Hi everybody,
Amazing forum and website- I'm glad I found it! New poolowner here in Arizona. Our 30,000 gallon pool has been maintained by the prior owner's "pool guy" for the last couple months (and who knows how long before that) while we settled in. I received a TF100 test kit, and found the following:
Daily reader:
Chlorine: 5 (max)
pH: 7.5
Levels:
Chlorine: 13.5 ppm (26 drops for free chlorine, 1 drop for combined chloramines)
Calcium: 3250 (150 drops, and the color never turned blue; turned clear at ~130 drops - I think it was a volume dilution issue, given the massive amount needed. So I diluted the pool water 1:10 with reverse osmosis water and repeated it - still needed 13 drops to turn blue)
Alk: 210
CYA: 500 (it turned cloudy almost immediately. So I diluted the mixed sample 1:5, and then it's cloudy at the 100 mark - not sure how accurate this is, and if the high calcium causes precipitate issues).
Our pool guy has been just throwing in Costco shock into the pool whenever he seems to feel like it, about weekly. Many times, he doesn't even seem to check the pool chemistries. There's a ton of calcium built up on the sides of the pool (that even with scrubbing, starts to come back thinly within a week). Understandably, I'm interested in learning more from you great folks at TFP and start managing my own pool!
From Pool Math, it says I pretty much need to drain my pool (93% volume). However, we have a plaster pool with some sort of pebble finish, and it's around 110-115F (43-46C) outside in Phoenix, which would likely be very bad. Given the ridiculously high level, I don't think slow cycling the water will likely be sufficient either. Plus, the free chlorine calculator doesn't seem to work really well when the CYA is reading at 500 - it seems to target free chlorine 38-51, and I'm not sure the CYA level is correct in the first place. Currently, I'm thinking of just maintaining the chlorine (maybe eyeball to 5+ on the K1000) and pH 7.2-7.8 until actual draining this winter, but I'm open to hear any thoughts!
In good news, the pool looks clear without algae at least. Thank you in advance!
Amazing forum and website- I'm glad I found it! New poolowner here in Arizona. Our 30,000 gallon pool has been maintained by the prior owner's "pool guy" for the last couple months (and who knows how long before that) while we settled in. I received a TF100 test kit, and found the following:
Daily reader:
Chlorine: 5 (max)
pH: 7.5
Levels:
Chlorine: 13.5 ppm (26 drops for free chlorine, 1 drop for combined chloramines)
Calcium: 3250 (150 drops, and the color never turned blue; turned clear at ~130 drops - I think it was a volume dilution issue, given the massive amount needed. So I diluted the pool water 1:10 with reverse osmosis water and repeated it - still needed 13 drops to turn blue)
Alk: 210
CYA: 500 (it turned cloudy almost immediately. So I diluted the mixed sample 1:5, and then it's cloudy at the 100 mark - not sure how accurate this is, and if the high calcium causes precipitate issues).
Our pool guy has been just throwing in Costco shock into the pool whenever he seems to feel like it, about weekly. Many times, he doesn't even seem to check the pool chemistries. There's a ton of calcium built up on the sides of the pool (that even with scrubbing, starts to come back thinly within a week). Understandably, I'm interested in learning more from you great folks at TFP and start managing my own pool!
From Pool Math, it says I pretty much need to drain my pool (93% volume). However, we have a plaster pool with some sort of pebble finish, and it's around 110-115F (43-46C) outside in Phoenix, which would likely be very bad. Given the ridiculously high level, I don't think slow cycling the water will likely be sufficient either. Plus, the free chlorine calculator doesn't seem to work really well when the CYA is reading at 500 - it seems to target free chlorine 38-51, and I'm not sure the CYA level is correct in the first place. Currently, I'm thinking of just maintaining the chlorine (maybe eyeball to 5+ on the K1000) and pH 7.2-7.8 until actual draining this winter, but I'm open to hear any thoughts!
In good news, the pool looks clear without algae at least. Thank you in advance!