Going on vacation

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DMS2014

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Jun 22, 2014
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Houston, Texas
I posted here, I thought, but cannot seem to find the post. We are going on vacation and will be gone for 9 days. We will have a cat sitter here to feed our cats but she will not stay here

I am worried about the pool. 1. Our pH I ALWAYS SO HIGH. And no one here can seem to help me understand WHY. TA is 80. Acid is so bad to put in, I hate to ask her to do it and she would have to test….2. I am worried about the FC dropping while we are gone. Would it be a good idea to just ask her to throw in, says, 2 c like every 3 days or something? I don’t want to come home to algae. It’s SO darn HOT here. The pool is 93.6!

right now I did chems yesterday. FC was 9 (I turned down SWG - we have had trouble with it and trying to get get it regulated) CH 400, CYA 60, Ph was 7.8ish. TA was 80
My husband just replaced a part in our SWG. So far every day it is showing generating so I am guessing it’s fixed. Yay! $100 v 750! Yay.
 
So you have a SWCG and it is working, so run it on the high side of your target FC. It will keep up and better to be a little high than below minimum. For your pH control. since your CYA is 60, I would purchase a floater and insert 3 trichlor pucks in it. It will only slightly increase your CYA which you have leeway with, and it will help keep the pH in line.

Depending on my level of FC, I sometimes just buy a gallon of liquid chlorine to pour in before I leave and I still have pucks in the floater. The LC will quickly raise the FC level and the SWCG will maintain it.
No need for your cat sitter to deal with muriatic acid.
 
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HermanTX said:
So you have a SWCG and it is working, so run it on the high side of your target FC. It will keep up and better to be a little high than below minimum. For your pH control. since your CYA is 60, I would purchase a floater and insert 3 trichlor pucks in it. It will only slightly increase your CYA which you have leeway with, and it will help keep the pH in line.

Depending on my level of FC, I sometimes just buy a gallon of liquid chlorine to pour in before I leave and I still have pucks in the floater. The LC will quickly raise the FC level and the SWCG will maintain it.
No need for your cat sitter to deal with muriatic acid.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the SWG malfunctioned and the husband fixed it just very recently so we are trying to regulate the SWG. I am so glad you told me about the trichlor.I am so SICK and TIRED of adding acid,it seems like, every few days bc it’s always hot pink! Even yesterday.

Q. So the trichlor pucks gonna be the norm to keep the pH in check ?
 
So someone here recommended that I use tablets of trichlor to lower my pH and put it in my pool as a floater. HOWEVER, when I was trying to hunt them down, it says they are not recommended for pebble tec or COLORED pools. My pool is a pebble tec like substance and it's BLUE plaster.
Someone please advise - I don't have much time left to sort this out!
 
i wish y'all woudl speak English here LOL. I have been looking for a solution to my HIGH pH for 2 years now. we are Constantly adding acid. it's Always above 7.8 or higher.it wasn't always a problem, just the last couple, three years. We are about to go out of town and i posted elsewhere about this and trichlor was suggested but then I read it wasn't good for colored pools...so here I am ....again....riding the high pH train with my vacation right around the corner.
 
The use of trichlor as you state was for Vacation use, when you cannot be there to add acid as needed.

There is no concern on the proper use of trichlor tablets. Put them in a floater. Tie it off so it will not float over a shallow step.
 
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DMS2014 said:
Q. So the trichlor pucks gonna be the norm to keep the pH in check ?
Click to expand...
The recommendation to use pucks was for short term vacation need ONLY!. Pucks, while also will help pH control, the main detriment is the addition of CYA. The only way to get rid of CYA when it gets too high, is to drain the pool. This is why the TFP methodology is to use a SWCG or liquid chlorine for sanitation and use Muriatic Acid to control pH. Please don’t use pucks long term.
 
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DMS2014 said:
, it says they are not recommended for pebble tec or COLORED pools.
Click to expand...
You can purchase a floater at a pool store or sometimes at Walmart. I have a colored pebble pool and there is no concern. Not sure where you are reading that. As @mknauss said, tie it to your skimmer or simply tie it to a brick and set on your coping. You don’t want the floater just sitting above your step. And do not put pucks directly in the skimmer basket. When I use a floater it just moves from side to side due to wind and return jets pushing it around.

Your long term pH issue can be managed. Every pool is different but we all live with balancing pH. A good article to read on vacation

Managing pH and Total Alkalinity - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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Ok So I read the article. What I got from it was water features, cover and aeration. A couple years ago the top of the pool was dirty...a lot. water didn't seem to be circulating so the hubs added what I guess you are calling aeration or water movement. But the pH problem ha started before then.
AND I did not realize that the trichlor was a temporary thing. I had been looking for a permanent solution of not dumping tons of acid in several times a week
 

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Slow down. Trichlor is what 'chlorine' tablets are made from.
You can have the trichlor in a floating dispenser if the pump is off.
What you read applies to things you do not have
 
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A couple of things:

1. I also deal with pH drifting high every few days. When going on vacation, I just give the pool a higher than normal dose of acid just before we leave - enough to drop pH down to around 7. If it gets up to 8 before we get back, I don’t sweat it. I’ll just lower it then.

2. Lowering my Total Alkalinity has helped keep my pH in check a little better. I try to get TA down around 50-60 and then I don’t need to add acid as often.

Enjoy your vacation!
 
DMS2014 said:
I had been looking for a permanent solution of not dumping tons of acid in several times a week
Click to expand...
pH will naturally rise - no chemicals needed. Ways to reduce the pH rise is to turn off water features or reduce your TA level. The higher the TA the more rapid the pH will rise over time. Every pool is different. I sit around a TA of 70 and my pH sits around 7.8. When it rises to 8.0, I add 8 oz of muraitic acid. My pool is a little smaller than yours, but I have a constant spillover from my spa to my pool (I cannot turn it off because of how it was originally plumbed 20 years ago) so this is constant aeration trying to increase my pH.

I think it best to add your pucks to the floater, ensure your SWCG is working and enjoy your vacation. When you return we can continue to help control your pH rise. We all deal with pH rise and every pool acts a little different but it doable to control the pH rise. However it will always require adding some amount of muriatic acid.
 
@DMS2014

Hey neighbor, where are you located in Houston?

What's the TA and CH of your fill water? My fill water has very high TA (330), so pH rise and MA addition is constant. Try harvesting as much rainwater as possible.

Increasing CYA to ~80 will help protect your FC. Using trichlor tabs while you're away will bump up your CYA as well as provide some pH control.
 
pjt said:
@DMS2014

Hey neighbor, where are you located in Houston?

What's the TA and CH of your fill water? My fill water has very high TA (330), so pH rise and MA addition is constant. Try harvesting as much rainwater as possible.

Increasing CYA to ~80 will help protect your FC. Using trichlor tabs while you're away will bump up your CYA as well as provide some pH control.
Click to expand...
Hey there. I live near Memorial CIty. I haven’t tested the fill water lately. i did a while ago and don’t remember anything earthshattering about it. I am having trouble finding the trichlor tablets….
 
Just do the math with the pool math app. Maybe you need 3-4 pucks. Last vacation I added 4 pucks to my inline chlorinator and dumped a gallon of chlorine in to be safe. Got home a week later and chlorine was at 5 PH at 7.6. Glad I didn't take anymore time.... the pucks were gone. If you have a week or more before. Play with the settings on the floater to see how fast they dissolve
 
I think the main thing here is to come up with a plan to keep FC up in the safe zone to avoid an algae bloom. You have received some sound advice here for that. FYI I was in Leslie’s yesterday to get my iron tested and they had dozens and dozens of buckets of 3” tablets.

With regard to ph….you say it rises to 8 or more quickly. What does it rise from? 7.8? 7.2? I would be curious to know what the ph rises from and to and in how many days. Also, have you measured your ph after you add muriatic acid to ensure it is reaching the target you expect based on your dosage?

In any case, I’d focus on a plan for FC while away and deal with ph when you get back.
 
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