Total rookie dedicated to learn

I have read very many posts on these forums without registering, because they came up in my Google searches and I've gradually built a trust with the expertise here.

Eventually, I felt the strong need to register and be a part of this community. So here is my pool story and first question.

First, I need to say that I am 35 years old and had no experience with any pool until about 10 months ago when we bought our home. We weren't looking for a house with a pool, but the house we fell in love with happened to have one :). I had no contact with the previous owner who had already moved out a while ago, so did not really have any info about the pool. It was winter time, the pool was clear, apparently was taken care of (at least to my non-existing standards), and I was told by the house inspector to just keep doing what seemed to be the current care: disconnected salt water system, chlorine tabs in a floater, shock once in a while and keep the pumps running on schedule. I pretty much had no idea what different valves did, no idea how the pop-ups in the pool were supposed to be working, I pretty much had no idea at all about running the pool. And nobody at home cared either, noone was willing to take a dive...

One month ago, my little one got serious with swimming lessons. And with the Arizona temperatures coming down, we decided to get the pool in shape for her. I've had several different professionals come in to assess the pool condition and the equipment (of course I paid for their services). I got the suggested repair (rebuilding gears on Polaris Caretaker) and cartridge cleaning done. I still don't have all the pop-ups working properly, but that's a discussion for a different day. Here is the interesting piece: One of the two independent individuals who came to assess the water condition and start me on a weekly service straight out rejected my business saying it is not worth his time. The other one told me that the pool is clean but the water is over-stabilized, too hard and hence need to be drained and re-filled before they can start me on the chemical/cleaning service.

At that moment, I decided to take control of my pool. I started reading on these forums about hardness, and better test kits. I also started physically working on the pool. I've got a simple vacuum head and hose to get the sand off the floor (pop-ups were still missing some spots), I've started experimenting with all the valve settings to see how returns worked. And most importantly I've bought the most complicated Taylor test kit I could get my hands on in the local shop (without going to online orders) to track my progress.

I have an in-ground pool, which I think is pebble with a line of tile on the very top (how can I tell what type it is?). I estimate the volume to be around 11000 gallons. It's running 6 hours every night on a WhisperFlo Pump, going thru a Pentair Clean and Clear Plus cartridge, and all flow directed to Polaris Caretaker connected to pop-ups on the floor and on stairs. I also have a Pentair Admiral S-20 Skimmer. Come morning time, and I get the airator running to keep the surface moving, around 8 hours a day while I'm at work.

I am using a Taylor-made Leslie's-branded DPD test kit. It only has drips, no powder.

Here is what I was initially measuring:
FC >5ppm (it is off the charts for my measuring kit, I see a darker pink than what is on the chart)
TC reads the same off-the-charts dark pink
pH 7.5
170ppm alkanity

I've took the chlorine tablets out of the pool to see if I can read something within the chart within a day or so. Also given that my incoming water supply was 110ppm alkanity, I really had hardness built-up over time. So I've started with the add-acid/air-out process described in this forum.

After three days this is where I am:
FC & TC are still >5ppm, off-the-char for my measuring kit
ph 7.2 (kept adding Muriatic acid)
120ppm alkanity (gradually dropped over the 3 days)

At this point, I'm thinking I really need one of the better test sets (2006C) as described in these forums to measure FC/TC. However, that's gonna take a few days from Amazon (they don't offer Prime on this product). I would like to understand if there is anything else I should be doing while waiting for the kit or something I'm doing wrong and should be corrected right away.

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

A few questions....first, what is your calcium hardness level? You mention that you had hardness buildup over time--do you mean that you have scaling problems? Second, why are you lowering your alkalinity? If you're using trichlor tabs for chlorination, then a TA of 110 is fine and doesn't need to be lowered. Third, and most importantly, what is your CYA (stabilizer) level? Your CYA level is what will determine how high you need to keep your chlorine.

You really do need one of the DPD-FAS test kits, especially if you do have a high stabilizer level, because you need to be able to accurately test your water in order to keep it clean. The K-2006 or K-2006C would be great--the two kits are the same, except that the C version has larger amounts of reagents in it than the other one. If your other kit is a Taylor kit, and has the CYA test in it already, then you can probably just get the K-1515 instead, which is the chlorine part of the kit.

