Help Maintaining Chlorine

[Bridgetalford]

I recently (about 3-4 weeks ago) did a stain treatment on my salt water pool (details on pool size in signature line). I used a product called "Stop Stains" by Suncoast. Before adding this product I dropped my chlorine to almost zero and brought the pH down to 7.0. This product says is contains Sulfamic Acid. I added 20 lbs of this product. It did a pretty good job of clearing up the stains. I also followed this up with the AA treatment (3lbs). I also added KemTek 60% algecide and a metal sequestrant during this treatment (combination of Salinity stain control and Jack's Magic the purple stuff. I also added the CuLator Ultra 4.0 to my pump basket. After 2 weeks and with a big improvement in the stains I began trying to re-balance my water. I used baking soda, soda ash, and borax to bring my ph and Alkalinity back up. I have been adding liquid Chlorine to the pool as well, but have not been able to maintain any free chlorine. Instead I have combined chlorine. Last week I added 7.5 gallons of liquid chlorine (10.5%) trying to get the FC up. It still shows I have zero.

So I took my water to the pool store to be tested yesterday and per them, I have a phosphate issue and that is why I can't get my chlorine back up. The water looks good, is not green from algae, perhaps just a little cloudy, but not bad at all. They sold me a phosphate remover but after doing some reading on this site, I feel like the high phosphate reading could be due to all of the sequestrant products I have added to the water. If I add the phosphate remover, will this simply allow all of the sequestered metals to return to my pool walls? Per the pool store my phosphate reading was 1000 and should be between 0-200.

After reading should I just leave the phosphates alone and instead try to SLAM the pool??

My current readings per pool store are below (these agree with my readings I can test at home for Chlorine, ph and Alkalinity):

Free Chlorine 0.5
Combined Chlorine 2.0
Ph 7.5
Alkalinity 80
Calcium Hardness 400
Stabilizer 70
Salt 3,400

I currently have the Taylor K-1004 test kit and it only shows a chlorine reading up to 5ppm. I just ordered the K-2006 online today but I will not get it for a couple days. I want to begin Slamming the pool today so I don't have an algae problem on my hands. Per this site I would need to SLAM my pool up to 28ppm of chlorine. This would require 7 gallons of liquid chlorine, which I have on hand. Do I need to continue to add gallons daily until my FC and total Chlorine are in check?

 

[woodyp]

Return the phosphate remover potion if possible. No need in starting a full fledged SLAM until your kit arrives. Use the bleach and raise your FC to 10-12 per your CYA level.

 

[Bridgetalford]

No need in starting a full fledged SLAM until your kit arrives. Use the bleach and raise your FC to 10-12 per your CYA level.

So until my kit arrives, should I just add some chlorine so I don't end up with an algae bloom?? When you say raise my FC to 10-12 my CYA level, my CYA level according to pool store is 70ppm.

If I use the poolcalculator.com and look at the Chlorine/CYA Chart I have a SWG pool. Says I need to shock my pool to 28 to get a target FC or 5. So if I plug this into the poolcalculator, I get that I need to add 7 gallons of liquid chlorine to my pool. Does the Taylor 2006 kit have the ability for me to measure up to 28ppm on Chlorine to make sure I keep it there until my combined chlorine is less than 0.5 and FC is at 5??

 

[woodyp]

A fas-dpd chlorine test will take you up to 50 ppm of FC. Let's hope we don't need that! 12 ppm FC is good till the kit arrives.

 

[clambert1273]

I also wouldn't trust the pool store CYA test reading either....


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