The saga continues! On a positive note, the pool store took back their silly Phos Free, so that's $40 back in my pocket.

Went to another pool store where CYA scored a 70! Apparently I can get whatever numbers I'd like just by getting different people to test, lol! Chlorine had dropped a whole ppm, from 8 @ 9am to 7 @1:30pm, part of which I might write off to testing inaccuracies.

I guess irregardless, my pool IS running fairly well. I seem to lose a lot of water to evap, and it seems to get a lot of dirt in it; but water has been clear for IIRC, a couple weeks now.

Quote Originally Posted by Watermom View Post
Don't panic. Your CYA test is more likely to be accurate than their dipstick-in-tube test. The disappearing black dot test is the only one we trust.

So, if you are getting 45ish for your CYA reading, assume that is correct. What goal are you shooting for? Typically we suggest 40-50. if that is what your target is then remove all pucks from your pool and also don't use any more dichlor. A week after the last dose of any stabilized chlorine, test your CYA again, but not before. Then, post a full set of numbers here and we'll make a recommendation for you from that point.
I don't know what I should be shooting for. I figure I can shoot for 45-50 or 70ish, but I don't know which. I am uncertain of which will be cheapest. I wouldn't mind running higher levels, but it seems that shocking would be fairly expensive and hard on swimsuits.

I will not add any more CYA (though I lost a little this morning to a fairly long backflush) for another week, and I'll post numbers with my brand new CYA reagent bottle.