Higher chlorine loss than last year

[dancu]

Found this site early last year, read and studied, got Ben's testkit and did BBB.
Loved it! 2 ppm loss per day without solar cover with a cya of 40 the whole summer.
This year it is 3-4 ppm, 2ppm with the cover!
I am starting to raise the cya and now it is at 50-60 but no improvement.
What could the reason be for the difference? Water is clear,no CC

Thanks

Dan

[dancu]

Help!!! now it is getting slimy in the corners!!!

[duraleigh]

Slime = algae

Use your test kit and bring your chlorine up to shock level and keep it there untill all signs of algae are gone.

Post a full set of test numbers from the kit and it may reveal a clue but I suspect your higher chlorine consumption is from the heretofore unseen algae developing in your pool.

[leejp]

Found this site early last year, read and studied, got Ben's testkit and did BBB.
Loved it! 2 ppm loss per day without solar cover with a cya of 40 the whole summer.
This year it is 3-4 ppm, 2ppm with the cover!
I am starting to raise the cya and now it is at 50-60 but no improvement.
What could the reason be for the difference? Water is clear,no CC

Thanks

Dan

Something's living in your pool... Bump it up to 15PPM and relax for a few days.

[chem geek]

Also, please let us know the minimum FC level when the CYA was at 40 and then now at 50-60. You referred to the FC loss, but not it's minimum level. It definitely sounds like the higher rate of consumption is due to fighting a nascent algae bloom and shocking (as recommended above) is the thing to do, but it would be good to know why this started in the first place and the minimum FC level might help us figure out if we need to adjust some recommendations.

[dancu]

test results 7pm

FC 6.5 (down from 9.5 at 7AM)
CC 0 ?
PH 7.4
ALK 120
CYA 65 (55 in sunlight)

Last night FC was 3.5 brought it up with 3 jugs of bleach (2.1ppm each)
to recommended cl levels for higher cya (60)
Before that I was running the pool at Cl for 30- 50 CYA
Tried never to let Cl fall below 3 but sometimes it went to 2.5,
after a party it was at 1 ppm once
What baffles me most is the CC being zero, I thought 0 CC means no algies, no shocking required.
Haven't been in the pool today so I don't know if the slime is gone with the CL up .
Do you guys still think I need to shock? (13.5ppm is 7 jugs! :-))
Thanks for your responses!

Dan

[duraleigh]

Do you guys still think I need to shock? (13.5ppm is 7 jugs! :-))
Thanks for your responses!

Absolutely. Regardless of your tests, visible slime is algae. I would shock it tonight.

[dancu]

OK, will do, the slime is not visible though, it just feels that way...
Any thoughts on the CC being zero?

[chem geek]

If the pool has high levels of chlorine and/or exposure to sunlight, the CCs can stay near zero. It all depends on the nature of the organics in the pool. Some only slowly form CCs so sunlight can break it down as fast as it is produced. Others such as ammonia from chloramines very, very quickly and will register on the tests before they get broken down.

As recommended, I would shock the pool and also brush the sides. Though maybe you don't actually have algae, odds are you've got something that needs to be broken down and more likely than not it is algae trying to form. A slimy feel is probably an algal slime layer getting formed. Either that or your pool is oozing something it's alive, it's alive!

Richard

[dancu]

Brought it up to 20.5 ppm, pump is running
I will test and brush in the morning
Thank you again, you guys are great!