Hello All,
I've had a pool company doing my pool chemistry for a while. I've finally decided to take the plunge and do it myself. Forgive me for my rollercoaster below, I'm new to this.
First some background..
My pool is in a lot of sun. It's about 20kGal and pebble surface. It has an attached spa with an overflow. There are two "fountains" in a shallow area in the pool. It's 6' deep at it's deepest and about 1' at it's shallowest. There are not many trees overhead, but I have two golden retrievers I just *can't keep out*. They LOVE to run in the dirt and then just superman into the pool (yeah, we're working on that..). I have 1 skimmer with a skimmer sock (for the hair). I almost never see leaves in the pool.
Visually, the pool looks pretty good and if I weren't trying so hard to do this right, I probably wouldn't even know to complain. So here's the deal (not sure how much of this is related)....
I went out of town last week and accidentally left the chlorinator at 0. Ooops!. FC was at 0, PH was at about 7.8-8. So yesterday, I used 2lbs of shock and fixed the chlorinator and added dry acid. Today the pool looked *almost* back to normal, still a tad green. However, the CYA looks way too high:
FC:4
CC:0
TA:110
PH:7.8
CYA:90
CH:1000 <== not sure I tested this right, but it's *really hard*
So CH is another issue, but my main concern is FC/CYA. I'm shocking with Clorox Xtra Blue Dichlor, which is probably my CYA issue. But the Trichlor tablets also adds CYA. I'm guessing my only option here is to drain like half the pool to get the CYA levels reasonable. But isn't it just going to be a problem again?
Do I need to use different tablets? Or maybe liquid bleach instead? What about the chlorinator? What about the shock? From what I'm reading I feel like liquid bleach is my only option here or I'll be constantly draining and refilling my pool?
So to add insult to injury.. before doing my homework tonight I added 3 lbs of that shock to the pool because it was still just a tad greenish. I had been looking at the CYA charts and it says my target FC is 10-12, but shock is (gasp!) 35.. What?! So I guess I'm trying to figure out here how to get back to sanity.. Here's what I'm thinking:
1. Drain/refill 50%
2. Need new chemistry. I think the Trichlor/Dichlor is causing a CYA issue.. Maybe Trichlor tabs for the chlorinator but liquid bleach for shock? will I still need to drain/refill periodically?! If so should I consider switching DE->sand?
3. Maybe do something about the hard water? I'm on a well and the water is just that hard.
4. I recognize that TA is a bit high and PH is too. I've added acid a few times to bring the PH down, but it keeps creeping back up. I wanted to get the FC under control before I dealt with that. I've been using dry acid (PH Down), but I think I'm going to switch to muriatic acid instead and I'll do the method where you reduce PH with acid and aerate over and over to reduce TA.
I've had a pool company doing my pool chemistry for a while. I've finally decided to take the plunge and do it myself. Forgive me for my rollercoaster below, I'm new to this.
First some background..
My pool is in a lot of sun. It's about 20kGal and pebble surface. It has an attached spa with an overflow. There are two "fountains" in a shallow area in the pool. It's 6' deep at it's deepest and about 1' at it's shallowest. There are not many trees overhead, but I have two golden retrievers I just *can't keep out*. They LOVE to run in the dirt and then just superman into the pool (yeah, we're working on that..). I have 1 skimmer with a skimmer sock (for the hair). I almost never see leaves in the pool.
Visually, the pool looks pretty good and if I weren't trying so hard to do this right, I probably wouldn't even know to complain. So here's the deal (not sure how much of this is related)....
I went out of town last week and accidentally left the chlorinator at 0. Ooops!. FC was at 0, PH was at about 7.8-8. So yesterday, I used 2lbs of shock and fixed the chlorinator and added dry acid. Today the pool looked *almost* back to normal, still a tad green. However, the CYA looks way too high:
FC:4
CC:0
TA:110
PH:7.8
CYA:90
CH:1000 <== not sure I tested this right, but it's *really hard*
So CH is another issue, but my main concern is FC/CYA. I'm shocking with Clorox Xtra Blue Dichlor, which is probably my CYA issue. But the Trichlor tablets also adds CYA. I'm guessing my only option here is to drain like half the pool to get the CYA levels reasonable. But isn't it just going to be a problem again?
Do I need to use different tablets? Or maybe liquid bleach instead? What about the chlorinator? What about the shock? From what I'm reading I feel like liquid bleach is my only option here or I'll be constantly draining and refilling my pool?
So to add insult to injury.. before doing my homework tonight I added 3 lbs of that shock to the pool because it was still just a tad greenish. I had been looking at the CYA charts and it says my target FC is 10-12, but shock is (gasp!) 35.. What?! So I guess I'm trying to figure out here how to get back to sanity.. Here's what I'm thinking:
1. Drain/refill 50%
2. Need new chemistry. I think the Trichlor/Dichlor is causing a CYA issue.. Maybe Trichlor tabs for the chlorinator but liquid bleach for shock? will I still need to drain/refill periodically?! If so should I consider switching DE->sand?
3. Maybe do something about the hard water? I'm on a well and the water is just that hard.
4. I recognize that TA is a bit high and PH is too. I've added acid a few times to bring the PH down, but it keeps creeping back up. I wanted to get the FC under control before I dealt with that. I've been using dry acid (PH Down), but I think I'm going to switch to muriatic acid instead and I'll do the method where you reduce PH with acid and aerate over and over to reduce TA.
