone else)

Is your softener meter based, what it's size? Do you know the gallons per Regen capacity?

 

[ajw22]

Ok, you were there when the pool was built. How long ago was that?

Let's see what your CYA test says and we will help you figure out where to go next.

As has been suggested, dump some liquid chlorine in your pool daily until you get your test kit.

 

[Yinn]

Does your house filter remove some iron (can't remember if that was you or someone else)

Is your softener meter based, what it's size? Do you know the gallons per Regen capacity?

Some yes, but not all. It leaves enough for us to use a RO for drinking. I’m not sure if it’s meter based or Regen capacity, but I do know that when we had the water heater replaced (60 gallon) it took about 1-2 weeks before the water felt soft again.

Ok, you were there when the pool was built. How long ago was that?

Let's see what your CYA test says and we will help you figure out where to go next.

As has been suggested, dump some liquid chlorine in your pool daily until you get your test kit.

It was two years ago, but I t was opened for the first time and used last year.

 

[cfherrman]

Find a make and model of your softener if you can.

Depending on the cya test with your expensive trucked in water I think we can either use your softener or replace it and use iron removal hacks to maintain your water and slowly reduce your cya and ch in your pool

Edit use a test strips on your tap water

 

[Bosley]

not meaning to hijack the thread....but would like to hear more about the iron removal hacks please

 

[mknauss]

not meaning to hijack the thread....but would like to hear more about the iron removal hacks please

Use the Search function above. Lots of threads will come up.

 

[Yinn]

Find a make and model of your softener if you can.

Depending on the cya test with your expensive trucked in water I think we can either use your softener or replace it and use iron removal hacks to maintain your water and slowly reduce your cya and ch in your pool

Edit use a test strips on your tap water

Test strip on house water.

FC=0
PH=7
TA=180
Hardness=800
CYA=30-50

Here’s the funny part. 2nd strip

FC=0
PH=6.8
TA=180
Hardness = 100, huge difference
CYA = 30-50

Water softener reads .5GPM/1.5lb not sure if that helps.

 

[cfherrman]

There is no cya in your house water, test strips ftw!

I'm guessing you have a time based Regen water softener. Regardless what you do with the pool upgrade that baby!

When you get your kit test

Pool

FC
Cc
pH
Ta
Ch
Cya. If this test 90-100 then do diluted test

Tap from kitchen sink, let it run a minute or so first

Ch

Fill water, like the garden hose you use to top up pool, let it run a good 5 minutes first

pH
Ta
Ch

 

[Yinn]

There is no cya in your house water, test strips ftw!

I'm guessing you have a time based Regen water softener. Regardless what you do with the pool upgrade that baby!

When you get your kit test

Pool

FC
Cc
pH
Ta
Ch
Cya. If this test 90-100 then do diluted test

Tap from kitchen sink, let it run a minute or so first

Ch

Fill water, like the garden hose you use to top up pool, let it run a good 5 minutes first

pH
Ta
Ch

I feel like a massive dunce. To go from a test strip to a kit is a big jump. And some of these are a drop at a time and it’s a lot of drops!

Pool:
pH= 8-8.2
FC=0
TC=0
TA= 110
Ch= 380
CYA= N/A - I can’t get a reading out of this.

Kitchen Tap:
Ch=0

Hose:
Ch=0
pH=7.2-7.4
ta= 260

 

[cfherrman]

Your water softener still works!

Keep your pH in the 7's and it will eventually knock down your ta as well. The high ta fill water will keep your ta high in your pool so stay at the pH lowering.

Ch is high but fine, don't use any Cal hypo. Your hose is plummed into your water softener (unless you have a auto fill?) So it will help to keep your ch unter control, but since we don't know a capacity it anything we can't know if it's a good idea to keep using it to top up the pool. Someone will run the csi numbers in pool math for you soon.

You will need some cya, add 30 ppm worth in a sock hanging at a return not touching anything. Re test in a few days.

Keep FC at 1-3 for a few days untill the cya shows up, then follow the FC/cya chart.

 

[Yinn]

Your water softener still works!

Keep your pH in the 7's and it will eventually knock down your ta as well. The high ta fill water will keep your ta high in your pool so stay at the pH lowering.

Ch is high but fine, don't use any Cal hypo. Your hose is plummed into your water softener (unless you have a auto fill?) So it will help to keep your ch unter control, but since we don't know a capacity it anything we can't know if it's a good idea to keep using it to top up the pool. Someone will run the csi numbers in pool math for you soon.

You will need some cya, add 30 ppm worth in a sock hanging at a return not touching anything. Re test in a few days.

Keep FC at 1-3 for a few days untill the cya shows up, then follow the FC/cya chart.

The hose is off the main plumbing. The softener is right after the pressure tank so it looks like the whole house goes through it. Is there a softener type you recommend instead of the type I have?

CSI is 0.65, already calculated it. The calculator called for two gallons of muriatic, but I only hadn’t one on hand so I added it. I have it about 30 minutes and then added two gallons of liquid chlorine as well. I’ll retest tomorrow morning to see the effect.

I also have a SWG, will that bring ta down when I add salt? I was told not to add salt until the pool is open and stable though, hopefully that’s correct.

 

[ajw22]

What is your water temperature? It is probably under 50 degrees. Your SWG will not work until water temp is up into the 60's. So don't add salt until then.

