I can't keep chlorine in my pool. 27,500 gals., above ground pool with Hayward cartridge filter system. Checked pool Saturday an had no Chlorine. Added 3 gals of liquid chlorine Friday night after dark. Next day at 9 a.m. it was all gone. Took water sample to local store at it was analyzed 15 mins after sample drawn from pool. Results were as follows. 0 Total and 0 Free Chlorine; PH 7.6, 160 Total Alk; 40 CYA, 230 Hardness. Nitrates detected at less than 2.0 ppm. Put 8 gals of liquid shock into pool with 3 lbs of Clean to Green. Sunday morning took reading and the chlorine was all gone. Tired of sweeping (churning up) algae from pool only to have it return the next day with a vengeance. Hemmoraging money with no results. Haven't had a crystal clear pool all year. Thinking of filling 33' roung pool in with dirt and putting sunflowers in it. Help!
Have you used the pool calculator? punching in some quick numbers shouldn't you be striving for a shock level of 16 thus requiring 7 gallons of bleach?
Please double check my numbers, I just did that rather quickly but I suspect your not using enough bleach.
Edit: whoops, just reread your post and I see you added 8 gallons. Are you following the directions in the the 'Pool School' on how to shock your pool? Adding bleach and measuring levels alot seem to the be the process.
Please double check my numbers, I just did that rather quickly but I suspect your not using enough bleach.
Edit: whoops, just reread your post and I see you added 8 gallons. Are you following the directions in the the 'Pool School' on how to shock your pool? Adding bleach and measuring levels alot seem to the be the process.
Justwent to pool school and reviewed how to shock. Can't see any difference in how I'm doing it vs. listed instructions. Should I be bombing the pool everyday w/8 gals of shock?
poolboy66 said:
If you are losing chlorine that fast, yes. When you have something going on, you shouldn't go more than 4 hours without retesting and adding more chlorine. Better yet, do it every hour at first.
A couple of things. I work Mon-Fri and am not close enough to retirement (unfortunately) to test every 4 hours. Chlorine at 11-16 bucks a case is not condusive to my wallet when 2 cases are required per day for how long? I have about $500 in chemicals (at least) and it's only July. Didn't have this problem last year when my ph was always high and and the conditioner was always low. Shouldn't there be an underlying problem? Please be advised I don't know squat, my wife's [Edit:Butterfly], and I appreciate any help you can give me. BTW: guy from the pool store (seems to be very knowledgeable) sold me Purge which says "it attacts the root cause of most pool problems...organic waste buildup...cleans where I cannot...blah blah..." say it's Natural Enzyme Technology. Thoughts? as it was $32 for 67 ozs!
Any chance you got fertilizer in the pool somehow? Broadcast spreaders are bad about that. A bunch of grass clippings can suck out chlorine too, and if they are still in the skimmer or the filter can eat chlorine until they are destroyed.
Have a service for the lawn. Hasn't been sprayed in about 2 weeks or more and it's pretty high off the ground. The cartridge is cleaned religously and I don't have anything in the baskets. For full disclosure: I am second year pool owner and was voted Worst Poolboy of the Year by my family and friends. Was building a deck around the pool last year (solo for the most part) while trying to maintain the pool. Very long story short: never got the chems. right all year, and closed the pool with a treeful of leaves in the bottom. Fought all spring to bring it back to a level of respectabilty and when I keep thinking I'm turning the corner I go back to square 2 (square 1 was pulling out all the leaves and decayed waste). Al least the deck turned out nice!
BBB is a very simple method, it will free you of the pool store and allow you to keep more of your hard earned money. However, since you are in the midst of an immediate problem it will take a lot of bleach (regular household bleach) initially to solve this problem and then the maintenance should be very simple... might even earn you pool boy of the year award. How are you testing your water?
Testing with strips and then having it analyzed once a month at least at the pool store. The numbers above are pool store analysis. So the household bleach is not harmful? Must admit I haven't dug very far into the site. I found the site when addressing other earlier problems.
poolboy66 said:
If you start as soon as you get home from work, you should have it holding for 8 hours or so by late evening. You'll see the consumption dropping fairly soon after you start.
You'll probably lose about half your chlorine for the first few hourly checks, then it will taper off to where you won't see but 1 or 2 ppm loss per hour and finally little to no loss maybe after 5 or 6 hours. Hit it again first thing in the morning and as soon as you get home tomorrow and you should be at nearly normal chlorine consumption by the day after tomorrow.
The real key is maintaining the high chlorine level and never let it drop near zero for even a short time.
- May 4, 2011
- 634
Last year after finding this site I figured I could continue using pool store chems, was still using test strips and figured even though I know I'm doing things incorrectly - it was working ok.
this year during opening I figured I would hybrid the BBB method to continue using up what I had, plus I shouldn't have gone to the pool store the one time I went this year.
After a week of having the pool opened I got upset and realized I'm doing things wrong. I ordered a test kit and started to figure things out.
Looking back on it now I can't believe the way I was maintaining my pool. I might as well have just guessed on everything and just thrown random amounts of everything in.
Having been BBB this season has been the best choice ever. I've been reading this site as much as I can and gaining little bits of knowledge everyday.
