Central Valley SWCG w/ Low CL & High PH...

And an owner who has no idea what he's doing.

I read through the SWCG fact. Unfortunately I don't really know anything about owning a regular pool, and the FAQ is (obviously) directed at people who already know the basics.

I started this pool up about a month ago, from empty. The Intellichlor generator got chlorine readings with my little tester after about a day and a half and 340 lbs of salt. However, the Intellichlor still said add so after one more bag I had it up to "GOOD." The PH also looked reasonable at the time so I thought, hey good start.

I used the pool a few times in the first two weeks but havn't used it much since. I havn't really seen any algae, just a little dirt builds up from time to time from the dust and dirt in the air and my backyard.

BTW I live in Lemoore, CA. We are just south of Fresno where it is very dry, no rain, and average temps are 60 at night and 95 mid-day.

After my pump stopped working and poolforum helped me fix the problem and get it recharged I got the brilliant idea of trying to run it as little as possible. I went about 4 days (while I was out of town) with the pump off. Then ran it between 2-6 hours each day since.

So about a month later when I went to check the water levels... sure enough way off. The chlorine seems to be very low, there's almost no color in the tester, 0.6 CL at the most. Is this because I did not use stabilizer? And if so... what is stabilizer and how do I measure it? Or is it because I havn't been running the pump, which generates the chlorine?? As for the PH, its bright in color and above 8.2... so very high. I know I need to use muriatic acid to adjust this and can do so once I get the chlorine issue figured out.

So more salt? Or no salt, just stabilizer? Then acid for PH?

Figured it'll take any of you about 1 minute to answer all of the above... it has already taken me an hour and a half of searching for the right answer..! Thanks in advance.

Paul

I'm so sorry it's been such a struggle!

Stabilizer=CYA=Cyanuric Acid.

CYA helps protect chlorine against rapid breakdown due to UV rays or other causes. But it's a 2 edged sword as the higher your CYA, the higher the chlorine level you need to maintain, But, if you do it right, that's not a problem.

Generally, with an SWCG, you need to add CYA until your level reaches between 70 and 80ppm (part per million). Your SWCG specs should tell you what the manufacturer prefers. CYA can be added in 3 ways:

1) CYA powder. This can be added via the skimmer or scattered across the pool or, best, put into a stocking (like pantyhose) and allowed to dissolve into the water. It can take a week to get it all in. We ALWAYS suggest using less than you need-it's much easier to add more than remove it.

2) CYA liquid. This is a new product that seems to work very well and increases your level within hours. The main drawback seems to be the price, but if the convenience is worth it...go for it!

3) Tri-Chlor Tablets/ Di-Chlor powder. Both of these are chlorinators that, as they dissolve add stabilizer. They also add chlorine and can lower pH. Tri-Chlor is especially acidic. The drawbacks are they take time to add CYA, and, for general use, don't stop adding CYA when you have enough, and don't stop adding acid when your pH is right.

Your pH being high is also typical of SWCGs and you should lower it. Muriatic acid is fine.

Running schedules would work FAR better if you run it every day, just for less time. It's FAR better to run your pool 6 hours a day than run it for 24 hours every 4 days. Constant levels are much easier to maintain than to "fix" problems.

Finally, (for now), you need to get yourself a proper drop test kit. We recommend the Taylor K-2006 or K-2006C which is an FAS-DPD chlorine test kit. Be careful: There's another chlorine test called DPD which is NOT the same and not very useful. The Taylor kit is available from Taylor, from Amatoind dot com, and, I believe, from Amazon (and PF will get a donation from that purchase--one of the other mods can guide you to it).

Alternatively, Leslie's On-Line service has their FAS-DPD Chlorine Service Test Kit which is a re-branded Taylor K-2006.

Test strips are VERY difficult to read and highly unreliable. If you MUST get them, get the Hache or LaMotte strips that include CYA. They are the best of what's out there.

The $50-$70 the kit costs will pay for itself many times over in the first year. The ONLY test you need it doesn't have is the salt level test. You have to get that separately--Taylor makes one.

After you do what Carl suggests, keep an eye on the Intellichlor and make sure your Cl comes back up. Some of those units had trouble and needed to be replaced.

Do you have two salt level lights (ver 2.0)? Or three (ver 1.9)?

Well I havn't replied for a while because I had the Taylor 2006 kit on order. I received it the other day and am underway testing the pool. The booklet says to start with balanced water before bringing the chlorine/cya up to par so I began by testing total alkalinity. Total alkalinity was over 250 ppm which I guess I expected. I am in the middle of adding muriatic acid over a few day period, 1 gallon yesterday and another today. The pool is probably around 25,000 gallons, I think I'll take a good measurement tomorrow to be sure.

Anyway, thanks in advance. Any suggestions on getting started using this testing kit would be great. I guess my plan is to bring down total alkalinity and pH and then move back to bringing Chlorine/CYA into check. I am very curious to know why I see basically NO algae formation or any visual indications the pool isn't OK...

Make sure that you are maintaining chlorine in the pool while you're adjusting the TA and pH, though--if you allow an algae bloom, it will just throw off everything you're trying to do.

Janet

Ok, not alot of success on my pools condition. Frankly I seem to have regressed...

The temps here have been dropping over the past couple of weeks and we've seen our first hour or two of rain this year here in California. Not sure if either of those have to do with my problems but here goes.

On Saturday I noticed a significant amount of algae collecting on the walls of the pool. I used the brush to stir up the pool and ran the pump for the next 24 hours. Turned the sanitizer's output on 24 hr max mode and also added one pack of chlorine shock (only rated for a 10,000lbs pool but it was all I had on hand).

On Sunday I bought some more chemicals and retested the water. Now Chlorine measured over 5 ppm and some of the green seemed to be reduced. However, total alkalinity hasn't really come down. I added two gallons of muriatic acid, one on Thursday and the second on Friday. I've made all my readings using the 10mL Taylor test. On Thursday total alkalinity was 11 drops =~ 275 ppm. On Saturday the pool had come down to 10 drops and after another gallon of acid, today the pool is measuring at 9/10 drops still which is =~ 250 ppm... So that doesn't seem right.

Theres actually some bugs swimming in the pool, too. So that's pretty gross! I bought CYA, some Algaecide/Clarifier and more shock. The clarifier says I need to wait til the Cl drops and today it is still ~ 4-5ppm and hasn't really fallen much. I'm running the pump 6 hours a day at this point and still havn't added any CYA since I'm trying to get the CL level to drop (?).

So what all am I doing wrong? :/

If you post a full set of test results we can take you step by step to a perfect pool. However, we need to know where we are starting.

Ditto what Waterbear said--and don't add the clarifier--it's going to increase your problems, not help them...

Janet

Ok, thanks again for the replies. As requested I took a total set of tests and here are the results:

Akalinity 225ppm (I've added a total of about 5 gallons of muriatic acid of the past month!)

Free CL - 1.0 ppm

Combined CL - No color change so zero?

PH - 7.1, doing a Base Demand test took 5 drops R-0006 to bring it to a 7.4.

Calcium Hardness - 50 ppm

CYA - 38 ppm

And from these numbers a SI of about -0.8 - 1.0 (I'm actually measuring water temp right now, my guess is somewhere around 65degF, its awful cold!)

Paul

And total temp was 67degF. Any suggestions? Thanks a million