Chlorine disappears rapidly and - How to care for pool at rental

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bosco

Bronze Supporter
Aug 7, 2019
21
arizona
Hi-
I had a very green home pool which is now in super condition thanks to my following your forum.

I'm trying to take care of a pool at our vacation rental house in a similar way, and It is much harder because I can't take the pool out of service very often. The house is quite booked, and is only open for between 24 and 72 hours at a time for me to work with. it is also hard to drain the pool too much at a time, because I can only fill it

pool is 9,500 gallons plaster. Temp is likely in mid to high 80's (can get more info when I am at the house later)
Most recent test two days ago had ph at 7.4, Alk at 110, CYA at 110, Calcium hardness at 400 (our tap water is around 250, so thats not too bad) Nitrates at 30.

House was empty for 48 hours a few days ago, so I added 2 gal of 10% liquid chlorine at night around 10 PM, and went home so didnt get to test after (pool was reading about 1ppm FC) . When I returned to the house the next day, at 4 PM the pool tested with 0 ppm free chlorine. ( I was using FAS-DPD, which seems accurate at our other house.) by my calculations that means it went from about 20 FC -> 0 in 18 hours!!

Asked at Leslies pool store nearby and they had no idea. The only thing I know is that the people staying at the house had a party (against house rules!) and possibly much peeing in pool.

So two questions - I have people staying in the house for the next 5 days or so and need to keep chlorine levels up maintained. How to do this properly without visiting the house daily?? I'm planning to go add some Liquid chlorine right away again and stay at the house for 30 mins to see what happens.

But for the next 5 days, until I have the house next available without tenants (for about 3-4 days) I need to sanitize it best I can, and keep chlorine levels stable so current tenants can swim.

I'm wondering if I can put Calcium hypochlorite in a thin sock in a pool float chlorine dispenser so it slowly dissipates.. so I don't have to visit the house daily (people on vacation dont like to be disturbed daily.)

Then I can just come every two days to refill... Or should I just use the dichlor tabs which will increase CYA for now, expecting to have to do added draining in a few days.

Second.. What could be the cause of the FC levels dropping so rapidly - the pool is clear, as I said with small amount of algae - maybe 4 spots with a line on wall of about 4-5 inches.. looks like a dark brownish/greenish scratch.

Thanks.
By the way there is a small amount of visible algae on the walls of the pool.
 
Your CYA is way high for a LC pool. You really can't take any more CYA with trichlor use.

Don't mix Cal-hypo tabs in any chlorinator that contained trichlor tabs. Put the Cal-hypo in a new float.

Long term solution is get a SWG. I can't imagine trying to maintain a pool with LC in a rental house.

When I have rented houses I have never minded a Pool Service coming during the day to check water chemistry.
 
You might be surprised how quickly a group of swimmers can bring down FC levels.

In any case, if I owned a rental with a pool, it would have to have an SWG.
It would be so much less of a hassle to take care of.
 
Thanks, that makes complete sense, and after reading this forum I think that is what I plan to do. But also looking for short term solutions. with kids swimming in the pool, I want to make sure it is continuously sanitized over the next few days until I can partially drain to reduce CYA. I just added a couple pounds of cal-Hypo shock granules which should help. Didnt realize cal-hypo came in tabs. No one swam in the pool for the 18 hours during which the chlorine dropped so quickly. house was empty. I read something about ammonia possibly doing this??
 
Does anyone have some short-term solutions for the next couple of weeks to month until I can schedule and get a SWG installed? Cal-hypo comes in Tabs?? where to buy? If it does, I can do a combo of incrementally draining pool to reduce CYA for the few days it is empty and using LC when house is empty and cal-hypo when it is rented until I can get the install.
 
You live in Arizona. It is very likely your fill water is high in CH. the use of cal hypo is not advisable.
 
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I would go with a drain and refill. Drain about 75% of the pool's volume and then refill. Then you could use the cal-hypo pucks in a new floating chlorinator until you install the SWG. Keep in mind if you do this long term you will need to drain and refill again at some point. How long do you think it will be before you can add an SWG?
 
Its hard to drain and refill. The only way to refill is from garden hose, which is sloowww so when I have two days between rentals not enough time to do this and balance chemicals. But.. I can do a partial drain of about a foot or 18" and refill next chance I get which is in 5 days, and I will have three days to work on it, so I can probably get CYA down to 80 or so which would be better.

I dont want to use cal-hypo long term maybe for a month for 50% of the chlorine needs, since i am at the house every two to three days anyway. probably I can get a SWG installed in about a month. Does anyone use a liquid chlorine dispenser?? Does a good one exist that dispenses into return line possibly?
 

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Also what would possibly cause chlorine to drop from 20 to 0 in 18 hours if no one swimming, and 8 hours were night time? pool has slight algae but not much. I will try to go by tomorrow if I can to test again and see if it continues to drop.
Today: Aug 7

FC .05-1 PH 7.7
added 2 cup acid & then
2 lbs 52% Calcium hypochlorite
Waited 30 mins tested
CYA 100-110
ph 7.6
FC 10.5
CC 1
TA 140
CH 575
 
If you can see algae, your pool water is filled with it.
To eradicate it, you need to follow the SLAM Process.
First, it would be best to drain/exchange at least 50% of the pool volume and replace to fresh.
 
Either take the pool out if service or the rental, you wouldn't still be renting the place if the heater broke no? Get a game camera for the pool for short term and long term a actual camera system so you can charge people when they damage your pool, such as peeing in the pool.

Boost with bleach, and use cal hypo for daily clorine, but you are fighting a losing battle and making it worse.

Order a stenner pump now and get it going, run 10-15% FC/cya when the pool is balenced again.
 
Ok, sounds good. I'll get an underwater gopro which is uric acid sensitive!! :)
Thanks for the info on LC dispensers! Ill look into that as well as a SWG. In short term I'll incrementally do partial drain refills over the next 4 days until I can do a bit more. Will also look into fire dept. Interesting.
 
Hi folks. Update. I had the house avail for 2 days and I drained about a foot of water & refilled (pool is shallow, only 3 ft at perimeter and 4.5 at center). Now CYA is at 75, better.. we have been going every 2 days and boosting chlorine up to 15-ish with 1.5 gal LC at night. it seems to drift down to about 3 ppm by the end of the 2nd day, and CC level tests consistently at .5. Pool is in full sun from about 9 am to 5 PM, and pool temp is around 90. Not sure if this is normal chlorine loss. When we have access to the house again in about 9 days I will try an oclt..
Most recent test 15.5 FC, .5 CC, 7.4 PH, 125 TA, 625 CH, 75 CYA

Algae does not appear to be growing. I checked out and scrubbed the streaks I saw, and no slimy feel or mustard "dust" so wondering if this is a mineral stain.

So far so good!
 
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