People over complicate things

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cj133

Well-known member
May 6, 2018
701
NJ
This for the most part sums up what I need to add to my pool for the past 5 years. Most of the time I don't even test, I just pour some in and I seem to be pretty good at judging the size "swig" the pool needs every 2 days. I probably test my water once a week unless I suspect an issue.

There's the occasional need for muriatic acid and or CYA......but it's rare.
Of course, when I initially filled the pool I used quite a bit of muriatic acid and daily testing. But once it settled down it's been very stable.

Am I alone?

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cj133 said:
Am I alone?

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You are not! I do the same thing. I've even let FC get to 0 without realizing it sometimes. When I finally get around to testing, I add enough to shock just in case. But I have a small 16x32 5' deep pool so 2-3 bottles of fresh bleach is enough to shock it. I've never had any algae problems. I've even let my pool go well over a week without any FC in mid summer when the pool water is 100 degrees and I've never had a bloom--- at least nothing visible. I use a DE filter as well, which I take apart and clean manually once per year. I never even have to backwash it in between. And I brush maybe once every month. On a typical day I only run my pump for 8 hours. My pump is 8 years old and the lid isn't even cloudy; you can see everything in the basket. Water has been crystal clear for years. BBB has served me well though I've never bothered using Borax. Cheers dude
 
SoDel said:
I‘m not as brave as you, but I’m getting there lol. Still test FC almost daily but as you say, once the other stuff settled down, it’s pretty much auto-pilot. 👍
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I originally tested a lot, but once I noticed a trend I slowed up on testing more and more.
If the water is warm it's going to use a lot more chlorine than if it's cold. If it's warm and a lot of people are using the pool it'll use even more.

There's a chance I use more bleach than I would if I tested more often, but the test isn't by any means free.
@Poolman2022 My dad used to use cal-hypo and no CYA. He would essentially shock the pool overnight around 10PM and then the pool spent most of the day with 0 FC. The reason was he didn't know about CYA at the time (1970s-80s). It worked, it just used a lot of chlorine.
 
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cj133 said:
I originally tested a lot, but once I noticed a trend I slowed up on testing more and more.
If the water is warm it's going to use a lot more chlorine than if it's cold. If it's warm and a lot of people are using the pool it'll use even more.
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This. Once you get a feel for how quickly your pool consumes chlorine based on the weather and usage, it's easy to keep up with it without testing as often. I usually test once per week, if that. And my Ph likes to hover at 8 no matter what I do, so I just pour enough MA in to bring it down to 7.5 before swimming (usually about 16oz) and let it go back up to where it likes when the pool isn't in use. Never had any pitting or scaling. Original 8 year old plaster and tiles are still like the day the pool was built. Smooth as butter. No pitting or scaling anywhere. I'm even still using the same DE cartridges that came with the filter 8 years ago; No rips or tears.
 
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Poolman2022 said:
This. Once you get a feel for how quickly your pool consumes chlorine based on the weather and usage, it's easy to keep up with it without testing as often. I usually test once per week, if that. And my Ph likes to hover at 8 no matter what I do, so I just pour enough MA in to bring it down to 7.5 before swimming (usually about 16oz) and let it go back up to where it likes when the pool isn't in use. Never had any pitting or scaling. Original 8 year old plaster and tiles are still like the day the pool was built. Smooth as butter. No pitting or scaling anywhere. I'm even still using the same DE cartridges that came with the filter 8 years ago; No rips or tears.
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Why does the pH keep climbing if your TA is reasonable?
After filling our pool I used a good 2 gallons of MA, but then after that very little and the pH is extremely stable at 7.6-ish
 
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cj133 said:
Why does the pH keep climbing if your TA is reasonable?
After filling our pool I used a good 2 gallons of MA, but then after that very little and the pH is extremely stable at 7.6-ish
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That's probably a question for Chemgeek. I have no idea why. My TA is always 90-100. No idea why the Ph wants to be at 8. It's been like that since day 1. It always goes back up to 8. I've tried stabilizing it by lowering TA but 80 is my lower limit and Ph still creeps back up to 8. My CSI is always good. Even at Ph of 8 I use very little chlorine overall. I keep my CYA around 30-40 and can keep my FC at 7 using half a bottle of bleach each day during the summer. In the colder months, I can go a month on one bottle. Cost of bleach for my pool is super low. I use the 10% from home depot, sold as pool chlorine but of course we all know its just really strong bleach. :) And just to clarify, it levels out at 8 and no higher. I know this because no matter how long I leave it at 8, it always takes the exact same amount of MA to bring it down to 7.5.
 
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I was just thinking about this lol. I followed this site to a tee but soon after SLAMing my pool I went into what someone here said best, auto-pilot.

Ph seems to always stay the same despite rain, adding water, and people coming in and out of the pool so I only had to adjust that once which was when I opened the pool. I have vinyl so calcium hardness isn't an issue.

I only test FC out of curiosity. I just add half a gallon of chlorine every 2 days in my 26k gal pool and so far, no algae. It's still crystal clear. I try to clean the skimmer baskets every day and check my my pressure for the sand filter every week-ish. I don't even brush the pool, just put the robot in every few days when I notice it's getting dirty.
 
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achenx75 said:
I was just thinking about this lol. I followed this site to a tee but soon after SLAMing my pool I went into what someone here said best, auto-pilot.

Ph seems to always stay the same despite rain, adding water, and people coming in and out of the pool so I only had to adjust that once which was when I opened the pool. I have vinyl so calcium hardness isn't an issue.

I only test FC out of curiosity. I just add half a gallon of chlorine every 2 days in my 26k gal pool and so far, no algae. It's still crystal clear. I try to clean the skimmer baskets every day and check my my pressure for the sand filter every week-ish. I don't even brush the pool, just put the robot in every few days when I notice it's getting dirty.
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Be careful.
I've heard rumor that calcium can stick to the liner if the pH is too high for too long.
 
pjt said:
TA as low as 50 is fine. Your pH rise will be slower (and will level off lower) with a lower TA.
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That was my experience, although I did have to watch CSI. My TA got back into the 70-80 range during the summer when I was constantly filling the pool. My fill water has high TA. I’m now slow lowering it to the 50-60 range.
 
I’ve been toying with the idea of setting my TA around 50 so pH would ceiling slightly above 8.0 and setting CH at a level that would result in a saturation index slightly negative at typical summer pool temp (for me, around 83), and just let it ride, no acid or really anything all summer. Has anyone tried that type of thing?
 
jark87 said:
My TA got back into the 70-80 range during the summer when I was constantly filling the pool. My fill water has high TA. I’m now slow lowering it to the 50-60 range.
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Same here. My fill water has a TA of 330, so this hot & dry summer meant lots of filling and increased TA. Since we've had rain over the past few weeks, I haven't needed to fill and my TA is down to 60.
 
I'm also part of the auto-pilot club...
Have had our pool for 5 years now and for the past 2-3 years I think I've go it figured out pretty well wo where it's predictable. I test FC and pH once a week (sometimes I'll go two weeks) and the test is mostly just a validation to ensure everything is still as expected. Rarely do I have to adjust anything as a result. I test all the other levels once a month or even two (outside of summer). Especially with a SWG this is all very easy and I can mostly set it and forget it, just adjusting the SWG or pump run-time a little every now and again. The pH rises a lot but I have learned to just add a certain amount of MA every 2-3 days and that keeps it in line.

* goes to knock on some wood *
 
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