Pool guy says Chlorine Lock?

6500 Gal AGP Vinyl liner been set up for about a month (I used well water)

So, I'm still having some trouble getting my water levels right. I took another sample to the pool store yesterday and the guy says it's reading chlorine lock. Here are the numbers that I got.

FC .08
Combined C .76
Calcium 318

TA *OVER*
PH 7.6

I've been using a SWG (that I'm having to clean with vinegar about every 2 weeks becuase of calcium build up) and some bleach from time to time. I'm using a drop tester and the chlorine is coming up in the "acceptable" range on that color tester. The person at the PS said to put 3 lbs of non-chlorine shock in it?

I turned off the SWG for now until I talked to you guys.

I've been trying to get the TA down for a while now, but I guess I'm not doing it quite right. (I've been adding a little muratic acid (about a gallon in all, but I haven't been able to spend as much time as I need to with it.)

Anyway, I'm just looking for some advise. I'm not smart enough to figure this out on my own, so a nice step by step would be great. I can follow directions.

Hi Mwil;

FIRST -- do NOT stop chlorinating! You don't have to use the SWG, but you MUST keep chlorinating or you'll end up with a swamp. If you're home, when you read this, go out, add chlorine, and THEN come back and finish reading!

SECOND -- tell us everything you've put into the pool. It's really odd to have that high a CC level on a freshly filled well water pool, unless you've added something (algicide, pee, ??) for the chlorine to "combine" with.

THIRD -- skim through this thread: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=9896 Read my comments on chlorine lock.

FOURTH -- don't worry about anything except pH (OK for now between 7.0 and 8.0) and chlorine. We can look at other stuff later.

Ben
"PoolDoc"

OK. I put a bit more unscented bleach in the pool and I'm back. (by the way, the water looks ok to me?)

Things that have been put in the pool.

Pool Salt
Unscented bleach
Muratic Acid
Conditioner

That's it.

I've got kids, so "pee" is a posibility, but hopefully not in large doses.... 0.0
Also, there's been a couple of rains.

We need a CYA level--that will determine how high you need to go with the chlorine to burn off the CCs. When you added stabilizer, did you add it through the skimmer, or broadcast it into the pool? How long ago did you add it? If you added it through the skimmer, have you backwashed the pool since then?

Basically you'll need to shock the pool (again, how high will be based on your CYa level) and maintain it at shock level until the CC goes to zero, and until you're not losing any chlorine when testing at night and again in early morning before the sun is on the pool.

Your pH is fine for right now, and we can work on the TA later (although we really need to know what it is). If you can get a drop-based kit it would make your life a WHOLE lot easier when maintaining your pool. We recommend the Taylor K-2006 but most WalMarts carry a 6-way kit for about $15 that will suffice for now. It will test your TA and your CYA, as well.

So...post a CYA level for us, and a TA also if you can get it, and we'll go from there!

BTW: did you have your water tested for metals? If so, what was the result?

Janet

Sorry for the delayed answer.

I'll stop and get a kit from walmart on the way home and get back to you when I have the numbers that I need.