Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to TFP

Jump to latest Follow Reply
B

Bitburger28

0
Apr 27, 2013
5
Austin Texas
I'm a new pool owner who has an IG pool built in November 2011 in Austin Texas. The first year I battled PH and alkalinity while the pool was curing. Now that I have those fairly stable I've ran into an issue when the pool will not hold chlorine.

I run my 2hp variable speed pump at 100 percent 12 hours a day and have done so since starting the pool. I clean the pool and adjust chemicals once a week as needed.

I add Pool perfect phos free once a week, brush the pool, add chlorine to the auto feeder, add granular shock, and clean the skimmer and pump baskets. I add sea clear algae preventer to the Pool every three months and scale free once a month.

Until the past month or so the pool has been great. But now I can't get it to keep chlorine. The pool store keeps telling me to shock the pool and turn up the auto feeder. The auto feeder is now higher than it has ever been at 4 and I'm using a lot more shock than ever. The chlorine tabs I use are stabilized and they are dissolving.

I still have the same results of no or low chlorine levels and high combined chlorine levels.

Below are what my pool levels are today from the pool stores read out. The pool store told me to add chlorine tabs to the skimmers and shock the pool again.

I don't have a lot of faith at this point in their advise.

I appreciate any help that you can provide. Thank you.

FC - .2 ppm
TC - .6 ppm
Combined C - .4 ppm
Ph - 7.6
hardness - 330
Alkalinity - 80 ppm
Cyanuric acid - 100
Total dissolved solids - 1400
Phosphates - 250
Temperate of water - 74
Outside temp - 85
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Welcome to the forum. :lol:

We can certainly help. You will need to shock the pool but not like the pool store has been telling you. It is a process that can take several days but your pool will be crystal clear and will hold chlorine just fine. It's not anything more complex than understanding the nature of chlorine, what causes it's loss and how to keep adequate chlorine in your pool by testing and replenishing.

Part of you issue is the virtually unmanageable amount of CYA that's in your pool. To get your water back under control, you are going to have to drain off about half your pool water to get your CYA down around 50 ppm.

read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School and then read "How to Shock Your Pool". Those two articles should give you an overview.

Stop buying all those unnecessary chemicals from the pool store. They are wasting your time and money.

All of us here will help you gain an understanding of what's going on in your pool and how to fix it. Asl lot's of questions and you will get copurteous, prompt help.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

One of the particular problems here is that the common CYA tests tend to report any CYA level over 100 as 100. So your CYA level might actually be much higher than 100. It is exceedingly difficult to clean up a pool with CYA over 80. I recommend that you replace water to get CYA down to something more reasonable before continuing to fight the algae.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Listen to ^^^^Those two guys^^^^!!! Also, do yourself a favor and order one of the test kits we recommend. Those pucks on a regular basis is what is driving your CYA number crazy. It doesn't evaporate either is the sad thing about it.

Welcome to the forum btw!
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Please buy a pool test kit as listed in my siggy. It will help you SO much in the long run-time AND money!
-read pool school
-order test kit
-drain your water by about half
-add new water
-find where your best source of plain bleach (mine is my local ACE hardware store, some find the best buy at Walmart. Just make sure you check the % of bleach to make sure you get the best bang for your buck.)
-read, read, read Pool School!
-do not go to pool store unless it has your best price on bleach and then ONLY for bleach

If you follow the TFP way you will have a cheap, trouble free, clear pool!

Good luck! You CAN Do it!

Kim
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Welcome to TFP! Good advice so far. I will reiterate that your own high quality test kit is an absolute must. The kind of kit we recommend here is a service level test kit such as the Taylor K-2006 or the TF-100 at tftestkits.net. The TF-100 is a much better value and on overall better kit and it uses Taylor reagents.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Ill answer what hasn't been addressed, and thats why you lose FC. The combined chloromines tell us that there is organics in the water that must be killed by shocking, so the pool store was right about that. However, read the posts above me to show you how :) Hope I helped clear that up. It may be overwhelming at first, but you'll get it! Don't be afraid to ask questions.

