Should I add more Stabilizer?

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BIC

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Jul 7, 2007
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I have an 24' AG pool with venyl liner. I have the Aqua Trol SWG from GOLDLINE (Hayward).

In the manual it says that I should respect the following recommendations (I put in BOLD the result of my last water test):

FC: 1 to 3 ppm (3)
PH: 7.2 to 7.6 (7.4)
Alkakinity: 80 to 120 ppm (90)
Salt: 2700 to 3400 ppm (3000)
Stabilizer: 60 to 80 ppm (20 to 30)
Calcium: 200 to 400 ppm (250)

As you can see, with the very good help of this forum I succeded to get my water in a good shape (BOLD numbers).

My question is: Is it a big deal if I don't respect the Stabilizer recommendation?

In the Aquatrol manual they say it is very important to respect the salt and Stabilizer level in order to prevent corrosion or scaling. My FC is always 2, 3 or 4 ppm. I don't undersatnd the relationship between the Stabilizer and corrosion. I thought theb Stabilizer was there to protect chlorine from the Sun ray effect (my understanding is that the sun kills the chlorine :)).

Should I add more Stabilizer? The pool store says "NO" because my FC seems to be ok.

Any advice is welcome, thanks in advance :)

BIC
 
The pool stores generally are dumb. You have a salt pool right, if so then follow the manual and raise it to 60 to 80, it'll make your salt system work more efficiently. For a typical chlorine pool, 30 is good but a salt pool benefits with more stabilizer, and the FC to CYA ratio is different with a salt pool than a std. chlorine pool. 3 to 4 ppm with 70 to 80 CYA works great with a salt system.
 
Yeah, those numbers look pretty nice....Good work!!.

The stabilizer does help protect the chlorine from the Sun. Most SWG's are suggested to run in that 60-80 range. What setting is your SWG on? Normally, if you up the stabilizer, you'll be able to turn down your SWG. However, upping the stabilizer is a one-way street (well, it's problematic, anyway) so if your SWG is not running too high, I think I'd leave everything alone for the time being.
 
duraleigh said:
Yeah, those numbers look pretty nice....Good work!!.

The stabilizer does help protect the chlorine from the Sun. Most SWG's are suggested to run in that 60-80 range. What setting is your SWG on? Normally, if you up the stabilizer, you'll be able to turn down your SWG. However, upping the stabilizer is a one-way street (well, it's problematic, anyway) so if your SWG is not running too high, I think I'd leave everything alone for the time being.
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duraleigh,

What do you mean by "upping the stabilizer is a one-way street (well, it's problematic, anyway) "?

To answer tyour question:

My SWG was running at 40%, I put it down to 25 this morning (just to see if FC would still be good :wink:). I have to say that I got my pool 2 weeks ago and it's my first pool, so everything is new to me. What should be my stting on the SWG (20% or more like 40%)?

The store didn't want to raise Stabilizer because he said if I put to much, I will get in an over chlorine situation (the Stabilizer will kind of protect the chlorine too much he said). I went to see another pool store and he said to add Stabilizer :wink:. Don't know what to do.

BIC
 
The only way to lower CYA is to replace water, so if you put in too much CYA or decide after adding some that you liked it lower you could suddenly need to replace a lot of water.

You can run at more or less any CYA level between where you are and perhaps 80 ppm without any real problems. Higher CYA levels reduce the total need for chlorine which allows you to run the SWG on a lower setting which extends the life of the SWG cell. But there is nothing wrong with leaving things the way they are.

No matter what CYA level you are at you need to keep an eye on the chlorine level, adjusting the percentage when there is too little or too much chlorine. Either too little or too much chlorine can be a problem, but testing and adjusting ever few days should easily keep things under control. Higher CYA levels slightly increase the odds of having too high a chlorine level and lower CYA levels slightly increase the odds of having too little chlorine, but neither will actually happen if you test the water and adjust the percentage as needed.
 
JasonLion said:
The only way to lower CYA is to replace water, so if you put in too much CYA or decide after adding some that you liked it lower you could suddenly need to replace a lot of water.

You can run at more or less any CYA level between where you are and perhaps 80 ppm without any real problems. Higher CYA levels reduce the total need for chlorine which allows you to run the SWG on a lower setting which extends the life of the SWG cell. But there is nothing wrong with leaving things the way they are.

No matter what CYA level you are at you need to keep an eye on the chlorine level, adjusting the percentage when there is too little or too much chlorine. Either too little or too much chlorine can be a problem, but testing and adjusting ever few days should easily keep things under control. Higher CYA levels slightly increase the odds of having too high a chlorine level and lower CYA levels slightly increase the odds of having too little chlorine, but neither will actually happen if you test the water and adjust the percentage as needed.
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Ok, thanks for the explaination. However, what do you think about GOLDINE saying in the SWG manual that "it is very important to respect the salt and Stabilizer level in order to prevent corrosion or scaling". On top of that, when I test my water with my own strips it indicates that my Alkakinity is low (40) and my PH is to high (more than 7.8 ). It is very confusing because pool stores give different results and mine are different too.

My understanding is, if I add PH minus, my Alkakinity (maybe already too low) will get down. So, I will have to add some Alkakinity. What would be the effect of the Stabilizer on my PH and Alkakinity. Are they related?

BIC
 
PH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness all interact to either cause scaling or not. It is important that you keep all of them at plausible values. With a vinyl liner you can keep CH quite low, which will stop scaling, but you still need to keep PH and alkalinity under control for other reasons.

High PH can reduce the efficiency of your SWG. Low alkalinity allows the PH to change too easily, which makes it difficult to keep the PH under control.

The salt level directly affects the operation of the SWG cell. So that level is also important. It tends to stay stable so you don't normally need to worry about it once you have gotten your initial level.

CYA doesn't really have anything to do with anything except chlorine. Your CYA level determines how much chlorine is lost to sunlight each day. The other issue is if your CYA level is very very low, below 2 or 3. Then there can be corrosion issues related to the chlorine level.
 
JasonLion said:
PH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness all interact to either cause scaling or not. It is important that you keep all of them at plausible values. With a vinyl liner you can keep CH quite low, which will stop scaling, but you still need to keep PH and alkalinity under control for other reasons.

High PH can reduce the efficiency of your SWG. Low alkalinity allows the PH to change too easily, which makes it difficult to keep the PH under control.

The salt level directly affects the operation of the SWG cell. So that level is also important. It tends to stay stable so you don't normally need to worry about it once you have gotten your initial level.

CYA doesn't really have anything to do with anything except chlorine. Your CYA level determines how much chlorine is lost to sunlight each day. The other issue is if your CYA level is very very low, below 2 or 3. Then there can be corrosion issues related to the chlorine level.
Click to expand...

Ok, good explaination. Thanks again :)

I think I need a good Taylor kit to test my water myself. Every strip test gives different result (with different brands of strips of course). they don't seem to be consistent.

Could you give me the Web link for a good Taylor Kit for my AG vinyl pool? I don't know which kit I need :?. Where can I buy (safely) those kit on the Web?

BIC
 

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