high CYA Thanks to leslies... now what?

[Suley]

Hi Everyone!

Being a newbie, i went to leslies after inheriting the pool in my newly purchased house. Asked Leslies what to do and how to maintain the pool... they promptly sold me chlorine and i bought dichlor powder thinking i was making a smart move by buying the biggest bucket they had for the value... Leslies didnt care to tell me dichlor raises the CYA.

My CYA has jumped from 40 to 80 and i have algae in pool while maintaining FC at 2-4. Right now i am shocking the pool to get rid of algae. I have 3/4 full 60 Lb bucket of dichlor in my garage. What do i do? if i continue to use it my CYA will continue to rise. I would like to stay away from water changes as far as possible because of disposal laws and simply the high water prices in my area.

What do you guys suggest for me to use now? leave the dichlor alone and switch to bleach or liquid chlorine?

I have not been using a floater and just brought one today. trichlor tabs also add CYA but I would like to have the security of maintaining the FC level during the week when i cant test the water. How about using the trichlor tabs with algecide in them and keeping the FC level a bit lower than what pool calculator says to prevent skin irritation?

Pool pump is running 11 hours a day with turnover rate of almost 1.1.

Any help would be most appreciated!

 

[zea3]

Hi Suley! I am going to answer within your post in red.

Hi Everyone!

Being a newbie, i went to leslies after inheriting the pool in my newly purchased house. Asked Leslies what to do and how to maintain the pool... they promptly sold me chlorine and i bought dichlor powder thinking i was making a smart move by buying the biggest bucket they had for the value... Leslies didnt care to tell me dichlor raises the CYA.

My CYA has jumped from 40 to 80 and i have algae in pool while maintaining FC at 2-4. Right now i am shocking the pool to get rid of algae. I have 3/4 full 60 Lb bucket of dichlor in my garage. What do i do? if i continue to use it my CYA will continue to rise. I would like to stay away from water changes as far as possible because of disposal laws and simply the high water prices in my area.
If you can find a copy of the yellow pages, look up or google reverse osmosis pool treatment for your area. If an RO treatment is available where you live then that is how you would lower the CYA without draining the water. If RO treatment is not available, then a partial drain and refill is the only way to lower CYA. That being said, a CYA of 80 is high but not unmanageable. If your area has a good rainy season you can take advantage of it to lower CYA.

What do you guys suggest for me to use now? leave the dichlor alone and switch to bleach or liquid chlorine?
Yes. Start using bleach to chlorinate your pool. Save the dichlor. As long as it is kept dry and well covered it will last for years and you can use it whenever your CYA drops.

I have not been using a floater and just brought one today. trichlor tabs also add CYA but I would like to have the security of maintaining the FC level during the week when i cant test the water. How about using the trichlor tabs with algecide in them and keeping the FC level a bit lower than what pool calculator says to prevent skin irritation?
Sorry but that is a sure fire recipe for algae. You cannot let the FC drop below the recommended range for your pool. Plus it will significantly raise CYA over time and make it more difficult to maintain your FC within range. If you are away during the week and no one is home to add bleach for you, the best thing would be to raise the FC to shock level and put the cover on the pool just before you leave. There should still be some FC in the water when you return. If being away from the pool for long stretches of time is a regular occurrence you may want to look into adding a saltwater chlorine generator or liquidator to deliver chlorine automatically to your pool.

Pool pump is running 11 hours a day with turnover rate of almost 1.1.

Any help would be most appreciated!

 

[Richard320]

You will be needing liquid bleach and lots of it. And a test kit that can measure FC higher than 5.

I started out with the same scenario, except my CYA was 3X as high as yours. Fortunately, no algae outbreak because I maintained FC way up in the double digits.

Your best course of action, after getting the right test kit (I recommend a TF100 with XL option and a speedstir) is a partial drain. I've been using my pool water to water the lawn to reduce high CH, and it hasn't hurt it any. So get an accurate CYA reading, then pump out 25%, 50%, whatever it takes to get CYA down to 40 or 50. Adjust pH, then shock using liquid bleach. When it's clear, fine tune the rest.

You will have to accept that you will be adding bleach every day or every other day. A pool is like your smile - you can keep it sparkling with a few minutes effort a day for pennies a week, or fix it all once a year and spend a fortune. Troublefree doesn't mean Maintenancefree. Quite the opposite. But the daily upkeep is not that hard.

 

[duraleigh]

Excellent post, Ricard320!! :lol:

 

[Suley]

Thanks to all the replies! This gives me a really good insight on how to proceed from here!