I'm glad you decided to join us, and we'll be happy to answer any questions or try to help solve any problems that you have. It's GREAT to have your own pool, once you know how to take care of it :)

Just adding my welcome to you as well!

Hi again,

I've finally got my K-1720, Taylor's "Pool Stabilizer Pool Water Test Kit for Cyanuric Acid", and did my first test this morning. Now I understand why the professionals said the pool was overstabilized. I get a reading above 100ppm, which is the upper level this kit can measure. I completely lose the black dot in the white cloud and there is still a good amount of height to reach 100ppm line.

I've also got a Taylor kit that can measure high Chlorine levels, K-1515-A as was suggested by aylad. I've been measuring with it for the last week. I moved down from FC 13.5ppm slowly down to 11.5ppm, by disconnecting the salt water system all together. But now I'm thinking with the Cyanuric Acid level this high, maybe I need FC to be this high?

BTW, 110ppm total alkanity is my incoming water supply. My TA used to be 170ppm, and by aerating I got it down to 120ppm, I'm no longer doing it, it's not gonna change any more given my incoming level.

Unfortunately, I still don't have anything to measure calcium hardness alone. Given that I have 3 kits now (basic Taylor for FC/CC, pH, alkanity + K-1515-A for high FC/CC, and K-1720 for Cyanuric Acid) I'm hesitant to get K-2006. Is there something simpler I can buy just for calcium hardness level? Is that really necessary? My wife is already making comments about the increasing number of little blue boxes in the house :).

Also, it is important to say that the water is crystal clear now that the pop-ups are working. I've changed the ones on the stairs with ones that have small nozzle openings, that seemed to fix the problem.

So here are my latest readings from this morning:
FC 11.5ppm
CC 0ppm
pH 7.4
TA 120ppm
Cyanuric Acid >100ppm

Here are my questions:
1) What does this very high cyanuric acid level mean? Does that mean I need to keep my FC also at these high levels? Or does that mean I need to replace the water as the professionals suggested?
2) Do I need a calcium hardness kit? If so, which one would you recommended?
3) Although my FC went down slowly, my CC never moved (always 0), where did the FC go?
4) How can I tell what kind of pool I have? It looks like a pebble pool from the pictures I've seen, but is there any other way to tell?

Thank you for the great support you are providing.

You can dilute a sample of your pool water 1:1 with distilled water, and re-test your CYA with that, and just multiply your result x 2 to get a ballpark CYA number. Once you have that, you have two options..1) is to drain and refill some water to lower that CYA level (although with a SWCG, most of them call for it to be around 80 ppm, so check your owner's manual before making that call), or 2) just run a high CYA/high chlorine pool. If you'll take a look at the info here, it will explain more and give you the chlorine levels you'll need to expect to run with a high CYA pool http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/forumdi...ting-Chemicals. If you can't follow the link, then log out, go to the main forum page, and look for the subforum called "Using chlorine and chlorinating chemicals". Then click on the 2nd sticky called "Best Guess Chlorine Chart". Personally, I run a high CYA pool on purpose. In my climate, with full sun, I find that I use much less chlorine if I keep the pool highly stabilized. The pool people will tell you that you can't do that, that at some point your stabilizer "won't work" and you'll have "chlorine lock", but I've been doing it with no problems for 11 years now, so I know better. The best guess chart will explain more.

Your calcium hardness level may or may not be important, depending on what kind of pool you have. If you have plaster, concrete, gunite, etc, that uses plaster or concrete in the mix, then it is crucial to know your calcium levels so that the water doesn't leach the calcium out of your decking. However, you may be able to just get the pool store to test that for you, if you're not using any calcium-based form of chlorine like cal-hypo. (Just be prepared for them to try to sell you a list of stuff--just resist, smile, and tell them that you have it all at home.). If you can take pics of your pool and upload them to flickr, photobucket, or one of those picture hosting websites, you can post a link to the pics here and maybe somebody here on the forum can help you identify what type of pool you have.

So... I've already covered #1, #2, and #4. To address #3, your FC was degraded by sunlight and/or gunk in the pool. Although stabilizer is in the pool water to protect the chlorine from degrading in the sun, it doesn't completely stop it, so you'll still have some slow reduction in FC. If you have goo in the pool, that will also contribute to the reduction in FC.