Your channel is how I been able to care for my pool. Since we bought a house with a 20x40 foot pool 6 years ago! You have such a pool knowledge. Thank You!
We recently bought a home with a ~15,000 gallon pool. I haven’t owned and maintained a pool in over 20 years. I tested the chlorine and it was extremely high. So I took a sample to my pool supply company and my CYA, which I never heard of before, was 169ppm. Research and recommendations said to dilute. To give some perspective, after draining 50% and adding water I only dropped it down to 105ppm. I really thought I would have lowered it more. That was disappointing, but I will try draining my pool again in the winter months.
@@armandoledesma3699 my CYA is now running about 40 ppm. It seemed to take a while for it to get lower, but I will say that I’ve used non-stabilized tablets since.
If you have the GUNK ( Orange build up) keep your chlorine tablets off for about a week AND SIFON THE GUNK WITH WASTE SETTING ( *PANTYHOSE WITH MICROFIBER MATERIAL layered twice in vacuum basket FOR BATTERY VACUUMS* ) or sifon to waste in SKIMMER VACCUM HOSE
Quick question: the cyanuric acid level in my 24’ above ground pool is showing 135ppm, which is obviously waaaaay too high. It’s supposed to be between 30-50ppm, but I think the company that opened it this year put too much stabilizer in for some reason. I’m told the only way to fix that is by draining the pool and diluting with fresh water, which isn’t really an option because my town has water restrictions in place. One pool company guy said many people just ignore high cyanuric acid levels and swim in it as is, but I read that too high a level can “lock” the chlorine and therefore the bacteria in the water isn’t able to be treated. I’m ready to just through the cover back on and skip the pool this year, which is a shame, unless you have additional wisdom to impart?
Keep an eye on your free chlorine. If that's low then yes you hafe to drai it. When you fill it up. Don't chem it let the pool water turn over for 24 hrs then test it and go from the're
I know this is late, but for anyone reading it, here you go. I live in Vegas and have restrictions on water waste, the way around it is to open the sewer cap located outside of my home, use the sump pump, and drain directly into the sewer. This is the way they want us to do it instead of putting it in the streets, no fines, but cost about $100 to refill 4,000 gallons or so.
Can you recommend a good pool test kit that does cya? I misread the bag and added double!! I'm going to drain half out unfortunately but I would like to test it so I know just how bad it is...
Invent a better way to lower CYA and you will be a millionaire. The chemical methods are a rip off and don’t work. Dilution is the only solution (for now)
Question ,guys if I can install an activated charcoal filter to my boost pump cleaner hose can I filter any cya's or phosphates to improve and lower my stabilizer levels??
Help! At the end of last year I had a high CYA problem with my inground pool. This spring I drained my pool, pressure washed it, refilled it, and changed the sand in my filter. The only thing I've put in this year was my opening kit, a couple chlorine tabs and some stabilizer (4lbs). My CYA is already high again. Any suggestions as to how to get it down without having to drain the pool again. (I was told not to drain it because it is a vinyl insert and without any water it may be pushed out of the ground, but I did it anyway)
Hi just learned about cya. Mine is 120. It was suggested i drain half of my 15k pool. I live near Houston. High water table. Is this safe? I read someone did this and their cya was still over 100!
Hoping you will answer this. We have a UV Ozone pool 25,000 gal liner. This is my issue with a CYA of 180. I was following what the test strips would say since getting my pool. I needed to add chlorine quite often according to the strip. I will say I have been always had troubles with the alk and ph being low. I would put in 2 chlorine tablets along with 2 or 3 clear balance tabs into the tube by the filter. Now I’m being told to drain my pool a foot and replace x3. Then he said to add shock and descaler. My question is how do I prevent this? This video says we are using too much chlorine but when the strip says we need it, don’t I need to add it? I would really appreciate your help cause we never really understood how to manage this pool. I need it simplified and as easy as possible because it’s so hard to understand it all.
