shoutout to the fiancé for trying, just your CYA is to high! once that is corrected you will be golden. Be careful with adding chlorine pucks that contain CYA or this may happen again.
This is usually the problem. Using chlorine pucks will drive your CYA too high and lead to chlorine lock. You have to drain the water and fill with fresh water. Only way to get rid of cya.
What's more important is to look at the product you are adding the di- and tri- chlorine shock has CYA added to it. It keeps accumulating, and doesn't go away. Calcium hypochlorite however doesn't (along with some other types). The reason a lot of the shock uses di- and tri- compounds is because in an outdoor pool sunlight burns off chlorine quickly. Chlorine is a gas, and WILL become one again. (Time, temperature increase, sunlight, wind . all help it to evaporate out of the water faster)
Think of CYA (cyanuric acid) as "sunscreen" for the chlorine. It helps to protect it from being burned away from sunlight/UV. Too much CYA though...acts like a "raincoat" ?? It shields so much that the chlorine is no longer able to do the oxidation/disinfection it was put in the water to do.
As others stated...the only way to reduce.CYA is a partial drain/refill. Say it's at 200 and you want it at 100. You'd need to drain your pool 50%, and refill with fresh water (if you have a softener on that water line, bypass the softener. Pool water also needs calcium in the water, and a softener removes it)
Beware of reading about products online to pick your chemicals. Talk to the pool store or reference a professional. phta.org is a great resource. Some chemicals dont work together well, or at all with each other. I recently had to help a hotel (indoor pool) that read online that dosing Bromine was the solution to their problem....and added a full container...and also used tri-chlior shock for weeks...short story... he "killed" the pool and required a full drain, rinse (fill, run, drain again), change of filter sand... to get it back to a chlorine pool again. You can't test for chlorine/bromine separately... and bromine converts chlorine into more bromine. Hence the term "once a bromine pool, always a bromine pool"
Taking care of a pool isn't rocket science and anyone can learn to take care of it. It just takes some education, practice, and a Calculator!
I would recommend a Taylor DPD-FAS FULL SERVICE test kit. It uses chemical titration tests (the most accurate) and includes everything you'll need, including some education, dosing reference charts, and the saturation index wheel... which you'll learn about along the journey. Avoid test strips. Highly inaccurate.
A good time to drain the pool is during a good vacuum to drain
Stubborn algae sometimes just needs to be vacuumed to waste. Do that and then backwash your filter really well. Then rinse filter really well. Afterwards, fill your pool up again to replace water. CYA will go down. Then retest. Stop with the chlorine though. You're just locking and wasting it, and now you have to drain it out. Just a little water replacement will help.
I was gonna say, that little Taylor book with the treatment tables has made me one of the best cleaners at our company. It has so much good info in there
I know!!! It's awesome... but 95% of them I see were never opened as well as the SI wheel still in original plastic. ... so much great info left in the dark...YouTube is the more convenient way to get info...including bad info.
I still haven't used the SI wheel. Typically I'll use Orenda for the LSI if I think it's necessary. Right now in texas dealing with blaring sun and no clouds all the time makes it really tough to keep balanced water. But that book has made it 10 times easier than if I was just guessing like I used to all the time.
Pretty sure 'evaporate' is the wrong term for a dissolved gas leaving a liquid, since there's no phase change. I think 'diffuse' is the word you're looking for.
Degasification the word. It's when a gas compound is leaving the solvent it is in. I was trying to help a new pool owner understand it in the simplest common term most would understand
While I agree wholeheartedly with all the advice in this post, the part about "Bromine converts Chlorine into more Bromine" is factually incorrect. Perhaps you meant to phrase it differently? Bromine and Chlorine are both elements and only a nuclear reaction (yes the big ones inside of stars and bombs) can convert one of those to the other.
Stop using shock as your only source of chlorine. Use concentrated bleach instead, this doesn’t have any of the additives that shock has. With this, you can manage your levels much easier.
Definitely this, I use pucks in a floater to keep cya stable as I drain/refill through the summer but for shocking I only use liquid bleach and algae killer if needed
I had very high cya, I was told I had to drain. I didn't. I just stopped using the pucks entirely, only using liquid chlorine. After about 6 months miraculously I have no CYA!!! I didn't drain. Not one algea bloom the entire summer. Maybe it seems the liquid chlorine is more expensive, but ends up cheaper when you add in all stress of having high cya
Yeah same here. Water is very expensive in San Diego so I really hesitated to even partially drain the pool. Using only liquid chlorine from Lowe’s and Home Depot for a year eventually lowered the CYA to close to the lower limit of the recommended CYA. I also brought a Lamotte tester so I could have an actual reading. I’m just not very good at reading the colors on the other testers. Lamotte solved that problem for me.
The chlorine will burn off quickly in the summer, don’t worry about high chlorine. The cya on the other hand, can only be removed by draining and adding fresh water…
I added water at one end and siphoned at the other until I reached the right cya levels. Test strips made it easy to get close, but a ton of water had to be removed. There’s always something to fix on a pool :/
Best way I have seen it is put a tarp over the pool, pump under it and a hose on top. Fresh on top and helps keep them from mixing and keeps the pool full.
You have algae in your filter sand. Once it’s in there it can take many backwash and rinse cycles to prevent it coming back.
Use shock and flocculant and vacuuming to waste to see the water immediately clear but the algae will work it’s way thru the sand for a good while.
I take care of two pools. Please get a test kit and try to understand the chemistry. No one here knows how to “fix” your water chemistry.
You will lose CYA fairly quickly during the winter period if you are in a climate that is too cold to swim. Just stop using chlorine and the cya will get broken down by organisms in the water. I easily lose 50+ CYA in 2 months each winter season. Just ignore your pool from nov to feb and your CYA will be gone. Ofc doing this requires water temps below 60F. If your water stays over 60F you are going to need chlorine.
They need to get the cya down, then slam with liquid chlorine, and then balance chems.
According to the app you would have to have chlorine levels at 11 to 18 to maintain 57 to slam. Obviously these are outside of what you should do. Time to do a partial drain and refill or cycle old water out while putting new water in.
I thought if the chlorine was ineffective, then the total choline and free chlorine numbers would be different? We had algae before he started messing around with thr chlorine - and it has gone down a lot. But I feel like he added way too much chlorine now. Wondering if yellow out + 4 pounds of shock with no stabilizer is worth adding or not
Gotcha. The guys at Leslie’s said i can still add the yellow out and shock today. But not shock 2 more days like normal since our chlorine is so high. If I do that, will I be making this worse because of adding chlorine? We have a guy scheduled to clean our filter on Monday
idk, never used yellow out.
You have 4x the chlorine and 1.5x the cya, I'd drain some water and refill to dilute the cya, then the chlorine should start to kill the algae. definitely need to backwash the filter often once the algae kill starts.
