Cyanuric Acid

[Watermom]

First off, welcome to the forum!

Secondly, stay out of the pool store unless you have money you don't want. Then, they'll be the place to help you out with that problem!

Your CYA is extremely high at 100. As a result, unless you run extremely high cl levels, your pool is gonna get algae. With low cl levels like you have, you most certainly must have an algae bloom brewing even if you don't have a green pool. That is one reason why you can't keep chlorine in the pool -- it is being used up fighting something in your water.

Give us some more info. What type of pool and what is the volume? What type of filter? Also, tell us exactly (meaning ingredients, not product names) what all you have put in the pool and when. If you haven't done so yet. don't add any of that stuff until we get some more info from you.

BTW -- FC + CC = TC so there is a problem with your chlorine numbers. Did the pool store test or do you have a kit and if so, what type?

[Sue225]

I have a 24 ft round pool 4 feet deep grading to about 5 in middle, vinyl liner. I am told that i have 15000 gallons of water. The test I listed was done by pool store. I have about 5 gallons of liquid chlorine on hand. I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine last night. Reading is about 3. This AM my husband dumped 10 pounds of calcium up in the pool. We will not use the other 40 pounds they sold us. We will begin to dump pool this evening. Should we empty 1/2? When can grandkids swim?? How long would I keep the chlorine at 15?

[Watermom]

If the test was done by a pool store, that further validates what we are saying --- they don't know what they are doing if they give you cl readings like that.

You do NOT need calcium in a vinyl pool.

If you empty half, that will put your cya at a much more reasonable level that will be easier to manage. If you're gonna dump, no point in wasting a bunch of bleach. I'd wait to shock the pool up to 15 until refilled. For now, I'd just throw in a couple of gallons of 6% bleach. That should take you to around 8 ppm of cl which should kind of hold things until you get refilled. (If you don't do anything, it may turn green in the meantime and you don't want to have to fool with that problem, too.)

Get yourself a good test kit like the Taylor K-2006. A good price for it can be found here.

http://www.amatoind.com/taylor-k2006-test-p-555.html

That way, you can test your own water and not rely on that pool store. They're not doing too good of a job ..........

Repost with current numbers when you get refilled and we'll go from there.

EDIT --- Since your pH is below 7.0, go ahead and add a little Borax to take it over 7.0. Maybe try 2 cups for now added slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running. As long as you get it over 7.0 your ok. We can tweak it later.

[CarlD]

As for "when", we won't know until we get further down the process.

Calcium's SOLE function is to prevent the calcium in the walls of concrete/plaster pools from leeching out. Pool stores regularly tell vinyl pool owners they "need" it and sell it to them.

[Watermom]

Heck, most of the time, they'll sell you one of everything on the shelf if you seem willing to buy it. Do you need it? Doesn't matter a lot of the time. They'll still be happy to have you walk out with it.

(Not all pool stores are like this, but too many of them are.)

[CarlD]

Use a garden hose as a syphon. As long as the outlet is below the inlet water will flow.

[Sue225]

Well we dumped 1/2 of pool water and are in the process of refilling. One question, the liner looks like it is rippling. Is this normal? Also. there is 0 chlorine in the pool. Should I add some bleach? Will it be OK through the evening and night. Looks like we have about 8 hours left to complete filling.

[Sue225]

We will start to dump pool this PM. Do you know of a good technique to do this? We do have a main drain. Where do you dump this water to? Yard-street?