I'm curious as to how and how much chlorine breads down

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M

Mesamav

0
Jul 16, 2011
190
Mesa Arizona
Hi again,
I've finally eliminated the trichlore tabs and am now on liquid chlorine totally now. I was thinking about how the chlorine works and what makes it go away so I have a few questions.
How does sun make chlorine go away?
I live in the Phoenix area and my pool get sun literally 16 hours a day during the summer. Does the sun break down chlorine at a steady rate or does temperature and intensity factor into the equation? For example, sunrise was around 5:30 am to roughly 8:00 pm and it got up to 111 today. I can't imagine living here without a pool and having to go a week or more waiting for an algae bloom to go away would SUCK. With temps like that does it break down chlorine more than someplace with less severe temps?

Just curious.....
 
From reading Chem201 and the Deep End, the chemical bond that Chlorine has is very unstable, and UV radiation is what breaks it up and renders it useless. Brighter/longer sun and higher temps do speed up the process, although that is only anecdotally from members who keep their pools open in the winter.

I'll let the really smart guys jump in and expand on this.
 
What CYA are you running at? Being at the high end of the recommendations is probably a good idea.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
jblizzle said:
What CYA are you running at? Being at the high end of the recommendations is probably a good idea.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
Click to expand...

My CYA is about 65 or so. It was 90 a few months ago but I backwash often and longer so I can lower both the CYA and CH.
My chlorine this morning was about 3 at first light and I've raised it to above 5, the CH is running about 480, TA is around 90 and PH is pretty normal at 7.5.
So do those numbers sound about right?
I'm still trying to get the CH and CYA down. The CYA is coming down as I drain a little water here and there but the CH is going to be a tough one to deal with. My fill water is 200 and we have virtually no humidity during the summer, add in some heat and I lose a 1/2 inch of water a day. Much more if it's windy so keeping the calcium level in check is going to be fun.
Any suggestions?
 
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