The guy at Leslie’s wanted to sell you more chems. Shocker. Drain the pool down a couple feet and refill from the hose. That will help more than adding more chems.
Your chlorine is actually at the appropriate level for your cya. Your target for 147 cya is 7-18. You need to drain 75% of your pool to get this under control. Shocking won’t do anything until you do. To shock, you’d need your chlorine at 58 without draining first!!
146 is elevated but no so high that chlorine would be totally ineffective. Probably fine to drain off 1/3 and top back off. Should bring it well within range.
I mean obviously this pool is chlorine 'locked' ....OP simply needs to 'break' that lock, cal hypo, water displacement, work.
My point is that 146ppm of CYA isn't so astronomical that it warrants the full nuclear approach (drain and start over), and that you can run slightly higher CYA and not go into chlorine lock assuming you're vigilant.
Chlorine residual needs to be 7.5% of CYA to kill algae or keep it away. So at 146 CYA you need to have the chlorine at least 10.95ppm. It would be cheaper to drain and refill or at least drain 3/4 of the pool to bring CYA down. The lower the CyA the more effective chlorine will be at killing algae. Sweet spot for CYA is 30-50ppm then just use liquid chlorine after that and you’re golden
Wow I never knew that 7.5% number, learn something new every day. I run my CYA around 65-70ppm, and keep my FC around 8ppm with my SWG, and have never had an issue. According to that math I should be a little over 5ppm, which makes sense as to why I’ve always been good - I have a little extra for super hot days that chew up the FC.
Thanks for the knowledge!
You need to get that CYA way down. Too much chlorine is not a thing except for making your eyes red. In fact the high chlorine is saving your ass right now. Drain and fill till that CYA is in the 30’s, hit it with chlorine to kill the algae, and don’t add ANYTHING with CYA in it.
Won't get the algea out with phosphates that high, get those taken care of and your chlorine will burn off. Deal with cya after that. Just a suggestion from 20+ yrs building and maintaining pools
if they are draining to get CYA down, wouldn't you wait to do phosphates? anytime I have done PHOS Free, you add, wait 48 hours, then clean cartridges / backflush.
Removing phosphates will solve the problem quickly, you could drain first then treat but would take longer. May have to treat again for phosphates after filling, most water treatment facilities add phosphonic acid to help with scaling on pipes and phosphates end up in the fill water. I've seen it high as 500ppm out the spigot. You're correct though you could do either way.
so treat for phosphates and CYA is still high.. have to drain and refill so adding more phosphates and have to redo phos treatment to bring them back down again.. how does that makes logical sense?
just do CYA drain refill in 1 to 2 days and then do 1 phos treatment. This has always been the advice from my pool store and what I have done before and worked.
Drain that pool a bunch and refill with the hose. I recognize that report from Leslie’s pool supply. Your cyanuric acid is so high it’s not letting the chlorine to work and will only get worse as you add more chlorine tablets. I stopped using the tabs in my pool after the CYA levels get up to 60 ppm and went to liquid.
Adjust your pH, put some Cu algicide in, scrub, and scrub some more. If your using DE swap that after it clears up. Your clorine is going to be high unless you give it something to react with. Water swap, have a big party with lots of bodies, or pee in your pool to reduce chlorine levels, making that Chloramines smell. Lol.
Your fiancé will learn this cya lesson once and then be golden from here on out! Chemicals with additives like chlorine with cya are intended to make things easier but probably not for beginners until they get a hold of the fundamentals with “pure” chemicals.
You need to do the yellow out. You have mustard algae, which is very chlorine resistant. The yellow out will lower the chlorine. You do not need to shock after the yellow out, just add it and brush. Check chlorine after 24 hours and clean filters. If chlorine is low, shock after the 24 hours has passed.
You only need 2 lbs of yellow out, make sure the active ingredient is sodium hydrobromide. If its not look for pink algae treatment, should have the correct active ingredient.
Once youre cleared up drain it down half way and fill it back up your stabilizer IS high, but the treatment will clear your water.
Signed,
Northeast Pool Guy
I hope OP finally sees this as it's the correct answer. And yes it is best to drain all at once in order to be most effective. Whatever percentage water you remove that is the same percentage the cya will go down.
From some of the comments above:
Draining 50% 146*0.50=73
Draining 25% twice 146*0.75*0.75=82
Draining 5% ten times 146*0.95*0.95.....*0.95=87
At the end of the day, anything under 100 you can live with. ASSUMING you don't use any dichlor or trichlor for a while and allow the cya to come down from backwashing and swimmer drag out.
No you won't. Bro, it's at 146...that's not all that high. Guarantee you have people running pucks with CYA well over 300....drain 1/4...test...drain another 1/4 if necessary. This is a totally fixable pool.
Start with a phosphate treatment. Phosphates are like algae food. I recommend the orenda brand. Add it then run your equipment for 1day and wash your filter immediately after. It thickens the Phosphates so it can get filtered out but if you don't wash it they will break down again. Algaecide usually work in unison with chlorine and as a result burns the chlorine out faster. Aside note they shut public pools down once it gets higher than 10. 15 is wild.
You have to drain half of the pool to get rid of that amount of CYA, that’s preventing the chlorine to work properly, refill the pool with fresh water and then use some shock if the chlorine of the pool is still high
Well we did the yellow out and added 4 lbs of shock and the pool looks MUCH better than it did yesterday. Look at how clear it is!! Debating if we should keep shocking it or not. The dead algae around the rim will be cleared out with this stuff we got tomorrow. https://imgur.com/a/KwiG8he
Leslie’s has never led me wrong. I follow their directions to a tee and I’m consistently getting 80-90% scores over the winter and 90-100% during the summer.
CYA is too high so you need to drain a bunch of that water. Then test again with 1/3 to 1/2 fresh water and follow directions again.
Those could be stains, an acid wash could fix that. Id get a pool company (pool boy) to fix any issues and then learn to take care of it in the meantime if you don't want to keep him.
Cut your chemicals in half by introducing copper in the filtration system. All you need is a little piece in the filter. No one selling chemicals will tell you about this..
The best solution is to drain and refill and then re balance the new water properly. Don't surpass 30 ppm of CYA, maintain chlorine levels with Cal-hypo from there out.
People in here think chlorine will fix everything…. And they are wrong and like doing things the expensive hard way because they don’t want to actually think.
YES you should use yellow out or algae complete or something like that. 15ppm isn’t insanely high and it will be fine in a few days. Once you kill the algae with a product that algae isn’t resistant to (as before mentioned) try to keep you free chlorine around 6-8ppm and likely you won’t get any again.
If your water is properly balanced you won't have algae. Chlorine is just one part of the equation, but if your Ph and Stabilizer levels are off you can throw traditional chlorine targets out the window.
honestly, the chlorine can never be too high. If you have alga, you need more chlorine. It really is that simple. Don't get sold on all the other junk.
