how to maintain while gone?

[poolhelp101]

going to be gone about 5 days, how do you maintain pool using bleach while gone?
last time i left for 2 days and the pool began completely cloudy and it took a week to clear up
but the pool was a little cloudy in the deep end to begin with before i left
present tests are cl-5.0, ph 7.5, ta 150, cya 50
pool is now clear (thanks to the help i received with this forum)
please advise as to what i should do to maintain it while i am gone
thank you

[gwrace1]

The only thing I know you can do is use the chlorine pucks in a feeder to maintain the FC levels unless you have a friend or neighbor who is willing to take up that responsibility. That's one thing nice about an SWG. Once you set it up the levels are automatically maintained as the pump cycles on and off.

[aylad]

If it's clear to begin with, if CYA of 50, you should be able to shock it the night before (or the morning of) your departure, and then shock again when you return. Should be okay--wouldn't hurt to put a puck in a floater just in case.

Janet

[poolhelp101]

it is very clear. is there a particular kind that i should use? what do you suggest i use? i have finally got my pool in great shape and i don't want to mess it up. please adivse and thanks

[Watermom]

Is there a particular kind of what? Shock? If that is what you are asking - just shock with bleach. Shock is not something special you buy, it just means to superchlorinate your pool. You can do that with bleach.

[poolhelp101]

i'm sorry...i meant to ask if there is a particular kind of puck i should use...there was a reply that said for me to use a chlorine puck...?? should i do that? i don't have a feeder, i used to use the sticks in the skimmer but i haven't done that all season as you guys instructed

[aylad]

The pucks I was referring to are basically the same as the sticks you were using before--you can leave one in the skimmer if you want, with the pump running--but I really think you can do fine with just shocking with bleach.

Janet

[poolhelp101]

thanks. i wanted to make sure. it was struggle there for a while to get my pool cleared up and i don't want to go thru that again by me making mistakes. thanks. this forum and you guys are the best!

[jereece]

Why not just use bleach bottles with a couple holes in it to allow the bleach to slowly leach out? That's what I do and it works great.

[poolhelp101]

please give me more details as to how you do that?

[jereece]

please give me more details as to how you do that?
I normally use about a gallon of bleach per day. So I took 7 one gallon containers of bleach and tied them on a rope spacing them about 3 feet apart. I then took a small to medium size nail (~1/8 inch diameter) and punched one hole on the top and one to two holes on the bottom of each jug. I then strung the line of bottles across my pool. My pump runs on a timer about 8 hours a day. Bleach is heavier than water, so it will slowly leach out of the bottles.

When I get home 7 days later, my pool has about 2ppm free chlorine. This is fine for me because I normally keep CYA at about 20 - 30. I tested the contents of each bottle. Some were fully equalized with the pool but a few of them still had a higher concentration of chlorine than the pool. After doing some dilutions however, it was clear that most of the bleach had leached out.

If one were to plot the leaching on a graph, I am sure you would get a spike and then a slow decrease in rate as the concentration in the bottles get weaker. But the bottom line is that I was successful in maintaining my pool chlorine using bleach over a 7 day vacation.

Here are links to a couple images

http://www.jreece.com/bleach1.jpg
http://www.jreece.com/bleach2.jpg