Chlorine and calcium low

[mrszaff]

I am a new member and I really want to get my pool right this year, so thanks in advance. We fought a metal issue last season and reading your info really saved us. Thank you!

Opened it up 2 weeks ago and it stayed green for 10 days despite "perfect #s" according to the pool store. I added Polyquot 60 and kept shocking it with liquid shock and bleach , finally after replacing the valve in the filter because of air bubbles and then adding Proteam mustard and black majic(Sodium Bromide) it cleared up but now the chlorine levels are really low. I just got an analysys at Leslies Pool Store and here are the #s. The water is clear but not sparkling yet.

16x32 inground vinyl
sand filter
FAC .5
PH 7.2
TA 80
Calcium Hardness 80
CYA 35
TDS 1000
Copper/Iron 0
Phosphates 500

That's all they gave me but they recommended I add
a bag of Powder Shock and 20lbs of Calcium Hardness(I didn't buy it) as well as phosfree anf 10 oz of PH up
Before I do anything I wanted to check with you all.
thanks from Long Island !!!

[CarlD]

I am a new member and I really want to get my pool right this year, so thanks in advance. We fought a metal issue last season and reading your info really saved us. Thank you!

Opened it up 2 weeks ago and it stayed green for 10 days despite "perfect #s" according to the pool store. I added Polyquot 60 and kept shocking it with liquid shock and bleach , finally after replacing the valve in the filter because of air bubbles and then adding Proteam mustard and black majic(Sodium Bromide) it cleared up but now the chlorine levels are really low. I just got an analysys at Leslies Pool Store and here are the #s. The water is clear but not sparkling yet.

16x32 inground vinyl
sand filter
FAC .5
PH 7.2
TA 80
Calcium Hardness 80
CYA 35
TDS 1000
Copper/Iron 0
Phosphates 500

That's all they gave me but they recommended I add
a bag of Powder Shock and 20lbs of Calcium Hardness(I didn't buy it) as well as phosfree anf 10 oz of PH up
Before I do anything I wanted to check with you all.
thanks from Long Island !!!

I'll BET they tried to sell you Calcium and Phosfree! Don't waste your money. There is no such thing as "low calcium" in a vinyl pool. You don't need it--it's only for concrete/plaster pools. Phosfree is the latest gimmick to move $$$ from you to them. You need to raise your FC to at least 3-6ppm if your pool is clear and you should do it with bleach or liquid chlorine. Your pH is a little low but with a passel of kids splashing it it, it will go up enough.

Forget TDS--if you had an SWG your TDS (from the salt) would have the pool store guys DROOLING over stuff they could sell you.

In short, you need chlorine but otherwise GO SWIMMING!

[nthach]

The only "gimmick" I've seen that somewhat works is Green To Clean.

Leslie's shock is almost always cal hypo. Liquid bleach or pool chlorine is the best thing to use for shocking the pool - as the -chlors like trichlor/dichlor will also dump CYA in your pool.

[mrszaff]

Thank you so much, I am heading to the store to get bleach!!!

[mrszaff]

Hi again,
The pool still looks great but I can't get the chlorine to stay above .5 for more than 24 hours.
I have been adding 2 gallons of bleach every night. I even added a package of the powder shock one night. The chlorinator has been running every day as well with 4 tabs in it.
Thanks
Mrszaff

[Watermom]

Can you post current water testing results. The last ones posted are now 4 days old. It would also be good if you could give us at least 2 of the following: FC, CC, TC, in additon to all the other test numbers.

[mrszaff]

ok, I will try to get back to the pool store tomorrow and get a test done, I only have the strips.

[nthach]

I would suggest picking up the HTH 6-way test kit at Wally-World. It's made by Taylor, and while it's not a K-2006 or one of Ben's/TFP's kits, it's better than the strips - only thing it doesn't do is FAS-DPD chlorine.

[waterbear]

You have a bromide pool right now. It can take a while for the chlorine to hold after a sodium bromide treatment. Keep shocking the pool with liquid chlorine or bleach and you will find your chlorine will eventually hold. It can take 3 or 4 times before it does, however.
Invest in a good test kit and stop relying on the pool store. You will never have your pool under control if you do. Get a Taylor K-2006 (not the K-2005). It is worth every penny (around $80 US) and will pay for itself over and over again. I know that NO ONE on here will disagree with me!

[nthach]

Why are you adding bromine to your pool - not only does Cl and Br interact with each other, Br breaks down to worthless bromides quite quickly.

You'll need to use bleach or liquid chlorine in huge doses to get the Cl levels up and you'll need to maintain them for a few days or weeks until the Br is down to 0.