Need to drain & refill, unsure about procedure & have some concerns

[JoyfulNoise]

Updates:

Pool is currently filling back up! Draining process was largely uneventful.

I took the opportunity to patch a few spots where the gunite was showing through plaster, and also in the process found a small spot that sounds hollow when tapped but from my reading on here it sounds like that isn't a big issue unless the de-laminated section breaks off or cracks further. It still seems sound so I decided to leave it for now.

I've previously been using a pool company to do chemicals, but after feeling confident testing/draining/patching I am thinking it makes sense to take over the chemical balancing. That being said, I've been doing some reading on the forums, but just want to confirm: in terms of balancing new fill water, it's primarily CYA (brought up to 30ppm) and liquid chlorine I need to add, right? (Assuming alkalinity is okay).

Any tips on calculating volume to determine chemical amounts? My pool is a bit oddly shaped.

Appreciate the support from everyone, you gave me a lot of confidence to proceed!

As the weather warms up here and we get more and more daylight hours, the intense UV is going to tear through your chlorine. 30ppm CYA might work for now but once the oven door opens up on June 1st (it’s always June 1st when the heat really kicks in), you’re going to need higher levels of CYA and FC to make it through a day. I would say at that point 50ppm CYA is the minimum and you may need to go to 60 if the FC doesn’t hold up. The intense UV and heat here is not friendly towards chlorine. Also, if your plan is to manually dose your pool with liquid chlorine, then you’re going to need to test and add chlorine daily … once you get to know your pools consumption, you don’t have to test as frequently as daily but you will have to dose the pool everyday.

I see an SWG in your future