I have a three week old pool.Last week my chlorine levels went to zero because of not enough pucks in chlorinator. A week later and plenty of pucks I can't get my numbers beyond zero.i do know I have chlorine as I can smell it. My PB said to crush pucks and put in skimmer it didnt work. PB says because of pebble tech can't shock for 3 weeks. Any ideas all other levels are good.
Can't get chlorine levels above zero
- Thread starter rmyoung
- Start date
Welcome to TFP!!!What test kit are you using? Is it one of these: Recommended Test Kits
Generally the smell of chlorine is actually due the combined chlorine (CC) which is the byproduct of the free chlorine (FC) breaking something down. The recommended FAS-DPD test allows you to test for both.
Also you need to realize that using tablets exclusively is not a long term solution as the stabilizer level will quickly become too high and your FC level will not be higher enough to compensate.
You should be using liquid chlorine to try to raise the FC level as the tablets are just too slow.
Start by getting one of the test kits and reading Pool School to start to understand the chemistry. Specifically:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Welcome to tfp, rmyoung
jbliz gave you great advice above!
By the way here at tfp, we don't use the term "shock" anymore, we now use the term "SLAM" process, which is process and not a one time raising of the chlorine level. See: SLAM process
jbliz gave you great advice above!
Did your PB mean 3 weeks from now (for a total of 6 weeks since the plaster was applied)? If so, that is a longer then the typical time to wait of 1 month. See this pool school article: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/pool_plaster_start-up...though make sure you follow your PB's start-up procedure.rmyoung said:
By the way here at tfp, we don't use the term "shock" anymore, we now use the term "SLAM" process, which is process and not a one time raising of the chlorine level. See: SLAM process
To follow up on what Linen said, the we reason we don't use the term shock here anymore is to distinguish between the "shock process" or SLAM (Shock Level and Maintain) and various chlorine "shock products" on the market. The simple truth is when it comes to the product side, any chlorine chemical can be sold as "shock" although usually those sold as shock are in a form that dissolves faster (powder vs stick). It also lets the pool stores sell 2 pails of stuff instead of 1. Go look at the fine print label of pail of unstabilized pool chlorine and one of pool shock, chances are both are going to be Cal-Hypo, which is the most common dry chlorine product due to pricing the last couple of years. Shock could also be dichlor, lithium hypo, liquid sodium hypo, or even granular trichlor, although the last is uncommon.
Ike
Ike
