No chlorine

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wirthlin

0
Jun 11, 2015
21
Houston, tx
I am a new pool owner.

I have spend about 6 weeks and who know how much money at Leslie's trying to get my levels correct.

I was tired of the inconsistent results, inconsistent measurements, and the general sense that the people at Leslie's don't know what they are talking about.

I found this website and am giving it a try.

I just received my TF100 testing kit.

My biggest problem is I can not get any chlorine in my pool.

I measured my CYA at 30 (although the people at leslie's measured in between 0 and 90 in the past week). I have now stopped using the pucks in my chlorinator.

My pool is clear but since I have had several weeks of not being able to get a FC reading I want to SLAM my pool.

I went through the pool math and it said to add 3.5 gallons of 10% bleach (found this at leslie's). I put in the bleach, put the pump on, waited about 6 hours, retested the chlorine and still got ZERO (both with the OTO and my water stayed clear when I added the R-0870).

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Welcome to TFP wirthlin!

So far it looks like you are heading in the right direction. Congratulations on getting the Cadillac of test kits, it will serve you well! One problem I see is that you are waiting 6 hours to retest. At the beginning of the SLAM you want to try to check it every hour or two if at all possible so you can stay on top of things.

Would you mind posting your full set of test results? We like to see how everything looks and can offer any other advice if we see anything out of place.
 
Welcome to TFP!

If you are losing chlorine at that rate, there is some sort of organic contamination in the pool that is consuming the chlorine. Remember, the SLAM Process is a process - not a one-time addition of chlorine. You need to keep adding chlorine periodically to maintain the SLAM target level FC (12 ppm) for your CYA of 30 ppm. Keep doing this until you pass the criteria of Done as defined in the SLAM article. As I always say, the most important part of the SLAM is the M for Maintain.
 
Thanks for the responses. I was going to go for the check "at least twice a day" suggestion made in the SLAM article, but maybe that is not frequent enough.

I was hoping since my water is clear this would be an easier process, but I guess there still could be plenty of "stuff" in my water eating my chlorine.

If frequent checking is going to be required I may have to wait until I have more time to dedicate to the process, probably next Saturday.

I know there is probably not a great answer to this since every pool is so different, but I guess I will ask anyway.

If I am starting at 0 FC and it takes 4 bottles of 10% bleach to reach shock level at my CYA how many bottles of bleach should I have ready to prepare for the SLAM process? 4? 8? 12?

Also, the SLAM article doesn't say there is a minimum number of days to keep the pool at shock levels, you just need to pass the overnight chlorine test. However, is there an average number of days it takes to get there? 24 hours at shock levels? 48? a week? Would it be possible to get my pool up to shock level and then be able to pass the overnight test the first night? Especially since my pool is clear?

Thanks
 
I would be prepared to have on the high end of your speculation of gallons of bleach and quite possibly more.

You didn't post full test results. Don't forget to adjust PH before attempting SLAM.

How long does it take? As long as it takes to pass ALL THREE of the tests

1 clear water
2 CC of .5 or less
1 pass the OCLT with a loss of >1
 
One other thing I would check would be the date codes on that liquid chlorine, as it looses strength with age, it is possible you bought some that has been sitting in a storage room for a couple of years and is no longer anywhere near 10%. The date codes are usually in the format of YY -Day of year -Lot number
 
Happy to see you joined us and have already obtained the TF-100. Please keep in mind the TFP method SLAM is significantly different than an overnight “spike” in chlorine, and can take a few days (perhaps even a week or two) to properly complete. At the same time, continue to run your pump 24/7. Remove any “muck” and debris, scrub all parts of your pool to expose any algae, and vacuum/clean (or backwash) filter as necessary. You may have to do this several times. It's a lot of babysitting, but with patience and consistency, you will succeed.

You can do it!
 
BoDarville said:
Welcome to TFP!

If you are losing chlorine at that rate, there is some sort of organic contamination in the pool that is consuming the chlorine. Remember, the SLAM Process is a process - not a one-time addition of chlorine. You need to keep adding chlorine periodically to maintain the SLAM target level FC (12 ppm) for your CYA of 30 ppm. Keep doing this until you pass the criteria of Done as defined in the SLAM article. As I always say, the most important part of the SLAM is the M for Maintain.
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome to TFP. I had a thought about your FC being 0, and I'm throwing this out here so others can comment. I don't understand near as much as the fine folks, but I've read where ammonia will consume chlorine as quick as you can put it in. But I'm thinking it consumes the CYA also. And I don't know if your water would still be clear. Could that be a problem she has ?

If I'm way off please correct me and let us both know . Again, welcome !
 

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30,000 gallons for your pool is a large pool, so you will use a lot of bleach. I had to SLAM my pool once, and it was done in 2 days, so it is possible to do it quickly, but every pool is different. The expression is that you didn't dirty your pool in a single day, don't expect to clean it in a day.

But I promise you that once you get it clear, follow the simple guidelines, and you should not have many problems in the future
 
It could be ammonia Lefty. We shall see in a couple of days for sure. We just had one pool that tested as having some CYA at the beginning that ended up dealing with ammonia. They just got done with their SLAM.

Kim
 
Okay here are my full numbers:

FC: 0
CC: 0
pH: 7.2
CYA: 35
TA: 100
CH: 350

I was hoping since my pool didn't "look" dirty this was going to be an easy process, but after putting in 4 galloons of 10% Bleach today and still seeing a FC of zero, I may have more of a battle on my hands than I thought.

I obviously need to re-supply with a lot more bleach. If I am going to need to check this every couple of hours I may need to wait until Saturday. I have one of those lame 9-5 jobs.

A couple of other questions:

Can I still let my kids swim in this water? They have been for days and no one is sick yet...I don't feel great about it though. Should I put some more pucks back in my empty chlorinator just to get me through the week? I know this will bump up my CYA and actually make my SLAM more difficult, but I don't want my kids getting sick either.

Also, I have noticed that during the day my water looks clear, but at night if I look next to the light I see all sorts of small particles floating in the water. Could this be the lurking chlorine destroyers, or is this more likely to be the "phosphates" that Leslie's is trying to get me to pay a fortune to get rid of? When I have all my levels lined up should I expect to see crystal clear water even at night next to the light?

Thanks again.
 
My pool is crystal clear. I can read heads or tails on a quarter in 8 feet of water. But when I turn on my light at night, I am amazed by the how much pollen I see in my pool that are much harder to see during the day. My pollen is super whispy white particles, like lint from a cotton ball.
 
Yes, once your pool passes SLAm it will be crystal clear. There will always be little floaties in the water and some water bugs, maybe 3 leaves, whatever. But the water will be clear. Water pic in my sig.

It is safe to swim in your pool when:
PH is 7.2 to 7.8
Chlorine is above minimum for your CYA
Chlorine is below shock for your CYA
Water is clear and you can see the bottom

You have to keep adding enough chlorine to stay above the minimum level for your pool to properly sanitized.
 
Can you please do something for me???????

-Test your FC
- write down the results
- add 1 jug of bleach
-run pump for 30 mins
-test and write down results


Let us know the results. This will answer one question about what is going on in your pool.

Kim
 
New pool owner this year. After opening and running the filter and adding the Pool Math bleach, the pool was very clear- but wouldn't hold chlorine. It was suggested ammonia could be the culprit. I ended up adding 40-50 jugs of bleach until it finally held chlorine...after I got that in line, everything is simple to maintain...
 
kimkats said:
Can you please do something for me???????

-Test your FC
- write down the results
- add 1 jug of bleach
-run pump for 30 mins
-test and write down results


Let us know the results. This will answer one question about what is going on in your pool.

Kim
Click to expand...

I am off to work now and don't have any more bleach, but I will do this tonight. If I may ask, what are you trying to eliminate as a possibility by doing this test? I am about to give my pool builder his final check and want to make sure you don't think there is an issue with the pump/filter/plumbing. We unfortunately have had a very disappointing experience with our pool builder and I want to make sure I don't have a big issue before I give him his final check.
 

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