New guy Questions

[chemistrydropout]

I am losing a little less than 2 ppm on hot days with swimmer load. I am thinking that is to be expected. Am I right?

[waste]

CDO - welcome to the forum (very welcome actually as you've read and researched before posting)! It's been hinted at in the other responses but , If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it! One of the tenants here is to keep things simple by adding only what you need to to correct a problem - this also has the advantage of saving you $. I, personally think that cya = 25 is the perfect ballance between keeping a chlorine residual vs the reduced killing power, however I know that Watermom keeps her's higher and Duraliegh has just upped his, and they know what they're doing.
Congrats on a great post, you've gotten nothing but all-stars to respond (myself excluded ) I like the cut of your jib!!

[chemistrydropout]

Just an update here. My chlorine levels started bouncing around a little these last few days. I was going from between 4 and 5 ppms down to less than 1 ppm in the evenings. That's a loss of 3 to 4 ppms a day. I was not pleased with the loss (which could be from a large swimmer load or these over 100 degree temps we've been having) so I added another pound of cya. I have not tested the cya yet because it has only been in the water for less than 4 days now. It seems to be working out much better though. The last two days I am back down to about 2 ppm chlorine loss.

[waterbear]

Just an update here. My chlorine levels started bouncing around a little these last few days. I was going from between 4 and 5 ppms down to less than 1 ppm in the evenings. That's a loss of 3 to 4 ppms a day. I was not pleased with the loss (which could be from a large swimmer load or these over 100 degree temps we've been having) so I added another pound of cya. I have not tested the cya yet because it has only been in the water for less than 4 days now. It seems to be working out much better though. The last two days I am back down to about 2 ppm chlorine loss.

With a 25000 gal pool one pound will increase your CYA about 5 ppm. Since you said before that your CYA was about 25 ppm (a bit on the low side given your high temerpatures and a large swimmer load) I would bump it up with a second pound for about a total of 10 ppm increase. This will definitely get you into the desired range of 30-50 ppm. If you are still getting a large chlorine loss then you might want to bump it up a bit more and run at slightly higher chlorine levels and shock levels.

[chemistrydropout]

Thanks for the insight WB. I have begun to realize what some people were saying about the cya being a little low. I don't think the swimmer load will diminish very much and it is a big pool (lots of water). I am taking little baby steps on the cya raising and monitoring it closely to determine it's effect. I am amazed how well the water is maintaining its ph, alk, and even temp with the BBB method. Friends of mine are constantly adding stuff and all I have had to do since starting this post is add bleach to maintain chlorine. And now I'm playing with the stabilizer. I've only added one pound and it seems to have given me real close to a 5 point jump to 30'ish. With all the swimmers I've had lately I think I will wait till I see what it is holding on a normal day before raising anymore. Don't you think it would be a good idea to wait till I'm not having 10 swimmers a day before adjusting again?
OTO cl = 4
Ph= 7.6
Alk= 80
ch = ? Aqua-chem kit is too irratic
Temp= 87
cya = 30 plus a little

[waterbear]

It's your pool but if it were mine I would get the CYA around 40 ppm and keep my FC at about 3-5 ppm. If the pool gets a lot of direct sun it might even be benificial to raise the CYA even higher (to about 50-60 ppm) and keep the FC at 4-6 ppm.