first test results

[monkeyratman]

Never owned a pool before. Can someone tell me if my chemicals are reasonable? Thanks.

FC 11.5
CC 0
TC 5+ (more yellow that the top block of PS-200)
pH 7.5
Alk 100
Cal 500+ (stopped adding drops at 50)
Cya 100

[prh129]

Welcome to the forum. Your CYA is high - most people here shoot for 30 to 50 ppm so it means you will have to keep your free chlorine between 8 and 15 ppm (which it is). The OTO test reading for chlorine tops out at 5 (3 on some tests) so you would have to dilute your pool sample to get useful numbers for higher chlorine levels. Take a look at "Ben's Best Guess Chart" in the chlorine section to see recommended chlorine levels vs. CYA level. What type of pool is it (liner, plaster etc.) and what test kit did you use to test it? The calcium should not be an issue if you have a vinyl liner. Also, I found that the calcium test in the HTH 5-way test did not work right for me (and others) so it seemed like the calcium level was very high but it was really very low.

Keep in mind that if you are using tri-chlor pucks or di-chlor powder, they will cause your CYA to rise higher which you don't want. A lot of us here use bleach which doesn't affect CYA.

Everything else looks good.

Peter

[Watermom]

As Peter said, your cya is high. You can either run higher than normal chlorine results as a result or you can do a partial drain and lower your cya. Also, what type of chlorine are you using? I would suggest just using bleach. Trichlor and dichlor will raise your cya and cal-hypo will raise your calcium hardness level which is already high. Don't want it any higher or you may start to have cloudy water issues. Welcome to the forum.

[monkeyratman]

Thanks for your input. Have only had the pool for ten days. The previous owners stocked the auto chlorine feeder with some kind of "puck" thingy. Is there some kind of conversion ratio of thingy to bleach? Don't I need the stabilizer to keep the CL from burning up in the sun? (I live in Houston). I retested the Ca and it came in at 430, still high. Is the CYA making the Ca high? (plaster liner). My concern is changing the chemicals and inviting problems which I don't see now. If I just keep the Cl in range won't that keep the wee beasties away? Thanks.

[Watermom]

You can continue to use the pucks, but they cause your cya level to rise and when it does, if you don't run higher than normal chlorine levels, you end up with algae. That is what happens to a lot of unsuspecting pool owners. Yes, you do need some stabilizer, which is another name for cya, but you have plenty and then some! We recommend a cya level of 30-50. If you drain half your water and then refill, that would put you in the ballpark. If you decide not to do a partial drain, you can live with cya of 100 if you just run high cl levels. See the chart at the following link for more info on cya and cl levels. (Either way, don't use any more pucks as you don't want the cya level in your pool to continue to rise.)

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

A calcium hardness reading of 430 is OK, but I wouldn't use any cal-hypo to chlorinate with. Just stick with bleach. It will do a great job and won't add cya.

[Simmons99]

As far as a conversion rate from pucks to bleach there isn't any. Most people test the water in the evening and add bleach to bring their levels back up to normal. With such a high CYA level you may not need to add bleach everyday, but you won't know without consistant testing for a while.

One gallon of 6% bleach (ultra bleach unscented) will add 6ppm for every 10,000 gallons of water. There is a bleach calculator on a couple of people's signature lines - just search the forum and you should be able to find a thread with a link to it.