Just So I'm Getting This Straight....

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Ok, I got it all setup now. Thanks! I'll be heading to Sam's on the way home tonight. Besides the clear water after opening the pool, I noticed a bunch of yellow stains where earthworms sat and decayed over the winter. I brushed the whole pool after I opened it but the stains have remained. Is this something that will disappear on it's own?
 
Check out the Chlorine / CYA Chart at the link below. This will tell you how much FC you need based on your CYA level. The CYA holds your FC in reserve, meaning that you need more FC to keep algae away. This is good for keeping the sun from burning off all your FC. The use of tablets is likely the reason that the CYA is somewhat high right now, and CYA cannot be removed by another chemical, only by water replacement.

pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock
 
Well so far so good. I'm rolling through some bleach though!

Speaking of bleach, Sam's in Bartlett, TN has a box of four 1 gallon jugs of "All Purpose" brand 6% bleach for $5.97. They placed them about three aisles over from the name brand cleaning supplies. I don't know if that was on purpose or not. The Clorox was a dollar more for three 182oz jugs.

I'm now testing everyday and so far:

FC= Anywhere between 6-9
CC= Always 0
TC= Anywhere between 6-9
TA= Started at 110 and has since dropped to 70 and holding
pH= Started at 7.6 and has dropped to 7.5 and holding
CYA= Started at 100 and has since dropped to 80.

At first I was testing every other day but then I started to notice that my FC was dropping pretty rapidly. I got it to 9 once and haven't made it back to 9 yet. One question, my pool is in direct sunlight ALL DAY long. Based on that, do I need to change any of my goals? I read somewhere on here that losing 2ppm per day is the norm for 8hrs of sun per day. I'm just wondering if I should also up/lower my goals for TA or pH. Will changing anything else help my bleach last a little longer?
 
Have you done an overnight FC loss test recently? I suggest doing that...
Do you use the solar cover during the day - that should cut down on the loss. With a high CYA you shouldn't lose too much during the day...
PH and TA are fine and won't affect your loss.
 
I have not done an overnight FC loss not have I been using the UV cover. Still waiting for all of the Crud to fall out of the trees. Does anyone else have the unfortunate luck of having a birch tree near their pool?




Thankfully, this stuff is done after a few days. I am leaving for vacation next week and will be gone for seven days. I plan to start using the solar cover when I return. I was just going to bring my pool up to shock levels before I leave and then hope for the best. Should I cover it with the solar cover while I am gone or just wait until I get back? I'm only hesitating because I have never used it before.
 

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:shock: Holy smokes...
I leave my cover on while I'm gone - helps to prevent evaporation and FC loss.
Make sure your FC is holding though before you go or consider not covering and using tablets, and then dealing with whatever you find when you get home. :wink:
 
todd.scallions said:
I have not done an overnight FC loss not have I been using the UV cover. Still waiting for all of the **** to fall out of the trees. Does anyone else have the unfortunate luck of having a birch tree near their pool?
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:shock: YOWSA! I thought I had it bad with pecan catkins, but that pic takes the cake! :eek: How long did it take to build up to that level?
 
8hrs. Left for work, when I got home, pump was breathing nothing but oxygen. If my pump were a fish, he would have died. This pic was from last year. It our first spring in our new house so I was not expecting this at all. This year I was prepared. I made sure I emptied the bucket four times per day. It still clogged all up but never this bad. If I had the money, I would cut that tree down. However, my neighbor has one in his backyard as well so I would still have to deal with this every spring.

You guys think it will hurt my solar cover if I shock the pool and then cover?
 

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frustratedpoolmom said:
:shock: Holy smokes...
I leave my cover on while I'm gone - helps to prevent evaporation and FC loss.
Make sure your FC is holding though before you go or consider not covering and using tablets, and then dealing with whatever you find when you get home. :wink:
Click to expand...


Yeah...I have two maples on either side of my pool...and a couple of weekends ago I had my solar cover off and in an hours time all the little whirlies that fall from the tree had clogged my basket to the point I couldn't pull it out. If you keep the cover on all that Crud falls on the cover and not in the pool and thus not in the basket. It pulls in a few ever day...but I don't have to empty my basket more than twice a week. Put the solar blanket on and just let that stuff fall on the cover...when you take it off take it off over the skimmer and most of it will get collected in the basket.
 
This is my second year owning the pool and my first year using the solar cover. I hope it warms the pool up for while we are on vacation. By the way, anyone else have problems with freakin' fire ants making their home in your folded up pool cover and/or solar cover. There must have been 20,000 ants living in that thing! I didn't pay them any attention. I'll just let the bleach kill them while I'm away. The wife was freaking out helping me put the cover on.
 
todd.scallions said:
This is my second year owning the pool and my first year using the solar cover. I hope it warms the pool up for while we are on vacation. By the way, anyone else have problems with freakin' fire ants making their home in your folded up pool cover and/or solar cover. There must have been 20,000 ants living in that thing! I didn't pay them any attention. I'll just let the bleach kill them while I'm away. The wife was freaking out helping me put the cover on.
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The pool will definitely heat up...depending on how high your day time temps go...last year in june we were gone for a week and the temps were in the 90s...by the time i got home the pool was 87 degrees. And that was with not running my solar heater for the week...Let the solar cover keep your pool free of leaves and Crud...just clean it up when you get home and take it off...you just vacuume the stuff up off the bottom of the pool.
 
Back from vacation and the solar cover did great. I put 8 gallons of chlorine in the night before we left. Tested when I returned and it TC was at 9ppm (goal is 9). I tested CYA again to see if it had dropped since I have been gone for a week. It's still at 80ppm. It just seems like it would be lower by now. We have tons of rain here in Memphis (flooding actually). For the heck of it, I took a water sample down to Leslie's and all the test turned out that same as my testing BUT the CYA was at 30-50ppm. So now I'm confused. Do I trust my test that shows 80ppm or the Leslie's test that shows 30-50ppm?
 
Always trust your own testing if done with at good test kit (such as Taylor or TFTestkits). Pool stores very often get the CYA test wrong as well as some others. Some even invert the reading (i.e. 100 is 0 and vice versa). You could even take a bottle of tap water to them to see what they measure -- if it's anything other than 0 (or < 20, < 30, etc.) then they really don't know what they are doing.
 
I agree that my chlorine testing is way more accurate. But they tested the pH and TA the exact same way I test with the TFT-100. However, they used a strip to test the CYA and showed me the results. The strip matched perfectly with the 30-50ppm. It just seems that the CYA test strip seems a little more accurate than filling up a tube until you can't see the black dot anymore. And this is the test that I need an accurate reading for. If my CYA truly is 30-50ppm then I can lower the amount of bleach I'm having to add to account for my CYA test of 80ppm. I guess it's not going to hurt anything if I keep a high chlorine amount, but it would sure save me some trips to Sam's!
 
frustratedpoolmom said:
Sometimes folks are lucky and they have it....But....Under no circumstances let them talk you into the "DPD Complete kit" which is the K2005 and NOT the same thing - it lacks the FAS-DPD test. :)
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What's the difference??? I went to Leslie's a couple of days ago to get the FAS-DPD test kit. Of course, I didn't pay close attention and thought that's what I got. It was cheaper than the website, but who knew?? But I guess I ended up with the DPD Complete Kit.
 
PatG25 said:
frustratedpoolmom said:
Sometimes folks are lucky and they have it....But....Under no circumstances let them talk you into the "DPD Complete kit" which is the K2005 and NOT the same thing - it lacks the FAS-DPD test. :)
Click to expand...

What's the difference??? I went to Leslie's a couple of days ago to get the FAS-DPD test kit. Of course, I didn't pay close attention and thought that's what I got. It was cheaper than the website, but who knew?? But I guess I ended up with the DPD Complete Kit.
Click to expand...


The difference is accuracy...you never really know just how much free chlorine you have in your pool...The FAS-DPD tells you the exact ppm. with the DPD you are really just guessing because everyone see's the colors just a little differently. I have both...I use the DPD on a daily basis just to get a rough idea...but when i want to know exactly, I use the TFP kit. Very few Leslies that I know of actually sell the FAS DPD...you have to get it from the web site...mostly because the highschooler that works behind the counter doesn't know what the heck it is, or how it works or what the difference is. It is all based on how accurate you want to be.
 

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