Adding Liquid Chlorine every other day normal protocol in summer?

[henrym28]

My pool is exposed to the sun pretty much fully. Slight shade to the west in the afternoon but that's about it. My CYA last tested at 60.
Is it normal to have to add liquid chlorine every other day? I get my FC up to 7 and then test in a couple days and its back down to 2. I waited three days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) and tested today and FC was down to 1.
Added liquid chlorine and got it right back to FC 6.

My question is, is this normal protocol in the summer for a pool exposed to the sun all day?

 

[PoolStored]

My pool is exposed to the sun pretty much fully. Slight shade to the west in the afternoon but that's about it. My CYA last tested at 60.
Is it normal to have to add liquid chlorine every other day? I get my FC up to 7 and then test in a couple days and its back down to 2. I waited three days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) and tested today and FC was down to 1.
Added liquid chlorine and got it right back to FC 6.

My question is, is this normal protocol in the summer for a pool exposed to the sun all day?

Yep! Actually you should do this daily. For your CYA level, you should never let it get below 5. When it goes below 5, you are inviting algae to a pool party. You should read up on this --> FC/CYA Levels (<--That is a link, click it).

My pool uses up to 5.5ppm per day, at 60 CYA I would have to add chlorine daily to get it up to 10.5-11 to keep it away from your minimum.

From your "I get FC up to 7 and test a couple (two?) days and its back down to 2", seems like you are losing about 2.5ppm / day. You should probably dose to at least 8 daily. With your fc loss of 2.5, you will stay above 5. You can even dose to 9 for protection.

 

[henrym28]

Yep! Actually you should do this daily. For your CYA level, you should never let it get below 5. When it goes below 5, you are inviting algae to a pool party. You should read up on this --> FC/CYA Levels (<--That is a link, click it).

My pool uses up to 5.5ppm per day, at 60 CYA I would have to add chlorine daily to get it up to 10.5-11 to keep it away from your minimum.

From your "I get FC up to 7 and test a couple (two?) days and its back down to 2", seems like you are losing about 2.5ppm / day. You should probably dose to at least 8 daily. With your fc loss of 2.5, you will stay above 5. You can even dose to 9 for protection.

Thank you. This is very reassuring. I thought I was going crazy.

Makes me wonder what good a pool service would do only coming once a week? The FC levels would be zero for a long time until they came. Glad I'm doing this myself.

I'm going to up the dose of chlorine to get it to an 8. Is it better to add at night without Sun or does that not make a difference?

 

[PoolStored]

Makes me wonder what good a pool service would do only coming once a week?

Dump (SHOCK) and pray.

I'm going to up the dose of chlorine to get it to an 8. Is it better to add at night without Sun or does that not make a difference?

Good choice. I run mine anywhere 1-3 points higher, depending on how I feel. Does not make a difference. What can be helpful for a couple days is to test before sunup, add to target, and retest after 30 minutes (pump running). Then test after the sun is down. This will give you a sense of your FC demand.

If you want to get fancy, do this once a month for a year and you will generally know how much your FC demand is, by month, throughout the year.

If you are having a pool party, you can even test and add during the party, as your FC demand will go up with more swimmers.