leaving new pool for 3 weeks, tab question

[Pv2]

Pool is up and running, beautiful water, new steps, rigged up an outside entrance and have been really enjoying swimming every day again after at least a 5 year forced hiatus.

I am leaving for 3 weeks next Wednesday. My CYA is at about 25 or 30 so I was planning to use 3 inch tabs in a floater (found my Grandfather's 25 year old or older floater the other day! still intact though the lid is in two pieces) and then finish up my CYA after I got back, depending on what the tabs contributed.

So last night I picked up a 3.5 lb jar of tabs at wallyworld, figuring that would be more than enough.

ARRGGHHH!!!! Reading the label today, I see they have other junk in them besides stabilizer. They are trichlor but seem to have 3.5% zinc sulfate monohydrate and 5.4% "other" plus the label says "ULTRA - contains built-in algae fighter, built-in resistance to sunlight, built-in clarifier, contains stain and scale preventer, softens water"

Should I forget my plan and try to train the "house" to test and maintain with liquid in one week? Nobody cares about the pool but me so I worry about motivation and I know testing skill is questionable based on history with "their" hot tub.

Or do you think a handful of these tabs will be ok for the three weeks (figure they will still have to add one or two after the second week as it is)?

 

[jblizzle]

Take those tabs back and get better ones ... Leslie's tabs are actually pretty good if you "have" to use them

Although that said, relying on tabs alone for 3 weeks is questionable to me. You may want to raise the pool to shock level, add the tabs in the floater and then see if you can get the "house" to add some bleach ... like maybe even just once a week. Estimate the amount they should add and then just tell them to add X bottles on X day.

 

[Pv2]

Ha, thanks jblizzle! and which Leslies do you frequent? I do go there when I get to Tucson, but I am out between Benson and Willcox and don't have a particularly reliable vehicle so am not getting in very often. In fact I don't think it will be possible before I leave completely next week.

My other local choice is Ace and I believe they carry the same junk. I didn't realize there would be more additives or I would have spent more time label-reading than just glancing to see it was trichlor.

My other problem is I don't actually have that great of a handle on what the daily requirement is yet. I suppose it would be safe to just have them pour a couple of cups in every evening. I doubt if anybody will swim unless temps go way up again. Water is at 74 now and it is getting cooler at night (mid 60s last two nights!) I am at 4500 feet so cooler than Tucson by 15 degrees or so.

I hate to have to try my first SLAM in October when I get back, but I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world. LOL

I guess I will see if I can return these tabs and get some more liquid instead. And cross my fingers nobody spills it on anything.

 

[Pv2]

Re: leaving new pool for 3 weeks, UPDATE

Well, I had a great trip, even swam in a cool indoor therapy pool a couple of times. I was hoping to be able to swim a couple of more times when I got back but of course there was a cold spell right away. :x Still, I went ahead and ordered a solar cover in the hopes I might get a chance if the weather warmed up. Managed to get the water up from below 60 to 72 last weekend but was too busy to get in and now it got cold again. Water back down to 65. When I was young I could do 60 but not anymore (Unless it involves a lot more salt, sand and big waves).

The "caretakers" in charge never followed my instructions to test until chlorine was low then add liquid. Instead more tabs were purchased and dropped into my floater. SIGH. Chlorine was off the charts and only today finally got low (meant to test yesterday) so I just added the first dose of 10% liquid.

The water looks great, pH is 7.5, TA 110, and the CYA came up to 75 or 80, so I guess that worked. I have no idea how many tabs were actually used but I have a floater with three partially disolved ones sitting on the porch now.

Not sure it this will be helpful to anyone else, but having low CYA to start with and then using tabs for a couple of weeks while gone seemed to work OK. Maybe I got lucky. but there you have it. Can't wait until next spring!

 

[jblizzle]

Although your CYA is now nearly double the recommended level.

It would only take 10 tablets in your pool to add the 50ppm CYA increase that you saw.

 

[Pv2]

oh man! thanks for the reply - I read something wrong! the cya IS way too high, isn't it? I could have sworn that was around the value I wanted but it is way more. (clearly I can't tell a 5 from an 8 )

My water level is low and I need to add quite a bit, that should dilute things a bit, but it looks like I probably need to dump some too. I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure out I made that mistake if you hadn't replied?!

 

[duraleigh]

Because you are out of the swim season and into cooler weather, you might consider leaving your CYA as is over the winter and then adjust in the Spring.

You'll need to use a bit more chlorine to do that but the cooler temperatures will minimize that increase.