Cyanuric Acid ~ Am I Understanding This Correctly???

Jump to latest Follow Reply
G

Gilly McFinn

Member
May 14, 2019
16
Deer Park
Hello and thank you in advance for your time!
I’m kinda new at this.
The first time I couldn’t get my water clear, I went to the pool store, naturally.
After they filled my cart with about $350 worth of chemicals for my little 10,000G pool, I smelled a rat.
So I started learning the BBB method. Apparently I now have to graduate to the TFPC method and learn how to SLAM.
And I thought I was done with school.
Anyway, please tell me if I have this right so I can move forward.
A. Too much cyanuric acid begins to render chlorine inert.
B. All common chlorine tablets and powders contain CYA whether you need it or not.
C. Once the CYA is in your pool, it’s not coming out without taking the water with it.
D. There’s a special place in heck for pool store staff.
E. I have to put 40-50 ppm of cyanuric acid in my pool and then I can only use liquid bleach or things are going to get ugly.

Surely I’ve gone off track somewhere.
I don’t want to lug,... does anyone even know how many gallons of bleach that is???
Is it easier to just pollute my pool with their excess CYA and do regular partial water changes to get rid it?
Is this really this hard or have I had a traumatic head injury nobody’s telling me about?
 
A. Yes, it binds with the chlorine and renders it unable to kill while it's bound. Bind up too much and not enough is available and algae and bacteria get to thrive.
B. Most do. There are two types of non-liquid chlorine. Calcium hypochlorite does not have CYA. Trichlor and Dichlor have CYA (these sometimes have very long and difficult to pronounce names other than trichlor and dichlor but these are the most common shorthand names)
C. Correct
D. I think most of them have good intentions and just misinformed, give them the benefit of the doubt but stay away from their advice
E. Exactly

In order calculate how many gallons of bleach to put in, you need to use PoolMath (the app) or the link at the bottom of this page. It would help us to give you better advice if you provided more specifics about your pool (like how many gallons you have, what type of surface it is, where is deer park?) PoolMath

You can keep adding CYA with tabs and keep draining and refilling. That's your call. Your money, your family, your pool.
 
justinc said:
A. Yes, it binds with the chlorine and renders it unable to kill while it's bound. Bind up too much and not enough is available and algae and bacteria get to thrive.
B. Most do. There are two types of non-liquid chlorine. Calcium hypochlorite does not have CYA. Trichlor and Dichlor have CYA (these sometimes have very long and difficult to pronounce names other than trichlor and dichlor but these are the most common shorthand names)
C. Correct
D. I think most of them have good intentions and just misinformed, give them the benefit of the doubt but stay away from their advice
E. Exactly

In order calculate how many gallons of bleach to put in, you need to use PoolMath (the app) or the link at the bottom of this page. It would help us to give you better advice if you provided more specifics about your pool (like how many gallons you have, what type of surface it is, where is deer park?) PoolMath

You can keep adding CYA with tabs and keep draining and refilling. That's your call. Your money, your family, your pool.
Click to expand...
Wow. I thought for sure I had E. Wrong. I was kinda expecting someone to tell me about a nice convenient powder or tablet with no CYA.
Oh well. At least now I know. Thank you for that.
My mail carrier is going to hate me, cuz I’M certainly not carrying all that bleach home from the store.
Maybe I can strap all the empty bottles together at the end of the season and make a 35ft houseboat.
And I was kidding about how much bleach to use. I can figure that out.
Thank again! ?
 
You sound like you are getting it.

I used 80 gallons of 6% bleach last year in my 14,000 gallon pool. I bought it in stages. This year I bought all my bleach at once by ordering from Walmart and then picking it up. It is too much trouble to go to multiple stores and make multiple trips. The higher percentage bleaches such as 10 and 12.5% will degrade more rapidly and I would not be able to buy it all in one trip. I had 20 gallons of carryover bleach from last year and am still using that so I only had to buy 60 gallons for this season. If you order it then it comes in 3 gallon boxes which stack nicely. I calibrated my bleach pump again this year and I am getting the same change in free chlorine ( 1 hour run time=1ppm for my setup). So I have not seen much degradation in last year's bleach stored over the fall and winter.
 
Hey Brother, welcome! You’re among friends. You’re on the right track, and trust me- it seems like you just surrendered your life to that cement pond. But it gets easier and easier- just have faith and follow the advice given here. Have patience, and generally don’t expect things to go too quickly. Give it the time up front, and you won’t spend a lot of time thereafter.

You can do it, and a lot simpler chemicals than those adorning the shelves of your local pool store.

And finally, we expect pictures of shimmering water after it’s all done!
 