Maintaining cya in range and shocking your pool are both important but largely unrelated. Because shock is so concentrated will raise the chlorine levels extremely high for 2-3 days even with rock bottom CYA. But you want cya in range to protect your maintenance level of chlorine sanitizer. The two biggest factors in how long chlorine lasts are sunlight exposure and water temperature. Add all forms of chlorine after sunset
I have the worst pool pissible. I have to add liquid or powder stabilizer 4 or more times a year. I have no leaks and have to add water weekly so I always end up diluting it. I have never been able to keep a level of 50 for longer than 2 weeks. I spend thousands in chemicals every year.
@@frankarmitage776 i wish I could. Sadly because of my pool most pool companies won't touch it. The last quote I got was $150 every 2 weeks. I did the math I would do netter sadly doing it myself cost wise. Luckilyi found a way to buy cheaper but same quality products helped a lot
If you need to add water weekly then you probably do have a leak. They can be extremely hard to find. The seal in the skimmer box is often the problem. As the pool deck settles over time the plastic box warps. Even pool leak companies miss this area - hire a pool renovator to inspect instead. The water is leaking invisibly under ground
That's because the salt water generators usually have a higher output of chlorine that needs to be balanced by the CYA. But if you're at around 60 CYA with no problems, that's fine!
@@SwimUniversity @Swim University it's very important to note there is no difference in chlorine strength based on pH for pools with cya. Even with 50% HOCI 7.5 pH 30ppm cya, the strength of HOCI is reduced to below 3% strength. This means longer contact times for disinfection. 60ppm cya would be a costly mistake. Most importantly, salt chlorinators produce pure chlorine that wont add any cya to the pool. Chlorine generated on the spot is less likely to degrade so you actually don't need any cya in a salt chlorinated pool.
CYA binds to chlorine to act like sunscreen. If you have excessively high CYA levels then there isn’t enough chlorine unbound to CYA to kill stuff like bacteria and algae. If your chemical levels seem good but still get algae bloom in an outdoor pool, there’s a good chance that the CYA is too high.
Absolutely. Easier to measure and manage. Chlorine tablets are kind of a guessing game. No way to really be pinpoint accurate with it. Because CYA is so stable and stays around a long time, once you get it to where you want it by adding stabilizer (or partially draining your pool if it's too high) it basically stays where it is. Liquid chlorine can then be added in a precise amount to bring you to the exact chlorine ppm you want. And it disperses and is effective in minutes!
It's a problem if your chlorine stops working effectively. So keep testing your water and make sure you're not making it worse or it's going up when you're adding stabilized chlorine.
What is i just filled my pool for the first time and haven’t even put any chemical in and it’s testing extremely high in acid and absolutely 0 in chorine
Water from a municipal source won’t have enough chlorine to register on a pool test kit - that’s normal. Pool start up and pool chemistry maintenance are two different subjects. When first filling pool you need to first balance total alkalinity and pH. Add sufficient calcium harness and CYA. You’ve got just a few days to do this before adding chlorine to avoid that algae growth. Plenty of YT videos about pool start up
Ours is 150 cya. We are draining to get it down but then are we still good uses the chlorine tablets? We’ve used them for 4 years without issue so I don’t understand why ours went so high. Pool store keeps saying don’t worry about it. But it’s high. 🤷♀️🥴
Draining a pool is very expensive as you have water costs, and then all the costs of new chemicals to rebalance. I dont see how it would ever make any sense to drain a pool, even a few inches, over a high CYA. My pool has CYA at 175-225 but I just keep ph and alkalinity higher and it offsets the high CYA so my orenda reading is always between -.05 and +.05. never tried a reducer but it must so much cheaper than draining even a few inches and anyway dont see why high cya (100-300ppm) is an issue if you offset it with higher ph and alk.
