How many 3" pucks do you others use, in a week?

Chlorinating, maintaining the right chlorine levels,
chlorine problems. Dichlor, trichlor, cal hypo, bleach,
granules, chlorine pucks and chlorine sticks.
antonaki1
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How many 3" pucks do you others use, in a week?

Postby antonaki1 » Wed 18 Jul, 2007 22:31

I have a 32 x 15' oval inground pool, 6' average depth (about 70,000 litre). I use a Hayward chlorinator and seem to go through a 3" puck every 2 days. I am curious what you other pool owners are going through in terms of puck use. Am i being excessive, about right or not enough?


Backglass
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Re: How many 3" pucks do you others use, in a week?

Postby Backglass » Thu 19 Jul, 2007 08:57

antonaki1 wrote:I have a 32 x 15' oval inground pool, 6' average depth (about 70,000 litre). I use a Hayward chlorinator and seem to go through a 3" puck every 2 days. I am curious what you other pool owners are going through in terms of puck use. Am i being excessive, about right or not enough?


Every pol is different. Different sizes, different equipment, different swimmer load, different environment. The only way to know YOUR situation is to use your test kit and see where your numbers are at.

In case you didn't know, pucks also have CYA (Stabilizer) in them. CYA never goes away and over time this will build up to the point where your chlorine won't work anymore. Because of this many of us just use 6% liquid chlorine...also known as bleach...as it doesn't have these added chemicals.
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I'm no expert...just a long time pool owner. The real experts are at www . troublefreepool . com

Download Bleachcalc free at troublefreepool . com /files/BleachCalc262.exe and start saving money on chemicals.
antonaki1
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Postby antonaki1 » Fri 20 Jul, 2007 22:24

Thanks for reply. I tested my cya reading today at the local pool store and it was only 30 which is on the low side. I've been using alot of pucks and so far that has not been a problem I think if you live in a 5 month pool season it would be almost impossible for your cya readings to reach 100 or beyond where you might start to hurt chlorine effectiveness(chlorine lock). Using a chlorinator is so easy and pucks so incredibly cheap i'm really quite surprised everyone with short pool seasons aren't using them. My total chlorine and free chlorine came in at 3.5, so i have total free chlorine. I do shock however about every 10 days.
chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Fri 20 Jul, 2007 22:43

The short pool season helps, so long as you dilute your pool water over the winter (with winter rains?) or let the pool go which sometimes has the CYA get reduced as bacteria can consume it over the winter.

But CYA can build up even in a short season unless you have dilution, but that can come from backwashing. So typically, those with smaller pools, short swim seasons, summer rain overflow and sand filters can use CYA without much buildup. Those with larger pools, longer swim seasons, dry summers and cartridge filters usually end up with high CYA over even a single season.

Since for every 1 ppm FC from Trichlor you get 0.6 ppm CYA, Just adding 2 ppm FC per day of chlorine from Trichlor over 5 months is 180 ppm CYA. 70,000 liters is about 18,500 gallons and one 3" puck, if it's an 8-ounce puck (some are 7 or 6) adds 3.0 ppm FC and 1.8 ppm CYA every 2 days. That's 1.5 ppm FC per day which is very low usage if your pool is in full direct sun without a pool cover. Do you have a pool cover or is your pool not in full sun or are you in a very northern latitude? [EDIT] I see the answer to that it yes, since you are in Canada [END-EDIT] So changing my calculation to 1.5 ppm FC per day, then over 5 months that's 135 ppm CYA.

So, do you have a sand filter and backwash every week? Do you have summer rains that overflow the pool? Are you sure that your pool store's measurement of CYA is accurate? If you can, please get yourself a good test kit, either the Taylor K-2006 from Taylor here or from Leslie's here or the even better TF-100 kit from tftestkits here. I know the latter ships to Canada, but I'm not sure who sells Taylor kits up in Canada.

By the way, what do you use to shock -- Cal-Hypo? Have you had your calcium level checked? If your pool is vinyl, then the calcium level isn't important but could creep up too high if you shock a lot with Cal-Hypo. For every 1 ppm FC from Cal-Hypo you increase Calcium Hardness (CH) by 0.7 ppm, but that will also get diluted by any backwashing or summer rain overflow.

Richard
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Postby Guest » Sat 21 Jul, 2007 18:54

Thanks Chem geek for the insightful reply. I will consider all your numbers and points as i move forward. Yes i have a pool cover and we face the sun pretty much all day(after 11:00a.m). But i do use a 60% algecide in between shocks. Sometimes i will throw in an extra 300mg of calhypo since we keep ours heated around 82 degrees and i will leave the cover on. I've heard leaving it on will raise your chloramines but i only do so when i add a little extra not when i shock. Since my chlorine is all free it doesn't seem to hurt. I will get algae dust next morning even with that little bit. My hardness does climb as you have stated but i add a chemical called o-met or something like that to bring it down. Thanks.

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