CYA in a sock

[polyvue]

Very possibly but since this is not the majority of pools out there it is not information that I would call universally useful. It is useful to you in your own pool (and interestingly enough, does not apply to my small (under 7k) pool that I keep at 88 degrees year round and that has an oversize cart filter also and an oversized pump (because of the spa), and turns over in about 2 hours. It just shows that pools need to be taken individually and the guidelines to test after a week will be useful to the vast majority of pool owners.

You have to agree that a 'universal truth' is going to be much more useful than a whole lot of individualized ones and less error prone.

“Universally useful” is a strict criterion, the application of which I’d best leave to others more qualified in the sock/skimmer/stabilizer and chemistry departments. I’ve only proved to myself that the guideline (“Wait one (1) week before testing CYA”) is not an axiom.

Al said that it took a couple of weeks for CYA to completely dissolve in a gallon jug (unagitated, I presume). Richard found that 2/3 of the CYA he added in the skimmer was detectable within 24 hours; without a t-shirt/sock to hold the CYA, it would find its way to the cart filter and take longer to dissolve due to reduced velocity. (I don’t use any material to trap the granules in the skimmer but I don’t take issue with this: I think velocity and temperature are key. My procedure involves stirring the CYA slurry enthusiastically for the two minutes it takes to fill the bucket with warm, almost hot, water until it’s poured into the skimmer.)

There are others in the forum who have observed very rapid dissolving of CYA but they fear arrest and imprisonment so I won’t “out” them.

I’m glad you took issue (would this be a scoff or a rebuke?) with my conclusions. Your expertise and experience helps me narrow the field. If some or all of the contributing factors I speculated to be causal in the rapid dissolution of the cyanuric acid in my pool can be ruled out, what is left? What explains the phenomena?

If it can be determined that factors x and y are most responsible for accelerating the process, perhaps we can also devise a procedure (or revise an existing one) to effect a rapid introduction of (granulated) CYA into the water so that no one need wait 7 days to confirm their stabilizer level. This would be useful, would it not?

Greg

[AnnaK]

All this may be true for your pool. My experience has been that it takes longer for my pool to get up to the reading that I aim for when I add cya. So, although in some pools it may be in there and measureable fairly quickly, for some pools that doesn't always appear to be the case.

You make a great point, Lisa: all pools are different. They are dynamic systems which change with the environment in which they live. Type of pool, type of equipment, fill water, use, weather, location, surroundings . . . the list is endless. As well, the way a pool is managed depends on the owner's knowledge, skill, understanding of pool water chemistry, attention to detail and so forth.

In the end, the goal we all strive for is to have well balanced water and that, ultimately, is the goal of this forum: to assist pool owners, via the sharing of experiences and observations by other pool owners, the coming together of myriad methods and techniques with the clear caveat that not everything works for everybody or every pool.

Thanks for helping me make that point.