How Chlorine works.....for newbies

[duraleigh]

Frequently, I see threads from newbies that flounder because they do not have a clear understanding of how Chlorine works in their pool.

Chlorine is consumed.....constantly. It will NEVER stay in your pool at a constant level.

It is consumed by organics in your pool....the more organics you have in your pool, visible or not, the more quickly it is consumed. It may be leaves, sticks, suntan oil, pee, and most importantly, algae but the more of these you have in your pool, the more Cl you will use.

If you are just opening and your pool is green with algae, it is VERY likely that a Cl level of 10-20ppm will be consumed overnite.....resulting in a 0 reading the next AM. Even after your pool is crystal clear, you will consume Cl on a daily basis.

If you have water that is not clear, chlorine, and lots of it, will be the answer the vast majority of the time. It will take multiple doses of large amounts of chlorine to clear a very nasty pool.

Secondly, Chlorine is consumed extremely quickly by the Sun. Unprotected chlorine will be consumed by sunlight in a matter of hours.....leaving your pool unsanitized. However, you can protect the Cl from the Sun, to an extent, by putting Stabilizer (CYA, Cyanuric Acid) in your pool. Every successful pool will have stabilizer added in some form to minimize the loss of Cl to the Sun and allow it (Cl) to do it's job working on the organics.

Because of the sometimes overwhelming nature of all the other issues on this forum, this basic info on Cl is frequently overlooked. If you have water that doesn't look good, Chlorine is gonna' be the primary answer the vast majority of the time.