New SWG, High CYA???

[kathgilliam]

We recently bought a house in Houston with a 30,000 gal. bell shaped pool, deep half in shade. Having studied here for several years, I was sold on salt and ordered the SWG immediately. We put in 10 40 lb. bags salt from the pool store and something called Perfect Pool Phosfree to help with mustard algae. The pool is just gorgeous, clear and sparkly, and my system readout says we have 2900 salt.

Just took our first ever sample to Leslie's and here is the analysis:

FC: .5
TAC: .5
Bromine::--- (didn't test?)
Water pH: 7.4
TA: 110
Calcium Hardness: 480
CYA: 150
Salt: 2000



The girl at Leslie's said we needed to drain at least 4' from the pool, that was the ONLY thing that would help. Having read this forum as long as I have, I immediately distrusted her advice. I will only do this when I hear it from you guys that it is correct.

Our water is extremely expensive here. I am hoping there is SOME other way...

Kath

[duraleigh]

Unfortunately, she's correct. I think there is an EXPENSIVE alternative but no one on the forum seems to have tried it...water's cheaper.

Whether you drain some of your pool or not, you're not running your Chlorine level high enough. 3ppm would be a suggested minimum.

[mas985]

The only way to lower CYA is to do a partial refill so she is correct in that. However, you will need to replace close to half your water but without dimensions, I can't tell if that would be 4' or not.

BTW, a partial refill will also lower your CA.

[kathgilliam]

Thank you <trying not to sound sarcastic>. Darn it. Since we just got our SWG in Thursday and it has only been generating for a day, I just hoped the low FC was due to it needing more time to generate. I did buy a bottle of bleach to pour in to raise my FC.

As to dimensions, we have 18 x 36 x 5.5. The deep end, which is well over half the pool, is 8 feet deep. The shallow end is not that shallow, at 4 1/2 feet. Small two person spa is the "clapper" of the bell shaped pool. Four feet seems like an awful lot, and the pool gal didn't even ask how many gallons. Does any of this change your recommendation? Would two feet do the job? Four feet seems like a LOT on a pool this size.

K

[duraleigh]

K,

Yeah, I knew you wouldn't like that answer...don't blame you, I wouldn't either.

How much you drain your pool is your option. The resultant CYA ppm will be higher, the less you drain.

Since most SWG's suggest 60-80ppm CYA, that means you'd need to drain 50% of your water to get your CYA in that range.

The only option I can think of is to run your Cl level up to 4-8ppm (I'm guessing) and keep it there with a combo of bleach and your SWG. That will keep your pool sanitized and prevent any algae. Then, you can hope for Winter rains and let them dilute your pool to a manageable CYA level. That'll be slow going for sure.

If you dabble at lowering it....say a foot at a time, you can do the math and find you will use a LOT more water to get the same results.

Off the subject, but as Mark suggested your Calcium is as high as it needs to be and the salt is supposed to be around 3200, I think. You could bring your calcium into a more normal 250-300 or so if you decide on the 50% drain....You can't get it out inexpensively either.

[PatL34]

Hate being the devil's advocate here, but how did Leslie's come up with 150 ppm CYA. Was it test strips, because most CYA tests only go to 100 ppm CYA that I know of?

Just trying to save you draining water.

If you have to drain, you are looking at close to 10,000 gallons. That could fill up WaterBear's pool with some left over.

Seriously, draining is expensive, and so is filling it back up. I just had to refill our pool with 20,000 gallons came out to $70.

If you can find another way I would do so.

Pat

[kathgilliam]

If it was only $70.00 I would drain it tonight! We were thinking in the $300 range plus.

[waterbear]

If you have to drain, you are looking at close to 10,000 gallons. That could fill up WaterBear's pool with some left over.

Pat

Guess there are advantages to having a small pool!