Help!! I don't know who to believe - Chlorine Lock?

[PoolDoc]

So will I be adding 4 gallons a night for about 4 nights?

No, you'll be adding 4 gallons per night, till you can hold a residual. Trying to analytically predict doses like that ends up being a distraction. You might be right -- but you'd still get there just as surely without the prediction.

Or, you might be wrong, and then pause, and come back here asking what to do. That would slow things down for everyone.

Testing and dosing is not so precise -- in the pool biz -- that predictions work especially well. So instead of testing and then dosing . . . . test, then dose, then test and dose so more till you get there. Works every time!

PoolDoc

[CarlD]

The way I worked the math was with a proportion. If .5 teaspoons effectively chlorinates 1 gallon of pool water, then 12000 teaspoons should effectively chlorinate 24000 gallons. Converting 12000 teaspoons to gallons gives me 15.625 gallons of bleach. Am I correct? So will I be adding 4 gallons a night for about 4 nights?

I'm not sure how you go there, but ultimately the calculation is correct.

Here's the formula you need:
(1,000,000/pool size) * concentration of bleach * # gals bleach = FC added

or, in your case, using 6% bleach

(1,000,000/24,000) * 0.06 * 4 gallons=9.99ppm of free chlorine added per night.

But you cannot be sure with that, as Ben says. You must still be testing because chlorine will be consumed.

For a 24,000 gal pool, one gallon of 6% bleach adds 2.5ppm of FC.

[btozzo]

Got it. I was just trying to get a sense of how much this will cost me. I was planning on testing and dosing until I got there and then testing some more!

I'm going to start tonight and I'll be posting my results daily. Thanks so much everyone, I'm seeing some light at the end of my "No Chlorine Tunnel!"

Bill

[chem geek]

If the circulation in your pool is decent, you can initially add 10 ppm FC then wait an hour then retest and add more if the FC is very low or zero. The chlorine gets consumed very quickly at first. You may see some of it register as Combined Chlorine (CC), but it's the Free Chlorine (FC) you want to look at.

The bucket test gives you a rough minimum requirement, but your chlorine demand may still be high for some days after the chlorine at least somewhat holds. You can see this effect in the thread describing my experience of this which I summarized in this post.

[btozzo]

Hello All!

4 Gallons of bleach in my pool last night and this morning my test tube was nice and YELLOW! Looks like about 3ppm or better. So this is encouraging. I'm going to retest tonight and add more if necessary.

Now, there is a lot of "stuff" at the bottom of my pool. It seems that no matter how much I vacuum it always comes back. The water is clear and when I vacuum it becomes cloudy. My filter "Hayward 265" seems to need backwashing everyday as well. Am I correct in assuming that the organics eat the chlorine, some die and fall to their death on the floor of my pool and end up clogging my filter. The rest are floating around waiting for more chlorine to eat them? I wish I could afford one of those "TigerSharks" to clean the pool as I seem to be spinning my wheels with the vacuum. Could you guys also offer me some advice about my filter/circulation problems? Here are the vitals:

1. Hayward EC265
2. Dismantled and cleaned twice already. Soaked in a garbage pale with a bottle of "StripKwik" to degrease.
3. Backwashed and bumped more times than I can count. I've already gone through about 2 bags of DE.

Thanks again everyone,

Bill

[PoolDoc]

Stuff that chlorine oxidizes is essentially 'gone', so far as filtration and settling goes, unless that stuff is iron and it's not in your case.

Brown stuff at the bottom of the pool is often dead algae, but from what you've said, it doesn't sound like that's happening either.

Gray stuff at the bottom, especially in a clear pool with a DE filter is often . . . DE.

And that means either a leak in your filter (torn 'membrane', missing tube, misplaced connection, cracked header) or an error in your filter startup process.

If there's enough stuff to pinch, grab a pinchful: DE will be a little gritty.

If it is DE, your filter OR your backwash process needs some work.

PoolDoc

[herrmanncr]

I am having the same problem. "Chlorine lock". I googled and it braught me here. Don't mean to jump in but need to know how much bleach to use. Posted #s last night but didn't show.Pool is 21000 ig vinyl.
Off memory think they are
Fc .2
Ph 7
Alk 130
Calc 400
Cya 94
These are pool store #. I need to get a kit.
Any help is appreciated. Water is clear for now. Been shocking with all kinds. Usinf algea 60. No metals present.
Thanks , chris

[aylad]

herrmanncr,

I answered this in your thread. It is helpful if you'll keep your information in that thread that you started, because it gets really confusing for those trying to help two different posters within the same thread. I promise that we're looking at yours as often as we are looking here! It doesn't hurt to read other, similar threads, but please keep your pool details in your own thread to make it easier on us.

Thanks!

Janet

[btozzo]

Hello All!!

Well, I tested again last night and my Chlorine was still above 3.0 and I am thrilled! I can't thank everyone enough. Now I just have to get all the rap off the bottom of my pool. I wish I could rent an electric robotic pool cleaner . . .

Ben, I am going to subscribe to PoolSolutions!! BBB is the Method for ME!!!

Bill

[Watermom]

Ben, I am going to subscribe to PoolSolutions!! BBB is the Method for ME!!!

Bill

Glad to have you!