no chlorine and low ph

[bmann71]

New pool owner and it's kicking my butt. I haven't been able to hold chlorine for the past month. Right now my readings are...
fc 0
ph 6.8
alk 180
cya 0-10

My readings come from a 4-in-1 guardex kit. Any suggestions on a better kit?

Obviously I'm way out of wack . The more I read the more I'm confused. Some of the things I've read/heard say get ph and alk in balance before you do anything some say add chlorine. I afraid to add up how much I've spent on name brand chlorine in the past month with no success.

I added 10 (96oz) jugs of 6% chlorine bleach last night and after 2 hours I still had zero chlorine.

I'm at a loss...
any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

YOu need 30-50 ppm CYA before your chlorine will hold, right now it will only take about 30 minutes of sunlight and it's gone....get some CYA in there!

Start aerating the water to get the pH up....When it hits about 7.6 add more acid to bring it back down to 7.0, test the TA and aerate. repeat this unti the TA is where you want it when you test it at pH of 7.0 and then just aerate to bring it back up to 7.6

 

[Buggsw]

Are you sure you are getting a 0 reading of chlorine? I'm surprised at that, if you added it at night. Could it be that you have so much chlorine that it is bleaching out the test?

I'd get another test kit or have it checked at a pool store.

 

[bmann71]

Thanks for the info. At this point I'm not sure about anything.

You say aerate to bring up the ph. Pump has been running 24/7 and I've checked it several times in the last couple days and it is holding at 6.8

Thanks for the advice.

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

Do you have any waterfalls/water features/spa jets that could be turned on? Aim your returns, if you can, to the surface. Get a bunch of people splashing in there.
Check out the third post of this thread for a great aerator made from pvc and screwed into a return!

 

[sunnyhoosier]

I am somewhat of a newbie also, but your CYA is too low and the sun is pretty much "eating up" your chlorine. Your levels, if I"m am correct need to be between 30-50. You can do this by adding stabilizer to your pool. This is a great site, and I have learned alot from it. Good luck with your pool!

 

[MikeInTN]

BTW, to answer your question about a better test kit - the two that seem to be the favorites of the posters here are the Taylor K-2006 and the TF100 kit. The Taylor kit can be bought online either directly from Taylor or from here and the TF100 from here . The TF100 kit is assembled and sold by one of the members here on the forum, and as such, he can provide answers to any questions you have about the kit, and testing with the kit.

edit: Actually, the K-2006 can be bought from more online pool supply stores than just the supplier provided in the link; this business has the best price I've found on one though, which is why I listed it.

 

[bmann71]

I do have 4 spa jets that I can point up to the suface.

Waterbear, I brought my ph up and you said add more acid to bring it down. Are you referring to cya or muriatic? Bringin down ph also lowers alk?

Thanks all

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

Muriatic Acid is what you want to be using. When you add the MA, it brings down both the TA and pH. (you want your pH around 7.0-7.2) Then you aerate to raise the pH without raising the TA. When the pH goes up, you add more MA to drop the pH & TA...

Repeat this process until your TA is where you want it, then adjust your pH

 

[bmann71]

Thanks Mermaid Queen!