I recently fired my pool service and started taking care of my own pool. The biggest reason I got rid of them was because they kept telling me everything was fine, and every time I tested the water, I had nearly zero chlorine and my skin felt super dry. I had used some test strips and Leslie's (forgive me) spin test, and they all say my CYA is well over 100, sometimes 150+.
I bough the TF-100 test kit and did the full spread of tests, and the two huge outliers are that my CYA is over 100 (test kit only goes up to 100) and my CH is over 1,625. This helps explain why I feel so gross when I get out...it's super hard water. My first thought was to drain and fill, but it's over 100 degrees daily and rarely below 80 at night, and I don't want to crack my plaster/pebble finish. The other downside is that I measured my tap water, and it was in the 500-600 range (I tested it 3 times and got 500, 550, and 600). My other thought was to do a Reverse Osmosis treatment. In talking to the guy that does the RO treatment, he said with my current levels, he could probably only get it to about a CYA of 30 and a CH of 500. The CYA level of 30 is probably perfect since the pool gets full sun all day long in North Texas. But the CH at 500 wouldn't be any better than just using tap water to refill it.
My question is this: Is there a safe way to do a full drain & fill with the temps being in the 80-105 range daily? Are the levels so bad that I need to address it immediately? Can it wait until it cools off and do the drain & fill in October? I can't refill from Nov-Feb, as they use the average water use for those months and that determines your sewer bill for the next year. I really don't like having the CYA that high, as having Chlorine levels high enough makes it an unpleasant experience. But at the end of the day, it's better than no pool when it's this hot outside.
I bough the TF-100 test kit and did the full spread of tests, and the two huge outliers are that my CYA is over 100 (test kit only goes up to 100) and my CH is over 1,625. This helps explain why I feel so gross when I get out...it's super hard water. My first thought was to drain and fill, but it's over 100 degrees daily and rarely below 80 at night, and I don't want to crack my plaster/pebble finish. The other downside is that I measured my tap water, and it was in the 500-600 range (I tested it 3 times and got 500, 550, and 600). My other thought was to do a Reverse Osmosis treatment. In talking to the guy that does the RO treatment, he said with my current levels, he could probably only get it to about a CYA of 30 and a CH of 500. The CYA level of 30 is probably perfect since the pool gets full sun all day long in North Texas. But the CH at 500 wouldn't be any better than just using tap water to refill it.
My question is this: Is there a safe way to do a full drain & fill with the temps being in the 80-105 range daily? Are the levels so bad that I need to address it immediately? Can it wait until it cools off and do the drain & fill in October? I can't refill from Nov-Feb, as they use the average water use for those months and that determines your sewer bill for the next year. I really don't like having the CYA that high, as having Chlorine levels high enough makes it an unpleasant experience. But at the end of the day, it's better than no pool when it's this hot outside.