chlorine disapearing

[vinper]

last week I had no chlorine even though been adding ,having to scrub at algea patches everday.My ph is low I have 4 pucks in the skimmer 6 in an inline and I shocked it yesterday. I think I am getting to much acid and not enough stabilizer..... The sun is beating down hard , Houston in a drought , it 99 degrees everyday.....readings FC 1.0 PH 7.2 CC1.0 TA100 those are my only tests on my kit .......think I need stabilizer

[aylad]

If you have algae patches, then you need to shock the pool. Take a sample to the pool store, have them run a set of tests, and come back and post your readings...just don't buy all the stuff they try to sell you, except maybe stabilizer (and it's cheaper at WalMart). Once we get your CYA level, we can tell you how high to take your chlorine to (recommend using plain, unscented bleach for this) and you'll need to hold that shock level until the algae is dead.

I also strongly encourage you to get a good test kit so you don't have to depend on the pool store or spend the summer fighting your pool. We recommend the K-2006 or K-2006C (same kit, larger reagent sizes) that can be found at the Amazon link in my sig.


Janet

[Watermom]

Get your CYA checked by a reputable pool store if you don't have a kit that can test for it. Give us some info about your pool. What type, it's volume, what kind of filter, size of pump. Also, tell us exactly what all you have added to the pool, meaning ingredients, not just "shock." How much chlorine at a time do you add and how often?

[vinper]

IG ,diamond brite plaster, 2hp DE , 3/4hp vacumm ,18,000 gallon ,2 skimmers.... I have inline chlorinator .... I only run 2hr morning 3 hr evening . longer on weekends.... I have been adding an algeside from home depot says 3 X the stregth...3-4 oz every few days... Moss rock fall and 2 inserts.. I was the GC

[aylad]

With a current CYA level, we can tell you what level you need to raise the chlorine to in order to get rid of the algae.

Since you have an inline chlorinator, I'm guessing that you already have very high levels of stabilizer in the pool and just haven't been keeping the chlorine level high enough to compensate, so algae grows. It's a very common situation and can be overcome, but we need a CYA level first.

Janet

[Watermom]

Don't add any more algaecide. The only algaecide we recommend is Polyquat 60%. It's a pretty good preventative, but not so great at eradicating an existing bloom. You just need lots of bleach right now.

[vinper]

I will get it tested today. I did add a gallon of bleach yesterday , this morning chlorine was at 2.0 . I want to check it when get home after this 100 degree full sun day

[aylad]

We need a stabilizer level to be able to help you any with this....

Janet

[vinper]

I ordered a cya test kit and waiting for that. But in mean time Sunday I found that I had some test strips with cya test .... On Friday I purchased 4 gallons of bleach. I added a gallon Friday ,Saterday, Sunday just to keep 2.0 FC. Sunday strip test said zero cya. I added 1 pound stabilizer. This morning zero FC and I added 1/2 gallon of bleach.. I know I need to wait on stabilizer... And not risk raising it to high...

[Watermom]

I wouldn't rely on the CYA test strip. If you have been using a chlorinator with pucks for any length of time, you would have some CYA in there. The problem is if your test strip is inaccurate and you go ahead and add stabilizer at this point, your level could get too high and the only way to get rid of excess CYA is to do a partial drain and refill. So, if your CYA test kit is more than a few days away, maybe a reliable pool store can test your CYA for you this one time.

Is your water still green?

Adding one gallon of bleach is only going to take your chlorine level up to about 3.3ppm which is not enough to kill algae. If it is still green, go ahead and add 4 gallons at a time. That should take it up to about 13ppm. Try and test several times a day and each time add enough bleach to get back up to 12 or so. (Use the 1 gallon adds 3.3 ppm as a reference to help you determine how much bleach to add each time you test.) Run the pump 24/7 and backwash as needed. Once we know for sure what your CYA level is, we can tweak the suggested bleach amounts.

[vinper]

My water is not green , I only would get some green spots on the wall & rocks each day . we keep it off by brushing

[Watermom]

If you keep your chlorine a bit higher, you won't get green spots. Once you get a good CYA reading post it and we'll make further recommendations.

[vinper]

Well test strips dont work . My CYA tester came .Tested it this morning , it says 100 so now I am over......

[Watermom]

That is what we suspected -- high CYA from using pucks so long. You are right, test strips don't work.

The bad news is that since CYA testers cannot differentiate over 100, your CYA level could actually be much higher than 100.

You basically have two options:
1. Do a partial drain and refill to try and lower that CYA level. (Do not totally drain however.) I think you said that you are in a drought, so this may not be a viable option for you.

OR

2. Live with the high CYA and just run higher than normal chlorine levels to compensate. Take a look at the Best Guess table in my signature below for more info about this.

Let us know which option you want to go with and then somebody will help you. Also, when you repost, please give us a new set of current testing results for everything. (You don't need to run the CYA test again, however. No reason to waste the CYA reagent.)

[vinper]

The best guess chart , am I reading that right FC a 5 ppm or higher ? I think my tester only goes to 4ppm.....

[vinper]

Remember I added 1 lb of conditioner Sunday ,Also if I had CYA why was I having to add so much chlorine to keep it at 1.0... So If I go home today FC is at 1.0 I need to add 1.5 gallon of bleach to get it up around a 7.0

[Watermom]

If you decide not to do a partial drain and refill but just live with the high CYA, you'll have to maintain your chlorine level between 8-15 ALL the time or risk an algae bloom. You'll have to get a kit that can test high cl. (The kit we recommend can -- Taylor K-2006 or 2006C.)

