Trouble getting chlorine to hold

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grangerhj

0
Oct 1, 2007
50
Lafayette, La
I thought I had finally gotten it looking great and said as much to my husband on Sunday- Kiss of death- I cannot get my chlorine to hold. I have a 15,000 gal fiberglass pool- water temp 82- outside temp 90 and sunny- Chlorine reading this am .5. I added enough calcium hypochlorite (68%) to raise it 5 ppm at 7:30 this am. I just tested my pool (6:30 pm):
TC-0
FC-0
CC-0
ph- 7.5
alk-80
ch-280 ( added calcium last night previous reading was 180 and pool place told me to keep it between 300-500. They also said low calcium makes it easy for metals to stain pool- I have a problem with this since I use well water)
CYA - 40
Water is a gorgeous blue but this afternoon I think the deep end looks a little hazy- Help- should I superchlorinate again?
 
hj,

Stop using the Cal hypo. You calcium is high enough. The pool store's advice was bogus.

Using Clorox or liquid chlorine, bring your FC up to about 20ppm and HOLD IT THERE until:

1. Your water is crystal clear

2. your cc's test result is .5 or less

3. Your FC holds overnite with no appreciable loss.

You have algae in your pool and you need this high dosage of chlorine to fix it.
 
grangerhj said:
Thank you- will bring it up tonite- and let pump run 24/7. Can adding calcium eat chlorine like Vit C does. I am horrible at chemistry so please don't think I am a total idiot with my questions.
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hj,

Everyone of us on this forum started at exactly the same place....knowing NOTHING about pools.

Two things consume chlorine:

1. Organics in your pool

2. UV rays from the sun

When your calcium gets too high, it can precipitate out of your water causing cloudiness and even hard "scale" on the sides and equipment in your pool.
 
Well- I added 7 96 oz bottles of bleach at 6:30 this morning- my TC at that time was 1

At 10:30 am I tested again- I mixed 1/2 pool water with 1/2 distilled water and tested. Using the dilution if my drops number 18 then this means that I have 18ppm TC ? Is this correct? My reasoning is that mormally I would divide the number of drops by 2 but since my water was diluted by 1/2 then I would just count the drops. God I hope I am right because I added 3/4 bottle of 96% bleach to get it back to 20 ppm. The water is an absolutly beautiful color blue, no stain, and cloudy.
 
That sounds right. If you are doing the test so that one drop normally counts as 0.5, but you have diluted the water one to one with water that does not contain any chlorine, then each drop will count as 1.
 
Let me know how it goes. I am still wrestling with my pool which refuses to hold an FC level. It's gotten better now though. If I raise it to 18 it'll still have 4 after like 6 hours. I've lately been resorting to MPS non-chlorine shock but the problem with that is that it doesn't fight algae well. I'm not convinced I have algae though - I had an ammonia problem from god only knows how much CYA was in this pool which was depleted to nothing.
 
well I retested :

1:30 pm TC - 13 added 186 oz of bleach

3:30 pm TC- 13 added 186 oz of bleach

7:30 pm TC-16 added 186 oz bleach

I am running the pump 24/7 still not showing any CC but pool is blue but milky (cloudy) Between 3:30 and now it has rained over 4 inches- had to lower level in pool by pumping to waste. Then I added my bleach Plan to check again at 10:30 pm. I only have 1 more 186 oz bottle of bleach left and then I will have to resort to 1lb bags of cal hypo. Went to walmart this afternoon and bought the last 4 186 oz jugs. The only thing on their shelf was bleach that was scented or the chlorox Plus. Maybe I am not the only one in Lafayette with a pool problem.

I dont know about ammonia problems..... will that also consume chlorine?
 

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"I will have to resort to 1lb bags of cal hypo."

I would suggest you stay away from the cal hypo and find more clorox unscented or possibly look in the yellow pages for a source for liquid chlorine. Pressure washing industry uses a ton of 12% if you've got a source somewhere around you.

