Do I want CYA?

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A

adl6009

Well-known member
Mar 19, 2015
93
Long Island, NY
Hi. I was reading the chlorine/cya chart and it says cya at less than 20ppm is not recomended. I brought a sample to the local pool store and he read mine at 10 or less. I use bleach to chlorinate my pool, I check and add daily to keep chlorine at 3ppm after 6pm so the sun is out of my pool. Should I add cya? (I have to add that the guy used dip sticks which did not agree with my dpd test results for ph, he read it as 7.7 and mine read at 7.2, just thought I'd mention that, I never liked he dip test strips.) Do they sell a tester for cya only? Thanks.
 
You need a proper test kit to manage your pool water chemistry. See Test Kits Compared. I suggest the TF100 from TFTestkits.net

I suspect your FC is dropping below the minimum FC each day. With CYA of 30 ppm that should not happen as long as you raise the FC each day to within target range - see FC/CYA Levels
 
Yes it does. I test in the morning and get my 3ppm, in the late afternoon I will see zero ppm chlorine. Also my total chlorine will usually equal my free chlorine so I have zero combines chlorine. Is that good or bad? After adding cya will that cycle change? Oh, one more question, 30,000 gallon pool, how much cya should I add? I am ordering the tester today. Thanks again.
 
You are prime for algae with letting your FC drop below minimum.

Add 30 ppm CYA. Use PoolMath. I get 8 lbs of dry stabilizer needed.
Add the CYA by using what we call the sock method. Get an old sock (no holes) and put the measured amount of CYA you need. Tie the sock closed and either suspend it in front of a return (hang it from your brush pole works with something weighted on the deck) OR if it still allows flow thru the skimmer, place the sock in the skimmer. Every 15/20 minutes give the sock a squeeze to speed up the process. Please DO NOT follow the directions on the container of CYA to just pour it into the skimmer and don't just toss the sock in the pool as the CYA is acidic and can bleach/stain pool finishes.
 
mknauss said:
You are prime for algae with letting your FC drop below minimum.

Add 30 ppm CYA. Use PoolMath. I get 8 lbs of dry stabilizer needed.
Add the CYA by using what we call the sock method. Get an old sock (no holes) and put the measured amount of CYA you need. Tie the sock closed and either suspend it in front of a return (hang it from your brush pole works with something weighted on the deck) OR if it still allows flow thru the skimmer, place the sock in the skimmer. Every 15/20 minutes give the sock a squeeze to speed up the process. Please DO NOT follow the directions on the container of CYA to just pour it into the skimmer and don't just toss the sock in the pool as the CYA is acidic and can bleach/stain pool finishes.
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Is it acceptable to use a TriChlor tab feeder to maintain CYA, rather than add a separate stabilizer?
 
Donldson said:
CYA does not go away, using a feeder just causes it to build up to untenable levels. I believe I saw that you have already experienced that first-hand.
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You're right. I'm just planning for maintaining CYA levels after I complete partial drain and refill. Once I get it back down to 50ppm or so, will it just stay there without any additional stabilizer being added? Or will stabilizer additions only be desirable every few weeks/months to keep in the target range?
 
Exlonghorn said:
Or will stabilizer additions only be desirable every few weeks/months to keep in the target range?
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That is correct. CYA/stabilizer primarily only leaves the pool when you take the water in the pool with it out and replace with fresh water. You should test CYA each month during swim season. If you need 10 ppm, use a couple tablets or add the powder. Best to save the tablets for when you are away from the pool for several days.
 

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mknauss said:
That is correct. CYA/stabilizer primarily only leaves the pool when you take the water in the pool with it out and replace with fresh water. You should test CYA each month during swim season. If you need 10 ppm, use a couple tablets or add the powder. Best to save the tablets for when you are away from the pool for several days.
Click to expand...
Do you find a lot of newbies here getting completely irritated over the proliferation of tablet options with stabilizer enticing people to use them as an easy and low-maintenance way to maintain chlorine levels, only to find the CYA going bonkers down the road? And better yet, why do they put so much CYA in the tablets in the first place? A cynical view would be that they want you to raise CYA in order to drive ever-increasing chlorine use, but that seems like a pretty bad business strategy as eventually people like me will be very unhappy as a result. Is it just that people don't want to be adding liquid chlorine every day, and buying it every week? Perhaps rhetorical questions, but I"m curious.
 
Most new members that find us are on the pool store hamster wheel with tablets.

Nothing nefarious, chlorine is a gas. It must be attached to something to be stable. Trichlor is CYA and chlorine and can be compacted so it will not dissolve quickly. The ratio is chemically required.

The two easiest ways to chlorinate your pool is a SaltWater Chlorine Generator or a Stenner pump liquid chlorine dispenser.
 
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