Going on vacation... what should I do with my pool??

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triplets&quads

triplets&quads

LifeTime Supporter
May 28, 2008
100
North Carolina
Pool Size
2900
Surface
Vinyl
SWG Type
Intex Krystal Clear
We are leaving in the morning for vacation and we'll be gone a whole week. I have a new liner, new water, new SWG, I do BBB and I want someone to tell if I am doing everything right or should I do something different.

The SWG has been up and running for 1 week. I have probably been overtesting my water... my husband thinks I am a MAD scientist now.... I am using the TF100 kit and I have been testing day and night to get a feel for how my numbers are going to fluctuate. I have been learning to adjust my SWG and only running my pump when the SWG is in operation. THAT IS HARD FOR ME TO DO... I have always run my pump 24/7 before we added the SWG. I guess I was on overkill with that!

Anyway, here are my numbers. Please let me know if I need to do something to adjust anything. I have an AquaTrol, and I was running it for 12 hours overnight at 40%, then I changed to 30% yesterday and broke the time up into 3-4 hours several times during the day and night. What would be the best to leave the settings at while we are gone? Any ideas???

5/29 Night 5/30 Morning 5/30 Night

FC 4.5 FC 6 FC 2.5
CC .5 CC .5 CC 1
TC 5 TC 6.5 TC 3.5
PH 7.5 PH 7.5 PH 7.5
TA 90 TA 110 TA 100
CYA 70 CYA 70 CYA 70
 
SORRY!!! My numbers ran together. I had three testings listed. I will list them again.

5/29 Night

FC 4.5
CC .5
TC 5
PH 7.5
TA 90
CYA 70

5/30 Morning

FC 6
CC .5
TC 6.5
PH 7.5
TA 110
CYA 70

5/30 Night

FC 2.5
CC 1
TC 3.5
PH 7.5
TA 100
CYA 70
 
It would be much simpler if you had a little more experience with this setup.

There are two chemistry issues to worry about, low FC levels and high PH. For FC you could turn the percentage up to say 50% and be fairly sure that the FC level will be sufficient. It will probably be fine at 30%, but that is very difficult to be sure of without more experience. I would lower the PH to 7.2, that would give you more room for the PH to rise. You haven't seen a significant rise in the last 24 hours, so you should be safe there.

Stick with 12 hours a day pump run time.
 
What Jason said. Also, I would have most of that run time in the evening to maximize Cl effectiveness.

A week can be a long time during the summer. Will anyone be checking and testing your pool while you are gone? If not, I would boost the output even higher. Running you FC a little high isn't going to hurt anything for such a short time and you can lower it when you get back, however if you have it too low, you may come back to some algae growth.
 
Thanks for the advice! There is not anybody to check it for us while we are gone... rather, there is not anybody I trust to do it right! I have the SWG and pump set to come on at 2am and to run til 2pm. I am going to add the muriatic acid as soon as the pump kicks on.

Should I reset it before we leave so it will run 8pm to 8am or somewhere around that time? We are leaving at 9am this morning so I have done just about all I can do now. I just hope everything holds and the water is just as sparkling when we get back next Saturday as it is right now!
 
triplets&quads said:
Thanks for the advice! There is not anybody to check it for us while we are gone... rather, there is not anybody I trust to do it right! I have the SWG and pump set to come on at 2am and to run til 2pm. I am going to add the muriatic acid as soon as the pump kicks on.

Should I reset it before we leave so it will run 8pm to 8am or somewhere around that time? We are leaving at 9am this morning so I have done just about all I can do now. I just hope everything holds and the water is just as sparkling when we get back next Saturday as it is right now!
Click to expand...

Are you able to have more than one run time? If so, I would do something like 7pm to 1am and then 7am to 10am. Otherwise maybe 12am to 9am. Again, these run times are with a higher output. Unless your pump is undersized, you should not need to run it more than 10 hours a day. 12 hours won't hurt though, especially while you are not around to check.

PS Have fun on vacation!
 
With the AquaTrol, I can set however many run times are neccessary. I wish I had had more time to 'play around' with this before we leave for vacation, but I am down to the wire now! I will set the new runtimes and hope for the best! I wish my pool had a phone so I could call it up and ask it how it's doing while I am gone:D

This forum has been a godsend! They could have done a remake of "The Money Pit" starring my pool last year! I should have bought stock in the pool store I so frequented and I should have let the local high school use it for a science project because it certainly wasn't fit for anything else. I felt so sorry for the poor guy who was buying a boatload of chemicals at the pool store when I went in to get my CYA last week.

YOU GUYS AND GALS ARE GREAT!!
 
Moved from another thread. JasonLion

triplets&quads said:
We got back a day early from vacation and our pool looks BEAUTIFUL!! Thank you Jason & duraleigh for your pre-vacation advice!

I left my SWG at 50% and ran it for 2 six hour a day settings. Here are my new test results.

FC 6.5........TC 6.5........Ph 7.5..........TA 90...........CYA 70

The weather has been very warm (high 90s) while we were gone, so the water temp is perfect for me since I like what my husband refers to as 'bath water'. I am guessing that I need to bring that chlorine level down now by turning my SWG to a lower % level or running it for a shorter period of time. Am I right about that, and should I lower my Ph to 7.2?

Nancy
Click to expand...
 
You are welcome and congratulations on a beautiful pool!

There is no need to lower the PH right now. 7.5 is the ideal PH. Your PH will probably tend to rise over time. When it gets to 7.8 lower back to 7.2.

Yes, you can lower the percentage. You want to adjust it so that FC is around 4 in the early evening after a sunny day.
 

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