Pucks, CYA, and water

[horsegal]

I'm not sure where to post this question, but...

Ok, so "pucks" add CYA to your water and the only way to reduce CYA is to drain some of your water because it doesn't evaporate. Am I right so far? My question is this, "Is there any CYA in municipal water supplies or does it only come from pool owners adding it?"

When I go on vacation in July I want an easy way to maintain my water while I am gone for about 10 days. How many "pucks" would I need to put into a floater for a 10K pool and air temperatures between 90-110 and pool water temp as high as 85?

Notice, I posted two questions. I really need an answer to both of them. Thank you

 

[JasonLion]

Pucks add CYA to the water.
The only practical way to lower CYA is to replace water.
There is never any CYA in municipal water.

If you are going away for 10 days, by far the best thing to do is to get a friend to come over and check on the pool several times. Second choice would be to shock the pool and cover it. If both of those are out of the question, I would fill the floater as full as possible with pucks, set it on low, and tie it with string so it stays in the middle of the pool.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

What Jason said.

 

[PaulR]

I am not inclined to think shock-and-cover would last 10 days. Shock-and-floater, now, that would carry you a while.

I usually count on 2 pucks lasting a week (don't dissolve completely but they're too small to be worth anything after that). Just for reference, 3 8-oz pucks dissolved completely would raise CYA by around 10, in your 10kgal pool.
--paulr
who has a lifetime supply of pucks out in the shed

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I've done the shock and cover for 9 days and 11 days 2 years in a row, came home to FC of 2 and 1 respectively. I'm on the road returning home after 10 days and I'll find out if the third time is the charm...or if the pool is green.

 

[PaulR]

Okay... when I was done shocking after my recent bloom, I went from 14.5 to 4.0 in 6 days (with CYA 40 and a cover). I got the bloom because FC went below 3. So for my pool, shock-and-cover wouldn't last 10 days. YMMV.
--paulr

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Maybe there was something on your cover contributing to the loss?

I got home at 7pm, I left on the morning of June 5. I shocked the evening of June 4, to 16 FC. I tested my water when I got home and my FC is 8, CC is 0. I'm loving this new dark blue solar blanket I bought 2 days before I left. My FC loss was less than 1 ppm per day. Not bad!

 

[AV8TOR]

I just returned from a 16 day business trip to Japan and China. The wife visited family at the same time. We are to new to this part of the country and did not know anyone to ask to take care of the pool. When we bought our house the pool was at 100+ CYA we did a partial drain and refill and went all BBB. So I made a simple dosing system using an inexpensive peristaltic pump ($50) that was set to a timer to dose bleach. I installed a $10 water leveler and set the skimmers on low. When I returned the robot bag was full and yes the floor had some leaves but the FC was at 3ppm the water was clear and after cleaning the bag out and a little leaf rake time it was back to normal. I will not put pucks back in my pool again unless I need to raise the CYA from rain dilution of the CYA.

I may try the cover method some time too but in Texas I am afraid the temp will rise too much with the solar cover I have.

 

[kdzgon]

We too just returned from a ten day trip (we are located in SWFl). We are pretty new to the area so did not have anyone to check the pool. Shocked and covered the pool before we left. Returned home to a clear pool, no real water loss from evaporation, FC 4 and CC 0. Water temp was ~81 when we left, 85 when we returned so perhaps we had a small jump due to the cover on for the extended period of time (not sure as we were not here last June to compare temp changes).

We were gone on a 20 day trip in late March to mid April. Same procedure, similar results, though I suspect the cooler temps (low 80s rather than low to mid 90s, plus cooler nights) helped the stability.

I'm always nervous about leaving a $10 auto-level attached to a garden hose. A burst hose with all that free flowing water would be much more expensive (just for the water alone!) than paying someone to check my pool periodically. I know they have special hoses for toilet and faucet hookups that will shut down in the case of failure - is there something similar available for outside water hookups?