Newbie in TX

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N

neirbot

0
Mar 23, 2018
22
Flower Mound, TX
First time pool owner here. We moved into our house about 6 weeks ago and the pool guy's last day was this Monday. I received my TF-100 kit today and got some readings that I could use some guidance on:

FC 1.5 (confirmed by both chlorine tests that came with the kit)
CC 0
CH 825
TA 100
CYA 100
PH 7.6

It's a 24.5K gallon pool with a spa waterfall, and currently on trichlor pucks on maximum output (2 pucks remaining in the hopper). The filter pump runs about 14 hours per day and the Polaris 280 (aka "Dizzy") runs about 4 hours per day. The water isn't cloudy, but not sparkling either, and I don't have any visible algae -- however I'm afraid it's going to bloom once the warm weather hits and I'm not on top of it.

For what it's worth, we've had a decent amount of rain over the past two days.

Thanks in advance for any assistance. I've been lurking on this site and have learned a lot already.
 
Run the diluted cya test as described in pool school, your cya is too high and will need to be taken care off, first.

Pull the pucks out they are creating your cya problems and go with bleach from now on outlined in pool school
 
n,

Welcome to TFP.. a great place to find the answers to all your new pool questions, whether your Mound has Flowers or not... :shark:

Your immediate concern is your CYA number... I suspect it is a lot more than 100 and that is why cfherrman has asked you to do a diluted CYA test..

The only answer to your high CYA (and your high CH level) is to drain some, or all, of your pool water. You will know how much water to drain once you know your actual CYA numbers..

Now is the time to do it before the summer gets here.. Here in Bedford, if you tell the city that you want to fill your pool, before you do it.. they will waive the sewer fees.. You should call your city and see what their policy is. I can fill my 17K pool for about $50 bucks..

The reason you have to drain can be seen by look at this chart... see this link..[FC/CYA][/FC/CYA] Notice how high you would have to try to maintain your FC level with a CYA of 100.... :shock:

The key to 90% of the TFP pool care process is just keeping your CYA and FC in relationship with one another... Do that and you will never get algae...

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Thanks Jim, this is all very helpful. I just ran the diluted CYA test and it's at 140. My biggest concern about draining the pool is potential damage. It's a new gunite/pebbletec pool if that makes any difference. We're on septic, so no sewer fees. Do I drain down the driveway? And how much?
 
Simple numbers ... if you exchange 50% of your water, it should reduce the CYA by about 50% (to 70). That would be good for our summer weather and is manageable. But if you're concerned about the water exchange rate (speed) and exposing the new plaster for too long as you drain, do what you can in smaller stages. While exchanging water in one lump is usually more efficient, sometimes it's just not feasible for some owners. So use your best judgement. But that should give you an idea. Definitely make the CYA lowering your first priority though. Good job with the TF-100! :goodjob:

PS ~ Don't forget to update your signature with all of your pool and equipment info, to include the TF-100. :)
 
Aim for 40-50 cya, 30-60 will be fine. You can do the tarp method where you suck out the bottom while adding water to the top with a huge tarp keeping the waters separate. Should be fine and still keep the sides wet or wet enough, you really don't have any other options, you will have problems sooner rather than later with 140 cya.
 
I drained and filled the pool this weekend, and here are my before and after readings.

Before / After
FC 1.5 / 13.5 (I added bleach this morning without knowing what the CYA levels would be)
CC 0.0 / 0.5
CH 825 / 400
TA 100 / 100
CYA 140 / 50
PH 7.6 / 8.2

Still a lot to learn, but it's nice having some clue about what's going on in the pool.
 
Much better! So going back to post #1, you said the water was basically okay, but not crystal. How is it now? All of your numbers look quite good. Of course you can't trust the elevated pH because your FC is currently over 10 which skews the pH. If want to know the true pH, you'll have to wait until the FC drops below 10. Now what you can do is perform an overnight test this evening (test again in the AM) to see if you have significant FC loss overnight. If not, you should be good to let the FC fall to your normal range based on that new CYA. If you fail the OCLT, then you know you need to increase the FC to 20 and continue a SLAM.
Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)
 

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I'm feeling much more in control of the pool.
Click to expand...
As it should be. :goodjob: Shortly, when you see how clean & clear your water is consistently, you'll look back and wonder how you ever placed your foot in any public pool. Let us know if you have any questions.
 
Texas Splash said:
As it should be. :goodjob: Shortly, when you see how clean & clear your water is consistently, you'll look back and wonder how you ever placed your foot in any public pool. Let us know if you have any questions.
Click to expand...
It does make me wonder about all of the pools in the neighborhood. I never gave it a second thought and I'm sure most don't.

By the way, turning on the lights really emphasize the clarity. I really didn't want a pool when we bought the house (because of all the horror stories I hear), but this just might change my mind.

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Tested again today.

FC went from 13.5 to 11.5
CC still at 0.5 (barely, how pink is pink?? it was more of a very very light tint of pink, almost clear)
PH went from 8.2 to 7.8
CYA at 50 (between 40 and 50) - just wanted to test again to confirm yesterday's reading

I stopped at Leslie's today because it's on my way home and I asked about liquid chlorine... they have it for $17.99 for 4 gal of 12.5%. Anyway, he asked why I wanted it. Told him why and then he suggested that using it will increase the salt in my pool..."so you'll ultimately need to drain your pool because of CYA or salt, pick one." Huh?
 
n,

Too much CYA is a relatively quick death, too much salt is a very, very slow death... :p

One Gallon of 12.5% bleach adds... about 8 ppm of salt to a pool the size of yours...

My saltwater pool has about 3600 ppm of salt and you can't taste it...

Thanks,

Jim R.

- - - Updated - - -

So you will need about 450 gallons of bleach to catch up... :D
 

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