Every Day?

[KeepItSimple]

I like the idea of saving money, especially in the present economic climate.

BUT, do I really need to check chlorine levels daily?

If that's the case then It may be worth the extra money with Baquacil.

Help/Comments please.

[chem geek]

It depends on the type of chlorine you are using, your Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level, how much chlorine you add (the swing in FC you can tolerate) and whether you have a pool cover or your pool is in direct sunlight. With liquid or powdered forms of chlorine, if you don't use a pool cover and your pool is in direct sun, then with a lower CYA you need to check the chlorine daily or with larger FC swings every other day. With a higher CYA level, every 2-3 days. With a pool cover, twice a week up to a week if you have larger FC swings. With Trichlor pucks/tabs, every 5-7 days.

If you are going to spend extra money, get yourself a pool cover. That will save a lot on chemicals, let you add chlorine less frequently, and warm the pool.

I have an opaque electric safety cover for my 16,000 gallon pool and this lets me have a < 1 ppm FC chlorine demand even with the pool used for 1-2 hours every day. I add chlorine twice a week and it only costs me around $15 per month. I only have to add a small amount of acid every couple of months. That's it.

Richard

[imnay]

Why not use a simple and cheap test kit daily during swimming season?

It takes one of us like three minutes to test PH, Alkalinity and chlorine levels in our pool.

Our over 20 yrs of experience with our pool and pretty much always having crystal clear water - even in blistering hot sunny Florida - taught us to just KISS and check the levels daily. Daily testing lets us know right away if any levels are slipping out of range so we can easily take a simple corrective measure.

We do a simple liquid chlorine shock about every two weeks and add a two week rated algaecide about every 10 days and we run our pump about six hrs daily during swimming season and our water is always crystal clear.

I can't imagine trying to cover and uncover our 27ft round pool - what a needless hassle (no offense to those that have found doing that is a good thing for them). We just never learned any better but as much as we read about complicated chemical processes we have never once worried about CYA and my humble opinion is we ain't missed nuthin'.

Someone may try to say it is all a lot more complicated than we say but over 20 years of crystal clear water always in good level ranges by just doing the simple and basics regularly might make us right and other - well, silly! - LOL but it's true - at least in our backyard pool.

You just do what works best for you!!

[chem geek]

According to some other posts, you have used copper-based algaecide so that will keep algae from growing but at the risk of staining in the pool. You also live in North Florida which according to this map has around 60" per year evaporation and north Florida as shown here gets roughly 60" of rain. So if you let the rain overflow the pool, then you are getting regular dilution of the water (if it rains and doesn't overflow, then evaporation will get you back to where you started with no dilution). You have a cartridge filter system so depending on how often you clean it, you probably don't get a lot of water dilution. So the main preventative of algae in your pool given that the CYA is possibly very high is the copper-based algaecide or you could also be lucky and have water low in phosphates.

In some posts you say you never had any problems, but in other posts you said you did have a few times opening to insatiable chlorine demand that required a lot of chlorine before the FC started to hold.

The bottom line is that you cannot project your personal experience onto everyone else's pool. You can keep chlorine in your pool through the winter and therefore avoid the bacterial conversion of CYA into ammonia that some others experience when they HAVE to close their pool (i.e. turn off circulation) due to freezing conditions. You also use a copper-based algaecide that prevents algae growth in spite of what may be high CYA levels from your Trichlor pucks and you may have some rain overflow dilution that helps keep the CYA from getting too high. There are many who have used copper-based algaecides in plaster pools and regretted it due to staining -- it is manageable, but one has to be careful and there are no inexpensive copper test kits so either overdosing or having the pH rise too high can lead to staining, especially in plaster pools (and can turn blond hair greenish as well). [EDIT] I found the Taylor K-1730 for measuring copper levels so there is at least a test kit one can use. [END-EDIT]

As for test kits, an inexpensive one is fine so long as you don't need to shock your pool for a sustained time (say, to clear an algae bloom) or read higher than 5 ppm FC and you aren't managing your CYA level or CH level. Again, if you use an algaecide at extra cost, then that does simplify pool maintenance. There is nothing wrong with using a combination of Trichlor pucks/tabs along with algaecide or phosphate remover and the required pH Up to balance pH and a chlorinating liquid (or bleach) shock every so often to make up for the fact that the effective chlorine levels may be low due to the CYA buildup. It's more convenient since there is no daily or every other day chlorine addition, but it's more expensive. Absolutely nothing wrong with it as it's just a tradeoff, though the copper-based algaecide is risky in terms of staining so I'd recommend either weekly PolyQuat 60 or a phosphate remover (and possibly 50 ppm Borates as an additional one-time supplement). Also, not monitoring the CYA means not knowing the adjusted Total Alkalnity (TA) so the calcite saturation index can get too negative and can result in dissolving the plaster/grout (calcium carbonate) in plaster pools. Not a problem in your vinyl pool, but again, one approach is NOT appropriate for all pools. You don't have to worry about calcium hardness (CH) in your pool, but that's not true for a plaster pool.

Richard

[quantumchromodynamics]

"If that's the case then It may be worth the extra money with Baquacil."

I strongly advise against Baquacil.