CYA, hot water, and South Florida

[freeclear]

I'll update here for anyone who's interested. I'll indicate what I am doing and some general results. This is by no means scientific since I have changed quite a few things at once, but my pool is looking good, so why should I care (much)?

My previous problem was yellow algae showing up very quickly when the FC dropped anywhere below 5ppm, with a CYA of about 50. I work away from home much of the week so I can only maintain on Wednesdays and the weekend.

Since I started this thread, I have added an initial dose (10 oz.) of 60% polyquat to the pool, and added 4 oz. per week on Sundays ever since. Also, since I was interested in adding CYA to raise the levels a little higher, to try to maintain my FC a little longer, I started using trichlor in a feeder (2 3" pucks in Rainbow at 1.5 setting, whatever that means). I figured this would give me a slow increase in CYA while having the added benefit of adding chlorine. This has given me a FC reading of around 4, consistently. I haven't retested the CYA, but I am only on the second 2 pucks, so it shouldn't be significantly higher.

In conclusion, I haven't had any algae, I've been using small amounts of tri-chlor, and I've been using 4 oz. maintenance doses of polyquat. So far, so good. At some point I will need to stop the trichlor once CYA hits 60 - 80 range, then I will be able to see if the FC levels from 10% bleach holds until I can add more.

Hope this 'real world' experience can be useful to someone.

Mike

PS - Can't wait to get my upgrade 234 kit! My r-0010 drops are running low!

[aylad]

Congratulations on handling your situation--sounds like it's working for you. Here's hoping this season leaves us alone!!

Janet