Not holding free cholrine

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N

newbiepool

0
LifeTime Supporter
Jul 30, 2011
52
Richmond VA
Hello,

This is my firth season and for the first time I am having issue holding free chlorine. I believe my SWG is working it has the following readings

"26.57v 6.62a 74F 3000PPM" and I see the bubbles in the pool. The pool has been opened now for about a month and I started noticing there was a slight haze starting to form as a result of the low FC. I have increased the SWG run time and it still persists. I took the water to my rusted pool store and he said all my readings are in check. (other than the FC) So he did the phosphate test and he told me was not normal. He did not share with me the reading other than he had me buy a "phosphate remover" product. I asked if i needed to shock the pool given the slight haze he said it wouldn't hurt. So I shocked the pool and then put the phosphate remover in the skimmer as instructed. Am I on to something? Or was it a waste of time and money? I have a big crowd coming this Sunday and need to get this fixed asap.

-Any insights greatly appreciated.
 
Please post a complete set of water test results.

The SWG diagnostic numbers suggest that the SWG is working correctly.

The most common causes of low FC levels with a SWG are either algae or low CYA levels.

Phosphate remover is almost always a waste of money, something pool stores use as a way of selling expensive phosphate remover.
 
CYA 70
Total Chlorine 0.3
FC 0
PH 8.4 (I suspect the increase because of the slight haze. I have put in some muriatic acid to help bring it down)
total alkaminity 95
Hardiness 205
Salt 3000

Is it possible I just don't have the SWG running long enough? A bit of history... in the last few seasons I have been running it about 8% and it has been working fine. With the recent issue I have now up it to 20%. My pump runs 24/7.
 
As mentioned, a complete set of water test results are needed to determine what is going on.

- - - Updated - - -

TA should be between 60 and 90 for SWCG pools. PH is a lil high as well. PH should be around 7.5, 7.8. I would add some liquid bleach at this point and bring up the FC.
 
The shock I put in has not put the FC off the charts... so I think that is working. I have increased the percentage of the SWG as well. Unfortunately the phosfree is already in the system. I will leave it in there for at least 24 hours before backwashing it out.
 
Sounds like there is something organic in the water consuming FC. Like algae. Maybe turn off the SWG and test and dose manually with bleach/liquid chlorine a few times per day and track the results so we can see if there is higher than normal chlorine consumption.

Please update your location. Click SETTINGS upper right and then EDIT PROFILE lower left.
 
Hi Pooldv... you are right something is consuming the chlorine. I have my cell running at 30% now and I shocked the pool this morning at around 10 am and the FC is down to about 1.0... but it was about 10.0 earlier. What should I do now?
 
pooldv said:
It is time to SLAM Your Pool. Read up and buy some bleach. :)
Click to expand...

Yep!! i put in a double dose of shock at 5pm this evening. I checked it at 10 pm and it appears to be holding. I just put another dose for good measure. I had to backwash the filter before the good measure dose. The phosfree had basically caused water flow to a crawl (which i was told by design)... and if I turned the pump up it was putting the stuff back into the pool (white cloud). Hopefully in the morning the FC holds. This by far has been the most challenging experience given that the water has pretty much been clear. The only thing I can think of was this past Sunday i pressure wash (no chems used) the concrete deck and some of the dirty water did get into the pool....
 
Good news this morning is FC is still holding at 10+ there was a bunch of brown residue on the floor that I can only assume is dead algae or could it be oak pollen since we had lots of strong winds overnight and a bunch of oak "droppings" got in the pool. Either way it has been vacuumed up. Was going to put additional shock in but thought to hold off and see if the current amount will hold, unless you guys think I need to go ahead and put more.
 

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