MOST people would have awful problems with CYA levels at 175+. For a variety of reasons some pools are just easier than others. It sounds like you have an “easy” pool. It also sounds like you keep your water very balanced (other than the ridiculously high cya). That doesn’t work for most people though
My cya is high so I drained my pool by a foot and refilled with fresh water. What c chlorine do I use? I put our reg powder in and it won't even tesiter as having any chlorine. Help plz
If you're having issues with CYA, stop using chlorine tablets entirely. Use only liquid chlorine. You'll need to test for CYA, and if it's higher than 60, start draining your pool and refill with fresh water from the hose. Calculate how much water you need to drain. If your CYA is 120, you'll need to drain half the water to bring it to 60. If CYA is 90, you'll need to drain about 1/3 of the water to get to 60. And so on. With a CYA of 60, you'll want to add enough Liquid Chlorine to bring your Free Chlorine measurement to between 7-9ppm. The higher your CYA, the more Chlorine you need in the pool for it to be effective.
Use liquid chlorine only. You're still probably going to have to get rid of some water depending on how high your cya is. Your cya is making your chlorine ineffective. I fought this all summer last year. Never use the chlorine pucks unless you're going out of town and only then make sure they're unstablized chlorine tablets. Nobody in the pool world will warn you about cya.
You can rotate between cal hypo and liquid chlorine. But you want to make sure to have between 30-50 ppm in cya first; or the sun is just going to burn it up fairly quickly. Once your cya hits 60 ppm it reduces your total alkalinity. The further you get away from 60, the larger the value gets reduced from your total alk.
Start with cya at 50 and use only liquid chlorine. After 4-5 months cya will have slowly dropped to 40ppm. Then you switch to stabilized tablets for a few weeks and it’s back to 50. Really easy strategy and never out of range
Matt - this spring when i opened my pool, tons of white flakes came out of the pipes for a few minutes. i was wondering if it was CYA buildup that had stuck to the pipes? i have a salt water pool and my CYA reading is always on the lower side (50ppm or even less) using two different brand test strips.
We hope this helps you lower your CYA levels! And if you need more help, grab our free pool care cheat sheet at www.swimuniversity.com/cheatsheet 👍
Your channel is how I been able to care for my pool. Since we bought a house with a 20x40 foot pool 6 years ago! You have such a pool knowledge. Thank You!
I am a first-time pool owner and your videos have been very helpful.
We recently bought a home with a ~15,000 gallon pool. I haven’t owned and maintained a pool in over 20 years. I tested the chlorine and it was extremely high. So I took a sample to my pool supply company and my CYA, which I never heard of before, was 169ppm. Research and recommendations said to dilute. To give some perspective, after draining 50% and adding water I only dropped it down to 105ppm. I really thought I would have lowered it more. That was disappointing, but I will try draining my pool again in the winter months.
How did it go for you? I'am in the process of a drain and fill myself cya at 120
@@armandoledesma3699 my CYA is now running about 40 ppm. It seemed to take a while for it to get lower, but I will say that I’ve used non-stabilized tablets since.
divide 170 by 4=42.5......which means......drain pool 3/4 of the way down or 11,250 gallons removed and refill.
Well my test strip said it was low , now way to high 120 hmmm
Same my CYA was tested right around 190. Drain and refilled 50% and now reading 161. Barely reduced.
Thanks. This was helpful.
If you have the GUNK ( Orange build up) keep your chlorine tablets off for about a week AND SIFON THE GUNK WITH WASTE SETTING ( *PANTYHOSE WITH MICROFIBER MATERIAL layered twice in vacuum basket FOR BATTERY VACUUMS* ) or sifon to waste in SKIMMER VACCUM HOSE
Going to drain some, but have well water. What's the easiest hose filter to use?
Quick question: the cyanuric acid level in my 24’ above ground pool is showing 135ppm, which is obviously waaaaay too high. It’s supposed to be between 30-50ppm, but I think the company that opened it this year put too much stabilizer in for some reason. I’m told the only way to fix that is by draining the pool and diluting with fresh water, which isn’t really an option because my town has water restrictions in place. One pool company guy said many people just ignore high cyanuric acid levels and swim in it as is, but I read that too high a level can “lock” the chlorine and therefore the bacteria in the water isn’t able to be treated. I’m ready to just through the cover back on and skip the pool this year, which is a shame, unless you have additional wisdom to impart?
I would definitely drain at least a few inches water and replace. definitely stop using chlorine tablets that have cya in them too
Have you checked whether you have any Free chlorine?? that will tell you if the chlorine is working.
Keep an eye on your free chlorine. If that's low then yes you hafe to drai it. When you fill it up. Don't chem it let the pool water turn over for 24 hrs then test it and go from the're
I know this is late, but for anyone reading it, here you go.
I live in Vegas and have restrictions on water waste, the way around it is to open the sewer cap located outside of my home, use the sump pump, and drain directly into the sewer.
This is the way they want us to do it instead of putting it in the streets, no fines, but cost about $100 to refill 4,000 gallons or so.
Is there such thing as unstablilized chlorine tablets?
Check out Sustain. No stabilizer in the tablets.
Yes, just use plain calcium hypochlorite which has no cya
Yes. But hard to find and extra expensive. Liquid chlorine is a superior choice
Can you recommend a good pool test kit that does cya? I misread the bag and added double!! I'm going to drain half out unfortunately but I would like to test it so I know just how bad it is...
Get a Taylor test kit. I have the k-2005
Pool store will test cya free and accurately
Thank you so much 😊
Will a copper solar ionizer raise my CYA levels? Thanks!
What brand of liquid chlorine do you suggest?
There needs to be a better way to bring down CYA without having to drain and add water. As a pool cleaner CYA drives me nuts.
Invent a better way to lower CYA and you will be a millionaire. The chemical methods are a rip off and don’t work. Dilution is the only solution (for now)
Question ,guys if I can install an activated charcoal filter to my boost pump cleaner hose can I filter any cya's or phosphates to improve and lower my stabilizer levels??
Thank you
Help! At the end of last year I had a high CYA problem with my inground pool. This spring I drained my pool, pressure washed it, refilled it, and changed the sand in my filter. The only thing I've put in this year was my opening kit, a couple chlorine tabs and some stabilizer (4lbs). My CYA is already high again. Any suggestions as to how to get it down without having to drain the pool again. (I was told not to drain it because it is a vinyl insert and without any water it may be pushed out of the ground, but I did it anyway)
Very helpful
Hi just learned about cya. Mine is 120. It was suggested i drain half of my 15k pool. I live near Houston. High water table. Is this safe? I read someone did this and their cya was still over 100!
Hoping you will answer this. We have a UV Ozone pool 25,000 gal liner. This is my issue with a CYA of 180. I was following what the test strips would say since getting my pool. I needed to add chlorine quite often according to the strip. I will say I have been always had troubles with the alk and ph being low. I would put in 2 chlorine tablets along with 2 or 3 clear balance tabs into the tube by the filter. Now I’m being told to drain my pool a foot and replace x3. Then he said to add shock and descaler. My question is how do I prevent this? This video says we are using too much chlorine but when the strip says we need it, don’t I need to add it? I would really appreciate your help cause we never really understood how to manage this pool. I need it simplified and as easy as possible because it’s so hard to understand it all.
You need unstabilized chlorine
You need cal hypo
I will simplify it don't get a pool , easy fix 🤣🤣
Aqua Leisire just told me they suggests my salt pool be btw 20-40 for cyanuric acid. I’m at 86 right now.
Salt pool CYA target is 80ppm. You are fine
How do I add stabilizer to my above ground pool? I’ve seen dissolving in water and adding a a sock and putting in skimmer which one do you suggest?
Late to the party but you can buy liquid conditioner
should you shock if CYA is in range? How long will it take for chlorine to be back to normal?
Maintaining cya in range and shocking your pool are both important but largely unrelated. Because shock is so concentrated will raise the chlorine levels extremely high for 2-3 days even with rock bottom CYA. But you want cya in range to protect your maintenance level of chlorine sanitizer. The two biggest factors in how long chlorine lasts are sunlight exposure and water temperature. Add all forms of chlorine after sunset
I have the worst pool pissible. I have to add liquid or powder stabilizer 4 or more times a year. I have no leaks and have to add water weekly so I always end up diluting it. I have never been able to keep a level of 50 for longer than 2 weeks. I spend thousands in chemicals every year.
Get a pool person and spend around 1000 a year
@@frankarmitage776 i wish I could. Sadly because of my pool most pool companies won't touch it. The last quote I got was $150 every 2 weeks. I did the math I would do netter sadly doing it myself cost wise. Luckilyi found a way to buy cheaper but same quality products helped a lot
If you need to add water weekly then you probably do have a leak. They can be extremely hard to find. The seal in the skimmer box is often the problem. As the pool deck settles over time the plastic box warps. Even pool leak companies miss this area - hire a pool renovator to inspect instead. The water is leaking invisibly under ground
Never even knew cya should be that high with salt pools. I've always kept mine between 40 and 60 but will try 80 now
That's because the salt water generators usually have a higher output of chlorine that needs to be balanced by the CYA. But if you're at around 60 CYA with no problems, that's fine!
@@SwimUniversity do I need cya if I run my chlorinator 24/7?
if your pool is pretty great then there is no need at all to adjust
@@SwimUniversity @Swim University it's very important to note there is no difference in chlorine strength based on pH for pools with cya. Even with 50% HOCI 7.5 pH 30ppm cya, the strength of HOCI is reduced to below 3% strength. This means longer contact times for disinfection. 60ppm cya would be a costly mistake. Most importantly, salt chlorinators produce pure chlorine that wont add any cya to the pool. Chlorine generated on the spot is less likely to degrade so you actually don't need any cya in a salt chlorinated pool.
@@SwimUniversityhow much water should I drain on a 12x25 pool with 120 cya ?
If my levels were 30 to 50 I'd began to have problems. I own a pool business in south Florida and I keep my levels much higher than that.
I just got into the business and I'm trying to learn more about it. What cya level do you recommend?
@@Maverick-316CYA at 40-50ppm is the industry standard target range but 30-60 is acceptable as long as chlorine levels are easily maintained.
Ok, but you didn’t explain WHY high CYA levels would be problematic
CYA binds to chlorine to act like sunscreen. If you have excessively high CYA levels then there isn’t enough chlorine unbound to CYA to kill stuff like bacteria and algae. If your chemical levels seem good but still get algae bloom in an outdoor pool, there’s a good chance that the CYA is too high.
So the moral of the story is it’s probably better to use pure chlorine and stabilizer separately unless your CYA levels stay low on their own
Absolutely. Easier to measure and manage. Chlorine tablets are kind of a guessing game. No way to really be pinpoint accurate with it. Because CYA is so stable and stays around a long time, once you get it to where you want it by adding stabilizer (or partially draining your pool if it's too high) it basically stays where it is. Liquid chlorine can then be added in a precise amount to bring you to the exact chlorine ppm you want. And it disperses and is effective in minutes!
My cya level is around 65-70....is it worth even worrying about?
It's a problem if your chlorine stops working effectively. So keep testing your water and make sure you're not making it worse or it's going up when you're adding stabilized chlorine.
With that level of CYA you will need to maintain FC level of between 5.5ppm to 8.4ppm. Do it with liquid bleach then your not adding more CYA.
@@huwowen9722 thank you. I use cal hypo. Probably gonna drain an inch or so below the skimmer
Is it a problem if your cya stays low?
@@cgallamore1If cya is too low then your chlorine is unprotected from UV light and will burn off much much quicker
Mine is at 250. I am going to drain and refill. Can i drain it on my trees and yard vegetation?
Chlorine levels in pool water kill vegetation
What is i just filled my pool for the first time and haven’t even put any chemical in and it’s testing extremely high in acid and absolutely 0 in chorine
Water from a municipal source won’t have enough chlorine to register on a pool test kit - that’s normal. Pool start up and pool chemistry maintenance are two different subjects.
