Drain and refill 33,000 gallon gunite pool

[Watermom]

Good advice from Carl. Just a couple of thoughts from me.

You won't have any CYA in fill water, so don't waste the reagents testing for it until a full week after you have added some as it slow dissolving. No reason to waste reagents.

Also, you may not need muriatic acid. No reason to buy it and store it if you don't need it. If it were me, I'd wait before buying that to see if your pH is high and you need it. I never need it in my pool. Just my $0.02.

Regarding the test kit Carl recommended ---- YES! Buy it! You'll be so glad you did. But, when you click on the Amazon link in my signature, only buy if the seller is Amato Industries. Some other sellers are substituting the K-2005 which you do NOT want. Occasionally, today being one of them, you get another seller shown when you click on the link which means they are currently out of stock. (They do have the 2006C kit however, which is the same kit as the 2006 but has larger quantities of some of the most used reagents.) At any rate, they usually are re-stocked really fast -- like within a day or so if you prefer the K-2006 kit.

Welcome to the forum! (We've had quite a few new members from LA this year which is where one of our mods (Aylad aka Janet) is from.

[bugsy0329]

One more question (for now)...It is raining cats and dogs here and the pool is not yet full. Should I add a gallon of bleach to keep the pool from turning green?

[Watermom]

Sorry so long replying to your post. I wouldn't fool with it tonight since it is already pretty late, but maybe in the morning go ahead and add some. In a 33k gallon pool, each gallon of 6% bleach will add about 1.8ppm of chlorine to the water. So, depending on how full the pool is, maybe add enough bleach to take the cl up to about 5 or 6. You'll lose most of that during the day tomorrow since you won't yet have any CYA in there so you'll need to do it again tomorrow in the evening and maybe even in the afternoon if you are home. Stir the water around with a clean broom or something to mix it in until the pump is up and running. Let us know when the pool is full and then we'll help you go from there.

[bugsy0329]

Pool is full. My husband wants to change the sand. I don't. Sand is at least 6 years old, though. Filter is old (made by PacFab), and I can't read anything stamped on it. I can, however, read that it calls for pea gravel and sand. Should I just wait until next year to change sand and buy a new filter and start from scratch?

[Watermom]

You can change the sand if you want, but it really isn't necessary. I have had the same sand for the past 11 seasons, Poconos (fellow mod) is on his 14th season. Others probably longer.

[bugsy0329]

OK. I'm finally back. BTW, love you Watermom. We did not change the sand! Please don't be angry but I went to Leslie's and got the big test kit they have, and it's the K2005. I realized this after I tested the water and was thumbing through the book. My levels are as follows:

FC 3
TC 3
CC 0
ph 7.8
TA 110 ppm
CH 100
CYA 100+ (probably 120)

I did add stabilizer tabs once pool was filled. Something is off, though as it's taking 3 tabs daily.

What do I do now?

Thanks!

[Watermom]

There is no way with this being a freshly filled pool that you could have used enough pucks yet to have CYA that high. Did you add some CYA separately and if so, how much.

Since you bought the K-2005, if you pick up the K-1515 you'll have the same components as the K-2006. The K-1515 is the part that allows you to test high chlorine levels. Check the Amazon link in my signature.