not sure where to put- vacation WTD

[fiveUNDERfive]

Feel free to move if this is the wrong forum.

We just opened our pool in Upstate NY. Water was crystal clear (thanks poolforum for all your help last season), however thanks to a holey cover and some naughty kids, the bottom is covered with a nice layer of dirt, leaves, and yes rocks. UGH. It's still too cold to actually get in the water so we are vacuuming and fishing out what we can. Since no one is swimming yet, I am keeping the chlorine on the high side. There is little (if any) CYA in there yet (still waiting for CYA drops). We are leaving next Wed for two weeks. The weather has been in the high 70-80's during the day, down to 50/60 at night. Next week is supposed to be a bit cooler. I am not sure what to do while we are gone. I do not want to return to a swamp. Should I get some pucks to put in a floater or in the filter? They have CYA, right? Which specific pucks? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
J

[Spensar]

Is there someone that can drop by every other day to put in some chlorine? A 1/2 a gallon of bleach would add about 3PPM so if they put in a bottle every second day, that should keep the chlorine on the high side and you should keep the algae away. If you can check how quickly you are using chlorine now, you can figure if a jug every 3rd day would be ok. I keep it simple for whoever is helping, no testing or partial bottles, etc, just put in the whole jug. Sometimes I have even written the day on the bleach bottle.

I wouldn't trust pucks in a floater for 2 weeks, just IMHO I haven't had much success with floaters.

[fiveUNDERfive]

We have some family locally, but they are not all that dependable. We will probably have to have someone come over once while gone to replenish food/water stock for our cats. (They are indoor/outdoor though and can "gather" their own food to some extent). We don't even ask them to collect the mail anymore because they leave it for several days and the PO gets mad. I've been putting in a gallon every other day now. Test strips this am (I know I know, it's what hubby picked up - Grrr - new reagents are on order) show "ideal" "stabilizer" in the 30-50 range, and FC "high" around 5+. Is the CYA realistic? I know we were running high at the end of the season bc we had used up some leftover pucks that had CYA in them. But I wasn't expecting any.

[PoolDoc]

If you can't get someone to come over reliable, but you can (1) add a few more inches of water AND (2) get some polyquat, you might want to have some one add a dose of polyquat weekly. Because of the small volume and lack of circulation, you'll get better results if you mix the polyquat in 3 gallons of water, and pour it around.

[Spensar]

We have some family locally, but they are not all that dependable. We will probably have to have someone come over once while gone to replenish food/water stock for our cats. (They are indoor/outdoor though and can "gather" their own food to some extent). We don't even ask them to collect the mail anymore because they leave it for several days and the PO gets mad. I've been putting in a gallon every other day now. Test strips this am (I know I know, it's what hubby picked up - Grrr - new reagents are on order) show "ideal" "stabilizer" in the 30-50 range, and FC "high" around 5+. Is the CYA realistic? I know we were running high at the end of the season bc we had used up some leftover pucks that had CYA in them. But I wasn't expecting any.

Cat food with a trip wire rigged to a weight to tip over a bleach jug???

That's a tough spot. As always, go with Ben's advice. For the Chlorine, will the pump be running while you are gone? If it is, the floater with as many pucks as you can cram in will be better than nothing. Not sure if there is much benefit to a floater if the water is not circulating, but that is a question best left for someone who knows about puck floaters.