High CYA in DFW

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B

BkdGrain

Bronze Supporter
Apr 30, 2021
34
DFW, Texas
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Moved from HERE

@TexasDogs Don't mean to hijack your thread, I am in same exact situation as you in DFW, TX and was about to post similar thread about high CYA(165). I bought a house couple of weeks back in DFW and also a first time pool owner.

@Texas Splash Would 1/3 drain and refill be safer in this weather?
 
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BG, no doubt you'll need to change some water to lower the CYA. We're quite saturated down here around S.A., so I wouldn't go any lower than about 1/2. But your area may be a bit different, or you may be on bedrock which would help. But if you want to be safe, exchange about half and see where that takes you.
 
You might also consider running a diluted CYA test using the link below starting at Step 8. That might give you a more realistic idea of where your CYA really is.

www.troublefreepool.com

CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is the chemical name for what is commonly referred to as Stabilizer … Read more…
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
Texas Splash said:
You might also consider running a diluted CYA test using the link below starting at Step 8. That might give you a more realistic idea of where your CYA really is.

www.troublefreepool.com

CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is the chemical name for what is commonly referred to as Stabilizer … Read more…
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
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I did do the diluted test, it gave me 160-170 range. Just to verify I went to Leslie just to check if their test also shows similar range, but they asked me to come back after it stops raining to get accurate results.
 
BkdGrain said:
but they asked me to come back after it stops raining to get accurate results.
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Ha ha. That's funny. Unless you lowered a significant amount of water in advance of a storm, and then filled with rain, the CYA won't change. With a CYA that high, you'll probably need to do 2-3 partial exchanges.
 
I bought a 1/2HP pump from Amazon which can apparently pump 3k GPH, I am guessing city water fill line can only do 600 GPH. If no rain that night, does running the drain pump for 2 hours in the evening and then letting it fill overnight seem like a safe idea?
 
The 1/2 hp pump will only pump about 5-7 gpm if you are using a normal garden hose. To get the 3k per hour, you need to use a 1.5 inch hose about 20 feet long, and the pump has to be at the same level as the outlet of the hose. Not likely.
 
mknauss said:
The 1/2 hp pump will only pump about 5-7 gpm if you are using a normal garden hose. To get the 3k per hour, you need to use a 1.5 inch hose about 20 feet long, and the pump has to be at the same level as the outlet of the hose. Not likely.
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I bought the 2' hose kit along with the pump. I am assuming it will do at least 2.5GPH for my pool as the drainage is downhill.
 
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I was expecting one of the ports in the pool was water filling line, turns out I was wrong, all the ports are return lines, one recessed hook (not sure for what), and one overflow drain.

Is it normal for old TX pools to not have auto leveling water fill line?

JPEG image 39.jpegJPEG image 40.jpeg
 
mknauss said:
The 1/2 hp pump will only pump about 5-7 gpm if you are using a normal garden hose. To get the 3k per hour, you need to use a 1.5 inch hose about 20 feet long, and the pump has to be at the same level as the outlet of the hose. Not likely.
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The discharge hose kit was a failure, it was about 10 feet short and pain to setup. I used the vacuum hose with adapter from HomeDepot and it's working great. 2700GPH confirmed.

It rained a lot today, so I am going to run this for an hour and let pool fill with rain water (scavenging gutter water), and will test CYA tomorrow, rinse and repeat.


pool_drain.jpg
pool_drain-jpg.333623
 

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Texas Splash said:
Good to hear you got the CYA down. If you need help with balancing, just post a full set of results and/or use our PoolMath to link your testing to TFP so we can see if from your profile avatar.
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I am getting to know my backyard more between lot of rain and trees loosing leaves (especially one day after rain) requiring more pool upkeep.

My CYA seems to have gone <40, I tried several times with sun to my back, I feel like I can't see the dot and if I look at it for couple more seconds I see the dot again. Not sure if extra bright sun this week messed up how I am looking at the dot.

Is it possible to loose over 10 CYA in 3 weeks and get to 30-35 CYA in this heat?, as I use liquid chlorine do I need to bring the CYA up?, hate to add CYA after all the work to get it down.
 
BkdGrain said:
Is it possible to loose over 10 CYA in 3 weeks and get to 30-35 CYA in this heat?, as I use liquid chlorine do I need to bring the CYA up?, hate to add CYA after all the work to get it down.
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Totally understand. It happened to me as well, although somewhat rare. Usually stabilizer is much more predictable and stays in there much longer. When it happened to me, it was apparently with one brand of stabilizer. But the recent heat is no doubt tough on our pools. So if you are getting less than 40 CYA in your test, it's best to increase it a little bit more. Go in stages out of caution if needed. I find that once my CYA drops below 60 when it's hot my SWG can't keep up with FC production.
 
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Once the pool temp hits 88 degrees and above. The CYA tends to degrade about 10ppm per month. Again not scientific by my experience. As my pool temp rises, I tend to test CYA much more often. This also tends to happen during the rainy season so that may go up even futher by overflow from the pool.

I think the temperature has something to do with the flux capacitor that powers my automation system.
 
Katodude said:
Once the pool temp hits 88 degrees and above. The CYA tends to degrade about 10ppm per month. Again not scientific by my experience. As my pool temp rises, I tend to test CYA much more often. This also tends to happen during the rainy season so that may go up even futher by overflow from the pool.

I think the temperature has something to do with the flux capacitor that powers my automation system.
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I am pretty sure I lost over 15ppm CYA in 3 weeks, we had lot of rain for 2 weeks and over 90 heat for last 1 week. I under estimated how much TX summer reduces CYA, should have stopped drain/refill when I got to 60/70, looks like if I don't add CYA or use pucks CYA will disappear by end of the season.
 
BkdGrain said:
I am pretty sure I lost over 15ppm CYA in 3 weeks, we had lot of rain for 2 weeks and over 90 heat for last 1 week. I under estimated how much TX summer reduces CYA, should have stopped drain/refill when I got to 60/70, looks like if I don't add CYA or use pucks CYA will disappear by end of the season.
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Bummer, but at least it is an easy fix as stabilizer is cheap. Just be sure of your numbers and do not add too much.
 
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JJ_Tex said:
Bummer, but at least it is an easy fix as stabilizer is cheap. Just be sure of your numbers and do not add too much.
Click to expand...

I tested CYA every 2 or 3 days in last 3 weeks, I got Leslie's store to test water also, and their numbers were within 3ppm of mine.

Yes, I am planning to build up CYA VERY slowly.
 

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