Since your CYA is so high, letting the cl get low was letting things start to grow in the pool. Sometimes even before you start to see green, things are brewing. That may be why you were having trouble keeping cl in your pool; it was getting used up fighting something in the water. The other possibility is that yours is just one of the pools that opens to a high chlorine demand in the spring. You can read about that here:

http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/spring-swimming-pool-startup-problems.html

Until you can hold a chlorine reading overnight, you'll need to shock the pool every day up to 25ppm. In a 18K pool, every gallon of bleach adds 3.3ppm of cl. Use that as a reference to figure out how much bleach to add to get back to 25. When you can go from sundown to sunup without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine and your CC is no higher than 0.5 (your Taylor kit will be able to measure this) then that will be a sign that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

By the way, how did you add the stabilizer? If you added it through the skimmer so it could dissolve in the filter, backwash the filter to throw out any that is still undissolved.

[vinper]

Yes added through skimmer,will backwash tonight.. Shock to 25ppm that's like 7 or 8 gallons of bleach?

[aylad]

In 18K gallons, each 1.5 gallons of 6% bleach will raise your FC by 5 ppm, so if you're starting at zero chlorine, then 8 gallons should get you over the 25 ppm mark with a little bit to spare.

Make sure you have some extra bleach on hand, though, because once you get it up to 25 ppm, you need to hold it there by testing and adding as many times a day as you can to keep it at or over the 25 ppm mark.

Janet

[vinper]

wow think I will be scared to swim in that much ,If i do better wear somthing white

[aylad]

Don't swim in it until the shocking process is over and you've let the chlorine drift back down to the 8-15 mark. At that point, chlorine at 8-15 with CYA over 100 has no more ill effects than chlorine of 1-3 with no CYA.

Janet

[vinper]

I added 8 gallons last night . I think I saw a dillution recipe.. so I can use my test kit that only goes to 5 FC......Until I can get a new one

[CarlD]

Use steam distilled water. I like a shot glass: one glass of distilled to one glass of pool water. Mix and test. Now if it reads "5" it's really 10.
Or use 2 glasses of distilled to one of pool: Now when it reads "5" it's 15.
3 glasses distilled: 20.

But it gets less accurate.

Or, if the water is much, MUCH darker yellow, it's probably well over 10. When it's orange I THINK it's around 20, and brown, around 30-35...but I am not certain.

Carl

[vinper]

Well a week later back too hardly any chlorine having to add 1 gallon of bleach a day ... CYA seemed to drop some to just under 100 . So shocked this morning with 8 gallons.....I got the drop test kit now which is alittle more difficult to use

[Watermom]

Post a complete set of current numbers since it has been awhile. Also remind us of the type of pool, volume, type of filter. How does the water look?

[vinper]

!8k gallons , IG gunite,, DE filter ,water is good, CYA 100 FC 7.0 CC 0.5 PH 7.6 ALK 110......... having to add 1 gal. bleach a day...

[Watermom]

In the evenings when you test and before you add bleach, how low has your chlorine dropped? Are you able to go from sundown one day until sunup the next day without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine?

One other thing you may not know. If you get a CYA reading of 100, it actually could be much higher than 100 since the test kit can't differentiate past that level. You need to be keeping your chlorine between 8-15 ALL the time. Since yours has dropped below that range, you could have an algae bloom that is trying to start. I think it might be wise for you to go ahead and shock your pool up to 25 and maybe squash any algae bloom that may be trying to start.

[vinper]

It was down to FC4 .05 CC this morning , from 7 yesterday so I took it to 20 before I left for work....

[vinper]

So is the plan that by shocking it enough , eventually it will retain FC ..I am getting tired of hauling all this bleach

[Watermom]

Yes, that is the plan. But, the key is that you have to maintain the high cl reading as best as you can. Every morning, add enough bleach to shock it back up to 25. Do the same in the evening. If you are home in the afternoon, shock it back up. The more often and consistently you do it, the faster you'll get past this. You have to continue shocking until you can pass the overnight test without losing more than 1ppm if cl.

Do you have any place that sells liquid chlorine? Some stores sell 10 or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite. That is the same stuff as bleach, but higher percentage so you can use less to shock with. it will likely be more costly than bleach, though.

Did you ever get a good kit?

[vinper]

Yes got them individually CYA & the taylor drop test... Say everthing was under control, normally how much bleach would I be expecting to add ..... daily ,weekly,monthly....How much are you guys Hauling around ?

[aylad]

I use about 4 of the large jugs from WalMart per week in my 29K gallon pool with CYA of 80 ppm. It takes a lot of bleach for an initial shock, but if you're running a high-chlorine, high-stabilizer pool, you really aren't hauling around any more bleach than a low/low pool.

[vinper]

Sat. Night till sunday Morning held a level of 9.0 overnight...... without losing any....

[Watermom]

Good deal! Now, with a CYA of 100, you need to keep your chlorine between 8-15 all the time.

[vinper]

Time a little rain and my CYA has dropped to 80 .... yeah .. But the Drought continues water bill for 2 months 650.00 ? :(

[aylad]

Are you draining water, or having to top off that often?

Janet

[vinper]

I have not drained any or having to add any does not evaporate much ...... 14 zones of Irrigation and Koi pond lead to the high water bill

[aylad]

Oh--you scared me for a minute!! I have a koi pond too, and it does take a lot of water to keep it filled....

Janet