How am I doing on balancing?

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travisr100

travisr100

0
Jul 1, 2012
151
Houston, TX
Finally getting things dialed in. Pool is about 8 days old. I'm having a hard time getting cya up and don't want to overshot it. My target is 40. Over the last week I've added 33 oz by volume of granular cya and PB put in a gallon of liquid conditioner. The last 16 oz I put in a sock 2 days ago. I seem to be stuck at 28. It was 28 after I put the first 17 oz now 28 after latest 16 oz. Any clue?

I was finding that almost all my FC would get eaten up during the day. If I got it to 6 in the morning it would be 1 by the evening. I've now set up a Stenner to dose 21.25 oz of 10% bleach at 6am, 10 am, 2pm, and 6pm. It's run that way for 2 days now. I test at about 8am and 8pm. Yesterday it was 7.5 in the morning and 6.5 in the evening. Today it was 7 in the morning and 6.5 tonight. So my dosing schedule seems to be holding a fairly constant level throughout the day. I know it's higher than target. I'm dialing things in and didn't want it to fall too low. Should I try dialing it back a bit at this point so I'm hitting 5 at a low test? By my calculations using pool math I'm currently dosing about 85 oz of bleach per day and the FC is remaining mostly constant based on my testing. By my math the pool is eating about 4.9 PPM chlorine per day.

I'm adding 30 oz MA each morning and evening which is keeping my ph testing between 7.5 and 7.8 prior to each addition. I think pH rise is from it being a new pool, spa has spillover, and PB has me running pump 24x7 right now. I calculate the pump on its current schedule is pumping about 85,000 gallons per day.

TA 120
CH 325
 
You have the right idea about PH and why it's been rising. That's just something you'll continue work with as a new pool owner. Your TA is fine, although as your plaster finally cures, you may adjust it slightly up or down to compliment the stability of your PH. All in good time. CH appears to be fine as well.

As for FC, that's our constant challenge - keeping it above the target. It has been blistering in our area lately, and I keep my CYA around the 60 mark. Anytime we lose more than 4 ppm of FC it can be concerning either from an algae standpoint or simply too low of CYA. So keep an eye on those factors. As you stated, your FC did drop below the minimum previously, so you may at some point need to do an OLCT just to ensure nothing is trying to grow. If that's fine, then you are left with balancing FC and CYA so that you get it stabilized to a point where you only lose about 2-3 ppm of FC each day. I'm still working on that this year as well. :)
 
I highly doubt that a cya level of 40 is gonna do you in Houston if that pool gets much sun at all. I run mine at 60 in full sun and still lose 4 ppm daily. It takes a few days for a new cya addition to show up on a test. ASSUME it's there and hold FC accordingly.
 
Thanks for the responses. Hmm... I may shoot for 50 and see how it goes. Thing is I've not been able to find anything that tells me how I should really pick my CYA target. I'm in Houston and it's been absolutely blistering here too. Over 100 the last few days and looks to continue that way for the foreseeable future. Is the 4.9 ppm loss I calculated what would be called normal? Now that I'm dosing with the Stenner I'm not too concerned about it going below minimum. Really nice to be able to dose 4 times throughout the day automatically.

BTW, the pool gets absolutely no shade. It's in full sun all day.
 
I hear ya! We're blasted full sun all day as well. Last year my CYA was at 70 and I only used a half-gallon of bleach each day. Then after the winter it dropped and was way low. So I've been increasing slowly to save on bleach consumption. As noted above, at least shoot for 50. You might find you go even higher before the summer is over. The good thing is that by YOU adding the stabilizer (and not pucks) you are more in control with the calculator.
 
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