Hi gang,
I had my pool built about seven years ago. The chemicals were always easy to maintain and I got into a routine of adding the same amount of chemicals on a regular basis and slacked off on checking things. The water was crystal clear, no burning, chloromine smell, etc. At the end of last year, I was stumbling through my closet and found an old OTO test kit. I checked the chlorine level and it was a dark orange. Pretty far off from the pale yellow on the comparison chart. It was at the end of the season so I didn't care so I ignored it and chalked it up to an old test kit. This year, I decided to test again using my trusty old kit. Same dark orange. Bought a new cheap test kit and same results! Ph was always good where I'd add 1/8 of a gallon of acid once a week to keep it at 7.6 but the orange chlorine. I finally realized I probably had a problem. I searched and found this site. I read through and bought one of the recommended kits...the Taylor k-2006. After some learning, I figured that my non stop usage of 3" chlorine pucks was probably a bad thing regarding my CYA. Armed with my Taylor, I went through the tests and here is what I got.
FC - 32.5
CC - 0
pH - 7.2
TA - 125
CYA - >100 (if I had to guess, 200)
CH - 500
As you can see from my signature, I'm in sunny SoCal and get tons of sun on the pool. I add 7 pucks a week to my chlorinator and have a floater with three pucks. I also throw in one bag of kem-tek super shock quick (treats 20,000 gallons) per week. My water is crystal clear and I'm completely algae free. The only time I smell any type of chlorine odor is when I turn on the spa. It's quite strong for about 10 minutes. We use the pool all the time and have no irritations, no stingy or red eyes. This brings me to the question...should I toss out half the water and start over or if I stop the pucks and just use liquid chlorine, will I be able to bring the CYA down without dumping water?
Advice, suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
I had my pool built about seven years ago. The chemicals were always easy to maintain and I got into a routine of adding the same amount of chemicals on a regular basis and slacked off on checking things. The water was crystal clear, no burning, chloromine smell, etc. At the end of last year, I was stumbling through my closet and found an old OTO test kit. I checked the chlorine level and it was a dark orange. Pretty far off from the pale yellow on the comparison chart. It was at the end of the season so I didn't care so I ignored it and chalked it up to an old test kit. This year, I decided to test again using my trusty old kit. Same dark orange. Bought a new cheap test kit and same results! Ph was always good where I'd add 1/8 of a gallon of acid once a week to keep it at 7.6 but the orange chlorine. I finally realized I probably had a problem. I searched and found this site. I read through and bought one of the recommended kits...the Taylor k-2006. After some learning, I figured that my non stop usage of 3" chlorine pucks was probably a bad thing regarding my CYA. Armed with my Taylor, I went through the tests and here is what I got.
FC - 32.5
CC - 0
pH - 7.2
TA - 125
CYA - >100 (if I had to guess, 200)
CH - 500
As you can see from my signature, I'm in sunny SoCal and get tons of sun on the pool. I add 7 pucks a week to my chlorinator and have a floater with three pucks. I also throw in one bag of kem-tek super shock quick (treats 20,000 gallons) per week. My water is crystal clear and I'm completely algae free. The only time I smell any type of chlorine odor is when I turn on the spa. It's quite strong for about 10 minutes. We use the pool all the time and have no irritations, no stingy or red eyes. This brings me to the question...should I toss out half the water and start over or if I stop the pucks and just use liquid chlorine, will I be able to bring the CYA down without dumping water?
Advice, suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!