Losing at least 2ppm of Chlorine/day (no CC)

[Cheesecake816]

I recently switched from Trichlor pucks to liquid chlorine (10%) and I feel like I'm using a ton of chlorine. It might be a normal amount but I wanted to check here. My CYA is around 50, so my minimum chlorine is 4ppm with a Target of 6-8ppm, so that's what I'm striving for. But it's dropping by at least 2ppm per day and I have no CC, the water is crystal clear and no signs of algae. Should I be adding my chlorine in the dark and running my pump at night so the sun isn't zapping all my chlorine?? I feel like my CYA should be high enough to protect my chlorine. Am I missing something? Below are my other test results.

pH: 7.5
TA: 60
CH: 210

 

[Richard320]

2 ppm per day is actually at the low end of normal.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Hiya Cheesecake, welcome to TFP!

You're in hot Texas sun...You can expect to lose at least 2, up to maybe 3ppm per day chlorine just as an offering to the sun-gods.

You can certainly dose at night (or evening) which can lessen the speed at which the sun is going to take its toll.

Run your pump as long as it takes to keep your water surface cleaned of debris and your water well mixed. I don't see mention of your pump but if its a VSP you can run so much longer at low speeds for pennies.

I would monitor the pool's FC daily and if it still seems excessive I'd run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test, just to rule out something in the water.

Maddie

 

[Oly]

2ppm FC is my pools minimum daily usage in the summer months.

 

[djdonte]

I would love to lose only 2FC in the sun. In the texas heat I usually lose 2-4/day depending on bather load and sunlight. As long as you are losing it in the sun and not at night you are doing good. I usually add what I lost when I get home from work each day. By this time it is either dark or the sun has already gone down.

 

[AveMaria472]

Good job ditching the pucks! I did the same last summer. I've found that I usually lose 2FC per day also just due to the sun. Completely normal. I lose more if we have a lot of swimmers, less if it is an overcast day. Each evening, I test to see where I'm at, then add liquid chlorine to get back the 2FC I lost (or whatever I lost), run the pump on low for a couple hours (or overnight if I forget to go back outside and shut it off). Ready for use tomorrow morning!

I always shoot for the higher end of my target FC range (which is also 6-8ppm) that way if I have a big bather load one day, my FC doesn't drop suddenly below the recommended minimum. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! I shoot for FC8, lose FC2 for the day so end up at FC6, add chlorine to get back to FC8, repeat. I even know exactly how much chlorine needed to add the 2FC. It gets to be where the evening testing/adding routine doesn't hardly take any time at all.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Cheesecake816]

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies!! One other question... does it matter if I run my pump during the day or night? and for how many hours should I be running it? I've been running it for 8 hours/day and I definitely don't feel that I need to run it more. But I would gladly cut back if that's recommended.

 

[mknauss]

Determine Pump Run Time

To figure out how many hours you need to run your pump, you need to know how fast your pump works. You can find this here.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Holydoc]

Cheesecake,
I have about the same sun as you and my pool loses on average 2.6ppm per day this time of year. It is completely exposed all day to direct sunlight.

For your other question, you should definitely read the article Marty linked. I have a two stage pump and a SWCG that are both running 24/7 on the pump's lowest speed. The SWCG is rated for 45,000 gallons so I run it at 25% which yields approximately 3.1ppms per day. This time a year, the FC in the pool will slowly rise daily (produce 3.1 - lose 2.6) by about 0.5ppm. I keep my pool between (5 to 9 ppm). So after a week, I will turn the SWCG back down to 20% where the FC will slowly fall. I could adjust by running the pump less time rather than adjusting the SWCG's percent output. It is according to which you prefer and how much you save with electricity.

Once the temperature warms up (and the pool water warms upto 90 degrees) I have seen the pool lose up to 3.5ppm. It all depends on the weather, the pools exposure, etc.