Houston, do we have a problem?

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wellsnlisa

wellsnlisa

0
May 1, 2014
52
Cypress, Texas
I am trying to decide if something is starting to grow or if it just the Houston sun and heat which are beginning to get intense. Here are my numbers:

Last night at 8:30 pm 1 hour after dosing the pool but not dark yet:

FC 8
CC 0
Ph 7.4
TA 90
CH 270
CYA 55
BORATES 60

This morning at 8:00 am (too lazy to get up before sunrise for a true OCLT):

FC 7.4
CC 0

This evening at 7:00 pm:

FC 5.0
CC 0

I am trying to decide if a 3 ppm loss just means I need to raise my CYA a bit or if it's "Houston, we have a problem".
 
The OCLT really requires you to test at night then again before the sun hits. Is your water clear, or do you otherwise sense there's an issue? A lot of us here can tell when something's wrong just by looking or smelling the water. After a while you just kind of instinctively know when there's something wrong.
 
I was thinking a .6 ppm loss overnight wasn't too bad especially as I had tested an hour before sundown and again a couple of hours after sunup. Should I do it again the proper way? I am just concerned with needing to add nearly 3 quarts a day.

Water is sparkly and beautiful.
 
Since my overnight loss is good, and there is probably nothing growing, do you think raising my CYA to 60 or 65 may help lower my daily CL consumption? I know I would have to raise my target to 8 ppm but I have been doing that anyway because of the 3 ppm daily loss. I was thinking raising the CYA by about 10 may lower the consumption.
 
wellsnlisa said:
Do I need to run the pump all night for the OCLT?
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Since you have a VS pump you could run it at a low speed all night with little impact to your electric bill. However, it is not necessary to do so as far as the OCLT is concerned. Just be sure to run it for about a half hour or so after adding chlorine to make sure it gets thoroughly mixed. If you leave the pump off overnight, I would suggest running it for at least 15 minutes (30 min would be even better) before you perform the morning chlorine test.

wellsnlisa said:
Since my overnight loss is good, and there is probably nothing growing, do you think raising my CYA to 60 or 65 may help lower my daily CL consumption?
Click to expand...
Raising the CYA will lower daily consumption, but I would hold off on that until you run your current OCLT and definitely rule out that nothing is growing. Losing 3 ppm / day at a CYA of 55 ppm seems a bit high for a clean pool. I lose less than that running at 35 ppm CYA and my pool is in full sun virtually all day.

One other thing...What is the temperature of your pool water? Mine's currently at 85°F. If your pool water is warmer than that, it could explain part of the reason why your FC consumption is 3 ppm/day. The warmest my pool has ever been since I've owned the house is 92°F. Even at that temperature, the most FC I lost in a day was 2.5 ppm at a CYA of between 35-40 ppm. But, as we say, every pool is different.
 
My pool temp reads 92 this morning, it was 94 last night. As of 10:30 last night FC was 7.2, at 6:20 this morning before sunrise it was 7.0. I thought I had dosed it to reach 8 earlier in the evening. That may be part of the problem. I think my 10% chlorine from the Ace Memorial Day sale may no longer be full strength. I am going to pick up some 8.25% from costco and see if I have the same problem. My loss may not be quite as high as I thought. Adding 3 quarts last night only raised my FC from 5 to 7.2.
 
It sounds like your pool is just fine. You may want to try running a fountain to cool the water. It may not change your chlorine consumption but at least your pool won't feel like a bathtub!
 
Getting the 8.25% bleach from Costco is a good idea since they have a high product turnover thus ensuring fresh product. I would suggest to anyone reading this that purchasing fresh bleach (preferably kept inside the store's climate-controlled area as opposed to outside such as in a lawn & garden area) is much more important than focusing on bleach strength. Given the choice between fresh 8.25% bleach vs. 10 or 12% bleach that is old, I would take the fresh 8.25% every time. I learned this lesson when I first joined TFP...Bought 10% that actually had the strength of 6% because it apparently sat on the shelf for quite some time in the lawn & garden area. Wasn't the bargain it appeared to be.
 

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**UPDATE** Decided to better to be safe than sorry and used up all the suspect liquid chlorine from Ace to do an overnight SLAM. Raised it to 22 ppm and even after pouring in 3 gallons of the Ace stuff still needed a few cups of my brand new Clorox from Costco. Next morning at 6:30 am it had dropped to 19 ppm, so I think I did have the beginning of something. I raised it to 22 again in the morning and then let it drift down over the next couple of days. Last night at 8:30 pm it was at 8 ppm and at 6:30 am still at 8. Tested at 7:00 pm tonight and it was at 6 ppm so only a loss of 2 during the day. I have now gone from needing 3 quarts a day to less than 2. :p
 
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