Hopefully...minor clarity issue

[smileitsachoice]

I know this reply is a little late, but I just went through the same problem. I drained about 10k gallons out and got my cya down between 60-70. This was the best thing I could have done. Water is really easier to manage, and cheaper.

[buki5]

Update and pretty much all good news. Have been checking the water pretty much twice daily to monitor cl usage. Had a close call on the 1 36 or 48 hour period that I didn't check cl as it dropped to about 4 and looked like algae was getting ready to go two days before a pool event for one of my kids. Hopped up the cl and managed to get us through the night. Cleaned up and has been good since. Had a good weekend in the pool over the 4th.

Am now in the process of draining. down about 13 inches. I have a hose running onto a lounger to minimize mixing of water and my skimmers are turned off to pull water from the bottom drain.

Have been "bumping" the filter as well figure we can start it new at the same time. Goal is to leave about 4-6 inches in the shallow end and then turn the pump off for the refill. Going camping next weekend so this will give us some time to stabilize the chemicals and cl demand before everyone wants to hop in again.

BTW, have probably gone through 20 1.42 gal jugs of cl keeping it in the 8-12 ppm range. (remember my CYA is so high I can't really measure it).

Thanks for the help. Going to test my fill water shortly.

Cheers

Brian

[buki5]

Frustration...
Drained 10,000 gallons from the pool and refilled....(actually, somewhat more than this as I was filling at the surface while I was draining.

Pool tests this morning
FC-3
CC-0.5
TC-3.5
Ph-7.4
TA-120
CH-120
CYA-100+ (a few drops below the 100 line). Tested (poured mix back in bottle and retested...3 times...went outside and checked temps,skimmers, etc to kill time and re-rean the test)

After testing I added 3, 1.42 gal of 6%. Water is clear and fine. Need to vacuum the bottom otherwise it looks in good shape.

However, I still am running a huge CYA number and need to use chlorine by the truckload.

[Watermom]

I am sorry to hear of the frustration, but I understand. I'm sure your high cya is probably from years of somebody using trichlor tabs in this pool. There should be some kind of note on the label alerting people to the fact that if they use trichlor for a long time, they will have significant cya buildup. It would save people from being in the situation you are in. A lot of other people have the same issues. But, then they wouldn't sell as much of their product, would they? The almighty dollar.

I don't know if you just want to bite the bullet and do another partial drain and try and get that cya down more or if you just want to live with it. I think if it were me, I'd just go ahead and keep doing partial drains/refills until I got it to a more manageable level. A big pain in the butt, yes, and the cost of the water. But, then, it will be done and as long as you stick with chlorinating with bleach or liquid chlorine, you'll never be in this situation again.

[CarlD]

You need to get your FC up into the maintenance range of 8 to 15ppm with your CYA. Once it's there, you should have no trouble maintaining it in that range and not be using bleach or LC by the boat-load. In fact, your chlorine usage should go down substantially--but you MUST maintain the higher levels--aim for 10ppm. If you still are using so much then shock it all the way up to 25ppm (as per the "Best Guess" table) and that should kill whatever's eating your FC.

You CAN live with the higher CYA but you cannot do it with an FC below 8, minimum.

Hope this helps.