Low Ph and Chlorine in salt water pool

[Enphrared]

I have an Intex 18'x48" pool with a SWG that I have inherited and my test kit says that I have little to no chlorine in the water (very very pale yellow, almost clear) and the Ph is a very light pink, just a tad under the 6.8 indicator. I put the vial in about 2ft for the sample. I've been running the SWG for 7 hours not much change and then 10 hrs last night still no big change. I put my vials right in front of the jet coming into the pool (few days ago when it was on the 7hr setting) and I was seeing 2-3ppm chlorine on the test kit. Why isn't the chlorine showing up in other areas of my pool?

Also, I bought some borax and baking soda to get my Ph up. I have roughly 5500gal so I put about a pound of borax in there today while the pump runs. I haven't put any baking soda yet, waiting to see what the borax does.

As far as the water goes it's been in there for a week and it's clear. I hate for it to start going bad if I'm not reacting to what the test kit is saying.

[PoolDoc]

Use the borax, not the baking soda -- for several reasons. Use the baking soda when you wash greasy pots and pans after a big meal.

Your SWCG will not keep up if there's not enough stabilizer. Have you checked that?

[Enphrared]

I have not used any stabilizer. I will search your site on using it. I read on your site to use baking soda to raise the TA. I haven't tested the pool for TA yet as I need to get a test kit that will read TA levels. At any rate, thanks for the response. I'll research stabilizer use. =)

[Watermom]

You need to read your SWCG manual. Usually with those units, there is specific CYA (also called cyanuric acid or stabilizer) level required by SWCG manufacturers.

[PoolDoc]

With most SWCGs you need over 50 ppm of CYA (stabilizer, cyanuric acid) for them to be able to keep up -- on your pool, that's about 3 pounds . . . DISSOLVED. (The CYA you add, but then backwash out, doesn't count!)

Unless you have a skimmer, and can go 3 days without cleaning your filter, I'd use the sock method (hang a sock filled with CYA in front of the return).

Meanwhile, add 1/2 gallon of plain 6% household bleach each evening.

[Yeggim]

I think you're off on your volume of water. An 18' diameter by 4' depth comes to 7,600 gallons.

[Enphrared]

From Intex website:
http://www.intexcorp.com/easy18x48.htm
Says 5,455gal

Bought a 6 way testing kit this morning and tested the water a few minutes ago. The Ph is showing between 7.5-7.8 almost 24hr after the added Borax. I had the SWG running for about 7 hours from this morning and the CL is at .5.

Ph: 7.5/7.8
CL: .5
CYA: <30 (the water wasn't cloudy in the test tube)
TA: 30

So it looks like I need to get some numbers up here. So Doc, should I still go the course of what you recommended earlier?

[PoolDoc]

Yeah, I think so. You need to keep chlorine in the pool overnight, at least, in order to avoid algae while you get your stabilizer up.

I also think you'll need avoid thinking of the SWCG as your sole source of chlorine.

[Yeggim]

From Intex website:
http://www.intexcorp.com/easy18x48.htm
Says 5,455gal

Sorry, I'm sure the manufacturer is correct. I assumed that 48" was the actual water depth.

[Enphrared]

I think it's like that because it's not fully cylindrical (hershey kiss shaped) so that calculation won't work. Thanks for bringing that up though! I've seen the manufacturer wrong before!!

Ben/Others,

Thanks for your help and tips with my issue. Believe it or not, last night I soaked the titanium plates of my chlorinator in vinegar, rinsed them off, saw a little bit of crap come off them. I'm pretty sure they haven't been cleaned over the past 4-5yrs since this has been in use from my in-laws. At any rate, I ran the generator as normal last night and now I finally have a chlorine reading. It is around 3 now which is will work, and I plan on checking it again later today to see how much it changes.

As for the Ph level, it is currently maintaining at 7.5, thanks for the tip with the Borax!

Now if it would stop raining and get hot again I can go for a little swim!