New pool owner. Cya level over 100. No free chlorine detected....help

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership upgraded.

I also suspect metals in the water -- clean your cartridge (or at least look at it) and see what color the goo on the cartridge is.

[LisaBP]

Thank you for the great information. Good news...the Taylor kit arrived and I was able to test myself. So here are the results:

FC 0
Ph 7.8
TA 180
Cya 160 (maybe...it was hard to discern)

I added the 3 jugs of Walmart bleach 121oz size this evening. I will check everything again in the morning.

Answering your additional questions:
1. Pool was not green before adding the bleach over the weekend
2. Not well water
3. Water still looked clear and bluish before I added the 3 jugs this evening


I didn't mention that it is an established pool which has been serviced by a local pool company for several years including last summer when we first moved in. I wanted to give caring for it ourselves a try since I live with 3 teenagers. We also added a solar hearing system to it..wow amazing! Got to 85 degrees in a few days and now stays there.

Thank you PoolDoc...I don't know how to open the filter or backwash, etc but I will learn tomorrow when the pool service company comes. I suspect they never paid any attention to cya levels as previous owner had pool drained every spring for cleaning. I'm hearing they are lucky it never broke
in two or cracked

Lisa
Less frazzled new pool owner

[PoolDoc]

I have seen pools look green with very high TA -- though I've never been able to determine if that was cause or coincidence. I've also seen pools turn green with iron.

1. Lower your pH to near 7.0 => http://pool9.net/ma/

2. Watch the Taylor videos, so you can be sure you are doing the tests correctly:

http://pool9.net/tk-guide/
http://pool9.net/tk-interfere/

3. Test and report your CH (calcium) level.

4. Complete the pool info form:

http://pool9.net/pf-pool-form/

[Watermom]

It isn't possible to get a CYA reading of 160 with the K2006 kit. 100 is the highest number on the scale.......

[LisaBP]

Hi Watermom and PoolDoc,

Thank you for your help. I watched the Taylor demos and filled out the pool form.

Watermom, I did a you suggested and got a cya reading of 80 which I multiplied by 2 to get the 160 I reported to you. I'm not sure it's that high though. I had the pool company here this afternoon to show me how to work the pump, chlorination, etc. They tested too and got a cya reading under 100 but they don't always do that test so I'm not convinced that their number is correct. They also added some muratic acid and showed me how to siphon off water if I choose to do that. They had a FC reading of 5+ and TA of 150 approx. as they hadn't written them down. I will test again tomorrow and report all those numbers. The pool looks blue and clear but smells like chlorine a bit. No one is trying to swim so we can see how long the FC holds. Thank you again so much.

[Watermom]

Gotcha. I didn't realize that your CYA reading was from dilution. The fact that they got an FC reading of 5+ shows that your kit is better than whatever they are testing with. 5+ on a test kit that only goes to 5 means that it could be 5 or any number higher than that.

When you post your numbers tomorrow, post FC and CC in addition to pH and TA. No need to run the CYA test again.

[LisaBP]

Thank you. Here is what I got yesterday:

FC: 8
CC: .5
PH 7.4
Ch 270

This chlorine ratio seems out of balance. What do you recommend?