Weird Levels

[tnalaskan]

Levels today: FC 5.0 CC 0 PH 7.4 ALK 90 CYA 50 Temp 92. HOORAY!!! Clear water, levels good, NO brown dusty spots, not yellow dusty mustard algae. And we did it with out going to the pool store. Well, let me take that back. I did buy some stabilizer since ours was less than 30. Thanks to all who helped us get back in our pool. Could not have done it with out you. I can't believe more people don't do this. How much bleach would you think I will need per week when the pucks come out? How fast will the levels drop? Am I going to have to test everyday? Again, thanks to all who contributed to our nice clean algae free pool.

[Watermom]

For awhile, you do need to test every evening while you are getting a feel for how your pool is going to behave. Each time you test, add enough bleach to get to 6ppm. If you find that by the next evening, you have dropped lower than 3ppm, take it a little higher that evening. With a CYA of 50, you never want to let the chlorine drop below 3ppm or you'll be right back where you were with algae!

I have the same size pool as you and I am to the point where I can usually test every other day and when I do, I usually add a small jug (3 quarts) of bleach. That is not a hard and fast rule and it also depends on what the weather has been like, how much swimming we have done, etc. You'll soon learn what your pool is going to need but for now, it is smart to test cl and pH every night.

By the way --- regarding the pucks ---- your CYA is great at 50. You really don't want it higher. Finish up the pucks you have in there and then no more. You'll also need to test your CYA again when the pucks are dissolved and if it is much higher, you'll need to adjust your needed chlorine levels. See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart for more about that.

Good luck and have fun swimming! We are glad you got things turned around! Be diligent about your pool chemistry so you don't have to fight this battle again.

[aylad]

Watermom and I rarely diverge on our advice-giving, but I just wanted to throw something out there....you now have a nice, clean, clear pool, and Watermom has given you great advice about testing daily to get a feel for how much chlorine your pool uses and roughly how much you'll need to add. However, if you feel that you're still using too much chlorine in a day's time (different pools with different sunlight exposure, temps, etc vary in how much chlorine they use), you might try bumping your CYA up just a little bit to see if that slows your chlorine loss any. When you raise your CYA level, you'll also have to raise your minimum chlorine level, but you might find that you lose less chlorine overall with a slightly higher CYA. I run my pool at 80-90 ppm CYA on purpose, because that's the point where I lose the least amount of Cl in a day. It means I have to maintain chlorine levels of 5-10 ppm, but I only lose 2 ppm or so daily, where if I tried to run a CYA of 50 ppm pool, I would lose 4-5 ppm daily. It also allows me to dose every 2-3 days, rather than every day.

Just something to consider.....

Janet

[tnalaskan]

Thanks to both of you. Our pool is in direct sun all day until about 6 pm. Running a slightly higher cya level is something to think about. Will monitor daily for awhile to see how much cl we lose daily.