CYA Issues

[Quant]

I have been trying to get my pool in order from green soup with 100% CYA loss, and presumably ammonia from it breaking down. The pool is clear and passing overnight tests finally, but my CYA is barely 25ppm, and maybe 20 depending how much I squint in the CYA test, even after adding 3 gallons of liquid conditioner from Leslies. Each gallon of conditioner is supposed to bring 10k gallons up to 30ppm, so I should be close to 30ppm with my 31k gallon pool. 40 would better this time of year. I figure either my calculations are off on the size of pool, or the conditioner does not go as far as advertised.

The pool is a traditional system family pool with a deep end and an irregular kidney shape. Years ago I calculated the volume by breaking it up in rectangles on paper and measuring multiple times to help estimate the size of those chunks which when added gave me the total. Is there a clever way to do this that might be more accurate than that? I don't have any paperwork from the pool's construction.

What about the conditioner? Anyone else see it not quite top of like it says on the label?

I have a 5lb bag of dry conditional that takes a week to disperse. I was thinking about dumping that in the skimmer using an amount that will bring the CYA up to 35-40ppm, throwing tabs in the float and testing daily to make sure I don't hit 0 FC. Is this a good plan? I don't really want to spend another $50 on another gallon of conditioner.

Thanks,

 

[ajw22]

First of all if your pool has any level of CYA then you don’t have an ammonia problem.

Your experience is why we don’t recommend using liquid stabilizer. You probably did not mix it really well and then add the sludge at the bottom of the bottle where the CYA settles.

Do NOT add dry stabilizer to your skimmer. Put it in a sock and hang it in front of a return and let it dissolve. Squeeze the sock every so often.

Tabs in a floater are too slow to do anything for you.

Keep adding liquid chlorine to keep your FC up until you get the CYA into the water.

 

[Quant]

First of all if your pool has any level of CYA then you don’t have an ammonia problem.

Your experience is why we don’t recommend using liquid stabilizer. You probably did not mix it really well and then add the sludge at the bottom of the bottle where the CYA settles.

Do NOT add dry stabilizer to your skimmer. Put it in a sock and hang it in front of a return and let it dissolve. Squeeze the sock every so often.

Tabs in a floater are too slow to do anything for you.

Keep adding liquid chlorine to keep your FC up until you get the CYA into the water.

I shook the conditioner it up pretty good. There was a couple tablespoons of sledge in one of the gallons.

The bag instructions (Clearview Primo Powder) say to add it to your skimmer after flushing the filter. It is supposed to dissolve inside the sand filter. Would you still advise against that? Instructions below:

Dosage:​

• Super chlorinate pool water by adding chlorine product as prescribed on labels
• Adjust pH of pool water to range of 7.2 - 7.6 via home test kit
• Add directly to skimmer
• Make sure filter is clean with full pressure drop, and re-circulate water continuously for 24 hours to dissolve properly
• Use 1 lb. per 4,000 gallons, VERY SLOWLY through the skimmer with the pump running to increase the stabilizer level by 30 ppm
• Do not backwash filter for 48 hours

The tablets are just to keep the chlorine up, but as you say it might not be enough with the low CYA and sunshine.

Thanks,

 

[PoolGate]

CYA is a consumable. I would suggest the below. I get one of these every 2-3 years for CYA replenishment.

Amazon.com

And here is how I put it in....

 

[ajw22]

Yes. Ignore the instructions on the bag. If you put it in your sand filter you will never know if it really dissolves or gets backwashed out.

 

[wireform]

CYA is a consumable. I would suggest the below. I get one of these every 2-3 years for CYA replenishment.

Amazon.com

And here is how I put it in....

Nice video but the way he checked the CYA content is not on the recommended list. Looking for the black ️ dot indoors isn't going to give the same results as doing it outdoors with the bright sun from behind you.

 

[PoolGate]

Nice video but the way he checked the CYA content is not on the recommended list. Looking for the black ️ dot indoors isn't going to give the same results as doing it outdoors with the bright sun from behind you.

"He" is "me". I validated that method by verifying my readings with the 50ppm reference CYA solution available from Taylor. People tend to obsess way to much over "correct lighting". It really isn't that big a deal where you check the solution. All this "glance quickly" and "make sure the sun is just setting at down on the harvest moon" isn't either. If you lose sleep over how you are checking the CYA you are probably spending too much time on it. As they say, it isn't rocket science!

