Leaving town for 5 days, can I use pucks after converting to liquid bleach?

[jetranger]

I have converted from pucks after a ton of reading and research on this forum. I am adding a small amount of bleach daily. I'm leaving town soon, and am wondering about putting my floater back in while I'm gone to keep appropriate chlorine levels. What do people normally do?

Thanks!

 

[MarianParoo]

Adding pucks is a pretty typical vacation plan for non-SWG's. They will lower your pH so make sure you take that into account. Have a great vacation!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Yup, just as MarianParoo said, the pucks are often used by TFP converts to keep algae at bay when they're gone on vacay. (hey, I'm a poet! hehehehe)

One thing to be aware of though is your CYA level currently and how much CYA the pucks will add while away? At the bottom of PoolMath is a section which can tell you. You don't want to go too high, so some folks always leave their CYA a *smidgeon* low to allow for the pucks.

Have a good time!

 

[Agent99]

Adding The Liquidator to your arsenal would take care of this.

That said, when I redid my pool along with the plumbing, I went ahead and plumbed in the old Pentair puck holder I had with the old pool just in case I needed it.

 

[zea3]

It really depends on how high your current CYA level is. If you are already on the high end, over 70ppm, then you may need to drain and replace a little water when you come back if you use pucks.

 

[layla2052]

We travel a lot and I found that the pucks don't work as well for me plus I don't want my CYA levels bothered so this is what I do (so far, has worked perfectly).... I know how much FC the pool uses per day (1.5-2 due to tree overhanging) so I multiply that number by how many days I am going to be gone, i.e. 2 x 5 = 10. I add that to the top end of my scale, in my case that would be 7 then I add one for good measure, total of 18 as my vacation target for 5 days. That's right at shock level for my pool and when I return, it is always sitting at 6.5-7, which is the top end of my scale. Start the auto vac and it is like I never left.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

I did this for a week and was fine. My pH dropped from 7.9 to 7.3 or so, and my TA dropped from 80 to 60. My CYA should have increased by 10 ppm, but the increase didn't register on my test kit. The next time I do this, I'll probably bump up the TA by 20 ppm or so ahead of time. You need a higher TA with trichlor, even if it is for a short time apparently. If your pH is already low you may need to compensate for that as well.