New to me pool with a SWG... and now I am a chlorine reseller thanks to prior owners settings! FC 23 PPM!!!

[Freefall_Doug]

My first post in a long long time!

My wife and I just closed on our new home. The home came with an older above ground vinyl liner pool, 24 foot round, with an average depth of 3.5 feet, so around 12,000 gallons if my estimates are right.

The prior owners have it outfitted with a Hayward Goldline AquaTrol SWG, looks to be a DE filter (Hayward Perplex EC-45, and a Pentair Dynamo N2 two speed pump. The pool itself will need to be replaced eventually, the liner has a number of patches and is bleached out above the waterline, but it should get us a few more seasons in the current state.

I just started getting familiar with the pool and looked at all of the settings and the levels today. I am shocked, or maybe I should say the pool is shocking (itself).

The pump was left on low speed 24-7 because it currently doesn't have a pump timer timer. The SWG was left on manual at 50% and the timer wasn't being used, and a solar cover was on the pool.

Here are the levels...
FC 23 PPM!!! Uhhhhhh wow!
CC 0 PPM
CYA 25ish
PH 7.4
Salt 4800 PPM
Alkalinity - pending
Calcium - pending
Borates - not yet added

I am amazed at the FC level, I kept adding reagent and I couldn't believe it! I can only imagine that this is because of the pump and SWG running 24-7 for multiple weeks with the solar cover on, and no use of the pool to use up chlorine.

I turned off the SWG for now and took the solar cover off. I am going to keep testing it to see if I can get the levels to drop. In the meantime maybe I can sell my pool water to other TFP members you could practically shock a pool with my pool water.

Once I get closer to normal I am going to up the CYA and start getting everything else more in-line.

 

[Mdragger88]

Wow ! I suspect with removing the solar cover & the cya being so low it may fall fairly quickly (depending on sun) if you reduce the swg’s output percentage. At least u didn’t inherit a swamp

 

[Flying Tivo]

Yes i would add the CYA up to 70 immediately to buffer the loss rate.

 

[Newdude]

At least u didn’t inherit a swamp

+1. The previous owners did you a big favor. They could have left a week or more ago or were there but too busy packing. I’m selling very soon and will leave mine running as is. It’s much cooler this week and I may be making too much FC too. Too much is better than too little any day of the week. (Up to SLAM levels of course).

I have no clue what level of pool care the new owners will have. My SWG will buy them plenty of time to figure it out.

 

[Freefall_Doug]

+1. The previous owners did you a big favor. They could have left a week or more ago or were there but too busy packing. I’m selling very soon and will leave mine running as is. It’s much cooler this week and I may be making too much FC too. Too much is better than too little any day of the week. (Up to SLAM levels of course).

I have no clue what level of pool care the new owners will have. My SWG will buy them plenty of time to figure it out.

I agree 100%. I don't begrudge their system settings one bit!

I would much rather let the levels come down, then have to SLAM a green monster just a few weeks before it needs to be winterized!

I am off to the pool supply house today at lunch to get the CYA that I need to add and I will be monitoring it closely to try to have a safe landing right where it should be.

 

[Chasarms]

With CYA at those levels, you can easily lose enough chlorine to be "normal" in 48 hrs with full sun. Don't leave the generator off too long.

 

[Freefall_Doug]

I adjusted it to run for 30 minutes 4 times a day while the sun burns down the level.

I also have 3 free containers of dry CYA stabilizer thanks to the local pool store. Each pool they sell comes with a generic chlorine starter kit, and it sounds like some customers want to have alternative chemical setups, so they let those people come back to the store and swap the CYA for a chemical of their choosing. The returns aren't inventoried and they are free for the taking. That was a nice surprise!

 

[DAB942]

My guess would be they dumped a few gallons of LC and covered it before they left.

You are essentially in the middle of a SLAM. I would monitor how much FC loss you have and go from there.

 

[DAB942]

I adjusted it to run for 30 minutes 4 times a day while the sun burns down the level.

I also have 3 free containers of dry CYA stabilizer thanks to the local pool store. Each pool they sell comes with a generic chlorine starter kit, and it sounds like some customers want to have alternative chemical setups, so they let those people come back to the store and swap the CYA for a chemical of their choosing. The returns aren't inventoried and they are free for the taking. That was a nice surprise!

Dry stabilizer can take some time to show up in tests, so use poolmath to figure out how much to add and trust the calc as you might want to add more if it's not testing as high as you think it should, right away.

 

[Mdragger88]

maybe do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test before u add the stabilizer ? Just incase they were dealing w/a problem.

 

[Freefall_Doug]

Not a bad idea, I will throw some reagent at it! I don't expect to see any issue, especially when you consider for how long the levels were in the SLAM range, but it won't hurt to be sure.

 

[Yev]

My takeaway, I would be cautious in thinking you can get a few more seasons of the current liner. Once you start to get bleached above the water line, the end is in sight. And if this years pandemic taught us anything, wait time for a new liner when they are in high demand can be months.

 

[DAB942]

Does the liner have any winkles or folds in it -- to make sure there's no algae hiding?

 

[Freefall_Doug]

11 ppm FC as of last night. I added granular CYA stabilizer that should raise me up 30PPM, I am going to test it later today after work after it has had 24 hours to mix in before I do my final CYA dosing.

I think I am pretty close, and it should be a more gradual decreases to get to my final FC numbers now that the CYA in the pool has doubled, at least on paper.

The liner doesn't have any folds or wrinkles, it just is old an faded, and patched in a spot or two. I may just look at getting a whole new pool in a year.

 

[DAB942]

The CYA can take a few days to show up on tests. I waited a week after it was dissolved to log the CYA results. You assume it's in there even if your test shows otherwise. I'm basically a little ahead of you in the process. I had some equipment issues and started over, with SLAM. I'm monitoring the FC and making small adjustments to SWG output. I was at 13ppm, with CYA at 60, which is still low for SWG (still dissolving), which is still livable. Some keep their FC higher than on the chart without ill-effect. High is better than low.

 

[mguzzy]

Doug, you want to get your CYA up closer to 70 if you are chlorinating with the SWG. it will hold the Cl better. Have you been introduced to this char yet? FC/CYA Levels
It will also help if you live in a hot area. you opted out of telling where you live. So for example in the southwest they keep their CYA levels a little higher to compensate the more direct UV.

 

[Freefall_Doug]

Thank you Mguzzy. I agree, I am going to target a final CYA of 70. I just didn't want to over shoot so I only added an additional 30ppm last night.

I am in Western MA, so I am basically at the end of the season.

 

[Yev]

not sure how you are dissolving, but it can take me 24 to 48 hours to dissolve CYA (unless I am very agressive shaking up the stocking sleeve in front of the jet), and then more time to show up on the test.

 

[Freefall_Doug]

Tell me something I don't know.

I premixed it as best as I could in a 5 gallon bucket then I used the jet to agitate the slurry and get more of it dissolved.

I did have a little left that was distributed on the pool floor, so I spent some time brushing it around the pool. I figured it was killing two birds with one stone.

 

[Mdragger88]

2 words- sock method


CYA – Cyanuric Acid
Solid/granular cyanuric acid (CYA) should be placed in a sock and the sock put in the skimmer basket or suspended in front of a pool return. After adding CYA you should leave the pump running for 24 hours and not backwash/clean the filter for a week. Squeezing the sock periodically will help it to dissolve faster. Test and dose chemicals in your pool assuming the amount of CYA added is in the pool according to Poolmath. CYA can be tested the day after it is fully dissolved from the sock.