CYA Regularly too high

TonyN

0
Jul 6, 2017
36
South West France
I'm not a pool guy as such, but I maintain a few under a Property Management company, mainly because I am at the property doing the gardens...The problem I often encounter here is high Cya readings. I'm using the Mareva test strips for Free chlorine, Total chlorine, Alkalinity, Ph, Total hardness & Cya.The Cya reading is often in the 'Purple' zone, making it between 150 & 250ppm, according to the bottle.

The chlorine tablets are a medium brand of Trichlore, and the same for when I use shock.

Should I start introducing non-stabilized chlorine tablets for maintenance, maybe 50/50?? Is that chemically dangerous, if I did that? And would that have an effect on the Cya?

I've had to remove a third of the water from one pool twice this season....not ideal!!
 
We have found the "guess strips" are not very accurate :( I suggest you get a good test kit such as the Taylor 2006C (note the C as it has more regents). I would suggest the TF-100 but notice you are not in the states and they do not ship outside the states.

The tablets you use are adding the CYA. The other tablets add calcium. Either way you are adding extra, unneeded stuff to the water :( The best thing you could look into would be a SWG as seen here: Pool School - Salt Water Chlorine Generators

Kim:kim:
 
Wow! Only the day before yesterday I sent the client an email suggesting that! I also sent an Inyopools article on the system too, seemed a reasonably neutral article outlining the pros and cons of the salt system. I would change myself if it wasn't for the upfront cost at the moment. And I obviously didn't know the pros & cons thing was on here!

The water is quite hard here, anti-calcium products are available too, I wonder if using maybe 50/50 stabilised & non-stabilised tablets in the short term would be better. Afterwards, maybe it would be less expensive to deal with the calcium, as opposed to the excessive Cya.....?
 
Just remember the non-stabilized tablets have calcium in them. One day someone will make affordable tablets with no bad stuff added :( I have not heart of anti-calcium products. Please share more info about this. I thought the only way to remove calcium in water was to remove and replace with lower calcium water

You could also look at using liquid chlorine BUT that has to be added daily so............
 
I don't know if it would be possible to make a chlorine tablet, that doesn't have something else in it. The chlorine needs to bind to something, that can be powdered and compressed into a tablet. CYA and Calcium are good choices, as long as use is limited to once in a while or when those things are needed. A slow moving pump that could deliver liquid chlorine over a long period would be ideal.
 
I may of misunderstood the way this product works, but here it is....Calcinex Anti-calcaire 3L BAYROL Anti-tartre - Piscine Shop

I imagined it would help combat higher calcium levels if it became a problem after using non-stabilised chlorine tablets, or shock....

Its possible to buy liquid chlorine here, but its not readily available. I know of one pool that uses an automated liquid chlorine system, with heavy use on the pool it is very expensive. I think the salt system is the way to go, if you can afford the initial outlay!
 
That is most likely an anti - scale product. (I do not read French) It uses some chemistry to bind the calcium so it will not form scale. It must be used regularly and then when the calcium gets to a certain point, you get scale.

A water softener and reverse-osmosis are the only methods to remove calcium from water.
 
Ah, so the chalky line around the waterline when I first got the pool in June 2017 would have been calcium from the local hard water. This is what I used the anti-clacaire for, and it worked. Although I haven't used it for over a year and have not had the same chalky waterline.

I do have a water filter and have replaced the cartridges this year, which maybe why I've not had the scale problem.

So it would seem the answer to controlling the high levels of Cya would be to use liquid chlorine.
 

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Bonjour Tony,
My CYA level is 80 which is high end but I know the FC is protected and reduces use of Bleach. I target my FC between 5-10 (min /max) but I am not afraid to go higher if I know I cannot monitor due to work commitments because I can swim up to shock level. I use Tridome 10% Bleach and probably use 10litres per week high season (no cover) and half that now (covered unless swimming).
I use HTH 6 way test kit and regulate the FC with a "melange" of Aquachek test strips (ouch! sorry to swear!) and using the HTH OTO which is made by Taylor and I find the light yelow scale 1-5, dark yellow 10, orange 15, dark orange 20 brown +25 works out practically for my purposes. I must stress this does not work with cheap pool shop OTO test kits and I am trying to find a good source of OTO in France to replicate these results. Hope that helps ;D. Before I am condemned - I would love the TF kit or the Taylor2006C but it is harder than you think in rural France. Out of interest I paid around 50€ for the HTH kit delivered BUT only enough CYA reagent for 3 tests!!!! That is the next job on the list - find CYA reagent????
Cordialement
Peter
 
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