New pool owner, wacky things going on.

[rotinom]

Hey all.

Bought our house about 6-8 weeks ago, and still in the process of getting the pool dialed in. We inherited the pool company from the previous owners, and I'm thinking I should fire them. Here is the situation I've got:

15,000 gallon saltwater pool
Pool pilot digital Nano
Location: Central Texas

Pool cleaners have been shocking it weekly, due to low chlorine. There is a bucket of tabs that came w/ the house, that indicate they've been having problems generating chlorine for a while. When I bought the house, the Pool Pilot was shouting about low amps, and I replaced the cable. Since then, it hasn't been throwing any errors.

Chemistry at last check, taken about 3pm

PH 7.8
TA: 14ppm
1.6PPM FC
0.4 CC <-- This seems weird, I may have mis-measured due to playing wife/kids
CYA - Off the charts on the Taylor 2006. If I had to guess, it's 150+

My guess, is that I'm fighting a weak algae bloom constantly, which is consuming all of the chlorine. The "shock" treatments have been ineffective due to the CYA being so high, and I need to SLAM the pool to stabilize things.

My plan of action:
1.) Drain/autofill the pool to get the CYA down into the 70s
2.) Get the PH in the 7.4 range
3.) SLAM the pool
4.) Fire the pool guys

Thoughts?

 

[justinc]

Total alkalinity 14? Must be a typo. If your CYA is over 150 you need to drain some water and replace. No way around it. Dilute the sample by 1/2 and test again, then double the result. The problem you have is your CYA is way too high and not leaving any chlorine free in the pool to do its job and kill algae.

Your plan is perfect. Especially step 4.