Advice on high CYA scenario

[Tropical Dave]

I am helping a friend get his pool back under control as the chemistry is a mess. One aspect of this mess is a CYA at 90ppm and of course FC levels have not been at appropriate levels. My first thought, of course, was to jack up the FC and then figure out the easiest way to add water (and get those cursed pucks out of the basket!!). Upon reflection I am thinking of keeping CYA high, even this high.

Here are the details:

This is a 25000gal pool in a vacation rental. Over last few days with cloudless, full equatorial sun (we are in Hawaii) I'm only seeing a 1ppm chlorine loss. Maintenance people come by 3 times a week and can check chemistry and add chemicals. I would estimate bathing load breaks down like this: 50% 0-2 people, 30% 4 people, 20% 6-10 people.

What I am hoping is that we can get away with 2-3-2 day chlorination cycle except when we have the large parties.

Obviously I will start by monitoring it daily to see if it will work. Any thoughts, hints, suggestions. Is 90pppm CYA a good place to try this?

Thanks

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! It will depend on whether or not the pool service will stop using pucks and other forms of dry chlorine and start using liquid chlorine or bleach. If the water is clear and algae free you can try keeping the FC at the appropriate level as per the [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]. Your friend may want to consider adding an SWG or a stenner pump to automate chlorine additions.

If the pool has algae and needs to complete the SLAM Process process it would be best to lower the CYA to 30ppm first.

 

[Tropical Dave]

Hello zea3 and thanks for the response. We have switched over to the 3 B's (well, no borax yet!). The water is not crystal clear but seems to be algae free based on very low overnight FC drawdown. Hardware changes aren't on the table right now. There is no pool service, just maintenance/lawn guys that have this as part of their duties. Labor, especially professional, competent labor is hard to find here. My rule of thumb is a Hawaii A is a mainland C!