Having a hard time maintaining chlorine & stabilizer levels

[achristie]

Earlier in the year I was easily able to maintain appropriate chlorine levels by setting my SWG to about 25% and running my 2 speed pump on high about 40% of the time. Lately, and what seems to be all of a sudden, I've had to make some major adjustments and I'm still trying to find the right settings to maintain the proper chlorine levels. I've had the SWG at 75% running on high 60% of the time and yet I've still had algae problems. It seems the stabilizer is burning off quicker than normal too. Just about every time I test, it's well below 70 and I have to add more. I've just had to add 5lbs of stabilizer after adding the same about three weeks ago.

The difference between now and earlier in the year is that we're getting a lot more rain lately and the temperatures have been quite a bit higher. So I'm wondering if this is normal. Could there be a problem with my salt water cell? I hope not because it's brand new this year.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[PaulR]

CYA doesn't "burn off" but it can be diluted by rain, and especially if you have to drain water after a rain, you can be losing CYA that way. Has that been happening? And when you say the CYA was "well below 70" what was the actual reading?

When you have an algae outbreak, you are usually better off shocking with bleach rather than raising the SWG percentage or run time.
--paulr

 

[achristie]

How do I know how much bleach to put in?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Read Pool School - there is an article there called The Pool Calculator and it teaches you how to use the Pool Calc to determine how much bleach to add.

 

[Butterfly]

How do I know how much bleach to put in?

Use Jason's Pool Calculator (Link in my sig) to determine shock level based on your current CYA level.

Follow the instructions in Pool School for How to Shock Your Pool.

When you do the Overnight FC Loss Test be sure to turn off your SWG.

About your CYA loss, you should check your jug/bucket and verify that it is 100% (or close) cyanuric acid. Some folks have made purchases where it was only 50% CYA.