should I add cya??

[surfbabe]

sacrilege I know but...

here in Austin the daytime temperature is getting to mid-nineties every day and I'm adding a lot of bleach - 3/4 of a gallon a day. This is going to cost me about $85 to maintain target fc of 5ppm. The water looks perfect, there is no CC and no overnight fc loss so I know it's not a secret algae lurking somewhere.

pool volume 26000 gallons
cya is 45ppm.
FC 6 ppm
CC 0
water temperature 88F
CH 400
TA 90
pH 7.5 (this keeps going up and I now add MA 2 x week when pH gets to 7.8)


I'm going through about 2-3 ppm a day even if nobody goes in the water. If I add some cya or use trichlor tabs will this slow down fc loss? Maybe use some Is it time for me to add borates - which I've never done?
thank you!

 

[Texas Splash]

I lose about 2.5 FC per day just south of you here in SA. So you're right there in a good zone and with a larger pool. Still, if you wanted to, "yes" you could add more stabilizer to help reduce FC loss a little more. I actually have mine at 60 right now with full (blistering) TX sun all day. I might be forced to go to 70 next month. As long as you watch the Chlorine/CYA Chart and adjust your daily FC to ensure it matches your new CYA, you're fine.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Covering your pool with a solar bubble cover will do a lot more to arrest FC loss than raising CYA. They are a hassle, I know, but my FC loss with a cover on is half what it is with the cover off (probably even better than that if I measured it more accurately).

 

[epro05]

My pool here in hot sunny Fort Worth area has the same volume as yours. I raised my CYA to 70. I still have to put 2/3 gallon of 8.25% in daily. So I'm loosing 2ppm per day. About the same as you, perhaps a very small reduction, but not much.

 

[surfbabe]

Covering your pool with a solar bubble cover will do a lot more to arrest FC loss than raising CYA. They are a hassle, I know, but my FC loss with a cover on is half what it is with the cover off (probably even better than that if I measured it more accurately).

I've got a funny shaped pool. Last quote I got for a cover made my eyes water.

We had a solar cover in france and yes, that worked a treat.

Can I do a diy one?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I've got a funny shaped pool. Last quote I got for a cover made my eyes water.

We had a solar cover in france and yes, that worked a treat.

Can I do a diy one?

I have a freeform pool as well. I followed Mark's DIY project here -

DIY Solar Cover Roller

Cost me less than $200 total to do all the work. Not perfect, but it sure does work.

 

[Scoop]

15k pool in DFW area. My average FC depletion rate for this time of year is about 2.25 - 2.5 per day.

I usually target my CYA for about 50, testing monthly. The pool gets direct sunlight around ½ to ¾ a day.

The part that interests me is what's considered average for CYA loss for this area of the country. I usually drop about 8-10 CYA per month during the summer months but it's not consistent. Sometimes there's no drop month-to-month.

Perhaps that's about average for pools in this part of the country but I'm not sure about that.

I test OCLT about once a month. The last test passed at 0 . I test CC every FC test (FAS-DPD). It's usually at 0, occasionally 0.5 .

 

[pooldv]

An 8 mil solar cover for less than 200 bucks will work great. Just cut to fit with scissors. It will also do wonders to speed warm up in the spring.

"Average" CYA loss is 3-5 ppm per month. I also have seen more loss some months.

In TX, AZ and other southern sunny states more CYA is better. Going from 70 to 80 noticeably dropped FC consumption in my pool. Not measured, but I had to turn down my SWG because FC was going up as temp and swimming was going up. Then, I inadvertently raised it to 100 because I was in a hurry and not paying attention , and had to turn my SWG down several times to get FC down below 10. 80-100 is probably going to be my new CYA target. This was in June with 86+ degree water and daily swimming.

 

[surfbabe]

An 8 mil solar cover for less than 200 bucks will work great. Just cut to fit with scissors. It will also do wonders to speed warm up in the spring.

"Average" CYA loss is 3-5 ppm per month. I also have seen more loss some months.

In TX, AZ and other southern sunny states more CYA is better. Going from 70 to 80 noticeably dropped FC consumption in my pool. Not measured, but I had to turn down my SWG because FC was going up as temp and swimming was going up. Then, I inadvertently raised it to 100 because I was in a hurry and not paying attention , and had to turn my SWG down several times to get FC down below 10. 80-100 is probably going to be my new CYA target. This was in June with 86+ degree water and daily swimming.

I'm not sold on the idea of a solar cover - the pool water is already tepid at 88F and i really don't want the water any warmer.

I will raise the cya a bit and obviously the fc levels too.

Is it cheaper to use 12% sodium hypochlorite?

 

[nlindelldc]

I'm not sold on the idea of a solar cover - the pool water is already tepid at 88F and i really don't want the water any warmer.

I will raise the cya a bit and obviously the fc levels too.

Is it cheaper to use 12% sodium hypochlorite?

Not always cheaper, but can be more convenient. You'll have to check prices. Walmart still has 10% for $2.50 a jug (121 oz) I believe

I personally wouldn't use a solar cover either, I'm just south of you in Texas. My water temp is currenlty 94

 

[surfbabe]

Not always cheaper, but can be more convenient. You'll have to check prices. Walmart still has 10% for $2.50 a jug (121 oz) I believe

I personally wouldn't use a solar cover either, I'm just south of you in Texas. My water temp is currenlty 94

Is this walmart own brand?

Also, I believe my local lesliespool sells 12.5% hypochlorite - do I check for freshness with the date like on the grocery store bottles?

 

[epro05]

12.5% degrades at a faster rate than 8.25%, so it is very important to check the date. You can review this chart.

My local Leslies told me that Leslies stores in Texas do not sell liquid chorine. If yours does, please confirm.

http://

 

[Rossterman]

Pool temps will likely be too hot using a cover in the summer. Many friends in houston are trying to cool their pools because they are too warm (without a cover on them).

 

[camueller]

The solar covers only heat a pool by trapping the heat in the pool overnight when normally a pool loses a lot of it's heat. Your pool is getting hotter during the day whether you cover it or not.

So, if you don't want it to heat your pool, but you want to prevent FC loss, put the cover on during the day, and take it off at night. If you want to heat the pool, leave it on at night.

 

[Rossterman]

Evaporation happens more in the day than night if warmer. Evaporating water is what cools the pool regardless of day or night.

 

[surfbabe]

Thanks for the table epro5.

2 of my local Lesliespool sell liquid chlorine here in NW Austin. There might be more but these 2 are local to me.
The first one gets a weekly delivery of 10% chlorine - it is kept in the store in the air-conditioned space. They had some very recent dates. The guy I spoke to was knowledgeable and knew that it needed to be kept cool. It was $18.99 for 4 gallons.

The other store were pretty useless, the date on the one they brought out of the non-air-conditioned space (95F outside) was old and he couldn't be bothered to check the price for me but "thought" it was $14.99 I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole.

I went and did a cost comparison and my HEB bleach still comes out considerably cheaper.

I've added a floater with some trichlor pucks in to add chlorine and to bring up cya a bit.

 

[Texas Splash]

My HEB sees me coming a mile away.