Heavy dog use - keeping water balanced

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Wow, you have gotten some very good advice in this thread.

I was going to tell you to skim and chlorinate in the evenings after the last swimmer and get a bigger sand filter. But everybody beat me to it.
You'll have this under your own control in no time. Keep reading here and coming back and asking questions.

How often do you backwash? Seems like there would be ALOT of hair in your filter after a week of swimming.
 
We use single-use skimmer socks made by cutting the foot ends off old nylon stockings in our skimmer basket to catch the hair. Surprisingly little gets into the sand filter.
 
Yeah, I received my test kit and here's my readings:
FC - 4.0
CC - 1.0
PH - 7.5
CH - 125
TA - 150
CYA - 100

I punched the values into PoolMath - the only thing it's recommending is replacing 60% of the pool water to lower CYA. Should I be concerned that my CC is 1.0 and my FC is 4.0 - shouldn't those numbers be closer together?

Nita W
www.swimdogwellness.com
 
CYA is the largest issue, more important than everything else. Since the common CYA test reports levels over 100 as 100, your actual level might be much higher. I recommend doing a CYA test with dilution (mix equal amounts of pool water and tap water, test that, and multiply the results by two) to get a sense of where your CYA level really is, and then replacing water to get that level down to something more reasonable.

You always want CC to be zero, though 0.5 is acceptable. So, no CC should not be close to FC. Perhaps you were thinking of TC? TC = FC + CC, so you do want TA and FC to be the same as each other, which means CC is zero.
 
Okay, I did the dilute test and still come up with 100. Replacing the water is going to be a bit of challenge since we're open 7 days a week, will have to figure out how to make that work. I assume if I do smaller replacements I'll eventually get the the CYA lowered, just may take some time.
Should I do a SLAM now - would that help at all?

Stupid question - how do I set up a signature so I can list my pool info with my posts?
 
go into your "settings" when logged in and you can edit your sig.

I just recently did some partial drains/refills to lower CYA and also found I was doing the CYA test wrong
and it was actually higher than I thought.

If the 50/50 test still yielded 100 then I recommend the x4 test.

3 parts tap water, 1 part pool water, mix do the cya test and multiply by 4. Mine was so high i had to do
it that way.

when you do the cya test, try to do it in full sunlight with your back to the sun (shading the measuring tube).


I did the partial drain down to my light ring top (basically winter close levels just below the returns a few inches)
it took roughly 3.5 hours to do that.

I started it at 3pm in the afternoon and also ran the fill garden hose all the way while draining. I found
at least with my somewhat low water pressure that the pool would be at fill level by 7am the next day
so roughly 12 hours to refill the partial drain.
 
Thanks for all the great advice. I'm going to focuus on replacing water right now to get my CYA down - I can at least drain/refill while the pool is being used during work hours. Unfortunately I can't replace water during closed hours since the pool is set up in a commercial building, I don't think my neighbors would be happy if the pool overflowed during the night :)
Nita
 
Nwoulf said:
Okay, I did the dilute test and still come up with 100. Replacing the water is going to be a bit of challenge since we're open 7 days a week, will have to figure out how to make that work. I assume if I do smaller replacements I'll eventually get the the CYA lowered, just may take some time.
Should I do a SLAM now - would that help at all?

Stupid question - how do I set up a signature so I can list my pool info with my posts?
Click to expand...

Just wanted to add that a SLAM would not be appropriate at this time. Your shock level is completly dependent on your CYA, so no SLAM unless you know your true CYA level.
 
I was able to replace water slowly every day, here's my readings as of today
PH 7.5
FC 2.5
TC 3.5
TA 100
CYA 40
Ca 175

The water is clear, yeah! So at this point the plan is maintain my Ph & chlorine daily, any other advice?
I finally feel in control of my pool without depending on the pool store...so happy I found this site! My water is the clearest it's ever been!
Nita
 

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As shown in the Chlorine / CYA Chart with a CYA of 40 ppm you should not let the FC get below 3 ppm ever. Since you have a high chlorine demand with the dogs, you should have your FC be higher so that when it gets to its lowest it is still at or above 3 ppm FC.

If you monitor your FC usage before and after dogs have used the pool, then you can see how much FC is used up per dog-hour in the pool and can use that as a rough guide for how much you need to increase the FC level before the dogs get into the pool. You can also then see the FC usage after the dogs are out of the pool until 24 hours later (assuming no dogs in between time) to see residual FC usage since most dog waste takes longer to oxidize. That will give you an idea of how much chlorine to add after the dogs get out of the pool so that you still have 3 or more ppm FC 24 hours later.

Because the pool is indoors and with the high doggie load, I think you are going to have to either use some supplemental oxidation from ozone or UV or will have to use some professional/commercial coagulation products on occasion such as SeaKlear PRS Stage 1 and 2. Your situation is not typical of a residential pool and instead is more like a commercial/public pool with moderately high bather load (dogs create more chlorine demand than people).

If you want to reduce the amount of chemicals needed for the pool, then the dogs can be washed and thoroughly rinsed prior to using the pool.
 
Nice!
It's always good to hear a succes story!

Like Richard says, since yours is a bit different than a residential pool, you might target FC a couple of ppm higher, say 7 instead of 5. It wil get used up fairly quick so you might have to test a couple of times a day. The OTO chlorine test will be handy for that in your situation.

Nwoulf said:
I finally feel in control of my pool without depending on the pool store...so happy I found this site! My water is the clearest it's ever been!
Nita
Click to expand...
 
I target the CYA in our outdoor dog pool to be around 40 and find that I have to shoot for FC of about 8 to prevent it going below 3 after the dogs are finished swimming. I once heard from a guy who ran a dock diving pool that if you wet the dogs before they get into the pool the chlorine demand will be lower. We don't bother, but you might try it.
 
Thanks for the info, looks like we have very similiar pool setups. I've been monitoring & tweaking the FC level daily, starting each day at 6 or 7, by end of day can be at 3 or 4, just depends on # of dogs/type each day. We thought about doing the rinse off for every dog, but there are some logistics to that with out setup & traffic flow. I will definitely need to upgrade my sand filter at some point, the water is nice & clear each morning, but of course after swims all day it does get cloudy.
 
What do you to get the dogs out? Do you use a ramp? We use a PetStep ramp on a custom stand, but I have been looking for something much wider. The PetStep is only 18".
 
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