 

[Quant]

"He" is "me". I validated that method by verifying my readings with the 50ppm reference CYA solution available from Taylor. People tend to obsess way to much over "correct lighting". It really isn't that big a deal where you check the solution. All this "glance quickly" and "make sure the sun is just setting at down on the harvest moon" isn't either. If you lose sleep over how you are checking the CYA you are probably spending too much time on it. As they say, it isn't rocket science!

All the instructions I have seen on CYA say the dot should completely disappear, but I think what you describe is correct and how I have come to do the testing. However, as compulsive as I am about things like this I probably need to buy some of that reference solution now that I know it exists.

Also, turns out I already have the skimmer socks purchased years ago in my supply bucket. So will up get busy on it tomorrow. FC has not holding OK, with the tablets and a couple cups of chlorine a day, but I need more CYA. Thanks for the video.

 

[Newdude]

I validated that method by verifying my readings with the 50ppm reference CYA solution available from Taylor. People tend to obsess way to much over "correct lighting".

Welp. They do. But newbs need to test CYA a bunch to get a feel for what its supposed to be. If CYA was a daily test, they'd be pros in a month, but it takes some time to rack up enough tests to get there.

@Dirk found his indoor lighting was more reliable than outside.

@kimkats went back and forth a bunch of times and taught herself what her oven light looked like when outside said it was XX, so she could then use the inside light going forward.

But we have to have newbs do their best to learn the test by the book, before they start experimenting.

 

[PoolGate]

What would be nice is if the test kit included a 50ppm reference sample to test and see what the "dot" is supposed to look like. Everyone would benefit from this.

 

[ajw22]

What would be nice is if the test kit included a 50ppm reference sample to test and see what the "dot" is supposed to look like. Everyone would benefit from this.

Excellent idea that @Sarah and Nate should consider .

 

[mknauss]

a couple cups of chlorine a day

Your pool right now will be consuming at least 1 gallon of 10% liquid chlorine a day.

 

[Dirk]

@Dirk found his indoor lighting was more reliable than outside.

Two things helped me with my CYA testing. A really good under counter LED light strip, with an outdoor light color temperature, and a 16 oz bottle of the CYA test solution, which was really cheap when I bought it. The room in which I test has no windows, so my lighting is the same, every day of the year, every hour of the day. The same cannot be said for the outdoor lighting in my backyard. With the big bottle of CYA test solution, I tested CYA often (and still do), so got pretty good at it.

While it's not unimportant to get as good a CYA number as I can get, it's more important I do the test the exact same way every time, so that I can rely on a consistent result. I can only do that with my indoor lighting. I'm probably pretty close, number-wise, but I now know what the dot should look like to keep my FC happy, and that, after all, is really what I'm after.

Regarding indoor vs outdoor lighting, Taylor recommends outdoor lighting. But I figure it this way: "indoor lighting" could mean anything: an old yellow incandescent bulb in the back corner of a dark garage, or a bank of glaring fluorescent kitchen lights, or anywhere in between. 2000°? Or 6000° color? Taylor took the safe route, as the sun in the summer is likely more consistent for most folks. But I "do color" for a living and know how to light it to see it accurately. So, in essence, I built myself a color-safe light room and will stack my pool water test methods up against anyone testing outdoors. YMMV.

 

[Newdude]

But I "do color" for a living and know how to light it to see it accurately.........
. YMMV.

Exactly. it's hard enough to teach new people the basics of the test without throwing pro level variables at them.

So we start them with baby steps, by the book.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Quant]

One last question on the CYA powder. The instructions say to super chlorinate the pool and drop the PH before adding the solid to the skimmer (in my case sock). I am working on the Ph, but do I really need to SLAM to adjust the CYA with the powder? Is there some interaction with the chlorine and CYA?

 

[ajw22]

One last question on the CYA powder. The instructions say to super chlorinate the pool and drop the PH before adding the solid to the skimmer (in my case sock). I am working on the Ph, but do I really need to SLAM to adjust the CYA with the powder? Is there some interaction with the chlorine and CYA?

Those instructions make no sense.

Add the stabilizer using the sock method with whatever FC and pH you have. Get it dissolving in the water ASAP.