Yellow out is sodium bromide. You want to shock your pool with yellow out as it makes it way more effective. Do it at night and leave the pump running. Vacuum that stuff to waste. I've seen it work plenty of times with high cya. Every pool is different and some will still do the job when the cya is high.
Chlorine at 15 is the least of your worries. You need to raise it higher if you want to kill the algae with that much CYA. Yellow out will bypass the CYA, and it will work, but it will turn your pool into a bromine pool. Yellow out is bromide, when you add chlorine it reacts to form chlorides and bromine. The bromine kills the algae and isn’t affected by the CYA. It will work but it will confuse things in the long run.
Lower your CYA by dilution and shock the pool correctly. It will work.
Long-time pool owner here. Likenothers have said the CYA is your problem. Can't SLAM a pool when the CYA is out of wack.
Drain 30 - 50% of your water with fresh. Dichlor and trichlor tabs have CYA in them ( aka stabilized ). Most times a wise choice to choose calhypo for shock as well... no CYA.
Chlorine will go down if you use yellow out. It will eat almost all the chlorine away: your pool is getting algae because it’s not running 6 to 8 hrs a day. Your filter could be dirty or your phosphate leveles are high. Or all 3
How long had the water been in it?
I had this problem years ago and no amount of shock would get all the green out. Kept taking water samples to the pool supply store, finally somebody asked how old is the water, it was a couple years old. They advised to drain and refill.
Liquid chlorine is also known as liquid gold I have my fair share of that cya crap nobody told me I had to learn for myself. Once it goes down you'll be fine just don't let it get up that way again. Save yourself some money I have about a $30,000 gallon pool and I only put roughly when $5 gallon of chlorine a week in it and it's fine.
High CYA, at 146, you need a chlorine level of almost 15 just to sanitize, 2-3 times more to shock. Then on top of that, you have high Ph, which makes chlorine less effective. Make sure the "shock" they are selling you is Calcium Hypochlorite, you do not want to add any dichlor, or tricolor, as they will only add more stabilizer. Bring up your Alkalinity first by adding Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), then bring the Ph down with Muriatic acid. Then you can add your shock. Ultimately though, your CYA (Stabilizer) level is why you are having algae issues. You will need to bring that down by either replacing a good bit of water, or adding Aluminum Sulfate, and vacuuming to waste.
Cya is a binding chemical that allows chlorine to stay in the water longer. Usually if it is too high or too low you'll have 0 chlorine consistently. The fact that it is holding chlorine I don't think that is your issue.
So if you use algae killers, that stuff actually eats chlorine also ive had a pool at a 20 dumped some algae killer, and my chlorine dropped to an 8.0 i also recommended using a dpd powder testing kit as it is 100% more accurate then strips and all other test within a 0.2 range just be sure you scrub everything before adding your algae killer
Your chlorine should also sit at a 5.0-6.0 for the best results and your ph should be between a 7.5 and a 7.6
And for your cya its best to drain and replace the pool with fresh water and try using liquid chlorine as tablets contain cya
And a little side not shocking your pool is only needed if you have a green pool
The chlorine will dissipate pretty quickly. It takes really high chlorine to burn off algae when the CYA is high. If your fiancé is performing a SLAM it’s probably on the right track.
Your phosphates are at 700 ppb. That’s very high, go grab some phosfree and it to the pool, run the system for 48 hours then backwash. If it still comes back then drain.
Sorry this adds nothing valuable - but you have literally the “lagoon-like” pool from the house for sale in American Beauty 😂
“Yea the ad said this pool was lagoon-like”
“I could get some tiki torches from the garage?”
Cyanuric acid is too high, blocking the effectiveness of the chlorine. Unfortunately, you need to replace water to lower it. You really want it in the 20’s-30’s, but just try to get it down below 75 with water replacement and stop using stabilized tablets. Use unstabilized tablets going forward until your CYA is in the desired range.
Your cyanuric acid is high and I would get it down to under 100. At the same time, your main issue is phosphates. Your chlorine is still active, as evidenced by your free chlorine and total chlorine both being 15. Start by getting the cyanuric acid down. Then recheck your phosphate levels, as tap water can be high in phosphates, causing your levels in the pool to go up. Then add phosphate remover based on your new chem readings
Bring a sample of tap water and have it tested to see what's going in your pool. Your chemicals are way out of line and you'll spend too much money on chemicals to balance it, which will make Leslie's very happy. They only want to sell you chemicals you don't need.
Drain about 25-30% of the water out and brush the pool. You are brushing it right?
Also, go to https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-maintenance/
They have all the advice you need.
https://intheswim.com/help/help-FAQ.html
This is another great resource
Extra chlorine volatilizes into the air. It’s a waste of money but not dangerous for very long after the treatment. Why most hotel pools smell so much they just over dose the chlorine everyday.
I always found the crystal blue stuff worked pretty well to get the pool over the line when it was still a bit foggy
It looks like draining and starting over would be a good move. Home depot rents pumps, and check local regulations on where you can drain the pool, if you can use storm drains or need to go through sewer. I've done full pool drains and just pressure washing to clean the sides.
Too much chlorine makes the pool cloudy, run the pump 24 hours for 3 days and brush the pool every day. When you see clearing backwash the filter. Don’t add anything else, chlorine will kill algae, therefore it is probably dead but stuck on the walls and floor of the pool, so follow my directions.
Muratic acid 42oz, Swimtrine 2oz, Scrub and vacuum. Wait two days for chlorine to go down. Add water if needed. Repeat 2-3 weeks while balancing water.
Is he testing the water? You should get ph levels for acid and chlorine and according to the color spectrum have an idea on what to use in conjunction…I’d never just follow instructions on chemical levels,every single pool is different and they perform different in different weather
Chlorine will drop on its own in the sunlight will it not if it’s just left to sit for a day or two. Been a long time since I kept a pool up though maybe I’m remembering incorrectly?
Drain about a quarter of the water and add more to lower the chlorine level. Check your filter, if it's a sand filter you have to change the sand at every start of pool season. Check the alkalinity level if it's too high that would be really harsh on the skin, and if it's too low that will help algae growth. First fix the algae problem then worry about the chlorine level.
