well sure if I needed to add CYA that would be a good way to use them, I guess what I am asking is do you really need to have a slow release of chlorine in a pool or can you just add bleach as needed?
pool not holding chlorine
- Thread starter jodyliebing
- Start date
You don't need one, I don't use one. I just test ever day (ok, sometimes I miss a day) and add however much additional chlorine I need to maintain a level of 3-7, and anything else I might need. In my case the "anything else" is muriatic acid a couple times a week to adjust pH. It's a fairly simple few minutes, for my pool I don't feel an SWG is worth it when I am testing daily and I have a fairly small pool. Others like the automation.
Weekly shocking is completely unnecessary if you are maintaining an FC level appropriate for your CYA. You only need to SLAM if you have cloudy water, a CC problem, or you run an OCLT and fail it. The 1-3 ppm FC is a relic of a time when CYA wasn't involved. Very few people who work at a pool store understand the FC/CYA relationship. Unfortunately I don't expect that to change, as Techguy said, it's not good for their business model.
Weekly shocking is completely unnecessary if you are maintaining an FC level appropriate for your CYA. You only need to SLAM if you have cloudy water, a CC problem, or you run an OCLT and fail it. The 1-3 ppm FC is a relic of a time when CYA wasn't involved. Very few people who work at a pool store understand the FC/CYA relationship. Unfortunately I don't expect that to change, as Techguy said, it's not good for their business model.
just curious did you have high CYA? It looks like with my levels if I start the process it will start with 12 gallons of bleach. When you did it how much and often did you have to add bleach after the initial dose??
That's a hard answer because it depends on so many factors...how diligent you are, how much organics are in the pool, etc.
The solution is to buy a TON of it maybe 30-40 gallons. Whatever is left, you simply use it in your daily maintenance so it is never wasted.
The solution is to buy a TON of it maybe 30-40 gallons. Whatever is left, you simply use it in your daily maintenance so it is never wasted.
good to know!! Also I was using the bioguard test strips. I never noticed before but the top pad that is for bromine is turning green when I test, its as if I now have bromine reading in my pool?????
jodyliebing said:
You just asked a question that is really hard to answer. The SLAM process says check it every hour if you can. How your pool will react depends on how much algae you have.
I jumped in because I just dealt with a high CYA problem. Once your CYA is over 100 the tests are somewhat subjective and the accuracy gets worse as you dilute the water to get a reading you can use. In my case my initial guess of 180 turned out to be wrong and it took two partial water changes to get my CYA down to a level I can live with for now. I may change more water next year after I see how it looks in the spring.
The first time I left 18 inches of water in the shallow end. The second time I drained it down to 12 inches and stopped there to make sure the liner didn't shift. All that and my CYA is still 65.
If your CYA is still over 100 you are going to spend a bundle to SLAM the pool and continue to spend trying to keep your free chlorine level high enough to prevent algae.
I ran into an algae bloom between my first and second partial water change. Since my CYA was still too high and I knew what I had just spent clearing the water the first time I said the heck with it and just changed water. Cleaning it up the second time was much easier with the lower CYA level.
If you want my $.02, I'd change the water first and then see what you have to work with after that.
You mentioned trucking water. I'd ask where it comes from if I were you. You are paying for it after all. I used a dedicated water hauler who got my water from the city water system. It was actually cheaper than trying to pull 7,000 gallons from my well the first time and almost 10,000 the second time. I would have emptied the entire pool the first time, if I wasn't worried about damage to the liner.
GREAT INFO!! Thanks. I guess I am just struggling with the idea of getting new water when the season is almost over and I will close in 4 weeks or so, would much raher wait untill spring.
If it makes you feel any better I just did a 2nd drain on my pool today. I figure the season is blown anyway because of constant algae and cool temps and rain. I went from CYA 168 in June to 155 mid July (did small drain) to 114 last week and whatever I will get after filling back up today. I to am trying to get switched over to BBB but having trouble cause of the high stabilizer issues.
I just do not understand WHY the pool builder didn't give us more direction on chemicals and how to care for our pool. By installing a chlorine puck chlorinator he basically locked us into having to drain the pool at some point to get rid of CYA. And, when I was buying buckets of Dichlor this spring, why couldn't they just mention that adding it was going to over stabilize my pool? It is unprofessional in my opinion.
Good luck with your fight against CYA, you aren't alone! Goal for next year: have manageable stabilizer!
I just do not understand WHY the pool builder didn't give us more direction on chemicals and how to care for our pool. By installing a chlorine puck chlorinator he basically locked us into having to drain the pool at some point to get rid of CYA. And, when I was buying buckets of Dichlor this spring, why couldn't they just mention that adding it was going to over stabilize my pool? It is unprofessional in my opinion.
Good luck with your fight against CYA, you aren't alone! Goal for next year: have manageable stabilizer!
Could it be, that like most pool stores, they don't understand the relationship between FC and CYA? To most people, 1-3 FC is all you will ever need regardless of any other chemical in the pool. These people are also the ones buying all the pool store has to offer to fix things when they invariably go wrong.
that is the truth. starting to feel like instead of my sparkling dream come true " The money pit"!! 
Once you get it cleared up, and working right, your maintenance costs in both time and money will go way down. It will be to the point that you will be thinking "what did I spend all that money on before this?"
That's the beauty of the BBB method, in that you WILL understand the inter-relationships of all that you need to use in your pool (as in very little) to keep it sparkling.
