Chlorine block-need recommendations

[Jess6521]

Help! I'm new to pool maintenance and have been sucked in to the pool store run around. Basically our pool isnt registering chlorine. We have shocked it to death still nothing. Reading some past posts it sounds like we need to add bleach? Will order the test kit recommended from amazon tonight. The six strip results this morning were : FCC-0; ph-7.8; TA-80; TH-400; CYA-30-50. Thoughts? Thank you in advance.

[aylad]

Hi Jess, and welcome to the forum.

First off, take a few seconds and complete this chart for us about your pool--it will only take a few secs of your time but will save us several posts back and forth trying to get the info we need to help you:

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

I suspect that you either have a huge chlorine demand, a bad algae bloom, or your strips are just bleaching out from the higher levels of chlorine. Ordering the K-2006 kit is a great start. While you're waiting for it to ship, can you try your local WalMart and see if they have either the hth 6-way drop kit, or at the very least the cheapie OTO (red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine). Test your water with one of those, and post your results here.

What does your water look like, and what ingredients have you been using? (Not "shock"--need actual ingredients). We'll be glad to help you get it going again as soon as we get the info to help!

[Jess6521]

Thank you aylad. I can't access those URLs for some reason. I am familiar with google docs but for some reason the links won't open for me. My first post I posted my strip results which is what I have so far. Our pool is 30k gallons approx, gunnite. We added bleach tonight because it was looking really bad. We got a 6 reading on FC 6 hrs after that. Will see if it holds to the am. Happy to fill out the necessary forms, but can't get them. we added 4 gallons tonight.

[aylad]

Ok--I'll get Pooldoc to see about your not being able to open the links...but in the meantime, please re-read my post above about the test kits--you're not going to be able to do much with test strips, because they simply aren't reliable.

[Jess6521]

Ok. I ordered the kit last night. The best I have in the meantime are those 6 strips. the chlorine went up to 4/6 so based on strips only it seems better. I should have the kit in a few days.

[PoolDoc]

If you want to get a handle on how severe the problem is, you may want to read this page on testing for chlorine demand.

[Jess6521]

Ok will do this also. Still waiting on my test kit. Thank you!

[Jess6521]

I did my test, need some guidance. Here are the results: ph-7.4; TA -170 ppm, CH- 3000(this seems wrong?); FC -.5 ppm and .5 ppm TC. We added 12 bags of shock and two gallons of liquid shock. Husband hasn't done the bucket test yet.

[Watermom]

Yeah, try that CH test again. Did you do the CYA test? What kind of shock --- ingredients, please. You are using the K-2006 kit, right?

[Jess6521]

Ok this time I got CH of 260. CYA I can't get it to read because both times I tried the solution wouldn't cloud. Yes 2006 c test kit. Here's what we put in last night: 2 gallons liquid shock- (sodium hypochlorite 12.5%nand 12 bags (1 lb each) calcium hypochlorite 73%. Ugh so frustrating...I'm lost. Lol. Thanks for any help.