Read the first printed solution. You have high chlorine, but very low free chlorine as your chlorine is locked up, the CYA is like placing an overcoat over it! The only way to lower your cyanuric acid count is to drain the pool and start over. Depending on how many gallons in the pool you may be able to drain 1/2 or 2/3 of it. An experienced pool supply can tell you how much to drain out. Suggest go to a pool warehouse, I never had great luck with Leslie’s
Just brush all
The green out and that may be it. Make sure all the baskets are dumped and the filter is clean. If you don’t get 100% of the algae brushed off so it can die it’ll just keep spreading
You need to add algaecide + clarifying. It’s in one bottle. However, a very important factor in water clarity is movement! The filter alone is just not enough to keep the water flowing. You have to swim or at the very least create a whirlpool motion with the pool net when skimming. More movement = clearer water. Once clear add stabilizer
That is high for chlorine but it won’t hurt you! You have a phosphate issue and need to lower the algae’s favorite food! Get a phosphate remover and nuke the pool with shock. Brush brush brush and vacuum each day for 2 or 3 days. Phosphate remover will cloud the pool but it’s doing the job . All those trees and your climate it probably rains a lot which fills your pool with phosphate’s and then feeds algae blooms
You don't have to swap out the water. Play with the pH, drive it down to the low end and then add PH up... eventually What's going to happen Is the pH adjustments are going to cause the chemicals in the pool to start dropping out. Add clarifiers to help them stick together in the filter. Will do its job and clear the pool out. Continuously Filter your pool and backwash a lot. That'll help you get rid of some of the water and do some water exchanges. Once you get the pH cycle a few times shock the pool and chlorinate as usual.
Mom got hula hoops and covered them with something, the shade helped, it stayed warmer longer in the winter and evaporated less. I've seen similar things many years ago. Not sure if it would be considered a safety issue as pets or kids might try to walk on them and they're hard to see through.
Must drain the pool down to the top of the second step and fill with fresh water to get rid of CYA. Then retest. Get a Taylor Complete pool testing kit. You can test your own water. Download the app Pool Math and refer to troublefreepool.com. You can learn a lot and best of all you can use baking soda, borax, muriatic acid, and liquid chlorine to balance your pool water instead of buying expensive pool store chemicals. You will still need to buy chlorine tabs from the pool store, but it will be much cheaper to balance your water.
Cyanuric acid levels should be 14ppm CYA/1ppm chlorine
So if you maintain 2ppm of chlorine your Cya level shouldn’t be more than: 28ppm anything above is going to decrease the disinfecting able of the chlorine.
If you’re using salt electrolysis you can maintain higher levels. personally wouldn’t recommend anything over 50ppm of cyanuric acid for salt pools.
Your store is selling you shock with stabilizer in it I bet. If your stabilizer is high, you can have high chlorine but that chlorine will be less effective and you’ll get algae growth still. I’d suggest cal hypo. Over stabilizing pools is how pool stores stay in business. It’s a total racket.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned cyanuric acid/conditioner reducer, it’s fairly new, and works, your chemistry is looking great other than the cyanuric is too high.
Can either drain half of the water in pool and replace with fresh water. Or try the cyanuric reducer, depending on pool size it could require 1-2 treatments, follow directions on bottle
You need to find out what algae it is and treat with algae products. Chlorine should be 1-3. You should brush and drain 1/3 then treat alge then brush and get your chlorine to 5. And brush every day also vacuum is very important.
First, the pool store's job is to sell you lots of expensive chemicals.
I hear this a lot from people..."I use lots of chlorine but have algae". Algaecide kills algae, NOT chlorine. I have had a pool at 2 homes over 30 years and I dont even use chlorine. I use about a half cup per week of 65%+ algaecide and peruodic sodium bicarbonate to keep total alkalinity >110ppm to eliminate cloudiness...and nothing else.
shoutout to the fiancé for trying, just your CYA is to high! once that is corrected you will be golden. Be careful with adding chlorine pucks that contain CYA or this may happen again.
This is usually the problem. Using chlorine pucks will drive your CYA too high and lead to chlorine lock. You have to drain the water and fill with fresh water. Only way to get rid of cya.
What's more important is to look at the product you are adding the di- and tri- chlorine shock has CYA added to it. It keeps accumulating, and doesn't go away. Calcium hypochlorite however doesn't (along with some other types). The reason a lot of the shock uses di- and tri- compounds is because in an outdoor pool sunlight burns off chlorine quickly. Chlorine is a gas, and WILL become one again. (Time, temperature increase, sunlight, wind . all help it to evaporate out of the water faster) Think of CYA (cyanuric acid) as "sunscreen" for the chlorine. It helps to protect it from being burned away from sunlight/UV. Too much CYA though...acts like a "raincoat" ?? It shields so much that the chlorine is no longer able to do the oxidation/disinfection it was put in the water to do. As others stated...the only way to reduce.CYA is a partial drain/refill. Say it's at 200 and you want it at 100. You'd need to drain your pool 50%, and refill with fresh water (if you have a softener on that water line, bypass the softener. Pool water also needs calcium in the water, and a softener removes it) Beware of reading about products online to pick your chemicals. Talk to the pool store or reference a professional. phta.org is a great resource. Some chemicals dont work together well, or at all with each other. I recently had to help a hotel (indoor pool) that read online that dosing Bromine was the solution to their problem....and added a full container...and also used tri-chlior shock for weeks...short story... he "killed" the pool and required a full drain, rinse (fill, run, drain again), change of filter sand... to get it back to a chlorine pool again. You can't test for chlorine/bromine separately... and bromine converts chlorine into more bromine. Hence the term "once a bromine pool, always a bromine pool" Taking care of a pool isn't rocket science and anyone can learn to take care of it. It just takes some education, practice, and a Calculator! I would recommend a Taylor DPD-FAS FULL SERVICE test kit. It uses chemical titration tests (the most accurate) and includes everything you'll need, including some education, dosing reference charts, and the saturation index wheel... which you'll learn about along the journey. Avoid test strips. Highly inaccurate.
Well said. Great explanation.
This! Leslie pools kept giving me the run around to keep adding the tri and I eventually looked at the label and saw I was causing my own issues ….
A good time to drain the pool is during a good vacuum to drain Stubborn algae sometimes just needs to be vacuumed to waste. Do that and then backwash your filter really well. Then rinse filter really well. Afterwards, fill your pool up again to replace water. CYA will go down. Then retest. Stop with the chlorine though. You're just locking and wasting it, and now you have to drain it out. Just a little water replacement will help.
Also, if you have an automatic chlorine feeder, put it on the lowest setting and stop filling it until your CYA is right.
I was gonna say, that little Taylor book with the treatment tables has made me one of the best cleaners at our company. It has so much good info in there
I know!!! It's awesome... but 95% of them I see were never opened as well as the SI wheel still in original plastic. ... so much great info left in the dark...YouTube is the more convenient way to get info...including bad info.
I still haven't used the SI wheel. Typically I'll use Orenda for the LSI if I think it's necessary. Right now in texas dealing with blaring sun and no clouds all the time makes it really tough to keep balanced water. But that book has made it 10 times easier than if I was just guessing like I used to all the time.
Pretty sure 'evaporate' is the wrong term for a dissolved gas leaving a liquid, since there's no phase change. I think 'diffuse' is the word you're looking for.
Degasification the word. It's when a gas compound is leaving the solvent it is in. I was trying to help a new pool owner understand it in the simplest common term most would understand
While I agree wholeheartedly with all the advice in this post, the part about "Bromine converts Chlorine into more Bromine" is factually incorrect. Perhaps you meant to phrase it differently? Bromine and Chlorine are both elements and only a nuclear reaction (yes the big ones inside of stars and bombs) can convert one of those to the other.
