CYA levels are killing me

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boogies1018

boogies1018

0
Apr 22, 2015
8
Hurst/TX
Our pool was built over the summer of 2015, the pool builders pool school guy told me over the summer months fill the chlorine feeder with 5-6 tabs and leave it wide open. So later that year when it was colder I had the water tested and my Chlorine was up over 14 PPM which is how I managed to bleach out blue quartz plaster. So last June I noticed I was showing 0 chlorine so I went to Leslie's and they confirmed my CYA level was up over 200 PPM so I did a 2/3's water exchange and the only way to keep it from happening again was to install a salt system. Scared to death all last year of doing it again once it started cooling down I turned back the chlorine way down after a summer of 5-6 tabs and wide open. My daughter tested the water Sunday and 0 chlorine, and Leslie's confirmed this time they said it 300 PPM and I need the salt system and to drain the pool. Stopped by another pool store with a different sample yesterday to double confirm the good news. Obviously the pool school guy was way wrong. And if I was going to put a salt system on I wouldn't buy it through Leslie's. I've ordered a K-2006 kit so I can do better testing. I spent Sunday and Monday all over this forum looking at different ideas on what I was doing wrong cause I thought the people who built the stupid pool would know how to run one. The guy I spoke to yesterday told me once I get the pool filled back up to test before adding anything, then turn the feeder back to 1/4 way open with 2 tabs in it and add powder chlorine w/o stabilizer to balance it out as needed. I've read about a gazillion things I was doing wrong on here because I listened to the pool builder.:crazy:
 
Forget the pucks or powder d chlorine/shock. They all have stuff in them that build up and messs with your pool. The pucks are adding cya. The non stabilized adds carbonate I think. Go with liquid chlorine/bleach or with swcg and you can avoid the refills on your pool
 
So my advice is until you get a SWG, to ditch those pucks and just start using liquid chlorine (aka "bleach") in the pool. Each puck that adds 10ppm FC also adds something like 9ppm of CYA. Oy vey!!! :cyclopsani:

PoolMath will advise you on how much to use based on your test results.

No one has your pool's best interest in mind foremost more than you. Pool Stores are sellers. You do not want to *have* to be a consumer there. You can buy what few things a pool needs at your local grocery store or hardware store for a lot cheaper.

Having an accurate test kit and using it makes all the difference in pool care, right!?

Yip :flower:
 
No worries. You're in the right place now. Stay far away from the pool store and save major $$$$. 1st thing - CYA. For us non-SWG pools, we can live with a CYA anywhere from 30-50. For us in TX in the blazing summer, some even need to go a bit higher to 60-70 just to preserve FC. So with that Taylor K-2006, you'll first need to confirm the CYA. The pool store almost always gets that test wrong. Once you have a good CYA, bounce that number off of the Chlorine/CYA Chart (link below in my sig) and you'll see the corresponding FC level for that CYA. Then adjust all the other levels as needed.

I get my bleach at HEB (regular Bravo) for $2.94 per gallon. You can also go to Wal-mart for their Great Value or Pool Essentials. Either is fine as they will not increase CYA at all. So if you still have tabs in the feeder, remove them now and stick just to regular bleach. Also get familiar with the Poolmath Calculator so you know how to use it and ask questions at any time. For what it's worth ... my pool is slightly larger than yours, and I typically add about 1/2 gallon of bleach each (sunny) day. Cloudy/cold days less. But stick to your own testing for best success.

Let us know if you have anymore questions.
 
So I should ditch using the pucks all together and go swg or liquid chlorine after I do my partial drain and refill. If I go liquid should I look at some sort of feeder like the Liquidator or Stenner Pump? My concern will be gone a week and a half at the end of May.
 
boogies1018 said:
So I should ditch using the pucks all together and go swg or liquid chlorine after I do my partial drain and refill. If I go liquid should I look at some sort of feeder like the Liquidator or Stenner Pump? My concern will be gone a week and a half at the end of May.
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Then drain a smidgeon more so that while you are gone, and with lower CYA levels, you can then use a few pucks in a floater to maintain your FC level. This is a common practice- leaving room in the CYA level for vacations and time away. Then when you return remove any remaining pucks and go back to liquid chlorine.

Yip :flower:
 
Whether you elect to use automated methods (SWG for salt, or liquid dispensing), you definitely want to remove the pucks/tabs. You can save them for future use if you go on vacation or CYA is low, but at this time, remove them completely. At least for now you know bleach won't increase CYA anymore, so you can exchange water as needed to lower CYA to something more manageable and go from there. Using an SWG or dispensing system is a matter of convenience for those folks who are away from the home a lot or simply don't like to mess with bottles of bleach.
 
So I got my k-2006 kit in today. So just to make sure Leslie's isn't jacking me around I did the cyanuric test. And it's bad I'm not even close to 100 on the scale. In fact there is a 1.8 molded towards the bottom of the tube and I lose the black dot about 2 mm above that. So I'm pretty sure I'm in the 200+ range since the scale stops at 100. I'll start pumping tomorrow afternoon.?

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
 
boogies1018 said:
So I got my k-2006 kit in today. So just to make sure Leslie's isn't jacking me around I did the cyanuric test. And it's bad I'm not even close to 100 on the scale. In fact there is a 1.8 molded towards the bottom of the tube and I lose the black dot about 2 mm above that. So I'm pretty sure I'm in the 200+ range since the scale stops at 100. I'll start pumping tomorrow afternoon.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
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I'm sorry to hear this :pukel:

I would venture to guess two drains of about 50% each are in order. Then retest. I hope that will be enough.

Yip :flower:
 
It only cost me $75 extra on the water bill to drain and fill a similar size pool in a nearby area to you. At some point that is the best option to solve all kinds of chemical imbalances. Just get a clean start. Our half drain and fill for similar reasons wound up a waste of time and money.
 
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We did pull from the top with a pump from home Depot. We still pumped it just past 2/3's down. Our level was so high were still around 60 ppm on the cya, but we're supposed to get some rain this week so I'm hoping that will help as well.

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djbilo said:
Boogies,

As dissolved CYA floats, as one who came to this forum after having a very high CYA, calcium and algae bloom mess a few years back looking for answers (found them!), the one thing I have wondered is whether the recommendations to turn over half the pool water to try and solve such a problem should suggest to remove water from the top down instead of just to drain water, which tends to come from the bottom where the concentration of CYA appears to be lowest.

The CYA concentration does appear to follow a gradient, top to bottom, high to low.
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djbilo,

I'm curious where you heard that CYA floats? I'm pretty sure this is not true, as I believe that the CYA binds to chlorine and chlorine is at a pretty uniform level though out a pool.

But, my last Chemistry class with in Pre-K, so I'll let one of our chemical experts chime in...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
I believe I had some bad information about that (from a pool professional) and in fact there is a lot of misinformation out there about this. My apologies for any confusion. I am still looking for some additional data about this.
 
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