Going out of town

[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