Chlorine level high in spa low/ok in the pool

[kutsyy]

Hi everyone,

I have a new pool and I am learning how to control water chemistry. Thanks to this forum I am starting to understand a lot but still need help.

One thing I am completely at loss is how to keep steady level of Chlorine in both spa and pool. We have spa next to the pool so when pool pump is on some water is going into the spa and spills out into the pool. When spa is running, no water gets into the pool. To control Chlorine we have "In-Line Chlorinator" which is using 3" tablets, I am using trichol pool tablets. After a week of testing I figure out that about 1.5-2 on the dial of the "In-Line Chlorinator" will keep nice level of Chlorine in the pool (about 1.2). However, when I trun on spa, level in the spa shoots up very quickly to 6 and higher.

I do understand theory why it happens (much less water, faster pump, not as much UV, etc..) but how can I keep it consistent? I've been thinking about either manually going to the equipment and shutting off "In-Line Chlorinator" before spa use (not sure how my kids would follow it), not using "In-Line Chlorinator" and manually add chlorine daily or putting in one of the computerized chlorine dispenser.

But I think there should be an eather way to do it or am I doing something wrong? Any recommendations/suggesting?

Thanks,

Vadim

PS: and no, water is not perfectly in the levels yet but I am getting there. Ph is slightly too high, CYA is almost with-in limits and we do have UV light.

 

[danacc]

Pictures of the plumbing at the equipment pad, including valve settings and the location of the in-line chlorinator may help.

Note: I only use the in-line chlorinator plumbed when my pool was built when I'm away from home for an extended period. It is easier for me to manually add bleach than to manage the constant CYA rise from using tablets. Mine is plumbed so that it only affects the water returning to the pool. When the pool is on, the spa gets water from the pool returned to it, but this water doesn't go through the chlorinator directly into the spa. You could stop the spa water from going through the chlorinator by turning it off, like you mentioned, but there may be other ways to do it depending on how your valves are set up.

 

[kutsyy]

Attached it the photo of the plumbing. As I understand water is flowing from the left into in-line chlorinator then either strait through manual spill-over bypass valve or down into the automatic valve, which is open to the pool or spa.

Are you recommending to relocate in-line chlorinator so only pool water is flowing through it? In that case, there would be absolutely no chlorine in the spa, right?

 

[danacc]

I'm not recommending a relocation, just letting you know there are different ways to do this. My spa can only get chlorine additions by the chlorinator when the pool is running, and it only gets it indirectly because the previously chlorinated pool water is returned to the spa. I run my pump and filter in pool mode every day, and put it in spa mode only when there are folks in the spa. When it is in spa mode, no new chlorine is added. That doesn't hurt anything; it's perfectly fine to be in properly chlorinated water without a constant infusion of more chlorine. When it is in pool mode with the chlorinator on, the newly chlorinated pool water gets shared into the spa and the chlorine level evens out between the 2 pretty quickly.

But like I said, I don't use the chlorinator unless nobody's home for a few days, and in that case, the whole thing is left in pool mode until we come back. For all practical purposes, I manually dose the pool every day with bleach, and then that is shared with the spa when the system runs in pool mode.

I can't tell from the picture--when you say "manual spillover bypass", where can you make the water go/not go? Is that something that will help? If not, it sounds like the only option with the current set-up is to turn the chlorinator off when you switch to spa.