How do you know if you need to maintain a higher CYA level?

[mnormington]

OK, so i have stabilized my water and my CYA level is currently at somewhere between 40 and 50. My pool will get plenty of direct sunlight for most of the day during the summer. The pool calc says a range of 60 to 80 is good if you get a lot of direct sunlight.

How will I know if I need more stabilizer in my pool? Do I bump the CYA level up some if it's using too much chlorine on sunny days? What's the thing that lets you know you should be maintaining a higher level of CYA?

 

[mas985]

The bottom line is that the more CYA you use, the higher the residual that you need to keep but you will end up using less chlorine over all.

Now the bad news, higher CYA does not come without a cost. With higher CYA it is harder to kill algae so shock levels are much higher. This why you will see 80 ppm being the upper end of recommendations.

I see that your have the Liquidator so you may actually benefit from higher CYA levels much like a SWG. It will be easier for you to keep above the minimum chlorine levels for the higher CYA.

If chlorine usage is not an issue for you then I would stay where you are. If you would like to use less chlorine and don't mind a higher residual, then you could raise it some but don't go above 80 and probably 60 is a better target for a liquid chlorine pool.

 

[vincent]

I'll try it out myself if I am in your shoes. You can working out your chlorine consumption on a sunny day without your liquidator working. Then you raise your CYA another 10 ppm or so and test your CL consumption. Don't go beyond the 80 ppm or if you feel that the CL reduction is getting less.

You don't have to worry too much about more CL to shock if you keep your liquidator running smoothly and adjust with bather load because you wouldn't need to shock. The advantge of the SWG and Liquidator to some extend is the continuous supply of CL to keep the CL more stable and constant.

Vincent