Mackhatter said:
Hey Brother, welcome! You’re among friends. You’re on the right track, and trust me- it seems like you just surrendered your life to that cement pond. But it gets easier and easier- just have faith and follow the advice given here. Have patience, and generally don’t expect things to go too quickly. Give it the time up front, and you won’t spend a lot of time thereafter.

You can do it, and a lot simpler chemicals than those adorning the shelves of your local pool store.

And finally, we expect pictures of shimmering water after it’s all done!
Click to expand...

You’re very kind.
Thank you for your encouragement. ?
 
tim5055 said:
The problem is none of us have found any delivery services that deliver liquid chlorine/bleach.
Click to expand...

I was afraid of that, after my experience with spray paint delivery. ? And it looks like you’re right. Nobody around here will touch it either.
But that’s OK. I just did the math and I’m going to need a lot less than I thought.
I was thinking up to a gallon a day for my 10,000G pool. ?
Gonna pull back the throttle on that just a bit. ?
 
Gilly, I just posted a graph of my beach requirements in a thread named "Chlorine Requirements". After going through the records to make the graph, it looks like I used 70 gallons of 6% bleach instead of 80. If your pool is 10,000 gallons then that would only be 50 gallons for you. However your climate and swimmer load can affect this a lot. My pool is often covered with a solar cover and that reduces consumption.
 
Steve_in_C said:
Gilly, I just posted a graph of my beach requirements in a thread named "Chlorine Requirements". After going through the records to make the graph, it looks like I used 70 gallons of 6% bleach instead of 80. If your pool is 10,000 gallons then that would only be 50 gallons for you. However your climate and swimmer load can affect this a lot. My pool is often covered with a solar cover and that reduces consumption.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
I’m in southern Houston, 45mi from the Gulf Coast, so it’s a little hotter here and our "summers" are about 8wks longer.
We often hit the 90s by May 1 and stay there through October.
But I put half my pool in the shade and I try to cover it when I get out, if I haven’t swum myself to the point of collapse.
So I guess time will tell.
Oh, and I have a chlorine generator. It’s just a little Intex brand, but every little bit helps.
Thanks again! ?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
With a SWG in Houston you might want to keep your CYA a little higher than 40 - 50. There are a several others in your neck of the woods and I think they keep their CYA in the 50 - 70 range.
 
My CYA is almost at my "summer level" of 60. My May vacation is when I use pucks and it does double duty to raise my number as well as chlorinate while I'm gone. Keep yours around 60. Think of it as SPF for your chlorine. Makes it last longer and can do it's job better! I use about 1/3 gallon of chlorine per day (depending on % it can be
more or less). My pool is partly shaded too and about your size. Just pick up a few bottles of regular unscented, no polymer bleach or their Pool Essentials Liquid Chlorine (higher %) when you stroll through Walmart. HD or Lowes carries liquid chlorine too. It's less work than you think and the rewards of a TFP with spectacular water is worth it!
 
Lilypad said:
My CYA is almost at my "summer level" of 60. My May vacation is when I use pucks and it does double duty to raise my number as well as chlorinate while I'm gone. Keep yours around 60. Think of it as SPF for your chlorine. Makes it last longer and can do it's job better! I use about 1/3 gallon of chlorine per day (depending on % it can be
more or less). My pool is partly shaded too and about your size. Just pick up a few bottles of regular unscented, no polymer bleach or their Pool Essentials Liquid Chlorine (higher %) when you stroll through Walmart. HD or Lowes carries liquid chlorine too. It's less work than you think and the rewards of a TFP with spectacular water is worth it!
Click to expand...
I found this link to some pool chlorinating liquid at Home Depot: HDX 128 oz. Chlorinating Liquid (3-Pack)-30128HDX - The Home Depot They provide 3 gallons per box and if you buy 4 or more boxes at one time, the price is reduced to $8.98 per box. I figure based on previous comments, I'll need roughly 70 gallons per year for my 14,000 gallon pool which equates out to $210 bucks per year in liquid chlorine or $17.50 per month.
 
I know my way isn't generally accepted but I have a vinyl liner pool and my fill water has very low CH so I use NST tablets (slow release cal-hypo with no CYA) to keep my pool at consistent FC levels, doesn't work for everyone but I like it for the convenience
 
Kinnunen3 said:
I know my way isn't generally accepted
Click to expand...
We really are not against their use. We are against their uncontrolled use. If you are testing to make sure your CH doesn't get too high and yo always have the minimum amount of chlorine in the pool - do what works.

Every pool and the environment it exists in is different. We are against teh one size fits all answers that arew generally given by the "professionals".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply