Hi All - I'm a recent TFP convert and just SLAM'd my pool followed by treatment for mustard algae and its looking great. Will be headed out of town for 5 days. What's the best strategy to treat the pool to see me through the trip? My instinct is to boost the chlorine to shock level (25 ppm based on current CYA of 60) and hope it holds. Is there a better approach? Thanks in advance!
Leaving town for 5 days, how to treat pool?
- Thread starter gustafson
- Start date
If you have a way of covering the pool, that would help reduce chlorine loss.
You'll lose FC based on percentage each day. For instance, if you brought it to 25 ppm and you average losing 30% FC every day, you'd be down to 6 ppm on day 5. However, if you're losing 40% each day, you'd be down to 3 ppm on day 5.
What do you usually target when dosing with chlorine and what is it at next time you dose? This is your chlorine loss per day.
I suspect if you brought to 25 ppm, covered the pool, you'd have no problem. Otherwise without covering, you can bring to 25 ppm and add a floater with some trichlor, but you know this will raise your CYA a little bit. This is fine as well because you know the outcome will be a slightly higher CYA and can deal with it.
You'll lose FC based on percentage each day. For instance, if you brought it to 25 ppm and you average losing 30% FC every day, you'd be down to 6 ppm on day 5. However, if you're losing 40% each day, you'd be down to 3 ppm on day 5.
What do you usually target when dosing with chlorine and what is it at next time you dose? This is your chlorine loss per day.
I suspect if you brought to 25 ppm, covered the pool, you'd have no problem. Otherwise without covering, you can bring to 25 ppm and add a floater with some trichlor, but you know this will raise your CYA a little bit. This is fine as well because you know the outcome will be a slightly higher CYA and can deal with it.
Thanks for the reply! Is there a cheap and easy way to cover a pool? If not, I'll take up your idea of shocking and adding pucks, I have a bunch of those leftover from my switch to TFPC [emoji4]
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All I do is raise the water level to allow for evaporation, make sure it's all balanced, and stuff as many pucks as I can into the floater and leave it wide open. Done it many times and never had a green pool yet.
rubone74
0
I am also planning on leaving for approximately 5 days and will leave the pool care to my wife. She has not learned any of the information I have that is provided in this website. I plan on making sure everything is in perfect balance before I leave. Then I will just use my left over BioGuard 3" pucks my pool builder left me during the initial start up. My CYA is currently at 35 and CH at 170, so I do not see any major problems occurring in 5 days.
I tend to have a quick PH rise sometimes so I bring my PH to 7.2. Others who tend to have a lowering PH will raise theirs before they leave. It's all about knowing your pool.
[emoji176] Lisa P.
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[emoji176] Lisa P.
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JVTrain, to answer your question on the chlorine loss, it's about 25% per day. So I'm estimating I'll be at 8 ppm when I return if I raise to 25 ppm before leaving and don't use pucks.
Will add water to pool and plan to use pucks as suggested by Richard, and lower pH per Lisa as it tends to drift up.
Thanks for all the advice, you guys rock! I'll report back on how it goes, hopefully I return to a perfect pool!!
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Will add water to pool and plan to use pucks as suggested by Richard, and lower pH per Lisa as it tends to drift up.
Thanks for all the advice, you guys rock! I'll report back on how it goes, hopefully I return to a perfect pool!!
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Good luck!!!
We left for our first trip recently since becoming a TFPer. The first thing I did when I returned was run to check the pool. My husband laughed at me. But it was SUCH a good feeling to know that I knew my pool's personality enough to have kept it sparkly while we were gone [emoji4].
Thankfully, my friends here at the forum can share in my excitement, while the family thinks I'm a little bit close to the edge of fanatical. [emoji14]
[emoji176] Lisa P.
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We left for our first trip recently since becoming a TFPer. The first thing I did when I returned was run to check the pool. My husband laughed at me. But it was SUCH a good feeling to know that I knew my pool's personality enough to have kept it sparkly while we were gone [emoji4].
Thankfully, my friends here at the forum can share in my excitement, while the family thinks I'm a little bit close to the edge of fanatical. [emoji14]
[emoji176] Lisa P.
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I just got back from being away for 5 days. I raised my FC to shock level, pH to 7.8 (According to Poolmath, pucks lower pH), water level to allow for evaporation, and tethered a floater in front of my deep end return with 6 pucks (I have relatively low CYA so I have room for it to go up). Pucks are good in the short term if you have CYA room. I just wouldn't use them as a primary means of chlorination.
Haha Lisa, I've only been at it for a month or so using TFPC and my family already thinks I'm nuts. I have been scrubbing the pool a lot though to stay one step ahead of yellow algae.
Husky25: thanks for the tip on placement of the float and the CYA. Mine is around 60, so I don't have much room, but plan to use pucks anyway and adjust down the CYA if needed after I get back.
BTW I read somewhere that CYA tends to concentrate on the surface, so a good way to lower it effectively is to drain the surface water via a skimmer as opposed to draining from the bottom. Is that true?
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Husky25: thanks for the tip on placement of the float and the CYA. Mine is around 60, so I don't have much room, but plan to use pucks anyway and adjust down the CYA if needed after I get back.
BTW I read somewhere that CYA tends to concentrate on the surface, so a good way to lower it effectively is to drain the surface water via a skimmer as opposed to draining from the bottom. Is that true?
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With a 25% loss you would end up after 7 days with 25 * (1 - 0.25)7 = 3.3 ppm FC, not the 8 ppm you estimated. Basically over 7 days a 25% per day loss translates into ending up with only 13% of your original FC amount.
Thanks for the heads up, I'm gone for 5 days but that comes out to 6ppm and not 8 as I had calculated.
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Happy to report that the pool is looking fantastic upon my return. FC was 15ppm, pH 7.4. Raising the water level, lowering pH to 7.2, shocking and adding trichlor pucks seem to have done the trick! CYA went up a bit as expected, it's now 70ppm. I plan to lower that in coming days.
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WWells
0
Topic I have been wondering about, I have never used pucks of any kind. We are going on vaca in Sept for 7 days, wondering if I should add enough bleach to cover my standard loss over the same time? I have the SWG running but still lose around 2PPM per day
also, what do you do about skimmer? Thinking of just turning it off so it doesn't get clogged
also, what do you do about skimmer? Thinking of just turning it off so it doesn't get clogged
Wwells: With the caveat that I'm a rookie, I'd say adding enough bleach should do the trick. As for the skimmer, I emptied mine and left it on. Clogging is a potential risk but as long as there's flow through the pump (via the main drain) it seems like a risk worth taking. Turning it off may result in debris accumulation in the pool and increase chlorine use, and potential algae issues if chlorine drops too low.
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We went on vacation for 6 days and had our pet sitter add about half a bottle of bleach every evening. Pool was as clear as the day we left. Only change was ph went up a tad bit. So, if you have a neighbor to pop over and do that, that’s pretty simple as well.