When first filling pool you need to first balance total alkalinity and pH. Add sufficient calcium harness and CYA. You’ve got just a few days to do this before adding chlorine to avoid that algae growth. Plenty of YT videos about pool start up
Would running pool, water with high CYA through a hose filter reduce the CYA level
I believe only a reverse osmosis system will filter out cya
No
Ours is 150 cya. We are draining to get it down but then are we still good uses the chlorine tablets? We’ve used them for 4 years without issue so I don’t understand why ours went so high.
Pool store keeps saying don’t worry about it. But it’s high. 🤷♀️🥴
A high cy. acid level makes the the chlorine less effective.
Your cya is high because those stabilized tablets are 50% cya by weight. You are adding it constantly
Draining a pool is very expensive as you have water costs, and then all the costs of new chemicals to rebalance. I dont see how it would ever make any sense to drain a pool, even a few inches, over a high CYA. My pool has CYA at 175-225 but I just keep ph and alkalinity higher and it offsets the high CYA so my orenda reading is always between -.05 and +.05. never tried a reducer but it must so much cheaper than draining even a few inches and anyway dont see why high cya (100-300ppm) is an issue if you offset it with higher ph and alk.
MOST people would have awful problems with CYA levels at 175+. For a variety of reasons some pools are just easier than others. It sounds like you have an “easy” pool. It also sounds like you keep your water very balanced (other than the ridiculously high cya). That doesn’t work for most people though
I do want to bring down my CYA but just dont want to drain. Does the reducer product work and do no harm?
Why is it bad ?
My cya is high so I drained my pool by a foot and refilled with fresh water. What c chlorine do I use? I put our reg powder in and it won't even tesiter as having any chlorine. Help plz
If you're having issues with CYA, stop using chlorine tablets entirely. Use only liquid chlorine. You'll need to test for CYA, and if it's higher than 60, start draining your pool and refill with fresh water from the hose. Calculate how much water you need to drain. If your CYA is 120, you'll need to drain half the water to bring it to 60. If CYA is 90, you'll need to drain about 1/3 of the water to get to 60. And so on. With a CYA of 60, you'll want to add enough Liquid Chlorine to bring your Free Chlorine measurement to between 7-9ppm. The higher your CYA, the more Chlorine you need in the pool for it to be effective.
What kind of powder are you using? If it's dichlor shock, it contains CYA so that might be bringing your levels up.
Use liquid chlorine only. You're still probably going to have to get rid of some water depending on how high your cya is. Your cya is making your chlorine ineffective. I fought this all summer last year. Never use the chlorine pucks unless you're going out of town and only then make sure they're unstablized chlorine tablets. Nobody in the pool world will warn you about cya.
What should I use for weekly instead of tablets?
You can rotate between cal hypo and liquid chlorine. But you want to make sure to have between 30-50 ppm in cya first; or the sun is just going to burn it up fairly quickly. Once your cya hits 60 ppm it reduces your total alkalinity. The further you get away from 60, the larger the value gets reduced from your total alk.
Start with cya at 50 and use only liquid chlorine. After 4-5 months cya will have slowly dropped to 40ppm. Then you switch to stabilized tablets for a few weeks and it’s back to 50. Really easy strategy and never out of range
Matt - this spring when i opened my pool, tons of white flakes came out of the pipes for a few minutes. i was wondering if it was CYA buildup that had stuck to the pipes?
i have a salt water pool and my CYA reading is always on the lower side (50ppm or even less) using two different brand test strips.
Those are calcium flakes. Hopefully you won't have a problem again after opening.
@@SwimUniversity thanks for the response. it cleared up pretty fast and haven’t seen it since.
This happens because the pool companies keep telling you to add CYA.
CYA is baked into the tablets so most pool owners are unaware they are adding it. It’s added whether they need it or not