New to BBB, Leaving town for 3 days

[CarrolltonTXPool]

What is the general guidelines for this? These are my usual testing result

FC - 3-7 (lose about 2ppm per day)
PH - 7.5 slowly rises to 7.8 over 3-4 days

Can i just add enough bleach to get my FC to 10 and acid to take my PH to 7.2 and let them drift to normal while i am gone, with the pump running 8 hours a day? I have a floater and in line chlorinator i don't use, but I'm hesitant to use pucks as my CH is at 300.

 

[mynewpool]

What I would do is the same thing I did when I left for 4 days. Bring it to shock level and lower pH to around 7.2 as you already said and not use pucks, unless you cya could handle it. But with being such a short time, I would not use them as I did not. Are since you know you lose an average of 2 ppm per day, just bump it up 6-8 ppm and it should be at normal when you get back. To be safe though, bumping up to shock level should guarantee you that you will be fine when you get back. What is your CYA level?

 

[CarrolltonTXPool]

CYA is 40. The pucks is have are Leslie's trichlor jumbo tabs.

I guess it's really only 2.5 days, as i leave Friday morning and return sunday evening. I just counted it as 3 as that's how many times the sun will be on the pool before I return to check it.

 

[anonapersona]

I'd say that you have the ability to go to CYA of 50 if you wanted to. Personally, I'd use one puck in the chlorinator, turn it on low, and boost the Fc with bleach, skipping the lowering of the pH.

 

[mynewpool]

CYA is 40. The pucks is have are Leslie's trichlor jumbo tabs.

I guess it's really only 2.5 days, as i leave Friday morning and return sunday evening. I just counted it as 3 as that's how many times the sun will be on the pool before I return to check it.

You are in the same boat as I was when I left from Houston to Vegas for the same amount of time. Left early Friday and came back Sunday afternoon. I put in 3 182 oz jugs of clorox and used no tabs. It was about a month ago so temps were a liitle more forgiving. That bumped my levels up to around 15-16. When I came back I was at 9-10 (can not remember exactly, but I want to say 10). Then I let the levels settle back to normal after 3-4 days. I did not even run my pump while I was gone and all was good. There were some leaves and other various things when I got back, but tested next day and all was well.

 

[CarrolltonTXPool]

I'd say that you have the ability to go to CYA of 50 if you wanted to. Personally, I'd use one puck in the chlorinator, turn it on low, and boost the Fc with bleach, skipping the lowering of the pH.

Yeah, after I get rid of my iron stains I may take the CYA up to 50.

The problem with the chlorinator is there are many pucks in there from when i used it and they are all fused together. I can't figure a way to get them out as there is so little room between the sides of the tube and the pucks (well one large puck now :grrrr

 

[Butterfly]

We pretty much do what mynewpool does.

The night before we leave, we bring it to shock level, circulate for an hour and then turn it off. The end.

There is a little skimming and vac'ing to do when we get home, but no worries while we are gone

 

[mynewpool]

The thing that worries me about my pump is the skimmer basket getting too full and no water being circulated becuase the skimmer is full of junk.

 

[CarrolltonTXPool]

Ever since I got the pool skim, full skimmer baskets are a thing of the past. It's great c

thanks for the tips.

 

[mynewpool]

Ever since I got the pool skim, full skimmer baskets are a thing of the past. It's great c

thanks for the tips.

What pool skim?

 

[anonapersona]

First, I have no idea what the iron stain has to do with anything. Is that a factor in FC or CYA needs?

next, let's do the math on FC. Your pool is almost the same size as mine which is 23,000 gal. How fast does FC drop in your pool right now? Let's say 2 ppm/day but actually is it some % decline and if you boost higher it just goes away faster. But, let's say that you need an extra 6 ppm only. That is one jug of 6% bleach, plus another half. And you ought to expect that the FC is back to where it began when you return.

Now, if you think you want a bit of a safety margin, then add that floater in the pool. I know that in my pool 7 pucks from Leslie's adds 15 FC and CYA of 9. I know this because that is what my auto-chlorinator holds. So, the only question is how much of what is in the floater now will dissolve in 2.5 days? I will guess that only a part of one puck will actually be used up, but take a look at how many are in there and use the worst case. I'll guess it holds 3 or 4 so at worst you could see CYA go up by 5. So you are at 45. No problem, that is where you want to be for the heat of summer.

Re the skimmer. This time of year is not so bad, are you really having to clean the skimmer more than every other day right now? We are cleaning every other day and it is not bad, I wouldn't worry about 2.5 days. I would worry more about lack of circulation if the pump were off. It is really hot and sunny now.

Are there any older kids in the neighborhood that have pools that you could hire for a quick visit to check the skimmers? Or a neighbor? Anyone with a pool would probably be willing to drop in for a moment to clean the skimmers since you'd do the same for them.

 

[CarrolltonTXPool]

Ever since I got the pool skim, full skimmer baskets are a thing of the past. It's great c

thanks for the tips.

What pool skim?

This one, it's awesome. http://poolskimusa.com/

 

[CarrolltonTXPool]

First, I have no idea what the iron stain has to do with anything. Is that a factor in FC or CYA needs? No, just doing things one at a time. No real reason.

next, let's do the math on FC. Your pool is almost the same size as mine which is 23,000 gal. How fast does FC drop in your pool right now? Let's say 2 ppm/day but actually is it some % decline and if you boost higher it just goes away faster. But, let's say that you need an extra 6 ppm only. That is one jug of 6% bleach, plus another half. And you ought to expect that the FC is back to where it began when you return. That's what I'm thinking.

Now, if you think you want a bit of a safety margin, then add that floater in the pool. I know that in my pool 7 pucks from Leslie's adds 15 FC and CYA of 9. I know this because that is what my auto-chlorinator holds. So, the only question is how much of what is in the floater now will dissolve in 2.5 days? I will guess that only a part of one puck will actually be used up, but take a look at how many are in there and use the worst case. I'll guess it holds 3 or 4 so at worst you could see CYA go up by 5. So you are at 45. No problem, that is where you want to be for the heat of summer. I will probably put one puck in the floater the morning i leave, thanks for the idea

Re the skimmer. This time of year is not so bad, are you really having to clean the skimmer more than every other day right now? We are cleaning every other day and it is not bad, I wouldn't worry about 2.5 days. I would worry more about lack of circulation if the pump were off. It is really hot and sunny now. I'm not worried about the skimmer that was the other poster. The pool skim catches most everything and that bag is big

Are there any older kids in the neighborhood that have pools that you could hire for a quick visit to check the skimmers? Or a neighbor? Anyone with a pool would probably be willing to drop in for a moment to clean the skimmers since you'd do the same for them. Don't know any quite yet. This is our first year in the home. Good idea for the future, thanks.

 

[elgumpo]

Another reason for leaving the pump off would be the risk of something breaking and the pump running with no water. We recently had a fitting (2" PVC to 1.5" screw into the filter) crack - when the pump ran, there was spray from the crack, and within a few hours, the pool ran down to the point where the pump was losing prime (water below skimmer line).

If you are home, you'll notice weird noises and something wrong - if you're not, you could fry a pump (or, if you have the main drain open, you could end up draining the pool into your yard / neighbors' yards!)

When this broke, I couldn't fix it for a few days - I shocked and ran for a little bit with duct tape covering the crack when it first happened to boost FC, the water was fine for 2 days until I could get to it.