High CYA and algae

[PoolDoc]

There may have been conspiracies among pool chemical manufacturers, but CYA based chlorine is not the result of one of those, if they existed.

You can operate your pool with your existing CYA level, but you need to
#1 - find out what that level is, by doing the CYA test on pool water diluted 1:1 with distilled water from the grocery. Multiply the result by 2. If the adjusted number is near 200, dilute 3:1 and multiple the result by 4.
#2 - Order a K2006 or K2006C kit so you can test high chlorine levels.
#3 - Use the Best Guess page in my signature to determine what your chlorine levels should be.
#4 - Stop using stabilized forms of chlorine.
#5 - Drain your pool if that's the option you prefer, but ONLY IF you can do so safely. It's not an option, without professional help, on in ground liner pools, or on concrete pools in low wet areas.

Whether you can swim safely this weekend is hard to say, when you don't know what either your stabilizer level, or your chlorine level is. Keep in mind, too, that you don't want to make the news the way that Boston area public pool has, by having found a mom lost for 2 days 'hiding' in the bottom of THEIR cloudy pool.

[tyandnikki]

Well, I drained about a fourth of the water out of the pool and refilled with city water...went to check the CYA level and I didn't have enough reagent. The dip test though looks like it has come down a good amount. It's not down to 50, but it looks to at least be below 100 now. I will let you know all of the readings when I get some more reagent.

When I go to get more reagent, I was going to look for some un-stabilized chlorine and/or shock. I thought about the bleach, but it just seems more conviniant to get the dry form in a bucket instead of having 50 gallons of bleach. What should I be looking for?

Thanks again for everyone's help. I finally feel confident in what I am doing with the pool thanks to you guys and gals.

P.S. I know I need to order the Taylor testing kit. We have to replace our diving board, too, and we were hoping to order both from the same place to save on shipping.

[Watermom]

Many of the granular chlorine products are stabilized. *If* your calcium hardness reading is low (you didn't report it), then you could use some cal-hypo for awhile but not forever. Too high of a calcium reading in a pool can cloud the water. So, even if you do use cal-hypo for awhile, at some point you will have to either switch to bleach or liquid chlorine.