Dead possoms in skimmer basket need help please

[Watermom]

One quart of the 12.5% should add about 2.5ppm of chlorine to your pool. One gallon would add about 9.5. Use these as a reference to figure out how much you need to add after you test, to take your chlorine level up to 15ppm.

[dansdad]

ok Watermom let me get this straight, because these numbers are what I will use from now on when testing. Lets say I have 1 ppm in my pool and I need to raise it to 10.5 then I only need one gallon? If that's the case I need to wonder why am I using so much chlorine on a weekly basis? I normally add a gallon and test and it usually comes to 3.0 So what could be going on here?

[TomC]

Here's a neat little calculator you can use to help you figure out things like that.

http://www.poolcalculator.com/

Tom

[Watermom]

ok Watermom let me get this straight, because these numbers are what I will use from now on when testing. Lets say I have 1 ppm in my pool and I need to raise it to 10.5 then I only need one gallon? If that's the case I need to wonder why am I using so much chlorine on a weekly basis? I normally add a gallon and test and it usually comes to 3.0 So what could be going on here?

Chlorine breaks down and loses strength. The higher the percentage, it seems the faster this occurs. So, your 12.5% may not be anywhere near 12.5%. Honestly, you might just be better off buying bleach. The turnover for Walmart's bleach is so fast that it is probably much fresher and closer to what it is advertised to be than some other forms of liquid chlorine.

[dansdad]

Did not know higher concentrations would go down faster. Thanks Watermom

[dansdad]

Thanks Tom, I use the calculator all the time, but this is a % type thing

[TomC]

This time of year I got lots of baby birds and baby rodents in my skimmers. Since I check my baskets every morning, I know whatever is in there hasn't been there for long. I usually just put a couple of gallons of bleach in and go swimming.

Tom

[dansdad]

yeah Tom that's what I'm going to do. I put in a gallon of 12.5% and a bag of dichlor. I'm going to keep it around 5 or 6 for a while and I look every day to see if I got any more dead animals in there. I also tested some bleach my wife buys with a method Watermom gave the site (thanks Watermom), its only 4% but now I know what it is. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE I found Safeway has their brand for 3.25 a gallon and its 8.25 %. We don't have a Menards here so that's a find.