Issues with adding chlorine without testing the water?

[huskypool]

I get lots of debris in my pool from all of the surrounding trees and it gets very hot in my area, up to 110 during the hot summer days....My pool is about 27,000 gallons, and in ground, plaster. I have a test kit, though sometimes I do not have enough time to test the chlorine levels before or even after work. I took out my floater with the pucks because the CYA levels of my pool are too high. With the high CYA level, I need lots of chlorine.

1. I've been adding about a half a bottle of chlorine from Home Depot about every two days without checking the levels. Are there any issues with doing this? Worst case scenario, if my chlorine was a bit too high, which I do not think it is with my CYA levels, what could happen?

2. If I'm gone for work for a few days, I'm thinking of just putting my floater with the pucks back in, even though my CYA is already too high. I don't want to, though I can't think of any other options. Since my water is already bad with high CYA, does it make a difference at this point?

Thanks in advance!

 

[pwrstrk]

1 do you have one of our recommended test kits ?

You should be testing at least every other day with your conditions, unless you know for sure your FC loss per day.
Are you using the pool calc for your chlorine doseing ?Just adding chlorine without knowing what your current levels are isn't a good practice. What is your CYA level ?

Using the pucks is going to raise your CYA level even more. Maybe a SWG may benefit you if you can't test every day and are away.

 

[zea3]

1. If your CYA is high the odds are the half bottle of chlorine you are adding is not near enough, however without current test results I couldn't tell you that for sure. The only real downside would be if the chlorine was higher than slam level you could not swim in the pool.

2. If your CYA is already high and you continue to use pucks then the CYA will continue to rise and the recommended target chlorine level will increase. The target level will be more difficult to maintain and your pool will turn green.

This is very general information. The only way we can give you good advice is to have current test results.

 

[ping]

If you know how much chlorine your pool is consuming from test accurate results, and it is fairly predictable, then you can get away from testing all the time. It would be wrong of us to say go ahead and blindly add chlorine without knowing any test results. Too high of a chlorine level to your CYA level can cause damage to pool equipment and liners so it would always be wrong to be adding chlorine blindly.

How high is the CYA? Do you close the pool for winter? Have you been dealing with algae problems? There are many questions that can make a difference as to use more pucks or not for a few days. You might simply only need to raise the FC to SLAM level while you are away. To fix the high CYA, you will need to drain some water, how much depends on how much CYA there is.

 

[gtnos]

I confess.... I have gone as long as 3 weeks... Yes, weeks without testing anything and just dumping 40 oz of 8% every morning.... My test results never changed though, have 100 TA so ph doesn't change much, and every time my FC was 4ppm in the morning. Unless I had a high bather load or a lot of rain or something I thought may change test results, I just noted water color and if all looked good, i added bleach daily. Pool crystal clear every day. I don't recommend this to everyone though it worked for me

 

[Safetybob]

OK, just did a "test" for you a few minutes go. I grabbed my test kit out of the closet on the way out to the pool. Sat it down on the patio table, set the TAYLOR SPEED STIR on the table top, grabbed one plastic test tube and dunked it all the while emptying little at a time on the way back to the table, start the speed stir, put the white pill in to start the stirring action, one dip of powder.....start counting drops, note that number, then check to see if I have an infection. Let's see, that took all of about two minutes.

Now, with the pool calculator you can make a chart with the proper amount needed vs. what you have indicated by testing. I don't need to go to reference the pool calculator much anymore..........please get a speed stir and do a good test at least a couple times a week (as long as the pool looks good).

And yes, I too used to just dump my bleach into the pool too, the difference was I pretty much knew exactly what that standard daily amount was. Sounds like your pretty close to yours.....

Bob E.

 

[duraleigh]

huskypool,

You are doing almost the opposite of what we teach here on the forum.

Being blunt, it is pretty difficult to give you advice on your procedures when our methods involve careful and reasonably frequent testing.

You may continue to have a nice pool but it's all guesswork on your part and would be more guesswork and conjecture on our part because you have NO test results.

If you cannot find the time to test your water and post some accurate, meaningful results, any advice you get will be mostly pointless.

 

[gtnos]

And yes, I too used to just dump my bleach into the pool too, the difference was I pretty much knew exactly what that standard daily amount was. Sounds like your pretty close to yours.....Bob E.

