Replacing water to get rid of CYA

[salinda]

Honestly Larry, my cya was easily as high as yours for the last two years. I dumped the pucks and went with liquid chlorine (before I found this forum--I actually got that advice from a smart person at a local pool store whose name starts with "L"!). It dropped a little last year. Then I put in an SWG so I didn't have to deal with chlorine (only acid) from then on. I started draining the pool but gave up because I know our groundwater is high here. There are several creeks in my neighborhood in N. California and I got nervous.

From this forum I learned that if I didn't have an algae problem, I could simply run a much higher free chlorine level and things should be okay.

Mother Nature took care of it this winter. The rains and chlorine demand from the winter debris dropped the CYA naturally and it is now 40!

Also, I do have a small ball valve with a hose bib connection installed on the pressure side of my circulation system. There is a sewage cleanout nearby so I can run a hose over there for winter draining. I can drain the pool through this as well, but it takes a loooooong time.

[CarlD]

Al,
With a cart filter he may not be able to vacuum to waste. It seems a lot of pool installers, when they install carts, don't put 3 way or 6 way valves on them. My dad didn't have a valve for his DE filter, but the filter had a bottom drain he could use to flush it.
Do Carts have such a bottom drain?

[salinda]

I have a cartridge filter and you are right, there is no multiport valve for the filter. There is a drain port at the bottom of the filter.

[xcapecod83]

Thanks for all the great information! My cartridge filter cannister has a drain plug so I can drain the water when I clean the filters. It's too big for a hose, but there's a drain near by. Can I drain water this way without damaging my system?

[salinda]

I don't know about draining through the plug. Maybe you can....

What I have is a brass ball valve with a standard hose bib thread on it plumbed into my system between the heater and the filter. I run a hose from that to a nearby sewer cleanout. With the pump on, I open the valve and it can drain the pool very slowly. Of course, I turn off the autofill with this setup. I am thinking that if I left the autofill on and closed the skimmer, I would be draining from the bottom and filling from the top I can do a suboptimal water change that way too.

Moot point for me since the rain dilution this year took care of the problem.