Sorry if this has been addressed but couldn't find anything specific enough doing search.
I just switched over from Ionization, over 10 years (and no algae) (using liquid and granular chlorine and floating pucks) a couple of days ago. And yes I do have some staining, not too much, that I can live with for now.
My CYA, which dispersed from hosiery bags in front of return, in four hours went from 0 (test reading) to 70 in a few hours and has held for two days. BTW... I understand that we aren't supposed to test for CYA for a week but I could not restrain myself. Pool store also told me that this brand "dissolves" very fast. Anyway, my chlorine reading is staying pretty close to 12 in past 36 hours. It was cloudy yesterday and I haven't tested yet today.
I understand the correlation between adequate amounts of chlorine with high CYA.
My question is ..... I have to frequently backwash DE filter, weekly, due to sand, silt, being in heavy woods, etc. I backwash directly down the hill to woods, our "wild area". Most of the water is absorbed before it reaches the end; Texas hot and dry. What happens to all the "locked up" chlorine? Lets say I keep the chlorine around 9ppm because that is what CYA level calls for (I'll know more in a week or so after everything stabilizes.) does that mean I'm going to be dousing higher levels of chlorine to the ground and wild plants and trees down the hill than as if my CYA and chlorine levels were kept lower? How about off gassing of the chlorine? I'm part of protected habitat and feed many wild critters and birds so this is critical to us.
In past, using Ionization, and some chlorine I let the chlorine level get to virtually 0 before doing a backwash. We use very environmentally friendly products and we don't use or need insecticides or herbicides. I use a lot of baking soda and vinegar for cleaning.
Please, any comments/suggestions on this. If the high levels of chlorine are going to be an environmental problem at such high levels I will gladly lower my CYA to reduce needed chlorine levels. BTW... we are on a very old septic system that has served us well possibly because we strive to keep as much nonbiodegradable substances out of it as possible as well as most toilet paper, grease, unnecessary organic waste from kitchen, etc. (We do a lot of composting of kitchen waste too. Meat products go into freezer until we take it out to trash pickup.) We also try to keep the phosphate levels of commercial products as low as possible.
While I'm at it. I do flush a lot of DE into the woods and down the hill. At times this concerns me but I rationalize that as our sand/silt/dust coming from our limestone environment, i.e. limestone escarpment with about 75% rock/20% soil ratio is very similar to DE I'm not adding much that isn't around here. Is this true? We figure that our lack of many bugs in dusty house and loads of limestone sand/silt outside acts as a natural insect killer. We don't use insecticides in the house and have never had a flea problem even when vets all around us report major flea problems in local suburban areas. When most bugs enter house they die in a few hours, except for the scorpions, tarantulas, and some spiders. This year has been especially bad for silt and dust especially with the three new, active puppies keeping it stirred all the time and this year we have seen fewer scorpions in the house than ever in 23 years here.
I'll, at some time, post a link to some pics of some critters.
Thanks, geekgranny
I just switched over from Ionization, over 10 years (and no algae) (using liquid and granular chlorine and floating pucks) a couple of days ago. And yes I do have some staining, not too much, that I can live with for now.
My CYA, which dispersed from hosiery bags in front of return, in four hours went from 0 (test reading) to 70 in a few hours and has held for two days. BTW... I understand that we aren't supposed to test for CYA for a week but I could not restrain myself. Pool store also told me that this brand "dissolves" very fast. Anyway, my chlorine reading is staying pretty close to 12 in past 36 hours. It was cloudy yesterday and I haven't tested yet today.
I understand the correlation between adequate amounts of chlorine with high CYA.
My question is ..... I have to frequently backwash DE filter, weekly, due to sand, silt, being in heavy woods, etc. I backwash directly down the hill to woods, our "wild area". Most of the water is absorbed before it reaches the end; Texas hot and dry. What happens to all the "locked up" chlorine? Lets say I keep the chlorine around 9ppm because that is what CYA level calls for (I'll know more in a week or so after everything stabilizes.) does that mean I'm going to be dousing higher levels of chlorine to the ground and wild plants and trees down the hill than as if my CYA and chlorine levels were kept lower? How about off gassing of the chlorine? I'm part of protected habitat and feed many wild critters and birds so this is critical to us.
In past, using Ionization, and some chlorine I let the chlorine level get to virtually 0 before doing a backwash. We use very environmentally friendly products and we don't use or need insecticides or herbicides. I use a lot of baking soda and vinegar for cleaning.
Please, any comments/suggestions on this. If the high levels of chlorine are going to be an environmental problem at such high levels I will gladly lower my CYA to reduce needed chlorine levels. BTW... we are on a very old septic system that has served us well possibly because we strive to keep as much nonbiodegradable substances out of it as possible as well as most toilet paper, grease, unnecessary organic waste from kitchen, etc. (We do a lot of composting of kitchen waste too. Meat products go into freezer until we take it out to trash pickup.) We also try to keep the phosphate levels of commercial products as low as possible.
While I'm at it. I do flush a lot of DE into the woods and down the hill. At times this concerns me but I rationalize that as our sand/silt/dust coming from our limestone environment, i.e. limestone escarpment with about 75% rock/20% soil ratio is very similar to DE I'm not adding much that isn't around here. Is this true? We figure that our lack of many bugs in dusty house and loads of limestone sand/silt outside acts as a natural insect killer. We don't use insecticides in the house and have never had a flea problem even when vets all around us report major flea problems in local suburban areas. When most bugs enter house they die in a few hours, except for the scorpions, tarantulas, and some spiders. This year has been especially bad for silt and dust especially with the three new, active puppies keeping it stirred all the time and this year we have seen fewer scorpions in the house than ever in 23 years here.
I'll, at some time, post a link to some pics of some critters.
Thanks, geekgranny