Stabilizer and salt

[Marlahoutex]

Do I need to add stabilizer when adding salt to my pool? I have a Jandy Aquapure 1400 and had a low salt (2400) reading, so I added a 40# bag of salt. I couldn't remember what the salt was supposed to be at so looking it up online it said 3000 (which I overshot by 100) but it also said this:

NOTE Add 1.25 lbs (0.57 kg) Chlorine Stabilizer to the pool every time 50 lbs (22.7 kg) of Salt is added to the pool. The Stabilizer reading should be maintained at 75 PPM.

My CYA is 70 so I'm not worried about that, but why would I need to add stabilizer? My FC isn't increasing. I didn't change the percentage of output. Is this something I can ignore?

 

[pooldv]

Stabilizer is CYA. 70 is fine for a SWG pool.

More here, Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

And here, Pool School - Water Balance for SWGs

 

[Marlahoutex]

Thanks! I knew that stabilizer is CYA and that 70 is fine for my pool, I just didn't understand why it said to add more CYA when adding 50 lbs of salt. Seems like I should just ignore that. I think I would have remembered something like that if it'd been mentioned here on the forum.

 

[pooldv]

Oh, yes definitely ignore. I guess they are assuming that if the salt dropped then maybe the cya did too. That's why we are all about our own testing and we only add what we need when we need it.

 

[Marlahoutex]

Just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something! I am definitely into being in charge of what goes into my pool! Thanks for the reassurance!

 

[chiefwej]

I can only surmise that whoever wrote that instruction assumed that since both salt and CYA remain in your water and both only need addition when water is lost from splash-out or backwashing they could tie the two together and use that as a simple "rule of thumb". As you know from the forum, it's far better to know exactly what you are adding to your pool and why.

 

[Marlahoutex]

Thanks Chief! That actually makes sense, since I recently had to boost my CYA a bit because of all the rains we had.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Stabilizer can vary with or without water exchange. In my pool, I lose about 10ppm CYA every 2-1/2 to 3 months (about normal chlorine oxidation rate for CYA). So, as others have said, testing water parameters independently is always the best approach.