New to Pools in New Caney TX

[red-beard]

It all depends on the area. I have drained mine completely 3 times in the past 4 years without issues.

2017 - The first year I tried to get the CYA out. I did not completely drain the pool, I think 20% left? Well, my CYA was still over 100 when I refilled!!!! I had gone 10 years using pool tablets. I expect my CYA was near 1000 ppm.



2019 - I found this at the bottom of the pool. Mrs. Beard said she would not swim in the pool unless I drained it...

So I did this:

Result: I still had a bunch of Trichlor tablets. So I decided I would "use them up" to get my CYA up. I did not calculate it out using Pool-math. In June, I was back up to 70 ppm from ZERO. So that ruined 2019 for TFP methods! Yes, I could and should have drained half the pool. Or just run high FC levels. Anyway, I went back to playing with the Devil's Pool Candy. I still had mustard algae. And in the spring of 2020, I had oars-men. You have to have algae or they can't feed!

In 2020 I got serious. I drained my pool and was exact on everything. I tested and corrected and did everything right!



The Trouble Free Pool

 

[sgibson2001]

@red-beard Thank you! Awesome post. I'm going to give a submersible a shot and do a half drain down soon after we dry up from this next storm.

 

[red-beard]

Why wait? Rainy weather is the perfect time to drain a pool. You're not going to be swimming anyway...

 

[sgibson2001]

Why wait? Rainy weather is the perfect time to drain a pool. You're not going to be swimming anyway...

Because I'm a nervous wreck about the pool popping or something happening to the plaster and wet ground puts more pressure on the pool. That said, there is a submersible pump in it as I type this. I'm going to take it to about half full and call it good. I really don't know what my CYA levels are, I know they are above 100 but it goes off the scale at that point. So half is about all I am willing to take out of the pool. Hopefully it's enough.

 

[red-beard]

No CYA IN tap water. Dilute the sample with 50% water then retest. If you are still off the scale, 1 part pool water, 3 parts tap water.

IF you are still off the scal, 1 part pool water 9 parts tap water.

 

[red-beard]

Also, the way I like to measure, since TFP goes by 10s, pour in to the 100 line, check. Then the 90 line, check, etc. You can always pour the sample back into the squirting bottle.

 

[sgibson2001]

Also, the way I like to measure, since TFP goes by 10s, pour in to the 100 line, check. Then the 90 line, check, etc. You can always pour the sample back into the squirting bottle.

Can't believe I didn't think of that.

 

[sgibson2001]

So I ended up refilling about 6090 gallons. So while visually it felt like I got below the halfway mark, it appears I was closer to only removing about a 1/3 of the pool volume. Retesting the CYA put it just under 100 in the 90-95ish range. Really wanted to get it below 60 but this is just going to have to do for now as I need a break messing with this. I may do another partial drain down in the month or two if I feel up to it but for now I need to be able to move into regular maintenance mode for a bit.

With a 90ish CYA level pool math said I needed minimum 7ppm chlorine. I really did not want to go that high for comfort reasons. I added enough last night that it should have gotten me up to about 5ppm. My Ph was solid at about 7.7 without me doing anything at all, so my tap water did good there I guess. But back to the chlorine, what's the lowest I should risk running it at and still be able to swim safely? I really don't want all my family and guest having itchy skin and burning eyes...

 

[red-beard]

You can swim all the way up to SLAM levels, 35ppm FC! Chloramines (Combined Chlorine) are what smells and make eyes burn, not FC (free Chlorine). The min level is just that. Don't go below that number. It should be at least 7 at the end of the day and THEN you add chlorine. You need to "unlearn" a lot of what the pool stores have programmed into you.

80-90ppm CYA isn't bad in Houston. You will not lose a lot of FC per day. Run it up to 12 FC and see how much you lose during the day. My pool is presently 10ppm FC and I swim at least an hour a day.

Eyes are also affected by pH. I add muriatic acid when it reaches 7.8-7.9 and drop it to 7.5-7.6. Since I do laps mostly with goggles on, I usually only make major adjustments when guests are coming over, or when Mrs. Beard makes a rare appearance in the pool.