Where'd the CYA go?

[usmarinemike]

Arg-gh! We need to know EXACT brand and product name of what you added. Depending on what it was, the bucket test may not work now.

Natural Chemistry Metal Free. The whole liter. Pool additives without the contents on the bottle make me want to Hulk smash something. Can you enlighten me on these metal fixers/removers/deactivators? I didn't find a big discussion on them in Pool Solutions and I haven't dived into the deeper reaches of the forum yet.

[PoolDoc]

OK, I was hoping it was that product -- the current version (it changed mystery ingredients a couple of years ago, from EDTA to citric acid, with no notice) is not a problem, because once you had a chlorine level in the pool for 24 hours, it was gone. So, it should no longer be present, and should not have (or will not) interfere with the bucket test.

[usmarinemike]

Bucket test not complete yet.
Filter set to recirculate.
Pool is noticeably less green today. I even want to take my 2 year old swimming.
Lots of white junk in drifts on the bottom. Had this before but always thought it was leftover cal-hypo that didn't dissolve. There's more than ever today even though I was very careful about distributing the cal-hypo last night. I have been brushing it off the bottom, but I'm beginning to think this stuff is my culprit. Does that dog hunt? How is the Cl pushing the Fe out of solution?

If this is metal I want to vacuum it out. Heck, I'll vacuum it out even if it's not. Problem is, I could lose my progress if I vacuum to filter and it blows through, and I might lose my progress (or maybe make it worse) by vacuuming to waste and needing to refill with the water hose. So short of doing a rain dance I don't know what to do.

[PoolDoc]

White stuff is not iron or copper . . . unless you've added aluminum sulfate, it's probably calcium carbonate from your cal hypo.

You should vacuum it up, and then backwash your filter. If it blows through, vacuum to waste, and THEN check for filter for sand loss. Do you have a 2 speed pump? If so, run on low.

[usmarinemike]

White stuff is not iron or copper . . . unless you've added aluminum sulfate, it's probably calcium carbonate (edited - Pooldoc) from your cal hypo.

Aluminum Sulfate is typically used as flocculant, right? Didn't put any in, unless someone has discharged a fire extinguisher into my pool lately.

[usmarinemike]

Bucket test just stayed cloudy white. The pool finally went from green to blue last night. Here are my numbers this morning after testing with the K2006.

pH 7.3
TA 70ppm
CYA is just below 30. The dot disappeared with room for maybe a half a drop in the comparator before it overflowed.
FC=1.2 CC=1.2

Thing about the FC is that I put in almost 3 lbs of 73% cal-hypo last night. It certainly did it's job that time, but woah. I guess I'll be working down the chlorine demand every night for a while longer. At least it's finally blue and inviting.

What are the reasons/advantages/disadvantages to putting the cal-hypo directly into the skimmer?

[PoolDoc]

The disadvantage is that it's dangerous, if you don't make 100% certain that there are no OTHER chemicals it can encounter before reaching the filter.

The advantage is that you put the excess calcium on the filter, instead of the pool, and in the process, get improved filtration. If you do NOT do it this way, you'll tend to have problems with calcium build up, with scale and cloudiness resulting.