Total Chlorine Higher than Free Chlorine,

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C

CindyG1

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Jul 7, 2011
151
N. Ga Mountains
Hello. I am new here but have had a pool for years. My pool is a 34ft round, 52" high. 27,500 gal.. I have a 1.5 HP pump and a starite sand filter.

My problem is that 2 weeks ago I came home from out of town to an algae bloom. I shocked with 3 lbs trichlor. I then swept and vacuumed. All the stuff on the bottom of a still crystal clear pool then went into the water , turning it green.

I shocked again , a week ago with 5 lbs of shock (again, powdered from Wal-mart). Pool better but very cloudy. I then put in clarifier and vacuumed to waste. Pool better but not clear, just a little bit cloudy but tested OK..

I then had a pool party . Lots of swimmers. Pool is now very cloudy. I shocked again , this time 5 lbs. Took my water sample in as water is still cloudy.

My FAC is 8.67., TC is 9.24, CC is .57,PH 7.1. CH is 255 and CYA is 12.

Pool store said CYA is great and to shock again with another 5 lbs of shock as the TC is higher than the FAC.

Is this correct and do I need to raise the CYA level? This is the first time I have not been able to get my pool back to normal. Please advise...I am getting very frustrated ( ...as I know all of us do!)

Thanks so much for your help and consideration.
 
Hello and welcome to TFP. I am new here too but know that the answer to your question requires many more questions.

How long has this water been in your pool and what is your normal method of water sanitation? What did you use to "shock" your pool? If it was Dichlor or Trichlor that 13 lbs would have raised your CYA to about 30 ppm. If you had a CYA level previously established you could be pushing close to 100 PPM or more.

An overnight FC test will tell you if you have organics in the water. Adding some DE to your sand filter will get the cloudy dead algea out of your water.

I would not trust the pool store measurments. Did they really say your CYA was 12 ppm. The accuracy of the CYA test is +/- 10 so it usually wont register untill 30 or so.

I'm sure others will chime in with better advice. The best I can say is if you spend an hour reading pool school and get a good test kit your water will be better than ever.
 
When you say "shock" are you talking about adding a bag of chemicals, or the process of shocking the pool? It is a process, you can read about in the Pool School tab at the top of the page. You know when you are done with the process when you Overnight Chlorine Loss Test is zero.

The Pool Calculator will give you lots of info, including the chlorine levels need for shock treatment based on your CYA level and pool water capacity, as well normal swimming levels. Just set the gallons to match your pool, select the pool surface, chlorine source and preferred goals {I like TFP.com goals}

I like my CYA around 30ppm
 
Hello and thank you so much for replying to my post.

Yes, I am looking at the readout from the pool store and it shows the Cyanuric Acid level at 12. It also shows the acceptable range at 20 to 50 however the pool store said 12 was great and I didn't need anything for it....I was confused.

I did read the pool school stuff and I am left a little confused at this point on the combined chlorine causing chloramines which is what the pool store said my problem was.

To shock the pool I added 5 lbs of shock from Walmart. The pkg calls for 1 lb per 12000 gallons and the pool store said since I had green algae at the bottom I needed to double that. Hence 5 bags.It says on the bag it is sodium dichloro-triazinetyrione 58%.

I want to get back to pretty crystal clear water that I have always had until now...thanks again for your help and I will continue the Pool School...:)
 
Oh...and I did at 1 cup of DE to my filter today by diluting in water and going slowly thru the skimmer.

The water has been in the pool since August of last year. When I opened it I went to the pool store added ph up and calcium. Used 6 lbs of shock and was good to go. That was in May of this year.

This issue started 2 weeks back.The pool was crystal clear when I uncovered it in May. Thanks again, Cindy
 
What is your regular routine for sanitation? Are you using chlorine tablets? If so those have stabilizer or CYA in them. You have already mentioned about 20 lbs of Dichlor for shocking. That alone brought your CYA to around 35 ppm or so.

Get a good test kit If your CYA is to high chlorine becomes less effective and you have to keep high levels present or algea will take over.

Best/cheapest source of chlorine is bleach. With a good test kit you can actually shock your pool more effectively and cheaper than the product the pool stores sell. Shock is not a product it is a process that can take several days sometimes.

Best tools along with pool school are a good test kit and the pool calculator.
 
You have gotten great advice from the members^^^^ :goodjob:

As said, you need to shock your pool until you have met the three criteria that prove that you are done shocking. See red lines in my sig.

To take control of your pool, you need a good test kit.
The fav around here is the TF100 sold by duraleigh at http://www.TFTestKits.Net.
A good test kit is the best investment we made in our pool.

Welcome to the forum :wave:
 
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