mess after vacation

[Fiveattripp]

Just rechecked chlorine. The free chlorine is 7 ppm and the combined is 1.5ppm. I added about a half gallon of Walmart bleach this morning...yields 7.86% chlorine. I don't have any muratic acid but will pick some up. What should those chlorine levels be?

[Watermom]

Your current chlorine is 7.86%? How did you get that? Chlorine levels are measured in ppm (parts per million).

With a CYA of around 30, aim to keep your chlorine around 15ppm until you meet three criteria:

1) You lose no more than 1ppm of FC from sundown one evening to within one hour of sunrise the next morning
2) You have no higher than 0.5ppm of CC
3) You have no signs of algae

Don't worry about buying muriatic acid at this point. You don't currently need it. Your pH is fine at 7.6.

[FormerBromineUser]

Agree totally with starting above recomendations asap! I was also thinking that perhaps a slightly lower pH might help increase effectiveness of FC. What do you think, WaterMom?

[Fiveattripp]

Oh sorry... That chlorine is from the bleach that I added not my chlorine level. I will add more bleach and get the chlorine up and watch those three things. Thanks so much. It is looking so much better.

[Watermom]

Agree totally with starting above recomendations asap! I was also thinking that perhaps a slightly lower pH might help increase effectiveness of FC. What do you think, WaterMom?

The pH will be just fine where it is. Unless pH is at an extreme or if you are trying to lower TA, it is typically best just to leave it alone.

[Watermom]

Oh sorry... That chlorine is from the bleach that I added not my chlorine level. I will add more bleach and get the chlorine up and watch those three things. Thanks so much. It is looking so much better.

Glad it is looking better. Continue to keep the chlorine high and run your pump24/7 while you are working to clear this up and clean the filter as needed.

[Fiveattripp]

Going back to chemistry....thanks for the refresher! Such good info on the forum. I believe we are ok now, but wanted to run these numbers by you. FC 3.5ppm, CC 1.5ppm, TC 5, PH 7.4, ALK 130, CAL 250, CYA 35. I know we don't need to worry about the calcium, but I'm not sure about the chlorine. I think it is fine...a little on the high side now, which is fine...we aren't swimming now and the algea is gone, water is clear. Thank you!!!!

[Watermom]

Actually, your CC is way too high. Ideally, you want it to be 0 or at least no higher than 0.5ppm. When it is higher than that, you need to shock the pool to get rid of it. This chart shows needed shock level which is based on your CYA level. (http://pool9.net/cl-cya/) So, with a CYA of 35, your shock level is 15ppm. You want to keep the chlorine at shock level until you meet the 3 criteria which are listed in post #12 above.

[Fiveattripp]

Ok...still trying to understand:/ how much bleach will it take to bring the chlorine up that much? I will add a gallon now.

[CarlD]

One 121 ounce bottle of 8.25% bleach will add 3.4ppm of chlorine to your 23,000 gallon pool.