Pool closed for the month of July!

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B

bfrazier

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Aug 25, 2013
19
Tucson AZ
It's summer here in Tucson - time to go somewhere cooler for a month, but unlike a pet, the pool has to stay home. I don't want to complicate my friend's life who is willing to care for our "pool pet" with daily maintenance and I'm looking for any shortcuts I can find.

My plan is to have them put 3 7 oz pucks of trichlor in the floatie and 64 oz of 10% hypochlorite directly to the pool every five days. I've never read advice for or against mixing chlorine types, but this should (should?) get me plenty enough FC for five days about 12 parts per million total every five days... just not all at once.

Anybody see any reason this won't work?

Thanks, really thanks for the site and the help,
Bob

BTW this is an awesome website! And... I tried to upload some pics but it says I'm over my allocation... moderator?? Moderator!!
 
bfrazier said:
BTW this is an awesome website! And... I tried to upload some pics but it says I'm over my allocation... moderator?? Moderator!!
Click to expand...

Normal members have a very limited amount of space for attachments. 256K. You can get around that two ways: First, you can use a picture sharing site like Photobucket to store your pictures and link to them. Second, you could become a TFP supporter and get 10M storage on this site.
 
bfrazier:

I have used a combination of tabs and liquid bleach while on vacation and for topping off the CYA level and have had no adverse effects from having both chlorine types in the water. You definitely do not want to mix bleach directly with the tabs in an automatic chlorinator, however. But using the tabs with the bleach in a well-diluted environment such as the pool itself has never caused any problems for me. Simply add the bleach as we recommend by slowly pouring it in front of a return jet with the pump running and leave it running for at least 30 minutes after adding.

The other part of your question is more difficult to answer. First, you need to know what your current CYA level is in order to determine the required FC level that must be maintained to keep the pool sanitized. Second, unless you keep a log of your test results and average daily FC loss, you are guessing as to what the actual daily FC loss will be. Using a theoretical example here, let's assume you start off with an FC of 12 and then assume you lose 30% of the FC each day (NOTE: Assuming less FC loss than normal due to puck usage + bleach vs. bleach only). Here's what would happen:
  • Beginning of Day 1: starting level of 12 ppm FC
  • Beginning of Day 2: FC=8.4
  • Beginning of Day 3: FC=5.8
  • Beginning of Day 4: FC=4
  • Beginning of Day 5: FC=2.8
Sometime during Day 5, your friend drops by and gives a supplemental dose of chlorine to get you back to 12 FC. In the example above, if that happens late in the day on Day 5, the FC could drop to around 2. Unless your CYA is around 30 (in which case the daily FC loss in the Tucson sun could be higher than what I'm using in this example), the 2 ppm of FC would be inadequate (see Chlorine CYA Chart).

Given this situation, adding a supplemental dose of a Polyquat 60 algaecide right before you go on vacation would be justified as extra insurance against an algae bloom should the FC drop below what is required according to the pool's CYA. If you have a pool cover, that would also help mitigate FC loss due to sunlight.
 
Thanks to everyone for their fine answers!

I don't know how steadily 3" triclor pucks dispense their chlorine, or over what time period. They surely release more at the onset than when they are half size about 3-4 days later.

Bo, are you accounting for the pucks releasing some chlorine on days 1-5? I really appreciate the theoretical numbers in your example.

Yippeeskippy, My CYA is high already, I'll plan on emptying a portion of the pool after I return. If the pool turns green I'll let you know!

Maybe a gallon of bleach instead of a half gallon every 5 days would get me a better start.

bests,
Bob

John - I burned up my picture quota in an earlier thread. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
bfrazier said:
Bo, are you accounting for the pucks releasing some chlorine on days 1-5? I really appreciate the theoretical numbers in your example.
Click to expand...
Yes, but admittedly I'm taking a SWAG on how much chlorine the tabs are releasing each day. Usually, chlorine loss in sunny conditions is closer to 40-50% depending on the CYA level, how many hours your pool is exposed to sunlight, and water temperature to name a few factors that impact this. Therefore, I backed down the chlorine loss to 30% in my theoretical example. Pucks will dissolve faster in warmer water than colder water as well as in moving vs. stationary water. All of these factors are why I'm a believer in keeping a log of test results. Recording one day's test results per week is sufficient to give you a good trend analysis of the expected chlorine consumption for a given time of year. I now have three years worth of data. When I go on vacation for an extended period of time, we usually have someone stay at the house and I can tell them "add X amount of bleach per day" (depending on time of year) without them having to run any tests. I have always come home to a crystal clear pool and a chlorine level within the recommended range. But the only reason I can tell someone to dose a specific amount of chlorine without testing is because I have sufficient data to support the recommended dosage for my pool and we are usually talking about a short time period of a week or so. When I'm home, I still test.
 
Hi folks!

Returned home after a month to a sparkling pool, but with FC at 15 and CYA level at 150.
(This was from using 4 pucks plus 1 gallon of bleach every 5 days for a month.)

Thanks for your input. Guess I'll water the yard plants with pool water this year!

Bo, have a tall one on me - thanks for the info from you and everybody else too.
 
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