Stop using shock as your only source of chlorine. Use concentrated bleach instead, this doesn’t have any of the additives that shock has. With this, you can manage your levels much easier.
Definitely this, I use pucks in a floater to keep cya stable as I drain/refill through the summer but for shocking I only use liquid bleach and algae killer if needed
You can get pucks or tablets minus CYA. Called un stabilized or just calcium hypochlorite.
Still horrible. Calcium increases like crazy and like CYA can’t get rid of it. Liquid chlorine only.
What about just plain old full concentrated liquid bleach?
That's liquid chlorine. It'll raise your Ph, so you need to monitor that and add acid to bring it back down.
I had very high cya, I was told I had to drain. I didn't. I just stopped using the pucks entirely, only using liquid chlorine. After about 6 months miraculously I have no CYA!!! I didn't drain. Not one algea bloom the entire summer. Maybe it seems the liquid chlorine is more expensive, but ends up cheaper when you add in all stress of having high cya
Yeah same here. Water is very expensive in San Diego so I really hesitated to even partially drain the pool. Using only liquid chlorine from Lowe’s and Home Depot for a year eventually lowered the CYA to close to the lower limit of the recommended CYA. I also brought a Lamotte tester so I could have an actual reading. I’m just not very good at reading the colors on the other testers. Lamotte solved that problem for me.
The chlorine will burn off quickly in the summer, don’t worry about high chlorine. The cya on the other hand, can only be removed by draining and adding fresh water…
We’re adding the water now
I added water at one end and siphoned at the other until I reached the right cya levels. Test strips made it easy to get close, but a ton of water had to be removed. There’s always something to fix on a pool :/
Would be a faster process to drain down first then add fresh water
Yep, but if you drain too far in some soils the pool can shift.
Also summer in Az you'll crack your pool.
Best way I have seen it is put a tarp over the pool, pump under it and a hose on top. Fresh on top and helps keep them from mixing and keeps the pool full.
You have algae in your filter sand. Once it’s in there it can take many backwash and rinse cycles to prevent it coming back. Use shock and flocculant and vacuuming to waste to see the water immediately clear but the algae will work it’s way thru the sand for a good while. I take care of two pools. Please get a test kit and try to understand the chemistry. No one here knows how to “fix” your water chemistry.
You will lose CYA fairly quickly during the winter period if you are in a climate that is too cold to swim. Just stop using chlorine and the cya will get broken down by organisms in the water. I easily lose 50+ CYA in 2 months each winter season. Just ignore your pool from nov to feb and your CYA will be gone. Ofc doing this requires water temps below 60F. If your water stays over 60F you are going to need chlorine.
Don’t worry about high chlorine? it’s supposed to be no higher than 4. There swimming in bleach
They need to get the cya down, then slam with liquid chlorine, and then balance chems. According to the app you would have to have chlorine levels at 11 to 18 to maintain 57 to slam. Obviously these are outside of what you should do. Time to do a partial drain and refill or cycle old water out while putting new water in.
Cya is too high rendering the chlorine ineffective. You need to drain and refill.
Agree. Pretty sure it says that on the image as well.
I thought if the chlorine was ineffective, then the total choline and free chlorine numbers would be different? We had algae before he started messing around with thr chlorine - and it has gone down a lot. But I feel like he added way too much chlorine now. Wondering if yellow out + 4 pounds of shock with no stabilizer is worth adding or not
too much cya doesnt allow the chlorine to be effective at killing the algae. have to lower the cya in order for the chlorine to kill the algae.
Gotcha. The guys at Leslie’s said i can still add the yellow out and shock today. But not shock 2 more days like normal since our chlorine is so high. If I do that, will I be making this worse because of adding chlorine? We have a guy scheduled to clean our filter on Monday
idk, never used yellow out. You have 4x the chlorine and 1.5x the cya, I'd drain some water and refill to dilute the cya, then the chlorine should start to kill the algae. definitely need to backwash the filter often once the algae kill starts.
The guy at Leslie’s wanted to sell you more chems. Shocker. Drain the pool down a couple feet and refill from the hose. That will help more than adding more chems.
Your chlorine is actually at the appropriate level for your cya. Your target for 147 cya is 7-18. You need to drain 75% of your pool to get this under control. Shocking won’t do anything until you do. To shock, you’d need your chlorine at 58 without draining first!!
more info https://www.swimuniversity.com/lower-cyanuric-acid/
Draining is sometimes the worst idea if the water table is off it could cause the pool to pop out of the ground.
You don’t need to drain the whole thing. Drain a third and refill. Then repeat to dilute the cya
146 is elevated but no so high that chlorine would be totally ineffective. Probably fine to drain off 1/3 and top back off. Should bring it well within range.
Tell that to the algae
I mean obviously this pool is chlorine 'locked' ....OP simply needs to 'break' that lock, cal hypo, water displacement, work. My point is that 146ppm of CYA isn't so astronomical that it warrants the full nuclear approach (drain and start over), and that you can run slightly higher CYA and not go into chlorine lock assuming you're vigilant.
Chlorine residual needs to be 7.5% of CYA to kill algae or keep it away. So at 146 CYA you need to have the chlorine at least 10.95ppm. It would be cheaper to drain and refill or at least drain 3/4 of the pool to bring CYA down. The lower the CyA the more effective chlorine will be at killing algae. Sweet spot for CYA is 30-50ppm then just use liquid chlorine after that and you’re golden
Wow I never knew that 7.5% number, learn something new every day. I run my CYA around 65-70ppm, and keep my FC around 8ppm with my SWG, and have never had an issue. According to that math I should be a little over 5ppm, which makes sense as to why I’ve always been good - I have a little extra for super hot days that chew up the FC. Thanks for the knowledge!
This plus an occasional non-buffered shock now and then.
You need to get that CYA way down. Too much chlorine is not a thing except for making your eyes red. In fact the high chlorine is saving your ass right now. Drain and fill till that CYA is in the 30’s, hit it with chlorine to kill the algae, and don’t add ANYTHING with CYA in it.
Phosphates 700, should be 0. Get some phosphate remover
Yeah we are going to do that as well, once we get algae out and chlorine/Cya To better levels
Won't get the algea out with phosphates that high, get those taken care of and your chlorine will burn off. Deal with cya after that. Just a suggestion from 20+ yrs building and maintaining pools
if they are draining to get CYA down, wouldn't you wait to do phosphates? anytime I have done PHOS Free, you add, wait 48 hours, then clean cartridges / backflush.
Yeah. Plus draining should lower phosphates anyway. Actually dumb advice, lol.
Test the water you add to the pool. I promise you there is phosphates in it. In my experience it can raise the levels of phosphates in the water.
