Taking control of my pool this year

[kelemvor]

What I do is run my pump enough to adequately filter the water, and then adjust my swcg output to a suitable percentage given the runtime I'm using. Currently at 40% output with a pump runtime of 6 hours/day. I've only got 12k gallons of water and a 2hp pump, though. I think to "calculate" the proper runtime for your pump you need to know the actual flow rate you've got; which from what I can tell is difficult to determine unless you buy and install a flow meter. I'm pretty sure the filter size plays into this as well, but I don't fully understand how that would affect the calculation. I think there's a "rule of thumb" that you want to be able to filter 100% of your water x time's /day but I can't remember what that x is (2 or 4 or something I think I read).

I started with 4h runtime and bumped it up to 6 recently because I could see particles in the water when the light was on in my pool. I also just bumped my swcg up to 40% from 10% because I tested yesterday and found 0 FC in the water around noon. My CYA level is lower than it should be at around 45; and FC levels are a little higher than the 2ppm I was shooting for as well (I still don't fully understand why I'm supposed to target a lower fc level given my cya than the best guess chart shows). Based on the 4PPM fc level I just measured I think I'm going to back the swcg down to 30 tonight.

I think in general, from a chlorine generating perspective you want longer runtime and lower swcg output so you have a more consistent chlorine level. My cl gets a little higher by the end of my daily run, and gradually drops until the next run. I think I've seen pooldoc recommend multiple shorter runs over running once a day like I do. I run the pump when I do because I like to see the waterfalls and stuff and 4p-10p is when I'm most likely to be out there.