Hello all, first time pool owner here. We were swim ready Wednesday 6/21/17. It is now 3 days in, and we decided to check the levels to make sure all was well. I tried the AquaChek Free Chlorine tester and the test strip indicated 0 chlorine. I thought this can't be true, it has only been a few days since the salt was added to the pool. We added a 25 lbs of salt to the pool last night and this am I busted out the test tube kit (Oreq is the brand of the kit) and tested with the tube and again, the chlorine is zero. I am under the assumption that that is all we have to do to get the chlorine up in the pool. PH level shows to be high at between 7.8 and 8.2 so we conducted the acid demand test and found that 4 drops got it to the correct levels, meaning adding 1 qt of acid (however the testing tips card says no more than 1 pint per 10000 gallons). Total alkalinity was right at 150 ppm. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Brand New Pool owner
- Thread starter Fisher333
- Start date
Welcome to tfp!
Right off the bat I can tell you need to invest in one of the recommended test kits so you can take control of your pool from the start.
Adding salt does not add chlorine to your pool. The swg and breaks down the salt and produces the chlorine. An swg is not good at raising the chlorine levels from 0. You should raise the FC with bleach. Although if you do not have any CYA in the pool then the FC will be consumed by the sun within hours.
Right off the bat I can tell you need to invest in one of the recommended test kits so you can take control of your pool from the start.
Adding salt does not add chlorine to your pool. The swg and breaks down the salt and produces the chlorine. An swg is not good at raising the chlorine levels from 0. You should raise the FC with bleach. Although if you do not have any CYA in the pool then the FC will be consumed by the sun within hours.
Thank you for your prompt reply! Forgive me, what is a recommended test kit? I have the one provided by the installer, Oreq is the brand. Is that not a good one? Also, can you give me the brand name and amount of bleach you would advise adding to get the levels up? Also, what is CYA?
All of your questions are addressed in Pool School. Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Water Balance for SWGs
The recommended test kits include the FAS-DPD chlorine test. See link in my signature to a comparison. The TF-100 is the best value.
PoolMath can be used to calculate how much bleach to add to reach your desired target.
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Water Balance for SWGs
The recommended test kits include the FAS-DPD chlorine test. See link in my signature to a comparison. The TF-100 is the best value.
PoolMath can be used to calculate how much bleach to add to reach your desired target.
Hi,
I wanted to let you know that we added CYA to the pool, and what do you know... the chlorine levels came up
. Thanks a ton for your advice!
I wanted to let you know that we added CYA to the pool, and what do you know... the chlorine levels came up
. Thanks a ton for your advice!
I still suggest you get one of the recommended test kits so that you are not surprise in the future when another problem occurs.