Fine trip to the pool store and a few follow up questions

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J

Joious

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Jun 21, 2014
11
Auburn, CA
I went to price liquid chlorine vs. Bleach. And get my H20 tested to compare to my test kit. when I asked for the price of chlorine he said "it's nice to see people doing it with liquid instead of the tablets". I was SO surprised. For the pools they service they use liquid chlorine and go twice a week. The only use tabs if the customer asks or if the CYA is low. Anyway.....so now I trust the guy. It's a small "hometown" pool store. He tested my water and said the CYA could be +/- 20 but he felt it was fine if maybe just a little high at around 65. I tested it again today and it was about 65 or 70 after a second partial water drain yesterday. So I feel good about that. He sold me 4 gallons of 12.5 liquid chlorine for $16. So it actually priced out cheaper than bleach when you take in to account the concentrations. He did try to sell me some Calcium booster, but I told him I found it cheaper on Amazon and he was fine with that.

Anyway....my follow up questions:

If I'm expecting heavy swim load that day should I test and add in the morning as well as the evening? I have lots of little kids that will be having swim lessons. Taking that in to account....should my chlorine ppm be a little higher than if it was just my own little girl?

I'm going on vacation in a few weeks....i really don't want to use the tablets as i've just got my CYA to an almost workable level. it will be very hot here while I'm gone (probably 100+) and my Mom will be managing the pool. She will put in chlorine, but I don't think I can get her to test. Should I throw in a bag of Cal-hypo before I go ( I have low CH at 160 ppm anyway) and then just have her add a 1/2 cup of chlorine a day after the first 2 days? Or just have her add chlorine each day?


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Thanks.
 
Always good to bump up the FC before and possibly after high use. It is safe to swim up to shock level, and no one will be able to tell if your FC is 5ppm or 20ppm with your CYA level. I would bump it to about 12ppm or so at least 30 minutes before the lesson. And then test and adjust as needed in the evening.

I do not understand why you think the cal-cypo addition would change anything, unless you are thinking to raise the FC up pretty high so your mom did not have to come over right away. Based on your test history, just have her add that or a little more each day.
 
Yeah...I was thinking that if I put in the Cal-hypo I wouldn't have to worry about the level getting too low if she forgot or didn't put enough in. But, she also might want to swim while we are gone since it's going to be so hot. I just don't want to come home to a green pool :)

Thanks for the info on the higher ppm for the swim lessons.
 
You could accomplish the same "elevated FC" by adding in extra bleach instead of cal-hypo ... although if you have it and since you should raise the CH anyway, that would be fine.
 
I find CYA level of 65-70 to be higher than I like when using bleach. I am keeping mine around 40-45 until I get my SWCG installed, but in any event, 60/65 is still manageable. I use the PoolMath link ( http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html )at the top of every page on this site to calculate my adjustments. I find in my pool, for my given CYA level, that if I raise chlorine level to the high end of the goal range daily, that I have more than the min level 24 hours later when its time to add CL again. In my case, I find that I add 32-45 oz per day, depending on weather, usage etc. I also know that if I raise to shock level, it is 3-4 days before I have to add CL again, as long as there is nothing growing, so, Ill throw this out as what I would do if someone was going to take care of my pool...

You could teach mom to use your FAS-DPD test kit, and how to use the PoolMath link, keeping a daily log an using the log to calculate dosage levels. If your mom is like mine, that's not going to happen. Too bad!

I wouldn't use pucks with CYA at 60-65, as that will just drive the level higher, requiring an eventual partial drain.

Determine how often mom will chlorinate and use your pool. Caution her, that you cant treat the pool afterwards, you must treat it in advance. So if she isn't going to be able to treat it tomorrow, she must add tomorrows dose today. Day after tomorrow is too late! Hence, you need to know when she will be over, rain or shine! She can come every day, every 2, 3 or 4 days, with the dosage levels adjusted accordingly. But she needs to come when she plans, or there should be no swimming without a good test, probably when you get back.

In any event, when you get back, perform an Overnight Chlorine Level Test (OCLT). That will tell you how she did, and if there is anything growing in the pool / pond!
 
Having a novice manage your pool when you are away can be troublesome. You can succeed if you keep their tasks as simple as you possibly can.....do not expect them to know what seems obvious to you....you will be disappointed.

Experience teaches us here on the forum we often make instructions far too complex and those are for OWNERS of a pool....not Moms helping out.
 
I just got back from vacation and maybe what I experienced can provide some insight. I usually like to get my FC to about 8 in the evening but the day before I left I bumped it up to 15 and was gonna be gone for 10 days. I had a neighbor lined up to dump in a full gallon of bleach a day to make it easier...that was just about what the pool had been consuming per day (3.5 ppm). Well to save her some trouble my wife had my inlaws cover the first 4 days but then they were flying out to meet us. So the neighbor only needed to do 6 days. I had all the bleach bottles lined up with the day of the week and date written on each bottle and gave instructions that if she knew she couldn't be there one day then dump that bottle in a day early. Well driving back from the airport I get a text from my wife that the neighbor made a mistake and thought she needed to start on the 23rd instead of the 18th. So my pool had gone 6 days without anything. My wife doesn't know much since we just started this process but she told the lady to dump in two bottles and turn on the filter. When I got home the FC measured 8 and CC was 0 to my surprise. Of course since she had dumped in 7 ppm worth of chlorine I knew it had dropped to at least 1. But the water has stayed crystal clear and I'm back on schedule of a bottle a day and no CC showing up. So my thought is pick an amount to have the neighbor put in daily and then have fun on vacation. Don't sweat it. Worst case is you come back to a green pool and fix it in 3 days using what you know from this website.
 
I agree with Dave, keep it simple. How about you get it close to shock level before you go and have mom add around the daily maintenance dose each day. Give her a round number to make it easy like the 1/2 cup you mentioned, but don't have her wait, add from day 1. With a little luck this will keep the FC way up, but not quite shock level for your entire trip. Even at shock level it's safe for her to swim if she wants.

If someone I the family is handy, while you are on vacation start thinking about a Stenner pump. Auto dispensing makes problems like this go away.
 
1/2 cup per day in 18k gallons? Hopefully it's a BIG cup :eye:

I just got back from a week of vacation and left out several jugs of clorox labeled on the day they were supposed to go in. MIL was coming by the house anyway to watch the dog so it was no big deal to pour a jug in front of the return :) Bump up FC a bit, lower pH to 7.2ish and have your helper add a quart to 40 oz of 12.5 per day. Easy :)

Nice pool :goodjob:
 

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Hmmm...I'm using 12.5% liquid chlorine and I'm only dropping maybe 1.5 or 2 ppm per 24 hours from morning to the next morning. But it has been cool with some morning clouds here lately. It's supposed to be super hot while we are away though. yesterday morning i was at 7.5ppm and I didn't add anything. This morning I am at 6ppm. And you are right 4 oz will not be even close. To get up 2 ppm for 18000k it looks like it needs 36 ounces...or just over 4 cups.

Here's my plan for vacation: Since I'm already low on CH and I have the cal-hypo...I"m going to add it to my skimmer the day we leave and try to get up to about shock level. I know that it takes about 2 or 3 days for my levels to come back to normal after I shock. But I'll have her add 3 cups of chlorine per day....which i calculate should leave me at about 7ppm when I return 5 days later. (Or somewhere close to there!) Thanks everyone!
 
Good plan! Let us know what you end up with when you get back.

There is a little SWAG involved in the minimum/target levels and from what I have seen other people post the water can be a little forgiving if the FC goes down a little. You are only gone five days. For 3 - 5 day trips in the past I have just taken mine to mustard algae shock levels and made it a point to get back to the pool as soon as I was home with nothing being added
 
So after receiving my CYA 50ppm solution and using it to figure out exactly what the "dot" should look like and then re-testing my own pool a couple of times, I'm now confident that I have managed to lower my CYA to about 60 by doing the water changes. After reading a lot here, Im going to leave it at 60 and let it go down a little over the summer through splash-out and topping off. During the summer I actually have to add water daily. I can loose 1/2 inch each day to evaporation when the temps hit 100+. It's been cooler so far this summer (90's) but the heat is coming so I think I will be fine with it at 60 for now. So much to learn. Thanks!
 
Joious said:
So after receiving my CYA 50ppm solution and using it to figure out exactly what the "dot" should look like and then re-testing my own pool a couple of times, I'm now confident that I have managed to lower my CYA to about 60 by doing the water changes. After reading a lot here, Im going to leave it at 60 and let it go down a little over the summer through splash-out and topping off. During the summer I actually have to add water daily. I can loose 1/2 inch each day to evaporation when the temps hit 100+. It's been cooler so far this summer (90's) but the heat is coming so I think I will be fine with it at 60 for now. So much to learn. Thanks!
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just so you don't get disappointed with how slow it goes down, evaporation doesn't count. The water evaporates but the CYA stays. Like you said splash out and backwashing will reduce it slowly.
 
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