I'm a bit lazy with my full tests, I end up doing about 2-3 chlorine test per week and a full test every 2-3 weeks. I add liquid chlorine daily. Because of this forum things are much easier, make more sense, are infinitely more accurate than last year and makes my life much more simple
this year during opening I figured I would hybrid the BBB method to continue using up what I had, plus I shouldn't have gone to the pool store the one time I went this year.
After a week of having the pool opened I got upset and realized I'm doing things wrong. I ordered a test kit and started to figure things out.
Looking back on it now I can't believe the way I was maintaining my pool. I might as well have just guessed on everything and just thrown random amounts of everything in.
Having been BBB this season has been the best choice ever. I've been reading this site as much as I can and gaining little bits of knowledge everyday.
I'm a bit lazy with my full tests, I end up doing about 2-3 chlorine test per week and a full test every 2-3 weeks. I add liquid chlorine daily. Because of this forum things are much easier, make more sense, are infinitely more accurate than last year and makes my life much more simple
- May 4, 2011
- 634
poolboy66 said:
Not only from TFP, but from personal experience... test strips will lead you the wrong way. Get a TF100 test kit or Taylor K-2006. (TFTestkits.net) I was able to figure it out with confidence within a week or so.
household bleach is not harmful at all, if you read the ingredients it's the exact same stuff the pool store sells as liquid chlorine or "shock." Many other stores have it too. Sodium Hypochlorite is the active ingredient. (different percentages of course) use The Pool Calculator for dosages.
"dig in" to this site and you will find all the answers you need, or post a question, everyone is willing to help!
Lord knows I was battling my pool the beginning of the summer. Thanks to this forum and the guys that helped me out, my pool has been nice and clear! All I use is Bleach and Fiber Clear.
I do have a side chlorinator set at 5. Without digging in too much (actually at work until 8 p.m.) can anyone give me an idea how much to add tonight (I'll pick up chlorine on the way home). Also, if I'm listening correctly, I need to hit it hard, hit it hard again, and again, until things start to level off and then weekly/daily maintenenace won't require that much chlorine? Any est. time on how this will go on?
See Pool Calculator. Set pool size at 27,500, surface vinyl, goals TFP. CYA 40, FC 0 now, need FC 15 (shock level for CYA 40) = 4.7 big jugs (182 oz each) 6% bleach. Go a bit higher since you want to be above 15 ppm at all times.
That is the first round only. You want maybe 3 times that much bleach for now, buy more if you want. You will probably need more before you are done. So you need to hit Walmart or Costco or some such place that has a lot of bleach.
You MUST work on getting the crud out of the bottom of the pool first. Use a leaf rake. Very expensive to obliterate leaves and twigs using bleach, it can be done but raking out leaves is way better. Use the leaf rake constantly until you are sure you got it all. Then use the bleach. You will be able to see more later as it starts to clear. So plan to rake many times, every day.
Now, before you begin, be sure that pH is in line. You won't be able to mess with pH after you start so get it into the proper range now. See Pool Calculator, How to Shock Your Pool.
Then, test, add bleach, mix well. If you do not have a Wall Whale brush you might get one from the pool store, moves a heck of a lot of water to mix the pool well. You may be able to stir up the crud on the bottom and drive the stuff to the center by making a whirlpool. Then scoop the leaves toward you, once leaves are gone you can vac what remains to waste.
Test again in an hour, add more bleach, repeat in an hour. Take good notes of all your tests and additions to the pool. That will help you to know how much extra you need to add to have the chlorine level still above 15 when you return from work.
That is the first round only. You want maybe 3 times that much bleach for now, buy more if you want. You will probably need more before you are done. So you need to hit Walmart or Costco or some such place that has a lot of bleach.
You MUST work on getting the crud out of the bottom of the pool first. Use a leaf rake. Very expensive to obliterate leaves and twigs using bleach, it can be done but raking out leaves is way better. Use the leaf rake constantly until you are sure you got it all. Then use the bleach. You will be able to see more later as it starts to clear. So plan to rake many times, every day.
Now, before you begin, be sure that pH is in line. You won't be able to mess with pH after you start so get it into the proper range now. See Pool Calculator, How to Shock Your Pool.
Then, test, add bleach, mix well. If you do not have a Wall Whale brush you might get one from the pool store, moves a heck of a lot of water to mix the pool well. You may be able to stir up the crud on the bottom and drive the stuff to the center by making a whirlpool. Then scoop the leaves toward you, once leaves are gone you can vac what remains to waste.
Test again in an hour, add more bleach, repeat in an hour. Take good notes of all your tests and additions to the pool. That will help you to know how much extra you need to add to have the chlorine level still above 15 when you return from work.
anonapersona, The Woodlands you say? I'm just a bit down south from you in Texas City. Your rock waterfall pool sure sounds inviting lol
I posted photos of it here once. Titled Just showing off, or bragging, I forget. Maybe when I get home I can search for it. (mom has a new titanium elbow, I've been helping)krashhole said:anonapersona, The Woodlands you say? I'm just a bit down south from you in Texas City. Your rock waterfall pool sure sounds inviting lol