280 CH is really high enough and there's no point in sending it higher.
 
grangerhj said:
10:30 pm test- TC-20 yea. I added 96 oz- If I cant sleep again tonite I will test about 3 am if not I will test again 7-8 am. I hope it starts to hold. Dave- advise heard .... I will track down some bleach or liquid chlorine- Thanks again- Goodnite
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I find that there's someone who competes with me at my local walmart. So I called around and found that my local mom and pop pool store sells locally produced 12.5% for far cheaper than walmart. $7.50 for 2.5 gal = $7.50 for 5 gal of walmart. 5 * 128 oz is 640 oz so $1.00 gets you 85.3 oz. Walmart is $2.28 per 174 oz. That means $1.00 gets you 76.3 oz. Very similarly priced but the pool store beats walmart, the chlorine comes in huge easier to transport jugs and they recycle. It's double concentrated so for the trunk space I get double the chlorine. That and I get to support some really nice people. I really love them. Waters Edge in Colmar, PA. I will often get bleach from walmart too whenever I want the bottles for something.
 
I have tested about every 5-6 hrs since 6 this morning. The pool is still cloudy (milky) but not as much so- Still having to add bleach to keep numbers between 20-23 but not as much bleach as yesterday so I think I am making progress. Pressure in pump rose overnite so I backwashed this am. I now have another crazy question. My husband vacuumed last Sunday- I believe this started about then. Can algae be in the vacuum hose? Before I put it in the pool tomorrow should I run bleach thru the line?
 
hj,

No. When you vacuum again, you will be vacuuming properly chlorinated water and it will kill anything in the hose.

It is apparent from your post you've got the hang of this process. Your chlorine usage will be less and less and your pool will be cloudy less and less......still longer than you want it to but it WILL be better every day as long as you keep the chlorine up.....very nice work

Don't forget to add a large dose of POP as your pool continues to clear. :lol:
 
Well Dave, I need a dose of POP! I woke up yesterday morning and I had not lost anything- this was at 7 am. My husband had already vacuumed the pool. It looked wonderful. At 1 pm I had lost 4 ppm and I added bleach accordingly- pool still sparkling. My mistake was to go out to dinner and to a show because when I tested at 10 pm I had lost 6 ppm. Added bleach and went to bed ( everytime I add it bleach it is to bring it to 20ppm- I use pool calculattor to tell me the amount to use) At 8 am thia am I had only lost 2 ppm but i noticed a little something in the corner in shallow end ( dust/algae/pollen who knows) I added bleach. Just checked it at 12 noon and I had lost 6 ppm. I have taken a picture of my pool so you can see it is sparkling. Been at this since early Thursday morning- how much longer- should I be doing anything else. Last full readings ph-72.: alk- 100; ch- 270 these readings taken yesterrday afternoon- cya taken last week 40 HELP
 
If I am following your description correctly you had one overnight when the FC level remained the same but last night the FC level fell by 2?

How does the water look today? I don't see a picture, but you said sparkling? Is it cloudy, white/green, etc?

Losing chlorine during the day is normal. Losing chlorine overnight means algae. But if you can't test before dawn you can sometimes lose some chlorine in the early morning before you test and the results can be ambiguous.
 

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Well, from your description, it sounds like you're pretty close.

Are you comfortable with that CYA test? It appears your FC is loosing excessively during the daytime which may indicate your CYA test was innaccurate.

If that's not it, remember the only two things that consume chlorine are sunlight and organics in your pool. If your CYA is doing it's job, the organics (algae) are still in your pool.

I needed to shut off my pool last September (long story) This spring it was a complete algae-ridden mess. It took me 14 days of very high chlorine levels to get it cleared up......my POP was in very short supply for a while, too :lol:
 
The water is blue and sparkling- attempted to link picture but not sucessful- The water held from Friday nite to Sat AM- however dropped 6 ppm by 1pm; dropped 6 ppm between 1pm- 10pm; dropped 2 ppm between 10pm -8 am; dropped 6 ppm between 8 am- 12 noon.
 

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