I have read the old threads about how it doesn't work and how draining the pool is cheaper, but I can't stop wondering if I should try it. I've called multiple pool water companies and all of the quotes are comparable- it will cost me $150/2,000 gallons of water, so if I drain half the pool and refill then I am looking $750 to get my 20k gal pool from CYA 200 to 100, and another $750 to get it from 100 to 50. Not to mention I will then have an unwanted pond in my backyard from all the drained water.
We have beautiful, clear, sparkling water, and I am using liquid bleach and muriatic acid to keep things under control, but with the high CYA it is so hard trying to stay on top of it. (I wish I had found this site before using trichlor all summer(. I feel like I shouldn't spend $1500 on new pool water without at least trying bioactive, but the negative reviews scare me. It seems like those are mostly from people who used multiple applications because the first didn't work, so I am thinking I might be ok with just one application? At this point I don't care if it does nothing, I will know I tried. My biggest concern is that either we will develop an algae problem while the FC is low, or that we will end up with a high chlorine demand from the bioactive working too well and leading to high levels of ammonia. Should I just spend the money to drain the pool? I tried the method of draining warm pool water from the shallow end while filling the deep end with the cold ground water from the hose and after about 16 hours and hearing some unusual sounds from the pipes/well pump, we stopped and the CYA was exactly the same so that didn't work. Should I keep doing what I'm doing for now and see if the CYA drops on it's own during the winter and if not, deal with the problem in the spring? We ultimately want to get a SWG and the pool store said we can install it with the CYA where it is, but I have also read that we should have everything balanced first and I would feel better taking care of the high CYA first. Here were my levels from yesterday
FC 10 (I know I need to get it back up to 15, I am going crazy buying bleach at the grocery store every day)
CC 0
pH 7.6
TA 100
CH 230 (planning to get more calcium this week to get up to 300)
CYA 180-200 (with dilution, hard to tell exactly what it is with the dot test)
We have beautiful, clear, sparkling water, and I am using liquid bleach and muriatic acid to keep things under control, but with the high CYA it is so hard trying to stay on top of it. (I wish I had found this site before using trichlor all summer(. I feel like I shouldn't spend $1500 on new pool water without at least trying bioactive, but the negative reviews scare me. It seems like those are mostly from people who used multiple applications because the first didn't work, so I am thinking I might be ok with just one application? At this point I don't care if it does nothing, I will know I tried. My biggest concern is that either we will develop an algae problem while the FC is low, or that we will end up with a high chlorine demand from the bioactive working too well and leading to high levels of ammonia. Should I just spend the money to drain the pool? I tried the method of draining warm pool water from the shallow end while filling the deep end with the cold ground water from the hose and after about 16 hours and hearing some unusual sounds from the pipes/well pump, we stopped and the CYA was exactly the same so that didn't work. Should I keep doing what I'm doing for now and see if the CYA drops on it's own during the winter and if not, deal with the problem in the spring? We ultimately want to get a SWG and the pool store said we can install it with the CYA where it is, but I have also read that we should have everything balanced first and I would feel better taking care of the high CYA first. Here were my levels from yesterday
FC 10 (I know I need to get it back up to 15, I am going crazy buying bleach at the grocery store every day)
CC 0
pH 7.6
TA 100
CH 230 (planning to get more calcium this week to get up to 300)
CYA 180-200 (with dilution, hard to tell exactly what it is with the dot test)