Chlorine Lock ?

[mjsboone]

Thanks. Now I am really discouraged...

[BigDave]

I'm sorry. I didn't intend to discourage you. What we know is that you have chlorine demand but we don't know why. The only thing to do is pour bleach in it - but enough bleach - too little is usually just wasted.

[mjsboone]

Please tell me how much bleach and for how long. So far I have put in 12 big bottles of bleach since Saturday. I'm not a chemist, just trying to get the pool chemically correct so it is clear and healthy. I'm sorry I do not have the very expensive test kit but it is what it is and I will continue to try to figure this out. I have had a pool all of my life and never have I had this difficulty getting the water balanced using all the typical pool store products with secretive names. Now, in the past month, none of their products have worked and their directions of add this first, wait 15 minutes, add this second, divide this in thirds, ect...have worn me out and my pocketbook out! Adding the bleach has improved the look of my pool, but I still want to know if this is going to be an every night event for the duration or will the water eventually hold the chlorine throughout the night and a maintainance schedule will keep it where it needs to be. Can anyone answer that question for me?

[Watermom]

Eventually, the chlorine demand will go away but it takes time.

No way to know for sure but sometimes what happens to pools is that the CYA biodegrades over the winter and leaves behind a bunch of byproducts such as ammonia that cause a huge chlorine demand the following season when the pool is opened. I have a feeling that is what is happening in your pool.

The only way to get rid of the byproducts and thus the chlorine demand is to add lots of bleach. It will probably get a little expensive to buy all the bleach but there is no other way around it other than a lot of chlorine. Since you have no chlorine in there now, you must add some or you will not only have a pool with high chlorine demand, you will also have a green pool to go with it!

Each of the 121-oz jugs of bleach will add about 3.5ppm of chlorine. Go ahead and add 4 jugs this morning. A couple of hours later, test your chlorine and see what you show. You will have to use this chart to make a guess of what the reading is:> http://pool9.net/oto-chart/

This evening, test again and see where you are. And, then again, add enough bleach to get back up to around 15ish. It may take several days of keeping the chlorine high before the chlorine holds but eventually it will.

If you can get the K2006 kit, it will make this a whole lot easier.

[Big Splash]

Please tell me how much bleach and for how long. So far I have put in 12 big bottles of bleach since Saturday. I'm not a chemist, just trying to get the pool chemically correct so it is clear and healthy. I'm sorry I do not have the very expensive test kit but it is what it is and I will continue to try to figure this out. I have had a pool all of my life and never have I had this difficulty getting the water balanced using all the typical pool store products with secretive names. Now, in the past month, none of their products have worked and their directions of add this first, wait 15 minutes, add this second, divide this in thirds, ect...have worn me out and my pocketbook out! Adding the bleach has improved the look of my pool, but I still want to know if this is going to be an every night event for the duration or will the water eventually hold the chlorine throughout the night and a maintainance schedule will keep it where it needs to be. Can anyone answer that question for me?

Boone, I think you'll find it is very difficult for the experts here to offer advise without you reporting testing results from the recommended test kit.

You've done well over the years, but you've now hit a wall that is created by using those pool store products blindly. I'm certain everyone here wants to help you. But without good test data being reported by you, nobody wants to end up making a recommendation that could make things worse.

Make the investment if you can in the Taylor kit and you'll find more money in your pocket in the end.

Best,
Splash

[mjsboone]

Thanks Watermom and Big Splash. I appreciate your constructive responses. The more I read, the more I understand about the process. Off to buy bleach by the trunkful.

Jane

[PoolDoc]

Well, this morning brings zip zero chlorine. I want to say that I could see a tinge of yellow in the test bottle, but not enough to register on the lowest level of the vial.

Overnight chlorine loss almost certainly indicates that there is something in the water that the chlorine is oxidizing. The only solution to this is to chlorinate till it's gone OR to drain and refill. (Remember, most inground pools cannot be drained safely without special precautions). You can do the bucket demand test to see how much chlorine it's likely to require: http://pool9.net/bucket-demand/

Unfortunately, we can't tell you WHAT is in the water. We'd know a little more, if you had the K2006. I can tell you that your problem originated in one of two ways: EITHER, it's something the pool store has been selling you -- and yes, stores sell MANY worse-than-useless products -- OR it's partially degraded stabilizer (cyanuric acid), resulting from a period of biofilm (bacterial slime) activity in your pool.

[sabres07]

No disrespect meant here, but really the first thing you need to do is buy the Taylor test kit. Without reliable and accurate numbers, the advice you will get here is more "general" in nature which translates to more cost and time spent clearing up the problem. There is a reason why every first answer to each thread in this forum starts with "what are your numbers? If you don't know, get a good test kit".

[Watermom]

No disrespect meant here, but really the first thing you need to do is buy the Taylor test kit. Without reliable and accurate numbers, the advice you will get here is more "general" in nature which translates to more cost and time spent clearing up the problem. There is a reason why every first answer to each thread in this forum starts with "what are your numbers? If you don't know, get a good test kit".

What he said!

[sabres07]

As a point of referrence, I was told I had 'chlorine lock' a few years ago by my pool store after having the same problem you are having now. No matter how much chlorine I added it would get eaten up almost immediately. So I googled chlorine lock and found this site....I have not set foot in a pool store since then and my pool has been crystal clear, too, since I have been following the BBB method. By the way, it took something like 30-35 gallons of 12% chlorine to kill whatever was causing my chlorine demand. We eventually figured my problem stemmed from a degredation of CYA over the winter which created ammonia as a waste product. Vast amounts of chlorine are needed to rid the ammonia.