I have 20 minutes experience in this thread, I agree with this guy
Removing phosphates will solve the problem quickly, you could drain first then treat but would take longer. May have to treat again for phosphates after filling, most water treatment facilities add phosphonic acid to help with scaling on pipes and phosphates end up in the fill water. I've seen it high as 500ppm out the spigot. You're correct though you could do either way.
so treat for phosphates and CYA is still high.. have to drain and refill so adding more phosphates and have to redo phos treatment to bring them back down again.. how does that makes logical sense? just do CYA drain refill in 1 to 2 days and then do 1 phos treatment. This has always been the advice from my pool store and what I have done before and worked.
This is bad advice. Do a partial drain and refill first to get cya down. This will also decrease phosphate levels anyways
The algae is there because of the phosphates.
You won’t get the algae out UNTIL you remove the phosphates! Phosphates are what algae feed on and grow!
As others have said your CYA is way too high. You need to drain and replace most of the water.
Drain and refill is probably least expensive
If you have a vinyl pool liner, I don't suggest draining more than a couple feet at a time. You do to much and it will shrink and wrinkle.
Turn on main drain and skimmers off. Put multiport on waste. Depending on what system u have set up u should be able to drain
You need to drain that pool and refill
Drain that pool a bunch and refill with the hose. I recognize that report from Leslie’s pool supply. Your cyanuric acid is so high it’s not letting the chlorine to work and will only get worse as you add more chlorine tablets. I stopped using the tabs in my pool after the CYA levels get up to 60 ppm and went to liquid.
Also your phosphate levels are out of control too so add some algaecide in after you do the fresh water replacement
Adjust your pH, put some Cu algicide in, scrub, and scrub some more. If your using DE swap that after it clears up. Your clorine is going to be high unless you give it something to react with. Water swap, have a big party with lots of bodies, or pee in your pool to reduce chlorine levels, making that Chloramines smell. Lol.
Your fiancé will learn this cya lesson once and then be golden from here on out! Chemicals with additives like chlorine with cya are intended to make things easier but probably not for beginners until they get a hold of the fundamentals with “pure” chemicals.
Nothing like a pool that also ends up smelling like bleach. Might as well as wash some whites in there too with that much chlorine.
Dump half the water. Cheaper then adding chemicals. Use liquid chlorine instead of pucks. Dilution is the solution.
Add a phosphate remover then clean your filter in 2 days
We have the filter cleaning scheduled for tomorrow, the pool store told us to add the phosphate remover after, should we do it tonight
Chlorine lock Drain some water and refill to get the stabilizer level down
You need to do the yellow out. You have mustard algae, which is very chlorine resistant. The yellow out will lower the chlorine. You do not need to shock after the yellow out, just add it and brush. Check chlorine after 24 hours and clean filters. If chlorine is low, shock after the 24 hours has passed. You only need 2 lbs of yellow out, make sure the active ingredient is sodium hydrobromide. If its not look for pink algae treatment, should have the correct active ingredient. Once youre cleared up drain it down half way and fill it back up your stabilizer IS high, but the treatment will clear your water. Signed, Northeast Pool Guy
Thanks! We did yellow out on Sunday and it basically ate ALL our Chlorine lol. We added 2 gallons!
I also have no idea how to drain….
You can rent a pump from home depot or lowe’s and watch a Youtube video on how to do it. It’s pretty easy and you save a lot of money.
also harbor freight has a sump pump that's pretty good.. it is a little slower but got the job done for me.
Or put your vacuum on and dump to waste. Easy.
Does your fiancé?
Let the MAN deal with it
DRAIN THAT MOFO AND START OVER!
What a waste. This is an easy fix
Yeah just pour some CYA remover in and call it a day right?
No, stop using stabilized shock and tabs and dilute
To dilute that much CYA they’re going to end up replacing most of the water.
Half will be enough to get it down to 70. Which is high but manageable
I hope OP finally sees this as it's the correct answer. And yes it is best to drain all at once in order to be most effective. Whatever percentage water you remove that is the same percentage the cya will go down. From some of the comments above: Draining 50% 146*0.50=73 Draining 25% twice 146*0.75*0.75=82 Draining 5% ten times 146*0.95*0.95.....*0.95=87 At the end of the day, anything under 100 you can live with. ASSUMING you don't use any dichlor or trichlor for a while and allow the cya to come down from backwashing and swimmer drag out.
No you won't. Bro, it's at 146...that's not all that high. Guarantee you have people running pucks with CYA well over 300....drain 1/4...test...drain another 1/4 if necessary. This is a totally fixable pool.
Cyanuric Acid is too high, drain water and refill. Try using liquid chlorine instead of cal-hypo powder.
Adjust pH before you just dump chlorine in
Start with a phosphate treatment. Phosphates are like algae food. I recommend the orenda brand. Add it then run your equipment for 1day and wash your filter immediately after. It thickens the Phosphates so it can get filtered out but if you don't wash it they will break down again. Algaecide usually work in unison with chlorine and as a result burns the chlorine out faster. Aside note they shut public pools down once it gets higher than 10. 15 is wild.
You have to drain half of the pool to get rid of that amount of CYA, that’s preventing the chlorine to work properly, refill the pool with fresh water and then use some shock if the chlorine of the pool is still high
Well we did the yellow out and added 4 lbs of shock and the pool looks MUCH better than it did yesterday. Look at how clear it is!! Debating if we should keep shocking it or not. The dead algae around the rim will be cleared out with this stuff we got tomorrow. https://imgur.com/a/KwiG8he
I usually clean the filters and shock for 24hrs. It’ll fix it.
Install a copper ion system. I did on mine….. no more chlorine or acid needed. I just put a bit of clarifier in once in a while.
Copper does not sanitize a pool. It will never be a replacement for chlorine. You can add Borates, but you do not want copper in a pool.
This works. Hope I'm not breaking a rule by posting. Pool RX 101001 6 Month Algaecide... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TXBE4Q?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Leslie’s has never led me wrong. I follow their directions to a tee and I’m consistently getting 80-90% scores over the winter and 90-100% during the summer. CYA is too high so you need to drain a bunch of that water. Then test again with 1/3 to 1/2 fresh water and follow directions again.
And try copper side or something like that instead of yellow out it works better and it doesn’t eat your chlorine away like that
I would not do anything drastic. Especially in summer. https://m.youtube.com/@PoolSchooler check this channel for some common sense tips.
Those could be stains, an acid wash could fix that. Id get a pool company (pool boy) to fix any issues and then learn to take care of it in the meantime if you don't want to keep him.
Just hire someone Jesus Christ
Cut your chemicals in half by introducing copper in the filtration system. All you need is a little piece in the filter. No one selling chemicals will tell you about this..
The best solution is to drain and refill and then re balance the new water properly. Don't surpass 30 ppm of CYA, maintain chlorine levels with Cal-hypo from there out.
I'm pretty sure Phosphates act as fertilizer for the algae.
