Intex SWG not chlorinating pool enough?

[JRS7]

Have an Intex SWG on our above ground pool. (8000-8400 gallons.) SWG is pretty new, got it last year. Put in about 225 pounds of salt, been running it for about 8 hours a day. Water looks nice, but did a 3 way test this week. PH level looks just right, but the chlorine level was reading exactly NOTHING! So then I took a sample of the water where it comes back into the pool, which is right after the SWG. The water coming back into the pool shows a TON of chlorine, but if you take a sample anywhere else in the pool, nothing. We dumped a gallon of bleach into it yesterday to pump up the chlorine level, same thing today. High count on the chlorine right at the inlet, NOTHING elsewhere in the pool.

And ideas what gives? It's like the chlorine just disappears as soon as it hits the pool!

 

[crokett]

You need to post a full test. Is this a new pool? What is your CYA level? How long are you letting the SWG run during the day? There may be something in the water that is using up the chlorine. If you added a gallon of bleach to 8000 gallons, your chlorine level would be ~7. If it is 0 24 hrs later, something is using up the chlorine.

 

[JRS7]

The pool is not new, we've had it several years. I bought some 6 way test strips today and here are the results:

TH: 150
Free Chlorine: 0
PH: 7.5
TA: 120
CYA: 30


Been running the SWG 8 hours a day, today jumped it up to 11 hours. Gallon of bleach 2 days ago. Ton of chlorine at the inlet (5 on the test!!), none anywhere else!

 

[jblizzle]

Test strips are not going to cut it:
Recommended Test Kits

 

[Richard320]

If that SWG was big enough in years past, and it's still outputting....you're treading the fine line between clear and swamp. I sense an algae bloom building.

I wouldn't trust the strip reading, but if it were correct, 30 CYA is too low for a SWG pool. But hold off on raising that for now, because you probably need the shock process. If - big if - the CYA is 30, shock level is 13. To get 8000 gallons of water from zero to 13 will take 1½ jugs of Chlorox, all at once. And it's a process, not a one-time megadose. You'll need to add more in an hour or two.

That gallon you added bought you some time, but it's not curing the problem, it's more of a bandaid.

It will be very tough to perform the the shock process successfully without a proper test kit. But I'd still jack the FC to stay ahead of the impending algae bloom. It's one of those ounce of prevention things. Or in this case, a jug and a half of prevention.

Until you get a test kit, just keep adding bleach to the max reading on your strips.