Should I raise my cya?

[Dreampool13]

I started off the swim season this spring with a cya of 80. I was going to drain it partially because my CH was at around 750...but then the rains came. Now my CH is around 450 (yay) but my CYA is around 25 (boo). I was on vacation for two weeks and had a little algae when I came home, so I'm slamming right now. I love that with a low cya, my chlorine SLAM level is around 11. Much cheaper to require less chlorine!

Now I have to decide if I should add cya or just leave it low and enjoy adding less bleach and keeping chlorine at 4ppm. It's full sun from 12pm-8 pm and I have 3 kids and their friends swimming here. Would you try I raise the cya? If so, would you buy pucks or would you buy powdered stabilizer from the pool store? Or can I maintain a sparkly pool with a cya if 25? I test chlorine and pH daily.

 

[pwrstrk]

I would raise the CYA to 40 after the SLAM is over. You'll get better protection from the sun at that level. Yes your FC level will be higher but better protection from the sun.
If you take it to 40, 3 will be the min FC and I would target 7. That will give you wiggle room for FC burn off so you don't fall below your min.
I would just buy the stabilizer rather than going the puck route. ?

 

[timerguy]

In my experience, rains can't account for a 45 ppm decrease in cya. Just wondering?

 

[Suziqzer]

Rain shouldn't account for that kind of CYA loss unless you had to drain some water due to the amount of rain. I would check your CYA again to be sure your last reading was accurate.

Also, keeping your CYA level up a bit does raise your addition of chlorine a bit but also gives you more protection from the sun & in so helping to minimize that extra chlorine you thought you were using. If you keep your pool in the correct FC range, you shouldn't ever have to SLAM.