Low chlorine level in a salt water pool...

[mas985]

Mike,

How long are you running your pump? For the AquaLogic and your size pool, to add about 1 ppm per day of chlorine, you will need to run your pump about 8 hours at 50% (4 hours @ 100%). Also, what is your salt level?

[Strawfoot]

Mark,

Thanks for replying... We run the filter pump from about 9:00am to 5:00pm, but about half of it is run at low speed. Also, salt level is reading 3100ppm. Is it safe to boost the chlorinator output higher than the current level of 50% for the pool and 10% for the spa?

My combined chlorine is also negligible. PH level is at about 7.8, alkalinity about 110ppm, and calcium hardness is about 230ppm. I'm using the best test kit Leslie's has, but keep hearing how people 'order' theirs through the mail. Is this adequate?

We were in the spa last night, and my wife thought she smelled a 'funny' odor in the water. I was really wondering if this is due to the low chlorine level. Do I need to break down and throw some bleach in there, or maybe shock it using the chlorinator?

Hey, thanks for your help...

Mike

[mas985]

From lifespan point of view, it does not matter if you run a SWG for 8 hours at 50% or 4 hours at 100% it is still 4 hours of SWG run time. So yes, you can increase the % setting if you need to but it will impact the life of the cell. However, with an 8 hour run time, you should be getting over 1 ppm residual so it could be the chlorine is killing some algae in the water. A shock might help this.

Ph is a little high. I would target 7.2-7.4 which will allow the chlorine to work better. Alk is a bit high but when you lower PH, that will come down as well.

If you are smelling something that is usually CC so a shock may be in order. However, I would do that with liquid chlorine to save on the life of the cell.