Newbie - 0 chlorine levels: free,total,combined, seeking advice

[jbohart]

Hi All,
First time owning a pool - bought house with above ground 30x15 oval with vinyl liner. Replaced the pump with 1HP doheny and replace plumbing with 2" pvc. Also bought a new cartridge filter. It's using chlorine pucks. My question is:

Purchased the Taylor K2006 testing kit, but not able to get my pool water sample to turn pink on step 2 - adding the powder with the little spoon. Gave up after 4 big scoops, since don’t want to waste the reagent and the free water testing at Lesilie’s and Van Dorhan both confirm all chlorine levels are really low 0.11/0.14/0.04.
I checked my PH 7.5 and CYA level is 100 or lower since couldn’t see the black dot before 100 ppm mark.
Seeking advice, what chlorine is the most economical to add, (home depot liquid) before retesting or is my CYA too high? Appreciate the help - thanks -Joe

 

[PoolStored]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Purchased the Taylor K2006 testing kit, but not able to get my pool water sample to turn pink on step 2 - adding the powder with the little spoon. Gave up after 4 big scoops, since don’t want to waste the reagent and the free water testing at Lesilie’s and Van Dorhan both confirm all chlorine levels are really low 0.11/0.14/0.04.

If one heaping scoop does not turn pink, your chlorine is 0.

CYA level is 100 or lower since couldn’t see the black dot before 100 ppm mark.

Do test #8 here and report back results:

CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test

Cyanuric acid (CYA) is the chemical name for the product commonly called “pool water stabilizer” … Read more…

www.troublefreepool.com

You will need to replace some water. The diluted test I gave you will tell us how much. Read "no drain water exchange" here:

Draining - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Seeking advice, what chlorine is the most economical to add, (home depot liquid) before retesting or is my CYA too high? Appreciate the help - thanks -Joe

Add a gallon of liquid chlorine to the pool as soon as you can.
Walmart (Pool essentials liquid chlorine) and Ocean State are likely the best places to find it in your area.

 

[jbohart]

Thanks PoolStored - appreciate the help !
Using 1:1 dilution method my CYA is 90. I filled pool water to 1/2 of 7ml and tap water to 1/1 of 7ml, then proceeded test, by adding reagent to 14ml, stirring for 30 seconds then find the number that the black dot disappears and multiply that number, 45 by 2 to get 90 CYA ppm. We did get some about an inch of rain past few days, but was expecting it to be higher. Suspect my accuracy isn't very good.

I'll add some liquid chlorine tomorrow as you recommend. Curious, if i should switch to using using liquid chlorine for my weekly shock rather than the pucks to prevent high CYA levels and avoid having to do the 'No drain water exchange" when CYA levels get too high

 

[PoolStored]

We don’t shock our pools. Weekly is insufficient. Use liquid chlorine DAILY. Keep your FC in range for your CYA. Link—>FC/CYA Levels

I would do this test tonight to rule out algae, even if you can’t see it. Link—>Overnight Chlorine Loss Test