NEWBIE to the pool testing ... Help

Jump to latest Follow Reply
K

KeepingItCleanDJ

0
Jul 20, 2007
10
Okay, I posted my story earlier about having a mis-diagnosed case of mustard algae. All the experts at the pool store had me put so much stuff in the pool that when I finally got clear water (by changing sand in filter), I had a brown stained pool bottom and slanted sides ( but not the true sides of the pool). I took the advice in here and got Vitamin C and saw the miracle work. The stains are gone. And, yes I lowered Ph and chlorine.

Now I have purchased my FIRST tube water test kit (Aqua Chem 6 way)

Here are my numbers:
23,000 gal pool (according to pool peeps that put it in)
Chlorine...didn't even register (even on the test strips)
Ph 6.8 to 6.9
Alkalinity 230 ppm
Hardness 1150 ppm
CYA 120 ppm

SUGGESTIONS for recipe of BBB, etc begged for... :) javascript:emoticon(':)')
Smile
Thanks in advance
 
You have some issues. Your TA is on the high side and so is your CYA. Your Hardness is insane, to the point I wonder about the number. I'd expect you to have scaling issues with that water. You need to get chlorine in there to control algae for the time being. I'd put about 4 jugs of bleach in to give you somewhere 5ppm, then start thinking about what to do. If the numbers are accurate, you need to replace some water. I'd run the tests (except CYA and chlorine) on your fill water to see what that's going to do for you. Your alkalinity and pH can be dealt with by aerating the water, but with high CYA and very high CH, you are going to have to do some refilling.
 
If I raise my chlorine, won't the stains comeback? That's what other posts that I have read said.
As far as my Hardness and CYA readings, I have had my water tested by 2 Hardware stores that do the pool testing. The one I go to the most said my CYA is 90 and Hardness okay...another place said they got the highest cya they have ever seen (300)+.

And I have always heard.....NEVER DRAIN POOL UNLESS YOU ARE READY to REPLACE LINER.
 
You will not get staining with a cya of 90 or above with 5ppms of chlorine. Check out the "best guess chart". Too much cya makes the chlorine ineffective. If you have been using powdered shock - it adds calcium. Calcium is a metal and can also cause staining when there is too much of it in pool water. You don't say whether your pool is vinyl, fiberglass or guniite. My recommendation is to drain your pool, by lowering the water 1/3 at a time until your numbers are in line. It sounds to me like your pool store had you throwing in a bunch of chemicals. Even your Alkalinity is over the top :( If you have a fiberglass pool, you don't want to have your alkalinity above 100 - 80 is best. If you have a vinyl liner pool, your alk can be higher as long as you don't have high calcium. You don't need calcium in a vinyl liner pool. So the first thing I would do is drain down 1/3, add water back (you never want to drain your pool all at once). Repeat until you have your numbers in line. Your numbers depend on what kind of pool you have, but the basic numbers are:
Chlorine - Check out best guess chart
PH- 7.2-7.6
Alkalinity- 80-120 (vinyl liner can be higher)
Calcium- 200 - 400
CYA- 30 to 50 is recommended
 
KeepingItCleanDJ said:
If I raise my chlorine, won't the stains comeback? That's what other posts that I have read said.
As far as my Hardness and CYA readings, I have had my water tested by 2 Hardware stores that do the pool testing. The one I go to the most said my CYA is 90 and Hardness okay...another place said they got the highest cya they have ever seen (300)+.

And I have always heard.....NEVER DRAIN POOL UNLESS YOU ARE READY to REPLACE LINER.
Click to expand...


If you don't raise your chlorine your pool will be a swamp in a week. As mbar said, replace the water a little at a time until it gets where it needs to be.
 
You can add water at the same time that you are removing water, leaving the water level more or less constant, and get the same reduction in CYA levels that they are asking for. It will take a bit more fill water, but it actually takes less time for dilutions up to around 70%. Simply add water with a garden hose at the same time you are pumping water out by backwashing (or using a separate pump). One or the other will go more quickly, so you will need to pause one process or the other now and then to keep the water level from changing too much.

If you do want to do partial drains and refills instead you can lower the water level down 12 to 18 inches without problems almost all of the time (except for inground pools in areas with very high water tables).
 
If you add a metal sesquesterant, your stains surely won't come back, there is a thread on the most cost effective way to do that it is here: http://www.troublefreepool.com/viewtopic.php?t=1904

I have to add a maintenance dose about once a week, or I get green water and orange filters again. Twice I have waited too long to do this and got the green water, but I acted quickly enough to not get staining again, just adding the sesquesterant cleared the water right back up.
 
I did this quite easily a few weeks ago. I put the vacuum head on its side at the bottom of the pool and set it on waster. Had the hose set up to add water at the top of the first step to the pool. It took about 3 hours to drain and refill, cya went from 90 to 60.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply