still can't get the chlorine up

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D

DMS2014

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Jun 22, 2014
807
Houston, Texas
FC 2
CA 400
TA 90
CYA 55.

Sigh.....we have dumped bleach, used pucks of chlorine, upped the SWG to 70. Went to Leslie's to get our salt tested. We were down on salt so we added more.

Seriously don't know what to do. The hubby watched a YouTube video on our SWG to see about resetting it...again...

Just poured a gallon of bleach in this morning.

Last week we had to put a boatload of CYA in and run the pumps for 24 per directions....
 
I'd add enough bleach to raise FC by 6 for your gallon size pool and test it again 30 minutes and 1 hour later to see if maybe you have an ammonia issue. Turn the SWG off of course during this test and remove pucks.
 
What type of SWG do you have and is it working or not? If not, what are the error codes or symptoms?

Add 2 more gallons of bleach to raise the FC and after 30 minutes run a test using the FAS/DPD reagents and post the FC number. Make sure the bleach is 8.25%.

Read up on The SLAM Process, see my signature, to prepare for a possible SLAM.
 
Of course the answer is more bleach! When ever there is a low FC level and you're unsure of the SWG, add liquid bleach to hold things safe so you don't have to battle bigger problems down the road.

So your CYA is really 60 (always round up) and perhaps higher since you mention adding some, your CH is high so don't use anything like CalHypo, add more liquid chlorine/bleach and use Pool Math to help you get your FC up to up to where you want it. I'd venture to say another gallon will bring you up to 6....

How does your water look? Do you have algae now?? If so you're FC is being eaten alive by the algae.
 
no algae. Water is clear. i just cannot believe that it's been so much trouble to get it up.

The SWG is a Hayward. it's new when we built the pool. It's not sand. My husband has kept up on all cleaning of the filters. Everything is clean. We also have a problem keep the CYA up too. It's never been that high...after the storm it was 40 so that's why we added more. I will have the husband get more bleach after our dog gets her shots....sigh....
 
ping said:
What type of SWG do you have and is it working or not? If not, what are the error codes or symptoms?

Add 2 more gallons of bleach to raise the FC and after 30 minutes run a test using the FAS/DPD reagents and post the FC number. Make sure the bleach is 8.25%.

Read up on The SLAM Process, see my signature, to prepare for a possible SLAM.
Click to expand...

there are no error messages. it appears to be working fine. however, we have been fighting this FC problem for over a week and have tried several different things. I forgot to mention we did the super chlorinate for two hours and that did nothing.
 
Low cya and low chlorine both are signs of not maintaining enough chlorine or enough circulation. There are bacteria that grow and consume CYA when FC is allowed to stay too low for too long.

It is important to keep chlorine levels at target level for your CYA at all times, Chlorine CYA Chart. Allowing chlorine to drop below minimum will allow bacteria and algae to start growing.

You can elevate the FC to 10 and Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT) to see if there is algae or bacteria present in the pool. If there is then you need to Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain the pool to get rid of it.

Yes, it is very possible to have clear water and algae. I let my FC drop below minimum earlier this summer and had algae spots on the pool wall, bench, behind the light and in the pool vac. Water was crystal clear, as it has been for 3 years, and CC was 0 the whole SLAM.
 
I agree. we have had a pretty consistent 3 for FC up until the last week. we test regularly. I have all of our results and can look back and see. However, it seems like ever since I first started doing the 100 tests, we have always had lower than expected CYA. We did the OCLT once before and had no algae.
We will do the OCLT tonight. Husband is STILL at the vet...sigh...bleach will be coming....

The water temp is about 82 right now (about the whole week) so at least it's not super warm....
 
Being low on salt and CYA means you are losing water not only to evaporation. Is there an overflow drain built in to the pool or have you needed to dump water out of the pool? Do you have an auto-fill water line on the pool?
 

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ping said:
Being low on salt and CYA means you are losing water not only to evaporation. Is there an overflow drain built in to the pool or have you needed to dump water out of the pool? Do you have an auto-fill water line on the pool?
Click to expand...

We had a HUGE storm 2 Thursday ago and I had to dump water. It was all the way up to the coping over the tiles. I don't know how much that was, but I know it threw our chlorine, salt off fer sure. I've been battling it ever since. No, we do not have an overflow thing.
 
At what time did you test your water the evening before? At what time did you test the results? I always use the 8 hr. rule, 10 p.m. test and 6 a.m. test again. Other's have recommended when sun goes down and before sun comes up.

CYA levels for SWG are recommended at levels between 70-90. If water is clear, CC is less than .5 and your loss is less than 1, then you have passed.
 
DMS2014 said:
We tested at 6 p.m. and 8 a.m this morning. Best I could do. I guess we're going to have to add More CYA at some point...just put a ton in. Doing the test again tonight.
Click to expand...

A 1 ppm loss over a 14 hour period is fine. You can redo the test again this evening just to confirm your results. Regarding CYA, it sometimes takes 1 week to register. If you put in a "ton" and your CYA did not rise, then you may wish to call the company of the product and find out what the issue is, especially if it has been longer than 7 days. Please follow the testing for CYA carefully. We did this together at a friends home and all 3 of us had different figures. So we used the highest of all 3. Stare at the tube too long and you start seeing the black dot again.
 
the CYA rose, we just can't keep it up along with the chlorine. We turned our SWG on today bc we are at 4. Here are today's results
4 FC
400 CALC
100 TA
50 CYA

Ph looked good.
I know our CYA needs to be higher based on the schedule here. I have looked at both charts for FC and CYA. However, we just can't seem to get/stay there! Our SWG is increased now to 70.
 
DMS2014 said:
the CYA rose, we just can't keep it up along with the chlorine. We turned our SWG on today bc we are at 4. Here are today's results 4 FC 400 CALC 100 TA 50 CYA Ph looked good. I know our CYA needs to be higher based on the schedule here. I have looked at both charts for FC and CYA. However, we just can't seem to get/stay there! Our SWG is increased now to 70.
Click to expand...

Please advise on exactly what "we just can't keep it up along with the chlorine". means? How much did you CYA rise? How much did it fall? Timeline is always good to know. Loosing CYA in a short time (few days) is something that should be addressed by someone with more knowledge on what could be causing this.

Same with the chlorine. Chlorine will be consumed daily by many variables. I am not familiar with SWG, but suggest that you experiment with straight liquid bleach and shut off the SWG. What % are you using? 8.25%? What is the time stamp on the bottle? 1 Gallon should raise your FC reading by 4.5 ppm. If you test the water in the a.m., then add 1 gallon of bleach, then test the in the p.m. and you are lower than your original starting point, that means you lost 4.5 ppm throughout the day, which is quite excessive (assuming no activity during the day). One day I tested and the total loss was 4.5 ppm, but that was with 6 kids, lotions, adults, hot day, etc. If you are holding FC with liquid bleach, then chances are something is going on with the SWG.


Day Numbers for 2015

15 205 is July 24th of this year, which is about 1 month old (just an example).
 

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