Chlorine and TA not going down

[Freeflow23]

Total and free Chlorine both 13.05 and TA 180.

I’ve had my salt chlorinator off for 1.5 days. I added more water. It’s not budging.

I’ve added muriatic acid 4 times in the last 3 days and while pH is fine (7.5) I can’t get the TA to go down.

All other chemicals are good. 300 CH. CYA 75. Salt is 3350 (up from 3200 before I turned chlorinator off).

Any recommendations besides draining and adding more water?

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
How are you testing your pool water chemistry?

 

[Freeflow23]

Welcome to the forum.
How are you testing your pool water chemistry?

Taylor test and also Leslie’s.

 

[mknauss]

OK -- please use your own test kit.

No need to drain or exchange water. The FC is not high for your CYA. The TA is immaterial as it will come down by maintaining your pH in the 7's.

 

[Bperry]

Taylor test and also Leslie’s.

You can ignore Leslie’s test and whatever they told you to buy. Only use your own test kit.

 

[Freeflow23]

OK -- please use your own test kit.

No need to drain or exchange water. The FC is not high for your CYA. The TA is immaterial as it will come down by maintaining your pH in the 7's.

Should I turn the chlorinator back on then? I was at 40% running 12 hours before this

 

[duraleigh]

Should I turn the chlorinator back on then? I was at 20% before this

Why don't you wait until you see it drop? It is NOT POSSIBLE for chlorine and TA to stay where they are without some type of intervention from you

Once you confirm the FC dropping, I would THEN turn on the SWG and monitor carefully..

 

[mknauss]

I was at 40% running 12 hours before this

That is adding 1.7 ppm FC per day. That is extremely low for this time of year. Monitor and increase as necessary.

FC/CYA Levels

 

[Freeflow23]

That is adding 1.7 ppm FC per day. That is extremely low for this time of year. Monitor and increase as necessary.

FC/CYA Levels

I understand but FC is still reading over 10 over a week. My pool doesn’t get much sun. I figured it would lower eventually but idk. My pool was filled about 2 months ago.

 

[mknauss]

Unless the pool is covered or indoors, I would be suspicious of your testing methods.

 

[Freeflow23]

That is adding 1.7 ppm FC per day. That is extremely low for this time of year. Monitor and increase as necessary.

FC/CYA Levels

This is lower but my chlorine is so high. Should I not try to lower chlorine?

 

[Freeflow23]

Unless the pool is covered or indoors, I would be suspicious of your testing methods.

I use a taylor kit. I actually bought a second kit thinking my first was somehow old. Took water to Leslie’s and they confirmed chlorine at 13. The pool only gets 2 hours of direct sunlight.

 

[sande005]

You have a highish amount of CYA, so you need higher CL. 10 is toward the top of the recommended range, but not at all out of it. 13 is a hair high, but nothing to worry about. Neither is "so high" - they are near where you want to be. The traditional pool store/other place recommendations of 3-4 are way too low, because of that higher CYA level. Between the higher CYA protecting it, and the shade, not unusual for it to only slowly drop. Pools out in full sun all day in high temps will see a faster, or much faster, drop. You're kind of lucky, in a way - if the pool isn't loosing very fast, then you can run the SWCG at a lower level than some other pools might need. For now, just leave it off until you get to about 8-10, then juggle the run times and percents over time, to find the settings that will hold it there. You will see it drop, just may take longer than some others. Me? With trees nearby, I'd tend to keep it in the high part of the CL range. Lots of "stuff" from them that can use up the CL, especially on a windy/rainy day. So you would have some additional margin of protection, if needed.

Most here will strongly recommend avoiding the pool store. Too many have been burned by bad tests, bad/very bad advice, or spending major $$ on chems that either aren't needed or make things worse...

Visit the "Pool School" pages for more info, especially the relationship between CYA and CL.

 

[Freeflow23]

After a huge rain last night, both TA and chlorine have gone down. TA is at 140. Chlorine looks to be just above 5 now. The water was almost orange when it was at 13

 

[Freeflow23]

 

[Bperry]

View attachment 515849

You don’t need to do the yellow OTO chlorine test. It’s not accurate above ~5ppm. But your pH looks to be ok

 

[kul]

It is perplexing that your chlorine isn’t falling with current temperatures and sun. Especially if your SWG is off and you are not adding chlorine in any other way. When testing, how are you testing chlorine? Are you using the drop test and 10ml?

 

[Freeflow23]

It is perplexing that your chlorine isn’t falling with current temperatures and sun. Especially if your SWG is off and you are not adding chlorine in any other way. When testing, how are you testing chlorine? Are you using the drop test and 10ml?

After a few big rains yesterday it started coming back down. My pool only gets 2 hours of sun and even then it’s partial.