It appears the only solution to high CYA is to drain a pool. Yet, draining a pool even a few inches is extremely expensive. Besides high replacement water costs (at least $2000 for my 40k gallon pool), now you need a whole new set of chemicals to rebalance (calcium hardness, chlorine, acid, etc etc etc). CYA reducers must be much cheaper but yet most say they dont work? Besides needing more free chlorine, which during winter and cold water temps is not an issue,why is high CYA (at least not above 300ppm), a problem?
Draining Pool for CYA Makes No Sense
- Thread starter DrainingIsExpensive
- Start date
The amount of chlorine you need would be impractical but if you had loads of cash and time to add all that chlorine I suppose it could be done. But it’d be more than your $2000 water replacement which is outrageously expensive as well. I refilled my 27k gallon pool for about $200.
Here’s the chlorine chart that needs to be followed to maintain sanitary water. Click the “show full chart” to get a handle on what it would look like.
The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship
Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.
www.troublefreepool.com
It doesn’t go above 100 because no one wants to maintain that much chlorine in the water. But for your theoretical CYA of 300ppm, the chlorine (FC) would need to be maintained at minimum of 23ppm.
The CYA reducers just don’t work.
Welcome to the forum. Your cost to refill your pool is crazy.
TFP suggests to keep your CYA about 80 or below. tens of thousands of us do so successfully. Managing chlorine is virtually impossible with CYA above 80 or so.
You can keep your CYA wherever you want........we only SUGGEST a range that will help you and not hurt you.
TFP suggests to keep your CYA about 80 or below. tens of thousands of us do so successfully. Managing chlorine is virtually impossible with CYA above 80 or so.
You can keep your CYA wherever you want........we only SUGGEST a range that will help you and not hurt you.
I came across a CYA reducer by chance while searching for something else. I looked up the SDS to see what was in it, and it effectively said it was some form of modified bacteria. This would mean you are knowingly adding bacteria to the water, with this specific product, and I will come back to which one, and any chlorine present is likely destroying the product you are adding.
As I read and understand it, pseudomonas sp. is the most likely cyanuric acid removal bacteria. This brings up another issue: pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is one of concern in pools, has an indeterminate C.T. (contact time) according to the last set of literature I have from the CDC, effectively, meaning we don't know the exact amount of chlorine required to remove it.
Even if the CYA reducer is effective, if it is based on a similar microbe to the one I looked up it will likely give ongoing issues which may not be obvious for months.
Let's be clear here. CYA removers don't work. You can assign all sorts of caveats to that statement if you like but all that does is complicate the issue.
CYA removers don't work.
Neither does OP's thinking of managing a pool with CYA of 80+
CYA removers don't work.
Neither does OP's thinking of managing a pool with CYA of 80+
The most cost effective way to solve high CYA is to swallow the cost of correcting it once (you offer no hints as to what your CYA actually is, which seems an odd omission to this specific post, but it's unlikely you would need a 100% exchange) and then manage the water so as to avoid the problem in the future.
Sure, it's possible that ignoring a problem might make it go away, but it's pretty rare. If you slip up and get algae then you will have wasted whatever money and time trying to make it work and then still paid for the exchange anyway. Why bother with the trouble when a water exchange fixes the problem now and you never have to worry about it again?
Sure, it's possible that ignoring a problem might make it go away, but it's pretty rare. If you slip up and get algae then you will have wasted whatever money and time trying to make it work and then still paid for the exchange anyway. Why bother with the trouble when a water exchange fixes the problem now and you never have to worry about it again?