Opening and CYA Adding Question

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ump107

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May 12, 2014
32
Hunterdon County, NJ
I started the pool opening process. I had to add a lot of water this year since I removed a lot in December when I felt it was getting too high then we didn't get as much rain/snow as I expected to naturally refill. I've run my robot for the last 4 days getting the dirt and some of the worms off the bottom. The filters are coming out clean now so I feel that the bottom has been pretty much cleared. I still have the safety cover on the pool, this is because I am trying to keep out all the tree pollen sacks and the petals from the trees that bloom around the pool. I think it should also help prevent some UV chlorine burn off, I plan on removing the cover this coming weekend if it doesn't rain. So far that doesn't look too promising but Meteorologists get paid a lot more than me to guess what the weather will be 3 days from now.

I did a deep clean of the filter, and started up the pump, it will remain running until the water is clear and it passes the OCLT.
Yesterday I did my first water test and found the following levels.
FC.5
CC.5
Ph 7.2
TA 100
CYA 0 (I brought water up to room temp, kept out of sun tested 2x with different samples it is 0 the test solution is crystal clear)
CH I didn't test but will do tomorrow

Since the water was cloudy but not green I added chlorine to SLAM level of 10 ppm
Tomorrow I will Test and then Slam if needed and start brushing down the pool. (I have figured out how to manipulate the safety cover to let me do this.)

I think this is a decent plan to start with, if anyone has any other suggestions let me know.

Now for my Question about the CYA, provided I don't have an ammonia problem; (haven't had one before but we had unusually warm winter in the NE) when I check the water tomorrow I should have a good idea if I do. I know I need to Add CYA to the pool Goal level is 30ppm. My pool has a inline Hayward chlorinator that I don't use, for simplicity sake can I fill a sock or nylon stocking with the powdered stabilizer and drop it into the chlorinator and let it dissolve into the water through there? I think this will prevent me from fighting with socks and strings trying to get the sock to stay in the water stream and if I'm correct distribute the CYA somewhat evenly throughout the pool.

If anyone has any better ideas or if you think that this won't work let me know.
Thanks in advance.
 
Only reason I have to not put it in the skimmer is the nylon is going to turn into a skimmer basket filter as soon as I take the cover off. The pollen this time of year is insane and even with the safety cover on there is the pollen film on everything. I use nylons in the skimmer baskets to catch this already and they get nasty real quick, I usually clean them 2x a day until June. And it's going to take over a week to dissolve almost 8 lbs of stabilizer in batches that pool math indicates is needed to reach 30ppm of CYA.
I'm certain that even if I can use the chlorinator as the delivery device it's going to take a while.
 
I would do a test run to see how it goes. Put just a little in a sock and put it in with the dial turned all the way up. Let us know what happens. Mark how much you add and at what time and how fast it dissolves. This might be an interesting "experiment".

Kim
 
Well so far I'm going to hold off a little. I'm losing 9.5 ppm per hr of chlorine so until I stop that I don't think playing with the cya is super important. And there is a chance of ammonia with that rate of loss. However the water is mostly clear, I can see the bottom and there is no debris on it so I've got that going for me.
 
End of day 1 of slam, I think I may have it. Last hourly FC test had FC holding at 10 ppm for 3 hours. The water has a slight haze to it but I can make out the bottom and even see the liner design in the deep end.
End of day test results are
FC:10
CC: .5
Ph 7.6
CH 50-75
TA 110
CYA <20

I'm going to be doing the OCLT test tonight to see if I killed whatever was in my water.

I am trying the CYA in a sock in the Chlorinator I placed 1 LB in and I am timing how long it takes to dissolve I plan on checking it in 24 hours as my water temp is a steamy 54 F.
If adding the CYA is going to slow I may dissolve some in some hot water to speed up the process.

Just for fun when I made a trip to the PS I brought a water sample to see how far off they were in their analysis.
After they dumped my sample into the communal cup and drew a sample with their syringe they told me that my CH was 0 and I needed to add 62 lbs of Calcium to my pool my test comes back low 50-75 ppm but everything I've read here says that that is unnecessary for my vinyl lined pool, they claimed my TA was low saying they had it at 32ppm, and I needed to add 34 lbs of alkalinity increase, the TF100 put it at 100 and after adding some Baking soda I got it up to 110. The only thing that they tested for that I couldn't verify error on was phosphates, their test showed over 2000 ppb and they were trying real hard to get me to buy phosphate remover. I declined, from what I have seen in the past is the water will become cloudy and I'm going to have to backwash the filter more, then add more water; chances are that since I live in an area that used to be farm land, the aquifer has phosphates in it and it will become a cycle of removing water and phosphates and then adding water with phosphates in it.
 
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The idea was nice but in practice it failed, there just isn't enough flow in the chlorinator to quickly dissolve the CYA into the water. After 7 days at least 1/3-1/2 of the CYA was still in the sock, I went the traditional route of placing the sock in front of the return and occasionally squeeze the sock, over a pound of CYA dissolved into the pool in a little over 4 hours. I am waiting until the end of the week to do the CYA test to see what my new level is. I'm hoping that I am at least close to 30ppm, I finished my SLAM and have placed the solar cover on the pool so that will help with UV chlorine burn-off until the CYA levels get up to an acceptable amount. I have not completely discarded the idea of using the chlorinator as a distribution device for adding CYA to the pool. More research and experimentation is in order maybe later in the season. I think that the flow rate present in the chlorinator is insufficient with the extreme low pool water temp.
 
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