How often do I have to add chlorine to maintain?

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beachbummer1980

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Jun 20, 2013
5
Louisville, KY
Hello! Newbie here. Hope I'm posting correctly (feel free to correct any errors:) Just purchased Taylor test kit this week. I have done quite a bit of adjusting to my water and am almost there but not sure what the next step should be. I have lowered my TA with Muriatic Acid, then raised pH with Borax (was 6.9), added stabilizer (was 0), and super shocked with cal hypo. My concern is I am unable to maintain an adequate FC level.
Todays Results
FC 0.2
CC .02
pH 7.4
TA 250
CH 400
CYA 30
water crystal clear, blue
added 3-1lb bags of cal hypo two days ago, FC 10, yesterday FC 4, today 0.2
Should I be adding chlorine every day?
The pool store recommended shocking with 3 bags of dichlor weekly, I do not want my cya lever to go too high, would you recommend cal hypo or liquid chlorine and how much how often? I cannot find bleach in my area cheaper than our pool store's liquid chlorine for comparable % of avail chlorine.
This is my first time not running to pool store every week and buying what they tell me. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also sorry if I got any of the terminology wrong or didn't list pertinent info.
Thanks!
Lisa
 
You should stop using the cal-hypo. Your CH is high and you don't want to risk calcium scale by raising it higher. Use liquid chlorine from now on. You need to raise the FC to shock level and keep it there as much as possible until the pool is clear. You may use the Pool calculator to determine what shock level is for your pool. Read shocking your pool and defeating algae for more information on the shock process.
 
Does she need to shock if her pool is clear though (and with cc .02)? I thought she'd just have to bring her FC up to the minimum.

I'm definitely no expert, but I generally add bleach to my pool everyday, esp. if it's been used (only testing can tell you for sure if and how much chlorine you need though). On days when I know nobody is going to use it that day or the next (going out of town, rain all day or whatever), I add extra bleach to bring the FC above minimum, and it's usually good for a few days.
 
As pool mum stated, nothing in the post directly suggests that the shock process is required. Although the CC number has a decimal place in the wrong spot or something. It might be good to boost the FC up to shock level once since it was allow to get too long to try to eradicate anything that started to grow.

If you want to follow the methods taught here, you need to add chlorine to the pool every day and never have to "shock" your pool every week if you constantly maintain adequate chlorine.

We use bleach and liquid chlorine interchangeably ... either is fine, they just have a different strength.
 
Hello Lisa,
Just remember your pool has a daily chlorine usage (Will depend on different factors such as bather load/sun/enclosed or not). Some places bring the level up to shock value, and come back the following week, and bring it back up, hopefully there is enough FC prior to the next dosage so no algae develops, and use pucks. Think roller coaster. High then low, and so on. I've done and recommended 3 times a week and it worked pretty good, until I went with a SWCG. Maintains chlorine dosage daily. Other use a pump or other system to provide daily dosage.

There's lots of great info in pool school. category.php?c=getting_started
 
Wow! Thanks for all the responses! I will stop using cal hypo and stick to liquid. I will check and add liquid chlorine every evening to keep FC level where it needs to be based on cya level. It is crystal clear and blue. As pool mum said do I need to bring FC to shock levels?
I have the Taylor k 2006. I have two ?'s about that. Where is the best place to purchase the cya reagent? And does the black dot have to totally disappear? I compared my results with a local pool company and my dot never disappeared but the computer readout said 40. Again thank you all so much for the tips!!! Its liberating to get my pool chemistry correct myself and with less chemical use and money than ever before.
 

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beachbummer1980 said:
Wow! Thanks for all the responses! I will stop using cal hypo and stick to liquid. I will check and add liquid chlorine every evening to keep FC level where it needs to be based on cya level. It is crystal clear and blue. As pool mum said do I need to bring FC to shock levels?
I have the Taylor k 2006. I have two ?'s about that. Where is the best place to purchase the cya reagent? And does the black dot have to totally disappear? I compared my results with a local pool company and my dot never disappeared but the computer readout said 40. Again thank you all so much for the tips!!! Its liberating to get my pool chemistry correct myself and with less chemical use and money than ever before.
Click to expand...
As already stated, TFTestkits.net!

I just ordered this, it's a 50ppm solution of CYA. Using it to test instead of pool water will show me what 50ppm looks like so I can guarantee I'm doing the dot test properly.

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/Chemi ... ntentID=36 << I was just reading over this and realized, my pH is probably causing a skew in the result, last test was 40-45, this one was around 30. I'm at 7.2 and need to aerate tonight.

I'll aerate tonight and try again tomorrow, but once I get the 50ppm solution I will know I'm testing accurately.
 
Thanks for the compliment :-D ! The more I read on the forum and pool school the smarter I feel. I would have never even known something like that existed to make sure I'm getting my CYA levels correct, thanks. ALSO Can anyone tell me what other reagents I should order to get me through the summer with my Taylor k2006 testing kit? And are the reagents good for next summer if I don't use them all this summer?
 
I didn't either until someone else told me :)

I use most frequently the FAS-DPD reagent, 871, along with the powder (870).

Reagents last a couple seasons, but buying fresh will always provide you with piece of mind. I never use the acid/base demand reagents. I will definitely be replacing the less often used reagents next season, along w/ pH indicator. 3 seasons is probably a bit much, but it's only been 2 calendar years.


I use most often (also included how long they last me, YMMV):
pH (indicator) - R-0004 (3yrs)
FAS-DPD - R-0871 (2/yr)
Powder - R-0870 (1/yr)
CYA - R0013 (3yrs)

less often:
CC - R-0003 (3yrs)
TA - R-0007, R-0008, R-0009 (3yrs)
CH - R-0010, R-0011L, R-0012 (3yrs)

never:
Acid Demand - R-0005
Base Demand - R-0006

I kept thinking that the TA and CH tests only had 2 steps, 5 drops then dropwise to clear. But after reviewing instructions there's 2 drops of one, 5 of the other then 3rd step is dropwise to clear. I always read the instructions from the lid when doing TA/CH tests, since I do them less frequently.
 
pool mum said:
Does she need to shock if her pool is clear though (and with cc .02)? I thought she'd just have to bring her FC up to the minimum.
Click to expand...

CC shows up in the pool when FC is used up sanitizing organics. If you don't have a significant amount of FC in the water, you might not have a CC reading either. Since it seems that the pool dropped bow its minimum FC level, the safe thing to do would be an OCLT just to make sure the water doesn't need to be shocked.
 
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