How Much Stabilizer

Beginning of the season and found that my stabilizer in the pool was less than 30 ppm. I purchase some more at the pool store where they also tested my water for stabilizer and said that it was reading at 18ppm. I purchased 8# of the stabilizer and added it twice in 4# increments. After the first add, my CYA per the Taylor test kit still read less than 30 ppm. I added the second 4#, waited a few days (it rained one day) and my CYA now reads at 35 ppm. The rest of my readings are within range (as long as I keep adding bleach).

My pool is in ground, 25000 gals, well water fed and I live in south Georgia. If possible, please provide the next step in order to get the stabilizer in range ...... I think that that should be about 50ppm. Also, based on what my stabilzer target is, what should my chlorine level be to match with it?

Thanks for any help.

Jim K.

In a 25K gallon pool each 2 lbs of stabilizer should raise your Cl by around 20 ppm, but if you backwashed, or had splashout, or drained water from the rains, that could explain why it didn't rise as much as expected. Besides, CYA is a subjective test, and it's pretty much a ballpark estimate, anyway.

So...If I were you, and had trichlor pucks in my possession, I would just chlorinate via trichlor tabs in a floater for now, until the CYA comes up to where you want it. With well water, your pH needs to stay on the low side of the scale, and the trichlor will help you do that, in addition to adding the CYA and chlorine that you need. If you don't want to use trichlor, then you could add another pound of stabilizer and that should get you to around 50 ppm, and then you can continue to use bleach--that decision is really up to you.

Take a look at the "best guess chlorine chart" linked in my sig for the levels of chlorine to maintain for each level of CYA...