Pool wont register chlorine.

[NJpool22]

Good day all. First and foremost I would like to thank everyone for all the sound advise I have gotten since i have started browsing this forum. The problem I am having is that my 20k gal, vinyl liner pool wont register a chlorine reading. My tc=0, fc=0, ph=7.2, ta=100, cya=50. When I opened last week, my cya was 0. I have since raised it to 50 in the last 3 days. I have used 5lbs of shock, and 8.5 gallons of 6% bleach, in the last 2 days, but my chlorine levels are non existent. I am using test strips, and pool store readings. I have ordred a taylor test kit from amazon. I was suckered into the phosphate removal theory by the pool store (should have read up on it before I spent $50.00 on it). I also used American Chemical stain remover to remove a copper stain. Im curios as to how often do i need to add bleach, and how much to add to get a reading. I guess I should test or amonia as well, even though i dont smell amonia in the water. The water is crystal clear.

[Watermom]

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum. In a 20K gallon pool, 5 lbs. of stabilizer is only going to give you a reading of 35 or so. It may be that it hasn't all dissolved yet.

Do you know what the CYA level was when you closed last year? If you had some in there when you closed and none upon opening, it may be that it biodegraded over the winter and you now have a lot of ammonia in the water which is creating a huge chlorine demand.

Another concern is that you are using 'guess strips' and also pool store testing both of which are known to be inaccurate in most cases.

Until your Taylor kit arrives, go to Walmart and see if they have the HTH 6-Way kit or at the very least, pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops). Run the tests and post your readings. While you are there, pick up several boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle).

In your pool, each gallon (4 quarts) of plain, unscented 6% bleach will about 3ppm of chlorine. Go ahead and add 4 gallons which should take you up to about 12ppm. See if you get a reading an hour or two after you add it.

Repost with some numbers and tell us what kit you buy.

Also, please fill out the requested info in the following chart. It will help us help you more easily.

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

[PoolDoc]

Add 10 gallons of plain 6% household bleach this evening (Wed PM) (30 ppm) . Wait 2 hours (pump running) and test your chlorine level . . . with an OTH (yellow drops) test kit. Then, test again on Thursday AM, before 9 am. Let us know what you find.

[NJpool22]

Thanks for the response and advise, i havent had a chance to add the 10 gal of bleach, due to the heavy rains in NJ. I bought an hth 3 way kit from walmart. They didnt have the 6 way. My results were clorine=0, ph=7. I also purchased an amonia kit from walmart. My pool registered 2.0. Please advise what my next step(s) should be. I am finished with the pool store, they told me they never heard of testing for amonia in a pool. Thanks in advance for any and all help that you can provide.

[Watermom]

Rain or no rain, you've got to get some chlorine in that pool or it is going to turn a beautiful shade of green right before your eyes! Also, add some Borax to get your pH up some. Add a half a box, let it circulate a couple of hours, then retest and redose as needed to get it somewhere 7.2-7.8 with 7.4-7.6 being best. You need to do this before your pH drops below 7.0 as readings below that are acidic and can damage a pool.

[NJpool22]

Is the amonia level (2.0) something i have to be concerned about? Will the 10 gal of bleach register a chlorine reading? 8.5 gals regstered nothing on Sunday. Thanks again for you help.

[Watermom]

The only way to rid the pool of ammonia is lots of chlorine. It takes time, but it will eventually break it down. You may be not showing a chlorine reading because you may be bleaching out the test strips. Until your Taylor kit arrives, go to Walmart and see if they have the HTH 6-Way kit or at the very least, pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops). Those two kits are not too expensive and will hold you until the good kit arrives. They will not read chlorine levels past 5, however, so you'll need to use a dilution method to force them to go higher. With dilution, you do lose accuracy, but it is better than nothing.

Testing Without a Good Kit

[NJpool22]

I have the 3 way kit from walmart, the 6 way was out of stock. I will hit it with the 10 gals, and borax
. I dont know what a dilution method is. Wish me luck.

[Watermom]

The dilution method is explained in the link in my previous post called "testing without a good kit."

[NJpool22]

Thanks for the advise, my pool is regstering a chlrine reading, around 3. Im still waiting for my taylor kit to arrive. My ph is a little high though (7.8). Alkilinity is fine. And CYA is holding at apprx 50.