FC Dropping Too Much

[ashearer26]

Hey Everyone!

Only a month or so after my first attempts to reclaim my swamp, we're swimming in sparkling water! A big thanks to pool school and all who helped along the way. Will become a TFP supporter hopefully after next month's paycheck!

In the meantime, I seem to be losing a little more than average FC each day and I'm not sure exactly why. Right now, on a hot and sunny day, I'm dropping about 4-5ppm or more a day, which seems high to me. Here's what I've got going on:

FC: Target 8-9
CC: < .5
TA: 80
PH: 7.6
CYA: 50

Pool is definitely in direct sunlight all day long and right now, that's probably 12+ hrs a day. Water temp has been a little above 80. Pool hasn't really seen any heavy use yet.

Am I out of my mind or is this just a bit too much of a drop in FC every day? I thought about raising CYA higher, but I know it's already pretty high at 50. At this rate, I'm going through 2/3 of a bottle or a full bottle of chlorine daily, which adds up quick. Anything I can do here?

Also, on a perhaps unrelated note, is it better to run my filter (I do about 5-6 hours) and add chlorine in the evening hours into the night or in the early morning hours into the midday? Does it make a difference? Thanks in advance!

 

[Richard320]

Two things use FC: sunlight and organics (algae, dead skin, tanning oil, etc.) So take sunlight out of the equation. Test FC after the sun stops shining on it and again in the morning before the sun hits it. If you lost less than 1.0 FC, it's unlikely to be organics and raising CYA a little might help. If you lost more, then you need the shock process.

Chlorinating at night lets it kill organics without sunlight, but you run the risk of it dipping too low the next day. But it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Some people just filter at night to take advantage of tiered rates.

 

[ashearer26]

Ok, as I had thought/hoped, FC held very well over night and I even got to it later this morning than I would have liked. So I'm thinking it's got to be sunlight.

Now the question is how much is a "little bit" of a raise in CYA? 60? 70? We'll be vacationing soon and I'll be having to use trichlor tabs in the automatic feeder for about a week and a half, which I predict will raise it about 7-10 ppm. Will that be enough?

 

[Richard320]

Ok, as I had thought/hoped, FC held very well over night and I even got to it later this morning than I would have liked. So I'm thinking it's got to be sunlight.

Now the question is how much is a "little bit" of a raise in CYA? 60? 70? We'll be vacationing soon and I'll be having to use trichlor tabs in the automatic feeder for about a week and a half, which I predict will raise it about 7-10 ppm. Will that be enough?

Sounds perfect.