My pS234 test results

[aylad]

Congratulations on the clear water, it's a beautiful thing, isn't it?


What do you use for chlorination in your pool? I'm guessing it's trichlor tabs since your CYA is so high--and do you know where the copper came from? Did you use a copper-based algaecide when you closed?

Your calcium level is high--do you have a lot of calcium in your water? Do you notice any scaling in the pool?

I would not be concerned about the TDS--it's usually something that you only have to worry about if you're having continual algae blooms that you can't kill that don't have any explanation. However, your algae problems are almost certainly caused by your CYA level, which is WAY WAY high. So....you don't need to necessarily drain water to reduce the TDS, but you do need to drain and refill water to lower your CYA. You really need to shoot for 60 ppm or less, and then you don't have to run the chlorine so high and won't be fighting algae all summer. In addition, unless your fill water is high in Calcium, you will also be able to lower your calcium a bit.

Use the muriatic acid to lower your pH and alk--lower the pH until it's around 7.0 (this will also lower your alk) , then aerate your pool to raise the pH back up without also raising the alkalinity.

As far as the copper goes, higher levels of copper in the water would make a difference because high levels of chlorine can make the copper fall out of solution in the water and cause green staining (that's where you get green hair and nails that many people blame on chlorine), but the level that you describe shouldn't cause you any problems. I would not use anything else that contains copper in your pool, though, because once it's in there it doesn't come out.

There is not a drop test for pH that I know of--there has been some mention around the forum of an electronic pH test, but I've gotten the impression that they are not reliable unless very meticulously maintained.

Janet

[CarlD]

With FC that high you cannot be sure your pH isn't artificially raised. Try a couple of drops of chlorine neutralizer in it first (Taylor-0007--or the first two drops you put in when running the Total Alkalinity test--before adding the dye.

I personally don't like CYA that high--draining half your water and refilling will get it down to 70-75--high but much easier to manage. At 150, you need a constant FC of 8-15ppm.

[mbar]

Did you test your fill water? With such high alkalinity and calcium, it would be better to drain 1/3 of the water out, refill, drain 1/3 and refill and do it again until the alkalinity, calcium and cya are in normal ranges. If your alk and calcium are high in your fill water, then the only thing that will lower will be the cya - which is a good thing, because with such high cya, you would need very high chlorine numbers continuously as Carl says. I have a fiberglass pool and I have never had a problem draining and refilling this way. If you don't have a high water table, you can take it down a half at a time. With the high chlorine levels you will get false ph readings, therefore it really is in your best interest to take the cya down so that you can run your chlorine at lower levels without getting algae. When the water is balanced properly, it is much easier to keep a sanitized pool. We are here to answer any questions you may have