Did you take your CYA water inside and let it warm up to room temperature before you added reagent? CYA test does not work well on cold water.

I am a little bit wary of your CYA test since your strips showed high CYA and now you are finding none.

Please please please ... put the basic information about your pool in your signature. #gallons, type of surface, equipment, method of chlorination, test kit, etc. See What we need to know to answer your questions It will make it much easier for people to help you.

 

[cfherrman]

A big (64,000 grain) meter based softener is awesome. Mine (listed in my sig) does 3,000 gallons before a Regen for my ch 250 water. I've dropped my ch from 300 to 175 in about 2 years. I check the meter when I top up the pool so it doesn't run out. When I fill in the spring I use about 2000 gallons per weekend and just let the softener Regen whenever during the week, then keep filling next weekend. I filled 5000 gallons of 0 ch water this spring to open. Uses maybe a bag of salt month, actually been having a problem of salt bridging in it from lower use during the winter. I cannot stress enough how handy these things are for pools and houses.

You can use your softener like you have but when you run the capacity out you will get hard water untill the next Regen. Example if you only have 1000 gallons capacity and fill 1500, 500 will be hard and the rest of the water is hard untill a Regen, if the Regen is setup every other day that could be a full day of hard water in your house. Those types of softener nickel and dime you with salt and water use, not a huge deal but it is there. You can run the ch test after a top up on your hose to see if it's still soft.

Check the csi with a bit lower ta, if you can get it close to 0 or -.1 with lower ta, do the pH lower and areate method to drop ta, with your high fill ta you will have to do this regularly.

Be careful with clorine untill you can register cya on a test. If you got the 2006 and not the 2006c I would get a cya refill of 8oz soon as the 2006 has only 6 tests of cya irc.

Only acid brings down the ta.

You can fire up the swg whenever, it's mostly recommend to use it after pool is balenced so your not hopelessly running it, all swg cells have a fixed life so it's more economical to run it on a balenced pool.

 

[Yinn]

What is your water temperature? It is probably under 50 degrees. Your SWG will not work until water temp is up into the 60's. So don't add salt until then.

I'm registering 55 water temp right now.

Did you take your CYA water inside and let it warm up to room temperature before you added reagent? CYA test does not work well on cold water.

I am a little bit wary of your CYA test since your strips showed high CYA and now you are finding none.

I took it inside, but I didn't purposely let it warm up. It sat on the counter until I got to the test. I am wary as well, I did the test 3 times. Twice using full, and once diluted. I'm using a LaMotte 7022, and I have to say I really dislike the CYA test. Everything else is a color/mix. This one I dissolve a tablet, then move a tube within a tube until I no longer see a dot. The problem is I constantly see a dot so I can't really interpret that.

Please please please ... put the basic information about your pool in your signature. #gallons, type of surface, equipment, method of chlorination, test kit, etc. See What we need to know to answer your questions It will make it much easier for people to help you.

I'm still trying to figure out what I do have exactly, I'll fill it in as much as possible. So far I've gathered..

~36,000 gallons, IG plaster, Jandy SWG, LaMotte 7022, well water (although, it filled this year completely via rain)

Things I'm not 100% certain of yet..
- DE Filter?
- Jandy 2hp pump?

A big (64,000 grain) meter based softener is awesome. Mine (listed in my sig) does 3,000 gallons before a Regen for my ch 250 water. I've dropped my ch from 300 to 175 in about 2 years. I check the meter when I top up the pool so it doesn't run out. When I fill in the spring I use about 2000 gallons per weekend and just let the softener Regen whenever during the week, then keep filling next weekend. I filled 5000 gallons of 0 ch water this spring to open. Uses maybe a bag of salt month, actually been having a problem of salt bridging in it from lower use during the winter. I cannot stress enough how handy these things are for pools and houses.

You can use your softener like you have but when you run the capacity out you will get hard water untill the next Regen. Example if you only have 1000 gallons capacity and fill 1500, 500 will be hard and the rest of the water is hard untill a Regen, if the Regen is setup every other day that could be a full day of hard water in your house. Those types of softener nickel and dime you with salt and water use, not a huge deal but it is there. You can run the ch test after a top up on your hose to see if it's still soft.

Check the csi with a bit lower ta, if you can get it close to 0 or -.1 with lower ta, do the pH lower and areate method to drop ta, with your high fill ta you will have to do this regularly.

Be careful with clorine untill you can register cya on a test. If you got the 2006 and not the 2006c I would get a cya refill of 8oz soon as the 2006 has only 6 tests of cya irc.

Only acid brings down the ta.

You can fire up the swg whenever, it's mostly recommend to use it after pool is balenced so your not hopelessly running it, all swg cells have a fixed life so it's more economical to run it on a balenced pool.

Thank you for all the help so far.

 

[ajw22]

I can't help you with the Lamotte CYA test and can't comment on how well it works.

This is the way the Taylor CYA test works

Put what you know in your signature. Post a pic of your filter and pump with any labels and we will help you figure it out.

You can buy the Taylor type CYA test here -- CYA (Cyanuric Acid) Test
And you can also buy CYA 50 standard solution -- R-7065 CYA Standard 50 ppm (2 ounces) Many folks have found it helpful to see how their CYA test work with the standard solution. You see the way the dot should look at CYA 50.

 

[mknauss]

I placed your pool info in your signature. Please update it as you get better information - signature