My pS234 test results

[lskeate]

I appreciate the responses. This is where I stand as of today, Monday. I ignored the pool yesterday. This morning I retested. My FC is now 4 with 0 CC. PH, I think, is still at 8.2. CYA is sill somewhere near 150. I called our city and the calcium level in our city water averages 100ppm. I don't seem to have a scale problem along the water line. I do get a lot of scale on the top of the bubble solar cover, but it easily washes off. I'm guessing I should not rinse that back into the pool when I clean my cover.

I called the local Viking Pool company here in Midland, TX and spoke to the "expert". He wasn't aware of CYA or stabilized chlorine. He did tell me I should follow the directions with the drops in the test kit. Thanks for the advice. I asked him if there is a national help-line phone number for Viking Pools, he said no, I thanked him for his help and hung up quickly. He also told me before I drain the pool I should put 2x4s along the width of the pool, then drain it 2 feet. The pool depth is 8 feet. I'm afraid I'd be draining and filling all summer. We have a very low water table in Midland. You can dig a cemetery plot and not find any water.

I guess I need to start doing a 1/3 drain and refill, then retest. Since I'm going to this trouble, what is the perfect CYA reading? I've ordered some new reagents so I'll know exactly where I stand. One last question about chlorine. I used bleach exclusively last summer and that's what is in the pool now. Or used to be. How can my free chlorine go down so far in about 40 hours when the stabilizer is so high and there is no combined chlorine? The pool is covered with a bubble cover and is pretty cold, but I can't give you an exact reading. I know I should have paid more attention to my chem professor. But it was so boring!! Thanks again to all of you. Wish we would have been introduced the first summer we planted this pool.

[aylad]

You definitely need to do a series of drain/refills to lower your CYA, and I would shoot for about 40 ppm. I don't know where you live and how much sun your pool gets, but it's way easier to add more CYA later if you need it than to reduce it, as you are finding out. At least the good news is that your calcium and TA will drop, as well.

Seeing a chlorine level drop from 9.5 to 4 in a couple of days' time is not that surprising, especially if you have sun on the pool over a long period of time. Your pool will be so much easier to deal with once you finish the refilling!

Janet