Converted to SWG with CYA reading 0ppm

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M

megamomo

0
Jul 16, 2008
16
Pittsburgh, PA
I finally pulled the trigger on converting to SWG this past week. With my wife being the primary shopper, she was tired of buying so much bleach. For 12 years, I've been doing great with bleach + borax and the occasional powder shock.

About 3 years ago, my liner was replaced. I refilled with city water. The water has been great ever since with pretty much the only maintenance being a gallon of bleach about 5 nights per week.

Now I just installed the Intellichlor IC40 and I see the Pentair manual recommends 30-50ppm CYA. The pool calculator recommends 60-80ppm. I can't even get a CYA reading on the test strips (sorry, I don't yet have the right Taylor kit for CYA), so I'm pretty sure I'm really low on CYA.

I'm prepared to go buy the stabilizer, but I'm still wondering if it's worth the experiment to leave it as-is for now. It's been working good for 3 years, albeit with liquid bleach. I've only had to keep my FC around 1ppm to keep it crystal clear all year long. And many days, after adding bleach in early evening, which takes me up to about 2.5ppm, the chlorine hasn't completely disappeared by the next evening. So it doesn't seem like UV is eating my chlorine as fast as most pool articles would lead me to believe.

Leaving CYA near 0ppm may be a bad move, but I still think I want to see how it goes before adding the stabilizer. Any reason I absolutely shouldn't do that?

And why does Pentair say 40ppm, but others 70ppm CYA?
 
I don’t have an answer for you, but I am very interested in what answer you get, since I converted to SWG this spring, and replaced liner last fall, so the water in my pool is basically just tap water (with lots of salt now), but I am also trying to get my water balanced, but like you, my CYA chemical test never turns the sample cloudy at all. I assume the levels must be almost 0 then, but PH=7.5/ TA=70ppm/ CH=40ppm(quite low). At this point I don’t know exactly which I should balance first, because I think adding CYA/sanitizer will effect other levels. I hope I didn’t hijack your post, I will watch for any answers.
 
There is no such thing as reliable test strips on the consumer market. Just because we know Taylor liquid based tests are reliable doesn't mean we are fanboys who think Taylor does no wrong. Their test strips are as junk as the rest.

And pool store testing? Seriously?

You have invested a great deal in an SWG system, why trust its health to the cheapest and least reliable testing methods?
 
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Get this: Test Kits

I had mine in a couple of days. The folks who really know their Darn here don't trust strips and don't trust store analysis.

As for no CYA, if you have none, you'll burn through your FC and your SWG will need to be really working and will have needed to be sized right to produce the right amount of FC.

Did you add any stabilizer/conditioner (CYA)? It's not a natural product so you'll be at 0 if you have not added any. People here recommend having CYA for a reason, I wouldn't stay at 0 if you know the rest of your pool readings are right. And that means you need a proper kit.
 
I'm prepared to go buy the stabilizer, but I'm still wondering if it's worth the experiment to leave it as-is for now. It's been working good for 3 years, albeit with liquid bleach. I've only had to keep my FC around 1ppm to keep it crystal clear all year long. And many days, after adding bleach in early evening, which takes me up to about 2.5ppm, the chlorine hasn't completely disappeared by the next evening. So it doesn't seem like UV is eating my chlorine as fast as most pool articles would lead me to believe.
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The purpose of the CYA is to prevent the UV from the sun from reacting with all your FC. Your SWG is probably just running it high enough to compensate for that. With the right amount of CYA your water it will hold FC better and you can turn the SWG production down.

As to the difference between the Pentair recommendation and the websites recommendation boils down to the FC/CYA Levels that is the basis for maintaining chlorine on the site. Pentair and most of the rest of the pool industry has not modified their recommendations to take this into account. So follow the forums protocol and you will be better off.

I have finally found a reliable test for my test strips. If I dip them and they come out wet, I can conclude I have water in my pool.
 
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Thanks everyone. I was simply using the strips b/c I had a lesser Taylor liquid kit that did not have a CYA test. This is the 1st time I've ever used a strip in 20 years of pool ownership. I was fully expecting the backlash of comments.

I understand that low CYA will burn through FC quicker, and higher CYA requires higher FC to maintain proper sanitation. So there must be a sweet spot in the middle. To me that sweetspot would be whereever SWG production is minimized while still maintaining a proper FC level. Should I be interpreting the forum recommendations of around 70ppm to mean that is the sweet spot?

@mguzzy - thanks for the explanation of the difference in recommendations

@Donldson - understood about the pool store, but I'm not referring to the big box clowns. I like my local guy and he's never sold me a single chemical ever.
 

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Yes, for a SWG pool the sweet spot is around 70. But every pool is different. They are dynamic beasts with each chemical equalizing itself to the other chemicals and conditions around it (temp, sun exposure, bather load, etc). So if you really want to figure out your sweet spot for your pool do a little experiment. I did this a couple of years ago when my CYA was particularly low at the start of the season. I added CYA in one pound increments and let the system stabilize to see where my chlorine production (the % knob) needed to be for a given FC. Then I did it again. It took several weeks but I found things optimized around 70ish... And I thought to myself, I'll be darned, those charts over at TFP must be on to something. :p
 
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