Test results on new pool in Tucson

[Watermom]

Trichlor and dichlor both add CYA and yours is already too high. For reference --- each quart of 8.25% bleach will add around 1ppm of chlorine and each of the 121-oz jugs will add about 4.5ppm.

[Wilco]

Excellent, thank you. Now what to do with sell the pucks I will have lying around.........

[CarlD]

If you can keep them, in the spring your CYA may well be lower--very common. If not, give them away if you can.

Tri-chlor pucks are GREAT when you have a high pH and low CYA situation as they are very acidic and add 6ppm of CYA for every 10ppm of chlorine.

[Wilco]

Hit it with 4 qts of bleach. Waiting to retest. Any guesses?

.

[CarlD]

Why guess? That's why we test.

[Wilco]

Ok.didnt budge the chlorine level, but brought the cya down to about 40. Smells more chloriney

[Watermom]

Adding bleach cannot drop the CYA level. It would probably be a good idea to watch these testing demo videos:> http://pool9.net/K2006-vid/ and then try your tests again.

[PoolDoc]

=> CH=380 is not really a problem; just run your TA lower. (http://pool9.net/alk-step/

=> With a high CYA, consider establishing a borate level > 60 ppm. The primary downside of a high CYA is that IF you get algae, it can take extreme levels of chlorine to eradicate it. Adding borates doesn't kill algae, but it does make your pool less susceptible. http://pool9.net/borates/

=> As mentioned, it IS typical to lose CYA over the winter. But you probably want to avoid this. Bacterial decomposition is the reason for this loss, and it can have hard to predict effects. Most often, the CYA is converted to nitrogen gas (no problem!) or nitrates (minor problem). But in a significant percentage of cases, the conversion is to ammonia, which is a big problem, and tends to ruin your spring start up.

=> In Tucson, I'm guessing you plan to run the pool all winter, and leave it uncovered. I'd highly recommend keeping 4 gallons of bleach on hand (stored in a cool place), and dumping all 4 gallons into your pool at the FIRST sign of algae or biofilm.

Good luck!

[Wilco]

Ok. Just retested and can't even detect cl levels, and ph down to 7.0. Seems like I will have to pour a gallon of bleach in a day at this rate. Where is all the cl going???

[PoolDoc]

1. Did you use OTO drops to test?

2. What time of day did you test?

3. Regardless: add 2 gallons of bleach in the LATE evening and then test with OTO the following EARLY morning.

4. Post dimensions (shape, max length, max width, shallow depth, deep depth) AND reported gallons.