Newbie to pools

[Watermom]

The pool is using little chlorine because the water is cold, but when the weather starts to warm up, if you don't run higher cl levels you'll have a green pool! We see it all the time. Since your CYA is 80-90, then you don't want to use any stabilized forms of chlorine. So stay away from trichlor pucks and dichlor powder. What kind of pool is this -- gunnite, vinyl, fiberglass? Also, go ahead and post a full set of current water testing results.

[mthandt]

The pool is using little chlorine because the water is cold, but when the weather starts to warm up, if you don't run higher cl levels you'll have a green pool! We see it all the time. Since your CYA is 80-90, then you don't want to use any stabilized forms of chlorine. So stay away from trichlor pucks and dichlor powder. What kind of pool is this -- gunnite, vinyl, fiberglass? Also, go ahead and post a full set of current water testing results.

Yeah, the CYA level is my biggest fear with the trichlor pucks which is what I would most likely be using. I would like to do the BBB method but again I think my girlfriends parents would think I am crazy if I was out there pouring a gallon of chlorine in the pool everyday. I think they would feel better with me just using the pucks. Next time they leave town I'll just drain half the pool, haha. I think for now I'm just gonna continue using the pucks and monitor the CYA levels and if it starts to get too high and the chlorine demand becomes to great I'll consider swapping out some of the water or switching to liquid chlorine.

Here are the results from the store test:

TC: 5 ppm
FC: 5 ppm
CC: 0 ppm
pH: 7.6
TA: 100 ppm
Calcium: 250 ppm
CYA: 80 ppm

Oh, and it's a screened in gunite pool.

[Watermom]

Your numbers all look ok except that your chlorine is bit low for your CYA level.

Regarding continuing to use the pucks ---- it is your call. If it were my pool with a CYA of 80-90, I would not use them. It is easy to get into trouble when your CYA level gets too high. Just my opinion.

Glad to have you on the forum!

[mthandt]

Your numbers all look ok except that your chlorine is bit low for your CYA level.

Regarding continuing to use the pucks ---- it is your call. If it were my pool with a CYA of 80-90, I would not use them. It is easy to get into trouble when your CYA level gets too high. Just my opinion.

Glad to have you on the forum!

Yeah, I realize the chlorine is on the low side for the CYA levels but I think I'm losing virtuslly no chlorine at the moment, definitely will have to do something soon. Haven't put any chlorine in it for a week and it's holding at those levels probably due to a combination of the low CYA levels, the cool partially shaded water and no one is swimming in it. I would like to switch to liquid chlorine as I can get 6% clorox bleach from Sams for $2 a gallon before tax but don't really know how much I will have to stay on top of it with liquid chlorine. Maybe I'll start trying it next week and just see what happens. I have to get more reagent for the chlorine test on Tuesday so I can start testing it myself.

[PoolDoc]

There's nothing magic about liquid chlorine or bleach -- it's just one of the two forms of chlorine available to you that has no stabilizer. The other is cal hypo (calcium hypochlorite) and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find.

You could also use an SWCG (Salt Water Chlorine Generator), but that's significant expense upfront, and there's ANOTHER learning curve you have to climb with those units.

Here's an option: with your CYA that high, once you get your K2006, you can do this:
1. Dose 1x per week to 12 - 15 ppm chlorine using bleach. (We'll help you figure the dose, if you can give us pool gallons AND pool dimensions (so we can make sure the gallons figure is in range - often, it's not.).
2. Adjust your TC feeder / floater / what to trickle feed, so that your chlorine doesn't go below 3 - 5 ppm, before your next bleach dose.

That way, you can 'sneak' in, dump the bleach, trash the bottles, and then bask in the appreciation for the crystal clear pool (assuming, your filter is working OK). Over time -- depending on how you clean your filter -- your CYA will drop. The more pool water you dump (backwash) each time, the sooner it will drop. If you've got a cartridge filter, and don't loose any water, you may have to see how things run this way and whether the CYA keeps climbing.

[mthandt]

I like the slow TC release idea and adding bleach. That way I don't use so much liquid. I estimated the pool to be around 10,000 gallons by measuring the sides and depths at certain points. Wasn't too straight forward becasue the pool is a funny shape. Here is an attached drawing:

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...Dimensions.png

The depths are in the middle of those sections and I should also note that it gets around 6' deep around the drain.

I have a 36 sqaure foot DE filter that I just replaced the screens in a couple weeks ago and added DE to. I'll have to backwash eventually it but I don't know how often yet as I just started taking care of it. I can't imagine it needing to be backwashed very often because the pool is screened in. Figure I'll do it every few months and just watch the pressure

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Thank you everyone for the help!

[PoolDoc]

Hmm-mh. I started to calculate gallons, and then quit. Some of your dimensions don't work out.

For example, you've drawn the dimensions of the angled perimeter line in the lower right corner as the hypotenuse of a right triangle with a rise of 7.5' and a run of 6'. But . . . that the hypotenuse of THAT right triangle would be about 9 1/2', and not the 11' you measured. I never enjoyed it, when I had to measure a pool like that for a custom LoopLoc cover -- too many chances to screw up, and if I did, I got to eat the cover. I'd always end up measuring it 2 or 3 times, and then drawing it on CAD, to make sure the point to point diagonals I'd measured were very close to what the CAD program calculated.

However, your pool appears to be on the same order as a pool 15' x 22' with an avg. depth of 4.5'. That would be about 11,000 gallons. So, 10,000 is a reasonable guess. If you REALLY want to know, read your water meter before and after you fill it, and subtract average daily use over the fill interval. That should give you the correct value, +/- 5%.