Vacation dilemma

[NEpoolgirl]

Think I'm posting in the correct section.

Slightly different vacation question. Have read just about all the vacation threads here and had a plan for pump on timer with trichlor pucks in floaters. CYA is under 30 so figured that would be fine.
Wrench in plan: Sand filter decided to crack today. Leaving Saturday morning for a week trip. Don't have time to get new filter before we leave.

New plan, and asking if y'all think this would work:
Put filter on recirculate with pump on timer, pucks in floaters to at least keep some chlorine in it until we get back and can get a new filter in.

Thoughts on this idea, anyone?

 

[chem geek]

That should work. Not having filtration is not a disaster. It just means that debris will collect in the pool so it may get cloudy, but with chlorine in the pool that cloudiness should not be from algae.

Also, if you can cover the pool and know your chlorine loss rate when doing so and turn down your feeders accordingly, you'll keep debris out of the pool so it will likely stay very clear.

Don't forget that Trichlor pucks are net acidic so will generally lower the pH and the TA.

 

[NEpoolgirl]

Thanks for the reply, chem geek!

Just keeping the algae at bay is my primary goal. Don't have a cover, but do know my FC loss on a partly cloudy/more sun than cloud day is around 4.8 for the 12-13 hours the pool is in full sun.

I haven't had a chance to try out floaters yet, so will be taking a WAG on how open they should be. My pH is running 7.8, sometimes a little more pink; TA is 110, so I'm thinking maybe put 3 pucks in each floater (have two floaters). They're the HTH 6 oz trichlor pucks. Used pool math to see what each puck would do, and hopefully just using six will keep my pH from tanking too far. CYA is still under 30, so that part won't be a problem.

Plan on shocking with bleach in the morning before leaving. We do have someone coming over twice to water plants, maybe I'll see if he's comfortable dumping some bleach in there if he will be there during a time when the pump is running.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who contributes to this great site! I've learned a lot here!

 

[chem geek]

Your FC loss is high because of your low CYA, but that just means this is a perfect time to use Trichlor in floaters to maintain chlorine and add some CYA to boot.

 

[NEpoolgirl]

Update on vacation results:

Thanks to all the wonderful help and info on this forum, we came home Saturday night to a pool with clear water, YAY!! (And yes, the first thing I did was run to the pool to check on it!!) Quite a bit of dirt and whatnot on the bottom, but the robot is taking care of that.

Shocked to 7 right before leaving, added 3 Dichlor tabs each to two floaters tied off at opposite ends of pool so they were not right in front of the return flow. Numbers on returning home:

FC 2.5
CC 0
CYA 35
PH 8.0
TA 110
CH 370

Got 5 inches of rain that night, 1 inch the next night, so that lowered my CYA, TA, PH and CH some. (Being a recently relocated CA native, I seriously wish I could send some of this rain water back to CA)

Should be getting our new filter delivered on Friday, but pool's not doing too bad with no filtration and pump on recirculate for two weeks! Working on the TA-pH lowering game, too. Will probably get that dialed in right about in time to close the pool

 

[chem geek]

Great job! The elevated chlorine level when you left and especially the Trichlor tabs in the floaters maintained your chlorine level and gave you some CYA. With your higher TA and the rain aerating the water, that probably drove your pH higher in spite of the use of Trichlor.

 

[PAGirl]

Glad to see it worked well for you!!