Just learning

[Aymerz]

Hello,
I'm a new pool owner. We have an inground 16x32 pool with a hayward sand filter.
I have been reading in pool school and purchased the Taylor test kit, 2006. All is going well, and my numbers are all looking good. But, my CYA level is 0. The previous owners left some trichlor, so I have that in a floating chlorinator, thinking that would incease the CYA while adding chlorine. I have been adding bleach, however to maintain my chlorine levels. I've been looking at the CYA chlorine chart, and I can't help but wonder if CYA is worth adding? If you need higher FC levels the higher your CYA, why add it at all? If yes, will using the trichlor increase my CYA fast enough, or should I add dry stabilizer?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Butterfly]

Welcome to TFP

We suggest CYA levels between 30 and 50 for a bleach/liquid chlorine pool. If you plan on using trichlor tabs later, maybe during vacation, you could shoot for 30ish CYA and see how the FC holds. I suggest you add 30 PPM CYA via dry stabilize now using the sock method.

You need CYA to protect the FC from sunlight. Without CYA, sunlight will eat FC and the FC is what keeps your pool sanitized an safe to swim in.

Post a full set of test results for us and we will peruse them for you

Nice job getting one of the recommended test kits

 

[bridgman]

CYA levels are one of those tricky compromises. Higher CYA levels need higher FC levels (which is a real problem if you ever have to SLAM to kill an algae bloom), but the CYA also protects FC from being destroyed by sunlight so can reduce the amount of chlorine you need to add each day.

The recommended levels from Pool School are 30-50 ppm CYA if you're adding bleach manually, 70-80ppm if you're using a salt water chlorine generator.

If you're running very low CYA levels even a small amount of chlorine can be very harsh, so generally anything under 20 is not recommended.

The normal recommendation here is to add CYA directly since it usually takes a few weeks to get your CYA level up with trichlor, but AFAIK either approach is OK.

 

[Aymerz]

So, I've had 2 tabs of trichlor in floater for the past 3 weeks (replaced as they dissolved). Here were yesterday's numbers
pH 7.6
FC 4.4
CC 0.2
TA 150
CYA less than 30, the water didn't cloud up at all, so I assume 0

 

[jmbradwell]

In your pool each puck you add will add approximately 1.7 ppm CYA. (assuming 8 oz pucks) That's about 18 pucks to get to 30. I would add some CYA and get away from the pucks.

 

[Aymerz]

Thanks to all! This forum had helped me immensely!