Just want to cry ?
- Thread starter Funinsun1
- Start date
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,581
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I'd think that would mean it didn't react at all, but doing the test on pure tap water would probably show it if it's creating a false positive!
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,581
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
So...your CYA is 400 ppm. You’re going to have to replace 90% of your pool water to bring it down to manageable levels. 
- May 3, 2014
- 62,750
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Do what you are doing. It is your pool. You decide if it is sanitary enough to swim in. Then when it goes south, you drain it and start over.
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,581
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
If it’s clear, it’s clear. Just only use liquid chlorine and no more trichlor / dichlor shock or pucks to add any more CYA. It will slowly drop as water is splashed out or as water is backwashed, and rain refills it. The drop will be slow, but if you get an algae bloom because your chlorine isn’t working, you can retest the CYA and find out what you have to drain at that point to get it manageable.
Thank you so much for all the great advise. Is it ok to run a pool heater with the CYA being so high.
( I'd gladly drain the pool and start over .. but here in Algonquin, its 3X the amount after 20000 gallons, and Ive already drained it twice.) Just not liking the idea of new fresh pool water costing over 2k?
Thanks again for the help. I truly appreciate it.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.?
( I'd gladly drain the pool and start over .. but here in Algonquin, its 3X the amount after 20000 gallons, and Ive already drained it twice.) Just not liking the idea of new fresh pool water costing over 2k?
Thanks again for the help. I truly appreciate it.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.?
- May 3, 2014
- 62,750
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
If you keep adding chlorine and stay on top of it you can manage it for a short time. I got my water clear and removed the white water mold by cleaning like you have. That lasted until time and $ allowed me to change out the water. I drained our pool three times down to 12" inches in the shallow end to get my CYA under control. It was well over 200. How high I'm not sure. At the time I thought one drain would be enough. It took three exchanges to get me down to the 50 - 60 range. The next year I started with a more manageable range.
If you can hang in there without an algae bloom the winter will degrade your CYA and next year will be easier. It's going to take a lot of TLC on your part for the rest of the season.
If you can hang in there without an algae bloom the winter will degrade your CYA and next year will be easier. It's going to take a lot of TLC on your part for the rest of the season.
Thanks Iceshadow. I"m just so befuddled on this pool. Today there was zero chlorine... (4 gallons of pool chlorine last night) i may try 60 ounces of calcium hypochlorite to break through this (30 bags)
Please don't mix chemicals. Cal-hypo adds calcium which you probably don't need in a vinyl pool. Just stick with liquid shock (bleach). What are you trying to break through?
4 gal of pool chlorine into an 18k pool is fc=22. All consumed in one night. Yet the water is sparkly and crystal clear? Correct? If so something doesn't quite make sense. How did you test your fc? How much powder did you use? Do you have a current (ie today) picture of the water with something at the bottom for a visual reference?
Don't randomly add stuff to your pool. Let the experts here guide or you'll only make things worse. Have you read the pool school articles yet?
Don't randomly add stuff to your pool. Let the experts here guide or you'll only make things worse. Have you read the pool school articles yet?
Just trying to keep chlorine in the water overnight.... to no avail..?
How often and how much chlorine are you adding?
I saw in a previous post that you said you are using liquid chlorine right now which is exactly what you want to be using. I'm going to try and summarize what has happened so far, so please correct me if i get something wrong:
Your signature says your pool is 27,000 gallons, so that would be about 11 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine (or 17 gallons of 6%) to reach 39FC. You would then need to test every couple hours if you can, or at least 2-3 times a day and return your FC to 39. You will go through quite a bit of testing reagents and chlorine doing it this way, which is why TFP recommends reducing your CYA before trying to SLAM. Once you are able to hold chlorine in the water, this level would be safe to swim in (rule of thumb is FC has to be above minimum and below SLAM for your CYA plus you need to be able to see the bottom of the deep end for it to be safe to swim).
Also, once you get to the next water billing cycle and are ready to replace more water, someone on here has a technique for water exchange where you use a sump pump to drain water from the deep end and simultaneously add water the shallow end with a hose (or vice versa depending on water density and temperatures). You would then calculate based on flow rate and what % of your pool you are targeting to exchange how many hours to let that setup run to replace the desired amount of water. This would use less water overall than several of partial drain/refill cycles. I can find the full instructions for you if you are interested.
I saw in a previous post that you said you are using liquid chlorine right now which is exactly what you want to be using. I'm going to try and summarize what has happened so far, so please correct me if i get something wrong:
- You had white water mold (or something similar)
- You have drained and replaced a decent amount of water
- Your CYA is still off the charts high but you want to try and avoid replacing more water right now so it doesn't hit all on the same water bill.
- You currently don't see the mold, but you still have a very high chlorine demand indicating it is probably still in your water
- The consensus from TFP is that you need to SLAM, but you can't really do that until you bring your CYA down.
Your signature says your pool is 27,000 gallons, so that would be about 11 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine (or 17 gallons of 6%) to reach 39FC. You would then need to test every couple hours if you can, or at least 2-3 times a day and return your FC to 39. You will go through quite a bit of testing reagents and chlorine doing it this way, which is why TFP recommends reducing your CYA before trying to SLAM. Once you are able to hold chlorine in the water, this level would be safe to swim in (rule of thumb is FC has to be above minimum and below SLAM for your CYA plus you need to be able to see the bottom of the deep end for it to be safe to swim).
Also, once you get to the next water billing cycle and are ready to replace more water, someone on here has a technique for water exchange where you use a sump pump to drain water from the deep end and simultaneously add water the shallow end with a hose (or vice versa depending on water density and temperatures). You would then calculate based on flow rate and what % of your pool you are targeting to exchange how many hours to let that setup run to replace the desired amount of water. This would use less water overall than several of partial drain/refill cycles. I can find the full instructions for you if you are interested.