In my case, with muddy mutts that like the water, the time is spent cleaning up after them.....BUT....the water still sparkles! You can see every little bit of silt these crazy dogs drag into the pool! A few good sweeps, and vacuum what settles back out, until the next round of dog swim time.....
That's the beauty of the BBB method, in that you WILL understand the inter-relationships of all that you need to use in your pool (as in very little) to keep it sparkling.
In my case, with muddy mutts that like the water, the time is spent cleaning up after them.....BUT....the water still sparkles! You can see every little bit of silt these crazy dogs drag into the pool! A few good sweeps, and vacuum what settles back out, until the next round of dog swim time.....
lol!!! !!!Everyone is SOO helpful on the forum it is good for my sanity because sometimes I feel like Im going crazy. The spouse already thinks I AM crazy over the pool. I need to fix this. He says I have put so many chemicals in he is afraid his skin will fall off if he gets in, that no good LOL
jodyliebing said:lol!!! !!!Everyone is SOO helpful on the forum it is good for my sanity because sometimes I feel like Im going crazy. The spouse already thinks I AM crazy over the pool. I need to fix this. He says I have put so many chemicals in he is afraid his skin will fall off if he gets in, that no good LOL
The nice thing is that once you get it settled out you don't have to add much. Now that I'm only using bleach my PH and TA have been very stable.
There is a very small chance your CYA might go down over the winter. From what I have read it usually happens with pools that are a green mess in the spring. Nobody has been able to make it happen but it has been reported. I qualified the heck out of that didn't I.
I wouldn't count on it happening. I'm not going to. With my winter cover very little gets in the pool and the water is usually very clear in the spring.
I understand not wanting to add water this late in the season. I really do since I did it twice this year. You can add it now or add it in the spring. Either way with a CYA over 100 you will be changing water at some point. I'd do it now while your spouse thinks you are crazy over the pool.
That way in spring when it's perfect you can say I told you so.
The funny thing is that the instructions for many products are accurate for a given set of assumptions. The challenge is that in most cases, you are adding the product you are adding because your water does NOT meet the standard of being balanced, except for the item in you hand. You also don't know the assumptions or if they state them, you could never meet them (ie you have vinyl and they assume plaster).
This is why the knowledge here and the fact that you need to learn how to apply this knowledge to your pool. This is is so different from the packages... And the pool stores.
This is why the knowledge here and the fact that you need to learn how to apply this knowledge to your pool. This is is so different from the packages... And the pool stores.
LOL...My husband is not the one who thinks I am going crazy with this pool, I am the one who thinks I am going crazy.
I was actually thinking that the reason we had a green swamp this spring was because of our cya level last fall. Probably didn't add enough chlorine to meet the cya level so algae likely got started right away as soon as we closed it. We drain down about 14 inches for winterizing and our level is always right back up to the skimmers when we open in the spring so I am hoping to lose some more cya with the fresh snow water added for free.
I think that pool stores actually don't get the relationship because when my cya was 114 and chlorine was 11 they told me I had done a good job of shocking the pool and it should be fine. As we know from the chart, I was NOT at shock level, I was at the level I needed to maintain. If I can get on the internet and find out the info about chemical balance, why can't they? They would lose a lot of algaecide sales though.
I was actually thinking that the reason we had a green swamp this spring was because of our cya level last fall. Probably didn't add enough chlorine to meet the cya level so algae likely got started right away as soon as we closed it. We drain down about 14 inches for winterizing and our level is always right back up to the skimmers when we open in the spring so I am hoping to lose some more cya with the fresh snow water added for free.
I think that pool stores actually don't get the relationship because when my cya was 114 and chlorine was 11 they told me I had done a good job of shocking the pool and it should be fine. As we know from the chart, I was NOT at shock level, I was at the level I needed to maintain. If I can get on the internet and find out the info about chemical balance, why can't they? They would lose a lot of algaecide sales though.
mlrogers said:
An 18 x 36 rectangle is 648 square feet. At 1 foot deep you are talking about roughly 4,800 gallons. Do you know what your pool holds? Mine is about this size but not as deep and it's only 16,500 gallons. Yours is probably more than that. If you assume 5,000 gallons new water in a 20,000 gallon pool you just knocked a 100 CYA down to about 75. That is still a high level to work with.
I'm planning on opening my pool and testing the CYA immediately. From there I'll know if topping it off will be enough or if I'm going to dump water before I start treating it. I'm really hoping I won't have to dump water but I doubt I'll be that lucky. I'm hovering right around 60 - 65 right now after two partial changes.
My pool store told me the same thing you said when I complained about the CYA level. They just blew me off. The tool rental company I rent tools from was the one to explain that my CYA was a problem. They sell the chemicals and will test for you since the closest pool store is 30 miles away. They did a better job than the pool store in explaining why I was having a problem. They don't know as much as the folks here but they didn't sell me stuff I didn't need either.
Reading everything here was a real eye opening experience. I kick myself for waiting this long to take control of the pool.
I finally do feel like I could be in control of my pool once I take care of the CYA. HOW GREAT WILL THAT BE!!!
did you have to slam that long before you passed the overnight point? I think I found the source of my algae, I never seen any in the pool the whole time, I removed a lense cover for my pool light last night. It was covered in algae!!!
That is actually a very common palace for it to hide, and continually contaminate your water. Check also every little underwater nook and cranny, such as steps, ladders, even your skimmers. Don't forget to decontaminate your other pool equipment like your vacuum head, brushes, leaf rake, and pool toys. All can be a source of reintroduction of algae while you are battling. You don't want to know how I found this out......
You don't want to know how I found this out......