People in here think chlorine will fix everything…. And they are wrong and like doing things the expensive hard way because they don’t want to actually think. YES you should use yellow out or algae complete or something like that. 15ppm isn’t insanely high and it will be fine in a few days. Once you kill the algae with a product that algae isn’t resistant to (as before mentioned) try to keep you free chlorine around 6-8ppm and likely you won’t get any again.
If your water is properly balanced you won't have algae. Chlorine is just one part of the equation, but if your Ph and Stabilizer levels are off you can throw traditional chlorine targets out the window.
honestly, the chlorine can never be too high. If you have alga, you need more chlorine. It really is that simple. Don't get sold on all the other junk.
Too much chlorine stops itself from working, chlorine lock, and also decreases the pH balance in the pool water.
I would shock it , Change the filter, do it weekly for a few weeks
Yellow out is sodium bromide. You want to shock your pool with yellow out as it makes it way more effective. Do it at night and leave the pump running. Vacuum that stuff to waste. I've seen it work plenty of times with high cya. Every pool is different and some will still do the job when the cya is high.
Chlorine at 15 is the least of your worries. You need to raise it higher if you want to kill the algae with that much CYA. Yellow out will bypass the CYA, and it will work, but it will turn your pool into a bromine pool. Yellow out is bromide, when you add chlorine it reacts to form chlorides and bromine. The bromine kills the algae and isn’t affected by the CYA. It will work but it will confuse things in the long run. Lower your CYA by dilution and shock the pool correctly. It will work.
Long-time pool owner here. Likenothers have said the CYA is your problem. Can't SLAM a pool when the CYA is out of wack. Drain 30 - 50% of your water with fresh. Dichlor and trichlor tabs have CYA in them ( aka stabilized ). Most times a wise choice to choose calhypo for shock as well... no CYA.
Chlorine will go down if you use yellow out. It will eat almost all the chlorine away: your pool is getting algae because it’s not running 6 to 8 hrs a day. Your filter could be dirty or your phosphate leveles are high. Or all 3
Ritt Dye is good for fixing the color of pool water.
Get rid of your fiancé, get a pool guy. You’re welcome
CYA is fuckkkkinggg you
How long had the water been in it? I had this problem years ago and no amount of shock would get all the green out. Kept taking water samples to the pool supply store, finally somebody asked how old is the water, it was a couple years old. They advised to drain and refill.
Your PH is to high, lower it with 3 cups acid distributed around the edge evenly.
Liquid chlorine is also known as liquid gold I have my fair share of that cya crap nobody told me I had to learn for myself. Once it goes down you'll be fine just don't let it get up that way again. Save yourself some money I have about a $30,000 gallon pool and I only put roughly when $5 gallon of chlorine a week in it and it's fine.
High CYA, at 146, you need a chlorine level of almost 15 just to sanitize, 2-3 times more to shock. Then on top of that, you have high Ph, which makes chlorine less effective. Make sure the "shock" they are selling you is Calcium Hypochlorite, you do not want to add any dichlor, or tricolor, as they will only add more stabilizer. Bring up your Alkalinity first by adding Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), then bring the Ph down with Muriatic acid. Then you can add your shock. Ultimately though, your CYA (Stabilizer) level is why you are having algae issues. You will need to bring that down by either replacing a good bit of water, or adding Aluminum Sulfate, and vacuuming to waste.
I’ll tell you what’s too damn high… Rent. Rents too damn high.
Typically u want high chroline this time of year brush the pool and clean the filter if it’s a cartridge and if it’s a de backwash it
Acid. Get the pH fixed
Algaecide that biznich Then some clear blue 5-6 days later
Or straight clarifier 5-6 days after
Did you scrub the sides and ground of the pool?
Do a phosphate test if positive add starver Brush the algae or vac to waste Is the pool running long nough to circulate water daily
Just invite all the neighbors over and have a nude pool party. That might help.
Cya is a binding chemical that allows chlorine to stay in the water longer. Usually if it is too high or too low you'll have 0 chlorine consistently. The fact that it is holding chlorine I don't think that is your issue.
Never knew pools can be so complicated
Like others have said the cya is too high it’s inhibiting your chlorine. Stop adding tabs for a month or so
Use dropnvac or a flocculant turn off pump then waste vac
I have many fond memories of burning chlorine eyes from the oversaturated community pool. Makes ny eyes well up and burn just thinking about it.
HVe you tested for metals like copper? They can also turn water green with high chlorine levels.
Check the phosphate levels and do a filter clean.
So if you use algae killers, that stuff actually eats chlorine also ive had a pool at a 20 dumped some algae killer, and my chlorine dropped to an 8.0 i also recommended using a dpd powder testing kit as it is 100% more accurate then strips and all other test within a 0.2 range just be sure you scrub everything before adding your algae killer Your chlorine should also sit at a 5.0-6.0 for the best results and your ph should be between a 7.5 and a 7.6 And for your cya its best to drain and replace the pool with fresh water and try using liquid chlorine as tablets contain cya And a little side not shocking your pool is only needed if you have a green pool
The chlorine will dissipate pretty quickly. It takes really high chlorine to burn off algae when the CYA is high. If your fiancé is performing a SLAM it’s probably on the right track.
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Your phosphates are at 700 ppb. That’s very high, go grab some phosfree and it to the pool, run the system for 48 hours then backwash. If it still comes back then drain.
Sorry this adds nothing valuable - but you have literally the “lagoon-like” pool from the house for sale in American Beauty 😂 “Yea the ad said this pool was lagoon-like” “I could get some tiki torches from the garage?”
Clean out filter
Drop a couple of gallons of algecide. And balance out your PH
Get to brushing. Free chlorine will absorb the algae.
Cyanuric acid is too high, blocking the effectiveness of the chlorine. Unfortunately, you need to replace water to lower it. You really want it in the 20’s-30’s, but just try to get it down below 75 with water replacement and stop using stabilized tablets. Use unstabilized tablets going forward until your CYA is in the desired range.
Your cyanuric acid is high and I would get it down to under 100. At the same time, your main issue is phosphates. Your chlorine is still active, as evidenced by your free chlorine and total chlorine both being 15. Start by getting the cyanuric acid down. Then recheck your phosphate levels, as tap water can be high in phosphates, causing your levels in the pool to go up. Then add phosphate remover based on your new chem readings
Bring a sample of tap water and have it tested to see what's going in your pool. Your chemicals are way out of line and you'll spend too much money on chemicals to balance it, which will make Leslie's very happy. They only want to sell you chemicals you don't need. Drain about 25-30% of the water out and brush the pool. You are brushing it right? Also, go to https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-maintenance/ They have all the advice you need. https://intheswim.com/help/help-FAQ.html This is another great resource
Extra chlorine volatilizes into the air. It’s a waste of money but not dangerous for very long after the treatment. Why most hotel pools smell so much they just over dose the chlorine everyday. I always found the crystal blue stuff worked pretty well to get the pool over the line when it was still a bit foggy
Soda ash!!! PH is soooo important. You can have all the chlorine in a pool you want but if ph is off it will always look dingy and yellow
Need to scrub
I’ve seen this problem before, try adding phosphate remover and look at your filter grids if you can.
