not sure where to put- vacation WTD

[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.