Split from http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/80300-Keep-needing-to-add-CYA-why-would-this-be
Please start your own thread rather than hijack another member's thread Butterfly
Hello everyone, my first post here, but I have read this forum out of interest from time to time.
I have no pool problems, except (if you can call it a problem) I also seem to consume CYA at a higher rate than expected. I use granular stabilizer. Water level is kept within an inch of the middle tile line, I don't have too much rain (yeah, right!), don't overfill, all that. I consider myself an experienced pool owner with almost 20 years of great water. My pool is 95% used by just my wife and myself, so not much splash out either.
I have always been very suspicious about why CYA gets consumed. I have read the articles here about ammonia conversion, but never saw any indications that ammonia was an issue, water is about as good as it gets. I can't even tolerate other people's' pools I am so spoiled. Yet I will typically use more than 30 lbs of CYA per year. The pool does not get officially closed here in Texas, I just keep the solar cover on in the winter (locked gate, no kids, and alarm), and cut the pump to 4 hrs per day, with freeze guard on. Yet CYA is typically near zero at the start of each season. I will use 4-5 lbs per month during swim season. When the pool is closed the solar cover stays on to control evaporation, so I don't bother anymore with adding unneeded stabilizer which just gets wasted away in the off months.
After reading the above, I began to wonder, is there a possible connection between air in the return and CYA consumption? I have an old-style Uniclor brine chlorine generator, which uses a venturi for sucking in the CL gas from the generator. This also sucks in quite a bit of normal air, due to the nature of how the venturi works. Lots of bubbles at the returns. Anyway, sorry for the long post, I was just kicking this idea around, and looking for feedback.
Below are my numbers from the last test a few days ago, using the K-2006 test kit. I do a thorough test every few weeks, but test for CL and pH daily. All other numbers stay very stable, except the always dropping stabilizer (pun intended!).
I think the chemistry of stabilizer, and its consumption, is more complex than we might realize. It seems to be a common complaint on this forum.
FC: 5
CC: no reading, less than 0.5
pH: 7.4
CYA: 50
TA:120
CA: 220
Please start your own thread rather than hijack another member's thread Butterfly
The only thing that has changed this year is that I have added solar heating panels - the evacuated tube type. The guy who installed these for me has had some issues adjusting these properly and for some reason the solar panels seem to be allowing air to enter my system - it bubbles out of the jets. Could too much air (or Oxygen) cause issues with the CYA? Or is it getting burnt out by the solar tubes?
Hello everyone, my first post here, but I have read this forum out of interest from time to time.
I have no pool problems, except (if you can call it a problem) I also seem to consume CYA at a higher rate than expected. I use granular stabilizer. Water level is kept within an inch of the middle tile line, I don't have too much rain (yeah, right!), don't overfill, all that. I consider myself an experienced pool owner with almost 20 years of great water. My pool is 95% used by just my wife and myself, so not much splash out either.
I have always been very suspicious about why CYA gets consumed. I have read the articles here about ammonia conversion, but never saw any indications that ammonia was an issue, water is about as good as it gets. I can't even tolerate other people's' pools I am so spoiled. Yet I will typically use more than 30 lbs of CYA per year. The pool does not get officially closed here in Texas, I just keep the solar cover on in the winter (locked gate, no kids, and alarm), and cut the pump to 4 hrs per day, with freeze guard on. Yet CYA is typically near zero at the start of each season. I will use 4-5 lbs per month during swim season. When the pool is closed the solar cover stays on to control evaporation, so I don't bother anymore with adding unneeded stabilizer which just gets wasted away in the off months.
After reading the above, I began to wonder, is there a possible connection between air in the return and CYA consumption? I have an old-style Uniclor brine chlorine generator, which uses a venturi for sucking in the CL gas from the generator. This also sucks in quite a bit of normal air, due to the nature of how the venturi works. Lots of bubbles at the returns. Anyway, sorry for the long post, I was just kicking this idea around, and looking for feedback.
Below are my numbers from the last test a few days ago, using the K-2006 test kit. I do a thorough test every few weeks, but test for CL and pH daily. All other numbers stay very stable, except the always dropping stabilizer (pun intended!).
I think the chemistry of stabilizer, and its consumption, is more complex than we might realize. It seems to be a common complaint on this forum.
FC: 5
CC: no reading, less than 0.5
pH: 7.4
CYA: 50
TA:120
CA: 220
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