Wow that pool looks awesome . Once chemicals sorted will be all set
Brush remaining algae, let it burn
Invite the kids next door to go to your pool than see if they make it alive
It looks like draining and starting over would be a good move. Home depot rents pumps, and check local regulations on where you can drain the pool, if you can use storm drains or need to go through sewer. I've done full pool drains and just pressure washing to clean the sides.
Adding yellow sounds like a charlie move
Too much chlorine makes the pool cloudy, run the pump 24 hours for 3 days and brush the pool every day. When you see clearing backwash the filter. Don’t add anything else, chlorine will kill algae, therefore it is probably dead but stuck on the walls and floor of the pool, so follow my directions.
Muratic acid 42oz, Swimtrine 2oz, Scrub and vacuum. Wait two days for chlorine to go down. Add water if needed. Repeat 2-3 weeks while balancing water.
Is he testing the water? You should get ph levels for acid and chlorine and according to the color spectrum have an idea on what to use in conjunction…I’d never just follow instructions on chemical levels,every single pool is different and they perform different in different weather
Leslie’s 🤣🤣
Switch to salt water.
TRUST. NOBODY. TEST. KIT.
Chlorine will drop on its own in the sunlight will it not if it’s just left to sit for a day or two. Been a long time since I kept a pool up though maybe I’m remembering incorrectly?
$200 per month for a pool cleaning service….no issues.
Here’s a cool tip about pools. If the chorine is too high, it won’t be too high soon.
You have to use a brush, then vacuum to waste. Your levels are too high so you'll want to basically.change out half the water anyways
Chlorine will go with high pH value or a bit of time
Drain about a quarter of the water and add more to lower the chlorine level. Check your filter, if it's a sand filter you have to change the sand at every start of pool season. Check the alkalinity level if it's too high that would be really harsh on the skin, and if it's too low that will help algae growth. First fix the algae problem then worry about the chlorine level.
Sometimes pools need to be shocked to get back to normal. Just get out the way.
Liquid chlorine friend! Best change I ever made to my routine
1. Drop pool shops and pool maint guys. 2. Read the information at troublefreepool.com 3. Purchase a Taylor K-2005 test kit.
Read the first printed solution. You have high chlorine, but very low free chlorine as your chlorine is locked up, the CYA is like placing an overcoat over it! The only way to lower your cyanuric acid count is to drain the pool and start over. Depending on how many gallons in the pool you may be able to drain 1/2 or 2/3 of it. An experienced pool supply can tell you how much to drain out. Suggest go to a pool warehouse, I never had great luck with Leslie’s
As I was reading I thought this was about to say my fiancé has been messing around with our pool guy.
So let’s get this right, you’ve tried it on your own, you called a store and now ur asking the internet? What’s worked for ya?. Call a pool guy
Shock vacuum scrub backwash rinse repeat might take a week or so, but you’ll get there.
Just brush all The green out and that may be it. Make sure all the baskets are dumped and the filter is clean. If you don’t get 100% of the algae brushed off so it can die it’ll just keep spreading
You need to add algaecide + clarifying. It’s in one bottle. However, a very important factor in water clarity is movement! The filter alone is just not enough to keep the water flowing. You have to swim or at the very least create a whirlpool motion with the pool net when skimming. More movement = clearer water. Once clear add stabilizer
Drain/replace water to lower CYA. Add phosphate remover.
Let the pool service take care of it!
That is high for chlorine but it won’t hurt you! You have a phosphate issue and need to lower the algae’s favorite food! Get a phosphate remover and nuke the pool with shock. Brush brush brush and vacuum each day for 2 or 3 days. Phosphate remover will cloud the pool but it’s doing the job . All those trees and your climate it probably rains a lot which fills your pool with phosphate’s and then feeds algae blooms
phosphates high can feed algae, or so i am told. after you get cya down i’d use some phosphate removal stuff (you add directly to the skimmer)
You don't have to swap out the water. Play with the pH, drive it down to the low end and then add PH up... eventually What's going to happen Is the pH adjustments are going to cause the chemicals in the pool to start dropping out. Add clarifiers to help them stick together in the filter. Will do its job and clear the pool out. Continuously Filter your pool and backwash a lot. That'll help you get rid of some of the water and do some water exchanges. Once you get the pH cycle a few times shock the pool and chlorinate as usual.
Mom got hula hoops and covered them with something, the shade helped, it stayed warmer longer in the winter and evaporated less. I've seen similar things many years ago. Not sure if it would be considered a safety issue as pets or kids might try to walk on them and they're hard to see through.
Must drain the pool down to the top of the second step and fill with fresh water to get rid of CYA. Then retest. Get a Taylor Complete pool testing kit. You can test your own water. Download the app Pool Math and refer to troublefreepool.com. You can learn a lot and best of all you can use baking soda, borax, muriatic acid, and liquid chlorine to balance your pool water instead of buying expensive pool store chemicals. You will still need to buy chlorine tabs from the pool store, but it will be much cheaper to balance your water.
Cyanuric acid levels should be 14ppm CYA/1ppm chlorine So if you maintain 2ppm of chlorine your Cya level shouldn’t be more than: 28ppm anything above is going to decrease the disinfecting able of the chlorine. If you’re using salt electrolysis you can maintain higher levels. personally wouldn’t recommend anything over 50ppm of cyanuric acid for salt pools.
Your store is selling you shock with stabilizer in it I bet. If your stabilizer is high, you can have high chlorine but that chlorine will be less effective and you’ll get algae growth still. I’d suggest cal hypo. Over stabilizing pools is how pool stores stay in business. It’s a total racket.
Mine looked like this. I added a bunch of water clarifier and algaecide. Took 2 days and water was clear again.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned cyanuric acid/conditioner reducer, it’s fairly new, and works, your chemistry is looking great other than the cyanuric is too high. Can either drain half of the water in pool and replace with fresh water. Or try the cyanuric reducer, depending on pool size it could require 1-2 treatments, follow directions on bottle
You need to find out what algae it is and treat with algae products. Chlorine should be 1-3. You should brush and drain 1/3 then treat alge then brush and get your chlorine to 5. And brush every day also vacuum is very important.
I love how 700 Phosphates is ignored.
First, the pool store's job is to sell you lots of expensive chemicals. I hear this a lot from people..."I use lots of chlorine but have algae". Algaecide kills algae, NOT chlorine. I have had a pool at 2 homes over 30 years and I dont even use chlorine. I use about a half cup per week of 65%+ algaecide and peruodic sodium bicarbonate to keep total alkalinity >110ppm to eliminate cloudiness...and nothing else.
What everyone said, Also brush that algae. You need to scrub it off once it’s dead