I know my pool, thats the only reason I could / can do that. for 1 month straight, i tested every morning. my test results never changed on my FC and i never had any CC. pH never changed more than .1 + or - off of 7.6. i used to test every day, with same results requiring the addition of the exact same amount of bleach every day. started to become mundane and I agree that 3 weeks with no testing wasnt smart. we hardly used pool during that time and honestly, i did good to remember to toss in bleach every morning before i went out to work, let alone test. my normal procedure is 40 oz of bleach every morning without testing if no one used the pool the previous day, as i can predict the chlorine loss with no bathers. if pool was used day before by anyone other than wife and I (i got toddlers, im sure my pool gets peed in) then I test FC and CC every morning before chlorine, even though results rarely change. I do a pH test along with FC, and CC at least every 2 days unless it rains, which then I test pH next morning. TA test is done every sunday. it never changes either. since my CYA was so high at 90+, I havent tested for that all season as there is no way its going to drop more that 20, even with splashout and water replacement. i just add my bleach based upon a 90 CYA.

i do recommend everyone follow the advice on this forum and test every day as duraleigh is 100% correct. if i would have ended up with a green pool during those 3 weeks it would have been my fault for neglect. course if that would have happened, i would not have admitted it on here... i would have just slapped myself silly and started the SLAM process.

 

[Dmsattelberg]

In an attempt to speed things up, I often only check FC daily, but I make sure to check pH every few days.

I check TA, CH weekly, and CYA only after adding CYA in the previous week....

I must say to those that say they cannot test their Chlorine levels that it takes me longer to add the chlorine slowly in front of the filter return than it does to actuallly do the Chlorine test...

 

[chiefwej]

If you have high CYA levels you must use FAS-DPD test for your higher chlorine levels.
But, If you get the CYA back down to the recommended level you can then use the OTO test, which only takes a few seconds, for your daily test.

I do OTO and pH daily, with the little K1000 kit and only break out the full test kit once a week. Since it takes less than one minute to do a OTO test, I can't think of a reason to not test.

 

[huskypool]

Thanks to everyone for your responses - sorry for not responding sooner! The same work related reasons keeping me from doing as good of a job with my pool has kept me from coming back here sooner. Some additional info:

- I have a K-2006 kit
- My CYA is over 150 (I also tried mixing my water with tap water for the sample with similar results)
- There use to be a floater with pucks in the pool
- I had algae over summertime when it was real hot (pool was shocked at least 3-4 times over summer)
- I've already accepted that I will need to empty my pool and refill it at some point over the next year, though I'm not ready to do it
- I've been following instructions on this site for doing my tests

1.) Since I'm having a hard time keeping enough chlorine in the pool with my high CYA and busy schedule, what is the harm with just keeping a floater and trichlor pucks in the pool to keep the chlorine levels up? Even though it is adding more CYA, making it require a higher amount of chlorine, won't the pucks add that chlorine in addition to me pouring liquid chlorine in it? And, since I know I'm going to have to replace the water sometime in the next year anyways, should I be concerned with the high CYA levels?

2.) I can't imagine my chlorine levels being high enough to be of concern, though what level of chlorine can cause damage to pool equipment, and what specifically gets damaged?

Thanks!

 

[linen]

If your cya is truly 150 ppm, you need to maintain a minimum of 11 ppm FC in the pool at all times to remain algae free. If you do have some algae, then you will need to do the SLAM process which will require an FC level of 60 ppm...which imo is to high to be reasonable (or to test for).

If you use a floater, it will just keep requiring you to maintain an increasingly higher amount of FC.

My advice, get the cya in check by replacing about 2/3s of your water (what kind of pool do you have?) and then start over with your pool maintenance. Very quickly, you will get pool maintenance time down to a few minutes/day.

 

[jblizzle]

1) Because they will not be able to add enough FC to keep it high enough for your CYA level ... and they will be adding more CYA. I suppose they could help add FC to supplement the bleach you are adding, but again this is not the recommended path forward.

2) Safe to swim up to SLAM level ... which for your CYA level is above 40ppm. The equipment is generally safe up to Mustard SLAM level which is > 80ppm

Where are you located? Do you close the pool for the winter?

 

[Isaac-1]

Ok, a few things, first you have not filled out your location information so it is hard to give advice without knowing what sort of climate your in.

pool-school/read_before_you_post

Worst case here I will assume you live somewhere warm with a long swim season, if you continue to add CYA through the use of trichlor your algae problems will just get worse, chances are it will turn into a green swamp that can't be cleared effectively without a substantial water replacement.