Going out of town

[diwilson]

Well the new pool is wonderful (thanks to all of you) but I will be gone for 10 days and am not sure what to do. Neighbors will be testing but not daily. Here are my numbers this morning. Do they look right?

FC 4.5
CC 0
TC 4.5
pH 7.5
ALK 80
Cal 30
CYA 25
Temp 82

I have been adding about 1/2 gal chlorine nightly and numbers stay fairly consistent. I have some 3" tablets but have never used them I see that some people do when going out of town. Will a tablet hold the chlorine for a few days? We have sun 2/3 of the day and will run the sand filter 4hr in am and 4 in pm. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

[geordie]

With a CYA of 25 you do have some room to spare in order to use the pucks. I assume you are talking about trichlor 3" tablets/pucks. How big is your pool, gallon wise?

I use the pucks to hold the pool while I'm gone, but it is an art, not a science. In 82 degree water the pucks will disolve pretty quickly. I just returned from 10 days away, and came home to a clean, clear, 84 degree pool. I did not circulate my pool while I was gone because I don't have anyone to keep an eye on it and make sure all is well. We've blown a hose connection now and again and I would sure hate to have that happen while I'm three states away.

Here's one way to think about it. Your ph is currently perfect, and the trichlor is going to add acid to your pool and lower your ph. I would raise your ph before you go away, beinging careful not to go too high. That will give you a cushion.

Add 2-5 pucks in a floater before you go. Do not put them in your skimmer. You can get a better guestimate about how many to add when you tell us how many gallons your pool holds. I used 5 pucks on my 12,500 gallon pool, and there are still about three silver dollar sized pieces in the floater. This raised my CYA from 20 to 40ish. Since I get full sun until 4 p.m. 40 is good for me. I intentionally held my CYA low since I knew I would be gone for 10 days. You are in good shape that way.

If you have a neighbor to check your pool and run your pump a while, you should be able to do the balancing act while you are gone.

By the way... my ph is naturally high and generally runs about 7.8-8.0 if I don't bring it down. It was 8.0 before I left, and 7.4 when I came home. You definitely want to have your neighbor check your ph while you're gone if you start out with a ph of 7.5.

Hope this helps.

Edited to add: sorry... didn't notice your sig w/the gallons and dimensions in it. Your pool clearly is about twice the size of mine so hopefully you can use my figures to start calculating what might work for you. Every pool has its own quirks, so best of luck.

Jean

[diwilson]

Hey thanks for your reply!

We have a 24,000 gal AG, vinyl pool. I am talking about the Trichlor pucks. I had intentionally kept the CYA down in prep for leaving town but was not sure what the pucks would do to the pH. So I think I add Borax directly into the skimmer to raise the pH - but how much Borax? How high of a pH is too high? If the pH is too low does that mean the acid is too high and thus eats the vinyl?

My neighbors will be checking but I hate to burden them with too much - I have split the job between two thinking they can back each other up. And they seem to have no problem sending their kids over to swim. Oh well the more the merrier!

[aylad]

A couple of trichlor pucks in a floater should hold your Cl okay until you get back. To be on the safe side, I would shock it the night before you leave, then leave a couple of pucks in the floater while you're gone, then shock it again when you get home. If you just use 2-3 pucks, your CYA won't change drastically. Your pH will lower some, though--so I would up the pH to around 7.8 using Borax ( I would start with about 1/4 box in your size pool and go from there). It's not a huge deal to let it get a little high, since it's easily lowered with acid, but if you let it get too low (7.0 or lower), it can start eating away at your liner.

Janet

[geordie]

Yes on how to add the borax. I can't help with quantities because I never have to raise my ph since it is naturally high and creeps up with bleach usage. I think I added borax once in the last 5 or 6 years, and it sure was a long time ago.

You are correct that if the ph drops too low it will cause damage to your vinyl liner. The trichlor really is a nasty item but it is so useful if you know what the side effects are and use it accordingly.

Between a very low ph or an algae bloom I would err on the side of algae bloom. I think if you search for "how much borax" you might get some hits that would give you an idea. Then you could float a few pucks with a slightly higher ph and have your neighbors test and add straight bleach every other day while you are gone. That really "shouldn't" throw your balance out too badly.

You will get a feel for your own pool very quickly since every pool really has its own characteristics. The general wisdom is to keep your ph at 7.4-7.6. I personally run mine high 7.8+ so didn't have to worry too much about the acid effect on the liner from 10 days worth of trichlor. I would bring your ph up above 7.5 but not by too much since your pool is so well balanced right now. The last thing I want to do is give you advice that will throw your nice stable pool out of whack.

In my 12.5K gallon pool, 5 three inch pucks dropped my ph from 8.0 to 7.4, which is a pretty substantial drop. It also gave me a chlorine reading of 3 ppm when I came home, which was enough to keep the pool from blooming with my CYA levels.

The more I think about the more I think you ought to just have your neighbors add bleach and not bother with the floater at all. It would be much simpler and you would be just as likely to avoid a bloom as long as they check it steadily.

Jean

Jean

[diwilson]

Thanks Jean and Janet, I was having the same thought about skipping the pucks altogether or like Janet said shock b4 and after with a couple of pucks to hold. Things have worked so well thus far I hate to mess it up. Having a pool is truly a good thing!

Best,
Dianna