Is CYA the same as Trichloro-s-Triazinetrione tablest?

[herb396]

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll look for the "conditioner". But I still have a question. What is "trichlor"? Is this a tablet? Is that the actual name of the product (becasue I can never find anything called "trichlor") And when I ask in the pool store, they don't seem to know) So where do you buy it?

Thanks again for the help, herb

[Watermom]

Trichlor is sold as tablets that you put in a floater or a chlorinator. If you go to a pool store that doesn't know what trichlor is, RUN FROM THAT STORE!!

[CarlD]

Ha!-Ha! Lisa's right. A pool store that doesn't know what Tri-Chlor is, isn't a pool store.

When you look a container of chlorine tablets or powder it will say on active ingredients Trichlor...something. That's Tri_chlor. If it says Dichlor...something...that's Di-Chlor. If it says Calcium Hypchlorite, that's Cal-Hypo.

Frequently Tri-Chlor tablets are labeled as Stablized Chlorine, but the ingredient is Trichlor...etc. If it says "Double-Acting" or contains copper do NOT,NOT buy it!

With a gunite pool you also need to watch your Calcium Hardness levels. You T/A as at the high end, or just past. If your T/A is too high and your calcium is too high, you'll get cloudy water.

For now, I wouldn't even add Borax to raise pH. Instead, I'd use aeration of the water, which will increase it. Doing that will keep your T/A from rising.

If you don't have tri-chlor or dichlor around, just use bleach and add CYA.

But most important is to watch your numbers.

Carl

[herb396]

OK, found the cyanuric acid (aka: Stabilizer & Conditioner by hth). So I now have two 4lb bottles. Do I just fill a floater and drop in in the pool? If my floater is busted can I just hang a sock full of this stuff over the edge?

Thanks for the great guidance!
herb

[Watermom]

You can either put some in a sock and hang the sock in front of a return jet or pour it slowly into the skimmer and let it dissolve in the filter which is what I usually do. If you do put it into the skimmer, don't backwash for about a week to give it time to dissolve completely or else you'll just lose it. Do NOT broadcast it across the pool, however, like some labels suggest that you do. You don't want acid granules sitting on your liner.

[herb396]

The sock has been hanging since last night with about 3lbs of granular cyanuric acid. Water is clear (yeah no green!) My current readings are:
FC - 6
CC - 1
pH - 7.0
TA - 110
CH - 240 (calcium hardness)
CYA - 0

What to do next? Add Borax and plenty more of the cyanuric acid? How long should it take to see the CYA present? More bleach too?
Again, I'm working with a 25,000 gal./ 30 yr old gunite pool

[Watermom]

Go ahead and add enough bleach to get back up to 10 since you have a CC reading of 1. ( You want the CC to be zero.) In a 25K pool, each quart of 6% bleach will raise the chlorine level by about 0.6ppm. You want to test and add bleach at least twice per day and probably 3x if you can and each time add enough bleach to get back up to 10ppm. Do this until you can go from sundown one day to sunup the next day without losing more than 1ppm of cl.

You probably still have most of the CYA in the sock. Keep it in front of the return jet and give it a squeeze a couple of times a day to help it dissolve faster. Don't test for it or add more CYA until about a week after you added it to give it time to register.

Add a half a box of Borax and see how high that takes the pH. You are above 7.0 now, so that is good. Aim for 7.4-7.6.