Trouble balancing...

[ian81]

Hello everyone, having a bit of a problem. I had another thread about cya not registering, with no reply but it seems my issue is a little bigger.

Long story short I started with a fresh fill, and couldn’t get CYA to register. Maybe the water was too cold, plus I didn’t know about the sock method, I tried mixing with a bucket and pouring the cloudy water (mixed, not the granuals) in the skimmer.

Sadly my first mistake, or second rather, was I let the FC drop to 0 a few days after filling. with no CYA In the pool, the LC got gobbled up. When I noticed the pool was cloudy, the pool store was closed so I ran to the supermarket and somehow bought and put 2 jugs of cloramax in, which I read on here is a polymer and a no-no. I then used the sock method.

Since then, my chlorine is being gobbled up extremely fast. I’m sitting at 17.0 FC and .5 CC per the DPD test at 8:30 pm. However at 5:30 I was at 21ppm.

Last nights OCLT showed 1.5 loss.

I’ve read a few threads talking about ammonia on here and I’m afraid this may have happened.

I swear I had a reading a few days ago of 20 or so CYA and I thought finally, it’s dissolving, but now I’m back to 0. Have not backwashed

My drop test for FC was red? And PH off the chart, when it was just 7.2 a couple days ago

Surely I’m past slam levels with no cya in the pool? Am I fighting ammonia at this point? Any help is appreciated.

Also, I broke a cardinal rule and brought some water to the pool store just to see if my regeants were bad, all they recommend was some “fresh n clear” and some acid to reduce the ph. I declined on both.

 

[mknauss]

In your other thread, Richard replied that with a fresh fill you do not have ammonia. That is still true.

How much CYA have you added? You must get to 30 ppm before it will register.

You do need to lower our pH. Use PoolMath. Now of 8.2 and target of 7.6. You need your current TA input into PoolMath to get a proper results.

Once you get your pH to register at 7.6, lower it to 7.2.

Once you confirm there is CYA in the pool (if you added enough to get to 30 ppm, it is there, if your pool volume is correct) you will SLAM Process

Digest that a bit and come back with questions.

Take care.

CORRECTION: At FC above 10 ppm pH test is invalid.

 

[ian81]

So at 3:45pm I was at 21 FC, 0 CC
5:03 same readings
At 8:20 I’m At 17 FC, .5 CC
And finally just now I’m back up to 19.5 FC and 1.0 CC after a vacuum. What is going on here? This is my 5th year using the tf-100 and I buy a refill kit every year, I’d like to think I know how to use it but maybe I’m mistaken. I’m pretty sure I’m losing my mind.

I’ve got about a days worth of Regents left and I reek like chlorine

 

[ian81]

In your other thread, Richard replied that with a fresh fill you do not have ammonia. That is still true.

How much CYA have you added? You must get to 30 ppm before it will register.

You do need to lower our pH. Use PoolMath. Now of 8.2 and target of 7.6. You need your current TA input into PoolMath to get a proper results.

Once you get your pH to register at 7.6, lower it to 7.2.

Once you confirm there is CYA in the pool (if you added enough to get to 30 ppm, it is there, if your pool volume is correct) you will SLAM Process

Digest that a bit and come back with questions.

Take care.

Marty thank you, that reply from Richard I didn’t see! That wasn’t my thread, I had just commented on it. Ammonia only happening over winter is a relief, I thought maybe I had ammonia because I had a slight cloudiness in the CYA test tube and then a day or so later it was clear again, then the Chlorine consumption happened.

My ph was also 7.2 a few days ago, I was under the assumption my ph was giving a false read because my CL is so high.

 

[mknauss]

You are right on the pH, good catch. I did not realize you were consistently having high FC as that is really tough to do if you really have no CYA. So if you tested pH at 7.2 recently ignore my comments on that.

What about the CYA?

 

[ian81]

You are right on the pH, good catch. I did not realize you were consistently having high FC as that is really tough to do if you really have no CYA. So if you tested pH at 7.2 recently ignore my comments on that.

What about the CYA?

The cya tube remains clear even at full. I added two socks (about 2lbs) of Leslie’s conditioner and at one point had slight cloudiness in the tube so I thought I was in the right direction but it’s back to clear.

I also thought I had an 18k gallon pool but pool calc puts me at about 25k so maybe I’m cutting myself short.

I stopped adding CYA cause I was afraid I’d feed the “ammonia”.

I don’t get why I am still in slam mode if my cya is 0 I shouldn’t need that much chlorine. I will start the sock method back up tomorrow.

 

[mknauss]

With 2# CYA added at 25K gallons you have not reached 10 ppm CYA. So add at least 4# more and you should see it.

You do not need that much chlorine. Back it down to 12 ppm FC. Once the CYA is at 30 ppm you will not lose so much during the day to the sun.

 

[ian81]

With 2# CYA added at 25K gallons you have not reached 10 ppm CYA. So add at least 4# more and you should see it.

You do not need that much chlorine. Back it down to 12 ppm FC. Once the CYA is at 30 ppm you will not lose so much during the day to the sun.

Thanks for the help, really appreciated. I’ll get the CYA socks In the water in the morning.