cya and bleach...

[spf30]

Had to open earlier than planned...cover blew off and temps too high. Lots of debris that I need to vacuum out, and start hitting the bleach hard. Each year I seem to struggle with keeping CL levels. Haven't had algae yet, but constantly seem to add bleach to prevent it. I've added CYA each year and seem to keep it within the normal range, yet that doesn't seem to affect how much bleach I have to add.
My question is: I never use pucks as I know they add CYA. However, since I know I probably have some algae going on now and need to hit it hard with bleach...would I be wiser to use pucks for awhile to get the CYA level I need instead of adding stabilzer? That way I figure I will be getting a steady dose of bleach along with whatever liquid I dump in. Question is, I don't want to get the CYA level too high from the pucks. If I start with a reading of basically '0' on the CYA, how do I know how many pucks I can safely use to get the a level within the proper range? I don't want to deal with CYA 'overdose'!

Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

Standard pucks have three effects: raise the FC level, raise the CYA level, and lower the PH. As long as you want, or can compensate for, all three of those effects, then using pucks is fine. Keep in mind that pucks add CYA fairly slowly. It is possible that you will want to bring the CYA level up a bit more quickly than pucks will.

You can use the Pool Calculator's effects of adding chemicals to experiment with different quantities of trichlor until you narrow in on the amount that will raise CYA by the desired amount.