Total noob here...Free Chlorine went from high to zero over night

[xr4ticlone]

I'm new to the pool world...but learning. I haven't spent as much time on here as I wanted but it's been a busy spring.

So I've used some bleach because my free chlorine was zero. Added some and bleach and the next day no real change. I then added quite a bit more since I had no movement. My pool runs 8 hours on pump cycle and is about 16,000 gallons...test the next day and I was worried because it was now off the charts. I added too much???

The next day I tested again...now I've got nothing again. Maybe a bad stick? Retest...same deal...nothing.

Now I know I'm cheating with the sticks...but I was looking for a cheap way to try my own pool care before diving into a kit. Plus I have two little boys who A. Love the sticks. B. Would be screwing with the kit endlessly.

Any thoughts? This is a salt water pool and I'm in the green on salt.

 

[Azgirl71]

Welcome to TFP!

First you should never blindly add bleach.
Second you really need a test kit. Strips are not accurate. I say get a kit, then let the boy have the strips so they can "test" the water.

What does your water look like?

 

[Donldson]

Now I know I'm cheating with the sticks...but I was looking for a cheap way to try my own pool care before diving into a kit

First, welcome to TFP!

You aren't cheating, cheating is taking a math test with the answers on a piece of paper. Using test strips is like trying to take a math test with a calculator that spits out semi-random numbers. Without accurate numbers we have nothing to go on to help you...

PS: please add your state to your location.

 

[xr4ticlone]

So the test strips are that unreliable? I thought I was stepping up from the pool store.

My kids are at the worst age for that...so I don't think that's possible.

I wasn't wholesale dumping...but I had an 'accidental' draining that took about 30% of the water out of the pool one morning...which might have been children related.

Water is clear...looks good. We fought a serious leaf and oak pollen situation earlier this spring when the pool was green. Also had a filter needed cleaning (learned from pool guy on that one)...but it looks like we're there otherwise.

Without getting into all the details, I have some special children considerations so if there is any way around a kit it would of huge interest.

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Also...I'm guessing salt strips are also inaccurate?

 

[AimeeH]

The Aquacheck salt test strips are fairly reliable. For everything else you need a good reagent test kit. I like the TF-100 link is in my signature.

 

[Azgirl71]

Test strips are actually worse than the pool store testing in my past experiences. I understand accidentally adding to much, but using test strips is like blindly adding.

Again you need a good test kit.