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This my 1st year on an AquaRite system purchased on eBay. The SWG has been running for almost a month now at 90% settings. Watter was a muddy gray when opened pool. Now it is crystal clear.
Can't get my free chlorine level up. What should I do?
Approx 22K gal pool
pH=7.7
Cl free = 0.05
Cl total = 2.0
CYA= 125
Alk=150
Salt=3600
H2O temp=75
Obviously I have Total chlorine in the pool, just no free chlorine.
Do I need to shock the pool? And with what kind of shock and how much?
your cya level seems very high...40-80 seems to be the norm. and if too high, you need to have way more chlorine. many threads about it here. i run 50-60 and it works fine. also, i don't think it would affect your chlorine level, but your alkaline seems very high to me as well.
Have you cleaned the cell?
Is the system spec'd for the size of the pool or over spec'd? I went to the next size bigger than my pool and can run it at about 40-60%.
Well, you will have to shock your pool to get rid of the combined chlorine. The difference between Free and Total Chlorine is Combined. To shock it, you will need to add enough chlorine to introduce 10 times your combined chlorine level. In this case, you have 1.95 ppm Combined (although I'm not sure how one can test 0.05 ppm chlorine, are you sure this isn't 0.5 ppm?), so you'll have to introduce 19.5 ppm (or 15 ppm, depending on where that decimal should be) of chlorine.
There's a bleach calculator on here somewhere, that tells you how much of whichever form of chlorine you want to use.
With a Salt Chlorine Generator, I would normally recommend using Granular Tri-chlor as it is lower in pH and has Cyanuric Acid. In your case, you don't need any more cya.
You didn't mention your calcium hardness level, so that would determine if you should use Cal Hypo to shock. If you're higher than 350 ppm Cal Hardness, avoid using Cal Hypo.
So, that leaves bleach. Its higher in pH so expect to use acid to bring the pH back down afterward.
Sean's right, of course. You need to shock it up with bleach or liquid chlorine. Don't worry, bleach is compatible with SWGs--the "inert ingredients" is mostly salt water.
The SWGs don't seem to be anywhere close to adequate for a full-scale algae war. But don't blame the SWG. Once your water is clear it should keep it sparkling again.
How much water should I drain to reduce my CYA level?
I used a digital meter to measure the chlorine level of 0.05.
Ouch...a digital meter is only as good as the calibration solution it's been calibrated to. Especially for a chlorine tester.
I just received a colorimeter from LaMotte that I will be trying out. But I guarantee that I will also be comparing it to my trusty Taylor K2006 test kit.
In either case, you're got quite a bit more Total Chlorine than your do Free Chlorine, which means a high amount of Combined Chlorine. To be sure, I would just consider the 0.05 ppm FC as ZERO, and treat from there.