Stabilizer Down Sink Drain!! FYI Don't Do It

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CosmicMiami

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Oct 23, 2017
89
Miami, FL
I'm adding about a pound of CYA this morning. Weighed it out on the digital scale and began pouring it into pantyhose. I was doing this over my patio sink. Little did I know that one of the legs of the hose was cut out. I forgot I did that!

So at this point I have about half a pound of stabilizer in the sink. I scoop out what I could with my hands and knowing this stuff doesn't easily dissolve, I disassemble the trap. DANG! This stuff cakes quick. Had to use a stick to get the clog out of the down tube. Fortunately, very little made it to the trap and collected at the bottom.

Word up to the TFP gang. Don't do this. LOL Don't let any stabilizer go down your drain.

In the future I will fill the pantyhose anywhere but over the sink.

;):cool:
 
That's a pretty good reason not to dump CYA, liquid or dry, directly into your skimmer, which isn't so much different than a sink with a drain, except there's no trap to access the plumbing!! The dry CYA in the sock in the skimmer is a good way to introduce CYA "time-release style" so that no big clumps of it end up somewhere they don't belong.

I've been using a fine-mesh "delicates" laundry bag for my CYA additions. The kind you throw in a washer. It's been working great. It has a huge zippered opening that makes for easy pouring of the dry CYA, and is nice and big to allow plenty of circulation around the crystals, and tall enough for me to place in the skimmer basket and extend all the way out of the skimmer's upper opening, where I trap it there with the heavy skimmer lid, to keep the bag in place.

From Walmart:

Evercare Delicates Wash Bag - Walmart.com
 
Yah, that link is a little vague, as is my memory of exactly what I bought. No matter. I looked for the smallest bag I could find (it's about 15" x 20" or so), with the finest mesh. Some available have a mesh way too big for CYA crystals. The one I have is not as fine as a sock or hose, but plenty fine enough to trap CYA. It might let a bit larger piece out than a sock would, but what gets past it gets trapped in the filter and further dissipates there, which is fine by me. I have a cartridge filter, so this is a non-issue. Those with a sand filter, that backwash, might get different results if they backwash too soon after adding CYA this way. Folks that backwash should probably not put CYA in the skimmer anyway.

I had a picture of the skimmer lid with the bag trapped, but now I can't find it... It's just the way I do it. You can dump the whole bag in the basket and it'll be fine.

Full truth be told: I had an accident with liquid CYA and burned my brand new pebble finish with it. First day. Since then: no liquid CYA, and no adding any form of CYA directly into the pool, sock filtered or otherwise. Period. So I use the skimmer, and I trap the bag merely to appease my paranoia about any speck of CYA making it to the pool bottom before it is fully dissolved. I suppose if a bag of CYA was in the skimmer and the pump stopped, the bag could somehow float out of the skimmer opening and then rain microscopic pieces of CYA down onto the same section of pool bottom, and lighten it a bit. Absolutely farfetched, but that's how upset I was with the CYA mishap. So I came up with this dirk-approved approach to satisfy myself about it! ;)
 
:DThis is just another version of “your CYA is too high and you need to drain” threads.

I crack myself up.
 
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