And welcome to TFP!!!

-Sent from Galaxy Note II
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Thank you all for the advise. I've read the abc of pool water chemistry, the shock process, and BBB.

I ordered the Taylor k-2006 from Amazon for $52.

To confirm I need to drain 50% of the pool, then refill it.

Before I do this should I wait until I get the new test kit?

After I get the test kit what steps should I take to move into the BBB system?

With that approach I would no longer use the chlorine tablets, muratic acid, etc?

Once again thank you for the help. I want to learn how to maintenance the pool but it seems I still have a lot to learn.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Pretty much yes. The only alternative to replacing water is a reverse osmosis treatment, but they are only available in a few areas (I don't know about austin).
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Sounds like a plan. There is something in your water rapidly consuming FC. This is indicated by the presence of CC and rapid FC consumption.

Drain and fill as suggested to get your CYA manageable. It takes insane amounts of bleach to get to shock levels that high. Rely on your own test results and then start the shock "process".

To pass the overnight chlorine loss test you'll have to shut you tablet chlorinator down or just let all the tablets dissolve otherwise that interferes with your measurement of chlorine loss.

To shock properly you'll need to know and CYA and FC/CC. you only need to test CYA every month or so or even longer.

Your on your way to taking control of your pool. Then you won't be dumping in expensive chemicals willy nilly. You asked how to start, here's what I would do:

1) Get kit and run full battery of tests including CYA
2) Based on CYA, drain/fill to get it manageable of 50
3) Get familiar with poolcalculator.com. This will tell you how much bleach to achieve shock levels for your measured CYA.
4) Get lots of bleach and start the shock process, here's the link: pool-school/shocking_your_pool.
5) When done shocking adjust anything else as needed
6) Enjoy sparklyitis and trouble free pool

Since your pool doesn't have visible algae my guess is you won't be shocking for long until you pass the 3 required criteria. But you MUST get that CYA down.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

You are on the right track! You will have fun learning how to do your tests. After a while you will not even have to think about it.

I make my husband watch me every once in a while just in case I cannot do it for some reason.

My pool is so happy that NOW I only have to test every other day or so. I DO add chlorine every day though. It is just that I have learned my pool so know how much to add each day.

Kim
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Thank you all again. Looks like I will be draining the pool and refilling it sometime in the next few days.

I have a ring of white around the water line of the pool. Is there something I can use to remove that? I'm assuming that has formed because of the battle I've had with the pH and alkalinity while the plaster was curing over the past year.

I will be changing to bleach and using the pool calculator once I receive the new test kit to avoid having to do this again in the future. :-D
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

'm assuming that has formed because of the battle I've had with the pH and alkalinity while the plaster was curing over the past year.
Click to expand...
Probably so. Focus on getting your other stuff squared away but, while you are waiting for your kit, a 3:1 solution of water/muriatic acid will usually clean it off.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

Bitburger28 said:
Thank you all for the advise. I've read the abc of pool water chemistry, the shock process, and BBB.

I ordered the Taylor k-2006 from Amazon for $52.

To confirm I need to drain 50% of the pool, then refill it.

Before I do this should I wait until I get the new test kit?

After I get the test kit what steps should I take to move into the BBB system?

With that approach I would no longer use the chlorine tablets, muratic acid, etc?

Once again thank you for the help. I want to learn how to maintenance the pool but it seems I still have a lot to learn.
Click to expand...

One bad thing about the 2006 (this is the kit I use) is that it only has enough CYA reagent for like 3 tests. (maybe 2) . Because your CYA is an issue you are going to need enough for about 10 tests. I live in austin and have a big bottle of the CYA reagent. If you are close by I can come by and help you out.
 
Re: Pool Not holding chlorine. New pool owner and member to

I haven't received the test kit yet to compare but is it the Taylor replacement reagent r-0870-I did power 10 that I need more of? I don't mind ordering more if needed.

Do I need to order more of the other bottles? I see several refill kits online and just want to make sure I order the right ones if I need them.

Are these sold locally?

I live in North Austin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply