Arizona pool, summer, and free chlorine usage.

[Tastybread]

My pool right now is crystal clear but I've noticed that it's going through free chlorine much faster than normal. It's a lot hotter now. Above 100 everyday and the pool feels very warm. Here were a lot of palm flowers in the pool the other day so I considered that there may have been algae building up so I started slamming it for the entire day. Got my FC Levels above 24 and ran the pump constantly, but I had to work so I wasn't able to add chlorine while I was at work the next day.

As soon as I got home I tested and my FC Level was 12. That seems like a dramatic drop right? It did rain all last night too. Can that effect FC Levels? Pool is in constant sun as well. Here are the other numbers:

FC 12
Acid 7.8
CYA 60
CC 0

Should I keep slamming? Is this just normal for a hot Arizona summer?

 

[pooldv]

No, rain would only affect PH through aeration.

I would keep it at SLAM and do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test tonight to see how that goes.

 

[Tastybread]

So it looked like my pool was holding an FC Level of 27 before I went to bed last night. I woke up this morning, tested, and I was at 20. I guess there's still an infection? I'm worried though because tomorrow I leave for a week long trip and I don't have anyone that can tend to the pool.

I'm going to add 6 gallons of chlorine tonight and hope I don't have a green pool when I get back. Do you guys think that's a futile effort?

 

[duraleigh]

Do you guys think that's a futile effort?

Hard to say. If you have unseen algae, you will probably drop below 10 ppm in 24-48 hours and could drop to zero before you get back.

Far better would be to have someone put in one small jug of Clorox for the last 4 days you are gone....Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday