never ending chlorine demand help

[cloudy water]

Ok how long do I have to keep it at 20 I havent gotten it there yet because it has been hot and the kids want in the pool so I havent gotten it up to 20 yet but once I do how long should I leave it there?

[Watermom]

Until you can go with not losing more than 1ppm of chlorine from sundown to sunup, you need to try and keep the sustained high cl reading.

[cloudy water]

Ok I seem to have the CL under control now but e hd a alot of rain and it turned bright green and smells like a lake? I broke down and got a alge destroer and have added about 4 gallons of bleach it is now to a light green but still smells of lake water? Oh I also added 4lbs of baking soda the CL is at about a 15 and ph is 7.2 filter has been running none stop I got in and vacumed and then brushed the walls and bottom I have no slimey spots so what do I do next? Thank You for the help

[Watermom]

Don't add things to the pool that you don't get advice about first here on the forum. I don't know what "algae destroyer" is but the only algae destroyer that really works is chlorine. Please post a complete set of current water testing results. (Did you ever get a good test kit so you can test your own water?)

Then, we'll go from there.

[aylad]

Don't put the algae destroyer in, if you haven't already. I made the mistake of using that stuff in my koi pond one year. NOt only didn't it help, but it made my water very foamy and killed most of my flowering plants AND the fish, even though it advertised that it wouldn't.

Stick with bleach.

Janet

[cloudy water]

ok latest pool store readings

TDS 1100
cya 0
tot chlorine 0.2
free CL 0
ph 7.9
tot alkal 138
tot hardness 309

now it seems I have no stablizer was wondering if there was a stabalizer that didn't come from pool store I have been putting bleach in bt nothing is stayig I guess because of stabalizer problems pool is very green agine and bleah is not helping???

[aylad]

I would double check the stabilizer level to make sure it really is 0. If it really is 0, then either you never had any stabilizer to begin with (you would have had to add it in the forum of a powder or liquid called "balancer" or "conditioner" or "stabilizer". Either way, the active ingredient is cyanuric or isocyanuric acid.). If you never had any to begin with, then the sun is depleting your chlorine, and you need to add enough to get up to about 30 ppm. If you actually had CYA of 60 to begin with, and now truly have 0, that means the algae bloom and accompanying bacteria have broken down the CYA and now you have a mess on your hands. You really need to double check that number to help us figure out which it is. (And if you added the stabilizer, let us know that, too).

The bleach will fix the pool IF you get the chlorine level up and KEEP IT UP as we described in earlier posts. That means keeping the kids out of it, and testing and adding more bleach 2-3 times daily or even more if possible. However, if you don't get the chlorine level up and keep it up there, you're spinning your wheels. Bleach and filtering will clear it, but only if it's done properly. Don't add any more baking soda, algaecide, or anything else but plain, unscented bleach. If you truly have 0 stabilizer, then 6 gallons of 6% bleach should take your chlorine up to 15 ppm, which is the level you need to maintain. Test 2-3 times daily (or as often as you can), and add more bleach to get back up above the 15 ppm mark. 1/2 gallon of bleach will raise your chlorine by approximately 1 ppm, so you can use that as a guide to figure out how much to use each time. If you DO still have stabilizer in the water, then you need to go up to 20 ppm and hold it there.

With some persistence and patience, it will work--but you're gonna have to stay on top of it.

Janet