High CYA after substantial draining

Jump to latest Follow Reply
natedogg

natedogg

Bronze Supporter
May 11, 2016
33
Warren MI
Had off the charts CYA, did a dilution test and got 90. Drained down to the first step of 22K gallon pool. Refilled and am still getting the same readings.

When doing the test the water is white cloudy in the squirt bottle. I’m also in MI and the water read 55 when I first started the pump.

My reagents are long expired could that be an issue when doing the CYA test? Cold water be too cold. Or is it possible to drain that much and still have the Sam CYA reading?

Appreciate any insight!
 
Down to the first step doesn’t seem like much of a drain. In my pool i think that would be maybe 10%-15% of the water at most. With the small amount you drained I would not have expected much decrease. And the high margin of error doing the cya test especially when you’re doing it on a diluted basis means that whatever small decrease there actually is might not show on a test.

Youve got to drain more at one shot. Not sure what kind of pool you’ve got. I know theres risks to draining a liner pool very much but theres ways to do it which others can advise on.

The cya reagent has a long shelf life as long as its stored at stable room temps (so I am told). Testing cold water can give you a false low reading. Bringing it in the house until it warms up before testing is a good idea. But it sounds like you’re getting the reagent to react with the cya so I don’t think thats the issue, or if it is its a minor one
 
  • Like
Reactions: natedogg
natedogg said:
Sorry, reading this I worded it wrong. I drained to the top of the last step not the first. Does that still seem like not enough water?
Click to expand...
Can you post a picture of the pool?

I would avoid draining...read "No Drain Water Exchange" here:

Draining - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
natedogg said:
Sorry, reading this I worded it wrong. I drained to the top of the last step not the first. Does that still seem like not enough water?
Click to expand...

Hard to say whats enough without really knowing the dimensions of the pool. More importantly how much water you need to drain (or no drain exchange) depends on how high the cya is in the first place. If your initial tests were done with cold water they may well have given a too low result. Before anything else i would recommend testing with water which you’ve let come up to indoor temps.

Also, you’ve said your reagent is old. Cya reagent is supposed to be one of the stable ones but its not a large investment to get fresh reagent to make sure especially if you’re getting results that don’t make sense to you
 
If the diluted value was 90, that would make the CYA 180? I'm assuming your doubled value wasn't 90 because 45 isn't a valid reading for CYA test.

Was it 180 with the diluted test and now it's down to 90 without the diluted test after a drain and fill?

1684945682346.png
 
It was 90 diluted with the doubled value being 180 and was the same after removing water and filling further up. I was trying to see if there was slight improvement but it read the same.

There is algae present as well, but I didn’t think that affected CYA results, not sure if that’s an issue.
 
natedogg said:
It was 90 diluted with the doubled value being 180. There is algae present as well, but I didn’t think that affected CYA results.
Click to expand...
You are going to to need to exchange about 75% of your water to get down to 50.

Read the article on draining and I'd get started on a no drain water exchange...
 
  • Like
Reactions: natedogg
PoolStored said:
You are going to to need to exchange about 75% of your water to get down to 50.

Read the article on draining and I'd get started on a no drain water exchange...
Click to expand...
Yeah, this was what I was attempting and felt my estimation on the amount I drained was wrong leading to continued high levels when retesting.

I looked over the steps, my water in is only gonna be a garden hose. Will that still work?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
PoolStored said:
I did 20K gallon exchange and it took me about 50hrs IIRC
Click to expand...
One last question here’s a couple pics. The deep end is 8ft and shallow is 3-4ft. Would the water need to be only a small amount in the deep end for this to work
 

Attachments

  • 49B2EA59-FC0D-4EC1-9D7A-B55C9BD16104.jpeg
    49B2EA59-FC0D-4EC1-9D7A-B55C9BD16104.jpeg
    530.2 KB · Views: 14
  • C59A0CF1-A27E-4CB1-8457-A71EFCDF402A.jpeg
    C59A0CF1-A27E-4CB1-8457-A71EFCDF402A.jpeg
    678.6 KB · Views: 13
Youve got to figure out where your cya is before you can know anything about how much youve gotta drain. Your first drain probably removed somewhere between 35%-50% of the water/cya. Thats a real rough guess and I know nothing about how quickly it goes from ~3.5 to 8 ft. but if you got it to top of the first step, its a decent chunk and if you’re testing accurately should have shown up as a decrease. It didn’t, so something is wrong with the way you’re testing.

Don’t feel bad about it cause the cya is a real hard test to do right. When done right, the test is probably at least +- 10. When done wrong (not enough light, cold water, didn’t shake long enough, looked at dot too long….), its probably a lot more. Throw in that you’re doing a diluted test with cold water and reagent is old and the margin of error is huge. Exchanging water based on a bad test is not a good road to go down. Spend a couple bucks on some new reagent to make sure. Get a big bottle so you can do the test a couple times to be sure and have plenty left for down the road. Read details about doing the cya test to reduce the margin of error.

www.troublefreepool.com

CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is the chemical name for what is commonly referred to as Stabilizer … Read more…
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
Yeah…but got the same result before and after a pretty large drain. Something went wrong with at least one of his tests if not both.

He definitely needs to do a large drain/exchange. The actual cya may be well over 180 so a 75% exchange may not be nearly enough
 
I just drained almost all the water using a trash pump. Does this seem like enough of a drain? But like a dope I did not wait for the water to circulate the first time, but tbh after doing this I feel I was no where near the 75%. Appreciate all the help!
 

Attachments

  • 3C523A88-89D0-45CD-AA58-499A3B787784.jpeg
    3C523A88-89D0-45CD-AA58-499A3B787784.jpeg
    434.5 KB · Views: 15
Fill it.
I would not have a drained pool in your area for long. You likely have surface water or get rain.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply