5 years of 0 chlorine any help?

[suicidal]

Hi
I have a 8x4 meter pool which holds about 50000 litres of water. I live in Mazarron Costa calida Spain, and for 5 years have had pool trouble.
I have replaced the sand twice, the last time 6 weeks ago. The test kit I use is tablet type and only gives cc and ph readings. No one in the area sells kits to enable me to get the cya level or the free chlorine level. There are no pool stores around that analyze the water either. I cannot buy the taylor kit on line as they do not mail it from the states to Spain.

My problem is that the pool has always shown 0 cc chlorine in the water. I read here about chlorine lock and have now used 5% bleach for several days (cant get 6% here) and nights to maintain total chlorine level of around 3ppm however overnight i was still getting massive loss where in the morning it can be back down to 0.3ppm PH is holding at constant 6.8. I can be using 4 or 5 chlorine tablets at a time and the reading is always 0, (except in the area of the floating chlorine dispenser)

When I shock the pool the reading goes up for a few hours but the next day is always 0 again. I tried the bucket test you described a couple of days ago after several days of bleach treatment, and was delighted when the overnight chlorine level held at around 3ppm. However last night when testing the pool in the morning it dropped from 3ppm to 0.3ppm
The water is probably around 7 years old and after the recent bleach treatment has looked fantastic and really sparkles however the chlorine problem continues as i am adding around 12 litres of 5% bleach every day to maintain any chlorine level.

Losing the will to live as we only use the pool for around 6 weeks in the summer and I must spend 20 hours a week cleaning and trying to maintain the bloody thing! Not to mention the fact that I am single handedly spending this country out of recession on bleach alone.

Any advice appreciated before I do the decent thing and end it all!

 

[duraleigh]

Your chlorine is being consumed by the Sun. You will need to somehow find CYA and put it in your pool to get to about 40-50ppm. That will protect the chlorine (enough) from the sun and you will lose only a fraction of what you are losing now..

I wish we could ship the TF-100 internationally but the regulations are just too complicated for us to do it. If you ever visit the states or know someone who does, pick one up and take it back with you.

 

[rcy]

You could try buying a Taylor k2006 from http://www.piscines-apollo.com/ I'm not sure if they ship to Spain, but it is a listed country in the drop down box when you place an order. Just email/phone them and ask them.

I think your ph of 6.8 is a bit low as well.

 

[ivyleager]

First off: welcome

I noticed your pH is too low at 6.8. In some tests, that's as low as it goes so it could conceivably be lower. Proper level is between 7.2 - 7.6.

Dave is right about getting CYA in your pool. By using the pucks you should be getting both chlorine and CYA into the water. However, using pucks/tablets tend to drive down pH, while bleach tends to raise pH lightly.

It appears that chemical based test kits may be difficult to find but how about test strips in this scenario? They aren't the most favorable method of testing, but certainly better than what you have now. The strips test for free chlorine, total chlorine, pH, total hardness (calcium), alkalinity and CYA.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Try Palintest for a good kit. I suspect you have a very high CYA level and also have an algae bloom. We need to know what your CYA level is before we can accurately advise you on what you need to do to correct your problem.

 

[suicidal]

Wwwhhhhaahhoooooo!!!!!!!
Amazing all this help in so little time you guys are amazing and thanks.
I will try the test kit route again and failing that try the test strips as also advised. 125$ + 23$ shipping for the taylor though seems a little high when i am already suicidal.
Intersting points made about CYA as "Bama Rambler" says the cya is probably very high and "duraleigh" is suggesting it may be too low.
only the test kit will finally reveal the full extent of the problem.
Meanwhile, thanks again for the input and advice guys. :-D

 

[Bama Rambler]

The problem with not having a good test kit is that we don't know so we have to speculate, and our speculations were different. After rereading your post I might be the one that's wrong. It appears that you use bleach with a few tablets. If that's the case, and you haven't added CYA over the years then you probably have low or no CYA and the sun will zap the FC in short order.

 

[suicidal]

Hi Guys
The CYA test kit arrived yesterday and you were right about my CYA level being high. i have the kit with the black dot that disappears and the water is so cloudy once the tablet dissolves that i am assuming a reading of around 130ppm for CYA.
The water is still crystal clear however but still no total chlorine readings unless i continue to dump 8 lites of 5% bleach in every day.

I have a 8x4 meter pool which holds about 50000 litres of water. I live in Mazarron Costa calida Spain, and for 5 years have had pool trouble.

in the morning it can be back down chlorine is around 0.3ppm and PH is holding at constant 6.8.

The water is probably around 7 years old

Sound like a drain and fill issue guys?

 

[loop_pea]

It sounds like a partial drain and refill is in order. Not the whole lot, because then you'll have the problem of zero CYA instead.

 

[chem geek]

The chlorine tabs you have been using are Trichlor. They are very acidic which explains why your pH was low (in fact, if your test kit only reads down to 6.8, your pH could have been lower than that). Also, for every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm. So with a 2 ppm FC per day chlorine usage, Trichlor increases CYA by over 35 ppm PER MONTH. So you can see how over the years you can easily get to high CYA levels even if you had backwashing and rain overflow for partial dilution.

So a partial drain/refill is in order and you will then need to use mostly chlorinating liquid or bleach as your primary chlorine source. Trichlor on occasion is OK if you won't be around to add chlorine, but not too much. You can use The Pool Calculator to calculate dosages.

 

[suicidal]

cheers for the advice guys. I am going to stuggle on through the summer until i do a refill of around 2/3 of the pool in the autumn.
i can then get all the levels right and shut it up for the winter.
THANKS AGAIN