Chlorine Demand

[Watermom]

Just use bleach for your daily chlorine. With a CYA of 72 (how did you get that number??), you need to keep your chlorine levels between 5-10 all the time. You do not need to use algaecide and you also do not need to routinely shock unless you are having a CC reading greater than 0.5, cloudy water or see the beginnings of algae. If you maintain your chemistry properly, you rarely need to shock.

[gfritz1]

CYA was measured with the Taylor Test Kit and looking until the Black Spot disappears. The Pool place got 50 using test strips .

Understand to use the bleach so this means daily check of chlorine level and then based on reading add bleach with each gallon expected to raise my ppm by 2.5

Is there a better time to add the bleach? I normally run pump from 7am-7pm and the swimmining usually is from 2-6 but normally only adults doing laps. I understand need to keep higher but like this weekend grandchildren will be here. Whats the safe limit for them to swim-upper ppm level -----thanks again

[Watermom]

The best time to add bleach is in the evening when the sun is off the pool. In that way, all the chlorine can go to oxidizing the goo in the water and none of it will be lost to the sun. However, it is also ok to add it at other times. Especially when a pool is fighting algae, or has a high chlorine demand for some reason, etc.

Keep your chlorine between 5-10ppm. Your grandchildren are perfectly safe when swimming with chlorine at those levels with a CYA of 70ish. (Actually, it is also fine to swim when chlorine is at shock level but you probably would want to wear an old swimsuit if you did so.) People are often afraid that a chlorine level of 5-10ppm is too harsh; but the fact is that with a CYA of 70, chlorine is no harsher at 5-10ppm than it is at 1-3ppm with no CYA.

[gfritz1]

Well its been 8 days since we did the partial drain and the shock using bleach to above 20ppm . The water has remained excellent and the grandchildren were here for weekend and enjoyed three days of swimming .I am losing about 2-3 ppm per day of FC as each day need to add roughly 1 gal of bleach (6%). Is this normal ? Weather was actually more overcast than sun . I have been able to hold between 5 ppm and 9ppm by moring add of bleach.My new readings Sat were as follow
My cya appeared to increase to 80 which I was suyrprised as no tabs are bing used and teh chlorinator is actually turned off
PH is 7.8
FC was 5.6 and CC was o
Alk was 150
Hardness was 170

Have not added anything other then bleach

[PoolDoc]

I am losing about 2-3 ppm per day of FC as each day need to add roughly 1 gal of bleach (6%). Is this normal ?

That's on the high end of normal . . . but still normal. You may find the results improve if you lower the pH some. If you'll fill out the pool chart

Pool Chart Entry Form

I'll try to look and see what you might do to improve the situation a little.

Something else you can try: adding large doses of bleach in the late evening, via the skimmer. This can help clean out any 'goo' in your filter. Again, if you'll complete the chart, I can calculate doses.

[gfritz1]

I initially filled out the pool chart a few weeks ago. Is it not saved?

[Watermom]

Yep! It's there. Sometimes we forget that we have already asked somebody to fill it out with all the people we help each day!

With a CYA of 80, you need to be keeping your FC between 5-10 all the time. Losing 2-3ppm of FC in a day is very normal. In a 23,000 gallon pool, each gallon of 6% bleach will add about 2.5ppm of chlorine.

If you want to shock the pool to try and make sure the filter is clear of any goo, your shock level would be 20ppm. So, use the reference I gave you above to figure out how much bleach to add when you test to take it up to 20. If you can go from sundown one evening to within two hours of sunrise the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine, have a CC reading no higher than 0.5ppm and have clear water, then you are good to go and can let the cl drift back down to 5-10.

Hope this information helps.

[PoolDoc]

I initially filled out the pool chart a few weeks ago. Is it not saved?

I'm working on a plan to convert some of the data in the Pool Chart into signatures that will show up each time you post, but right now, it's just a plan. We have to do a search on the pool data, which is getting to be rather large set!