Pool consuming massive amounts of FC and CYA

[PaulR]

The new series is doing pretty well overall, I particularly liked David Tennant and one of my daughters is now a Billie Piper fan. If I can locate my old tapes, I'll have to introduce the kids to the older Doctors, though!
--paulr

 

[solarboy]

My first post here so I am hugely underqualified but...... are you sure you haven't got a water leak hidden by an automatic fill valve?

 

[Rasalon]

My first post here so I am hugely underqualified but...... are you sure you haven't got a water leak hidden by an automatic fill valve?

Thanks for the assistance. I don't have an automatic fill valve, and also have a solid electric cover, so no water evaporates. The only time I have to add water manually from a hose is when I backwash the filter.

I think Chem Geek's diagnosis makes the most sense, as I added a lot of stabilizer, which all disappeared, which I then had to follow up with a lot of chlorine.

Ever since shocking and getting the chlorine up to 32ppm last week, FC has been holding and slowly decreasing. My SWG has been off for a week and here are my current stats:

FC: 14
TC: 14
TA: 110 (still working on getting this down, adding 4 cups of acid to get pH down, then aerating. This is a LONG process, taking me about 2 days for every drop of 10 in TA)
CYA: 70
CH: 300


I think I am now on the right track, but also have some questions for anyone still reading:

- Any thoughts on the automatic chlorine level self adjusting SWG from Zodiac called the TRi-Pro? It supposedly measures the chlorine level in the water and adjusts its output based on that.
- Anyone have any thoughts on the shelf life of sealed bottles of bleach, sealed bottles of muriatic acid, and sealed boxes of Borax? Don't think I will get around to doing the borates this summer.

Thanks again for all the help and ideas.

 

[JasonLion]

Acid and borax will last years and years. Bleach breaks down over time. 6% bleach will last many months without problems as long as it is not too hot.

The TRi-Pro uses an ORP sensor, essentially the same as the AutoPilot Total Control system or the Hayward Sense and Dispense. ORP control can work well sometimes but many people have problems with it. For an outdoor residential pool ORP control is not really worth it, since simple percentage based control works better. ORP can be more useful indoors or in commercial pools, but it does have enough quirks that you shouldn't get involved with it unless you have time time to spend getting it setup correctly and learning about the ways it can misbehave.