Opinion on my pool chemical maintenance

I've been browsing the forum reading previous post since 8am (sorry boss!!) and as long as it has taken me to finally grasp my pool chemistry, I feel I am getting it.

For anyone that has followed any of my previous post will know that 1. My husband and I frequently go out of town for work (typically the max would be 4 days at a time) 2. We do not have neighbors or family close by that we feel we could both with adding bleach to our pool daily while we are gone 3. I have been using these 3" pucks that I stupidly bought a 50 gal bucket of for $249 to get rid of them 4. That has caused my CYA to keep increasing (currently reading 100 but could be higher) 5. I want to use BBB but really need the conveniece of automated chlorinator

So after googling for hours, other than cal-hypo tabs or these pooline cleaning capsules, I am not finding any unstabalized form of chlorine that looks legit in tablet form.

From all the information I gathered from this forum this morning here is what I feel like my options are:

1. Since my CYA is to the higher end at this point, I can just add so much bleach every 4-5 days or so. Being my CYA is over 100, will that allow the chlorine to last awhile before having to add more bleach (is there some sort of breakdown calculation for how fast or slow chlorine is dissolved with a certain CYA?)

2. Continue using the 3" tabs (finding the ones that will add the least CYA possible) which will gradually increase CYA over time and start using Polyquat 60 once a week to compensate (i read somewhere I think from chem geek that this was an option, please correct me if that wasnt right).

I am in Louisiana where temps are in the 90s most of the summer and my pool is in full sun all day. We keep our pool open year round. I have been following Janets (ayecb??) posts closely as I notice she is in Louisiana and says she keeps her CYA at 80-90 and only adds bleach every 3 days or so and shocks after major hurricane type rains.

If I get just get the maintenance down to weekly, or even every 4-6 days as opposed to daily that would be ideal for our schedules. I hope noone thinks I am being too picky by hoping this is a realitic possibility because I am truly happy to have found this forum and feel comfortable here and am so happy I actually understand (almost) my pool chemistry now because of ya'll.

I would love your opinion on my 2 options I have come up with and what you think would be best!

You are right that your CYA may be higher than 100. 100 is the upper limit on the test range so it might mean 100 or it might be any number higher than 100.

Janet (Aylad) does purposely run a HiC2 (high chlorine, high CYA) pool for the very reason you state. Living where it is super hot, allows her to not have to add chlorine every day. Whether this is for the reason you are hoping or not, this is what you are going to have to do by necessity due to your extremely high CYA. Covering your pool will also help the chlorine last longer between doses because it will cut down on loss to the sun.

The question is whether or not to continue to use the trichlor tabs. How many tabs do you have left and are they wrapped or unwrapped? If they are wrapped, I would probably not use any more now but save them for maybe next season. If they are unwrapped, that presents a whole other issue. Read this to see some of the discussion that we have been having recently about storing chemicals:> http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...-and-chemicals

One caution --- you need to be really careful that you do not get algae. In a HiC2 pool, cleaning up an algae bloom takes extremely high chlorine levels. http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

The tab disposal is ok if I decide that, worst case I would just give them to a friend who has no interest in BBB and I would just give them to her. I hate to lose the $ but I would not charge her for them.

Do you know if there is some rough calculation of how much CYA breaks chlorine down at a certain level. For example, if I keep my CYA at 100, how long would it take for 10ppm of chlorine to get to 5ppm assuming my typical conditions (weather in mid-upper 90s, full sun all day, occassional swimming, no rain). I've tried to google for it but I am apparently using the wrong terminology to search for it.

Unfortunately the tabs are unwrapped, so if I continue to use them, the CYA will continue to creep up, then I fear I will be stuck with an overstablized pool and get myself in a bind.

There is no way to know how fast chlorine will drop to a certain level as there are way to many variables to account for. You pretty much just have to learn what is normal behavior for your pool.

Thanks!! You are very helpful as always! :)

You are very welcome! :)