Where to start?

[Steve #1]

ETA: keep it at shock levels until you have O CC, then let it drift back down to 8 or so, if you keep the high CYA

And remind me how I get this measurement again.

BTW: My first thought was water balloons, I just scaled it up to trash bags.

I can't find wide enough sheets of plastic.... I'm still liking the trash bag idea.

[Steve #1]

Well I decided to take the plunge and lower my CYA, but alas no BIG PLASTIC SHEET.

In the future, please refer to this as "Steve #1's Trash-bag Method". I thought I had an industrial size box of 33 gal trash bags but they were only 13 gal so I got started with the small box of 33 gal that I had. I'll hit the store for another box later.

I'm not planing on keeping it completely full, but this should be better than just draining it without replacing as I go.

And for those of you that didn't think i was crazy enough to do it......

[Phillbo]

Texans are a strange breed ... and I though the guy with the plywood pool was a little off


So do you add a bag of water every so often to keep the level at your desired height ? Do you put the bags in the pool to fill ?


keep us posted on your progress.....

[Steve #1]

So with my CYA of 200ish and hardness of 460, about how much water should I plan on replacing?

[Steve #1]

Well siphoning with the vacuum hose in to the yard goes faster than the fill hose.

The method is:
1) Remove bag from box.
2) Bundle up open end of bag
3) stick bag in the pool
4) stick hose in open end of bag and fill while still holding the opened end of the bag gartered up and above the water surface.
4.5) CAUTION THIS IS THE HARD PART Tare off a 5" strip of duct tape using only one hand (you didn't think a Texan could pull off something this technical without using duct tape did you).
5) When bag is full enough that the part you have bundled up around the hose starts to pull, take the hose out give the bag a spin, put a goose neck in the end of the bag and tape it closed.

[GraceByDesign]

Thanks for the laugh!
They don't look as much like water balloons as I expected! Mostly looks like you need to skim your pool REAL bad!

ETA: if you are shooting for 30-50 CYA, that means at least 75% of your pool volume. 75% should get you to 50ppm.
That's a LOT of trash bags!!!

[Phillbo]

LMAO... Man your killing me over here as well

I'd say with a CYA of 200, you'd be best off replacing as much water as possible or at least 3/4 of it and then install a salt system . I'm buying Glade stock as we speak

[Steve #1]

Well, I ended up only replacing about 1/2 of the water due to a number of factors. After I ran out of bags the water level dropped down to the point that I could no longer siphon. While I could have gotten around this, the big kicker was my son is turning 4 today and when given a bunch of special things he could do for the day, all he wanted was to go swimming. You can't disappoint a little guy on his birthday so I quit draining and topped it off.

While I'm sure my levels didn't get down to where I wanted them (will test everything as soon as I get home this morning) It should be better and I know the water will be cooler, the yard also got a much needed watering (it was so dry not an ounce ran out of the yard)...... and y'all got some entertainment from my redneck engineering.

Thanks for all the help.

[duraleigh]

Hi, Steve,

Nice........clever work. The pic looks like an outtake from "Cocoon".

[Jakebear]

I know it's a bit late for this thread but for the future for those who need to change the water and can't or do not feel comfortable with draining ----

Here is the answer to your prayers.

Silage Tube ---- Yep, those big tubes that farmers blow cattle feed into for storage and feeding in the winter. You can buy them at most farm supply stores and they are available in various sizes -- 6, 8, 10, feet diameter and bigger they come in up to 8mil thick --- the way I figure it you could close one end --- lay it across the water of your pool and fill it with water. A 6' diameter 20' long tube should hold 565 cubic feet (3.1416 X Radius Squared X Length) which is equal to 4237 gallons (7.5 gal per cubic foot).

Water seeks its own level so the excess will go out the overflow or over the edge if you get a tanker to fill it with a big hose.

BTW a 8' X 5000 feet tube costs $175 but you could probably buy a hunk from a farmer somewhere by the foot.