Stabilizer

[Sue225]

New water fill... 0 stabilizer, pool store sold me a 4# container of stabilizer which I have hanging in a sock by the return. Question, I am in northern Indiana and the water is very cold. How long will it take to dissolve and do I need to keep the pump running until it dissolves? I am having a hard time keeping chlorine in the pool. Is this because I have no stabilizer in the pool?
Thanks for your help

[chem geek]

If your chlorine loss is during the day with sunlight on the pool, then yes this is because your Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level is 0. Near a pH of 7.5 in a pool of average pool depth of 4.5 feet with the sun directly overhead, the FC will drop in half in roughly one hour.

If you have the CYA in a sock, then it may dissolve in a couple of days in cold water -- in warmer water it usually takes less than a day in a return flow (i.e. if you run the pump 24/7). You can squeeze the sock in a day to move things along.

[CarlD]

When adding stabilizer, patience is a good thing. You should be testing your stablizer level. If it's 50 or more, take the sock out! Unless you have a good reason (like you have a salt-water chlorine generator), you should try to have the stabilizer level out between 30 and 50ppm.

[Sue225]

Stabillizer is dissolved. Level is still 0. I read somwhere that is could take a week for CYA reading to be valid. Is this true? I would hate to get back to where I was last summer with CYA of 150!!

[aylad]

It can take up to a week for stabilizer levels to register if the CYA is added through the skimmer, because it takes a few days for it to dissolve in the filter. However, if you've dissolved it in the pool through the sock method, your readings should be pretty accurate at this point.

Don't remember what size your pool is--since CYA is a very subjective test, it's possible that you just didn't add enough, or might want to try to get your sample from a different part of the pool. When getting your water sample, remember to invert your container and push it as far underwater as you can before turning it upright, so that your sample is not taken from the surface...

Janet

[Sue225]

pool is 24 round AG grades down to about 8-10 inches deeper in middle. We have always thought it was about 15,000 gal.