Where Has All The Chlorine Gone? Out by....

[NullQwerty]

Well, I really shocked the pool the other night. 5 lbs of powder. Today I just went and tested it, and nothing. No chlorine at all. Some of the granules had sunk to the bottom, so I stirred that up. I then added another 3 of those gallons of bleach.

See what it's like tomorrow.

[aylad]

If you happen to have an old OTO test laying around, you might try using that for a quick test, just for grins.....I don't see how a pool that still is holding granules can test for zero TC. I think the testing is a bit suspect. I've never used the ColorQ, but something's not right. What is your CYA level?

Janet

[NullQwerty]

All 3-4 gallons of Bleach is gone. There is almost zero chlorine in there right now. It hasn't even been 24 hours.

I've been running the pump overtime too. About 16 hours a day.

Again, the pool looks great though.

The only thing I could think of is to shock it every night for 3 or 4 days in a row. Do you think I should do that?

Thanks!

[aylad]

If you have some organic load in the pool that is using that much chlorine, then shocking it only at night isn't going to win the battle--you need to shock it, and test 3-4 times daily and add more to get back up to shock level. It's maintaining that shock level that will kill off anything living in your pool. Letting the chlorine yo-yo up and down isn't going to accomplish anything if you're trying to kill some sort of bloom. That being said, I stick with my above post--I'm not so sure that your testing is giving you accurate results. What is your CYA level, and what are you using to test with?

Janet

[NullQwerty]

I had the same suspicion, so I had tested it with 4 different tests. Two different drop kits from HTH, 1 strip from HTH, and 1 strip from Leslie's pools.

All give the same results. I forgot the exact reading of the CYA, but I tested it multiple times and it was always at the perfect level.

Also, after adding 1 gallon of bleach and testing 3-4 hours later, the tests showed it at 2 ppm, so the test kits are working.

Thanks!

[aylad]

Okay, I give......CYA at "perfect level" doesn't tell me anything. There is no "perfect level" for CYA. The point I am trying to make is that if your CYA is on the low side, then it may very well be the sun causing the problem. If it's not on the low side, then it could be that you have an organic load that's still consuming your chlorine, or that your minimum chlorine level isn't high enough to compensate for your CYA level, which would explain why shocking didn't fix the problem. Also, without knowing your CYA level and the chlorine level to which you shocked, I have no idea whether your shocking the pool is effective. All of these things are possibilities, but without numbers it's all just a wild guess.

Janet

[Phillbo]

OK Janet, how many fingers am I holding up

[aylad]

OK Janet, how many fingers am I holding up

lol.........