Chlorine levels dropping fast

[ErikM]

This is my first post and I’m also a new pool owner so thanks in advance for any help on this.

I recently treated my pool with a product called Yellow Gone which the previous owner had in the pool shed. I was attempting to treat areas of mustard algae and the product appears to have worked. However, it’s been 4 days since the treatment and every time I add chlorine, the levels seem to drop faster than previously experienced.

As an example, last night I used 36 oz of 73% cal-hypo (ran out of liquid chlorine) to raise my levels to 8ppm (cya=60). This morning it was 0.6.

I’ll leave my other test results below and hopefully hear from someone soon thanks.

FC-0.6
CC-0.2
PH-7.3
TA-70
CH-270
CYA-60

 

[justinc]

The Yellow Gone is being broken down by your free chlorine and consuming it. You will use more chlorine for a short period of time until it has all been oxidized. Next time, don't use algaecides and stick with chlorine.

 

[mknauss]

Yellow Gone is ammonia. So it will take 10X the ppm in chlorine to eradicate whatever ppm of ammonia you added.

 

[Texas Splash]

^^ I agree with Justin. Find a good source locally for chlorine (aka regular bleach) and use that. A few other things that will help us since you are new:
- Update your signature to include the test kit. Looks like maybe a Taylor kit, but please confirm & add.
- Update your location so we know what part of this massive state you are in. My area might be much different that yours.
- Stick to the regular bleach and avoid cal-hypo if you can. Your CH is fine right now, and if your water is hard it will go up this summer on its own.
- To remove ANY algae, we folllow the SLAM Process process. I would be highly suspicous that the Yellow Gone actually resolved the issue 100%. To be sure, you might want to perform a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to see you are still loosing an abnormal amount of FC.

Hope that helps.

 

[ErikM]

Thanks to all for the quick responses. I have a local chemical company where I get chlorine at 12.5 percent. I Just ran out and had cal-hypo on hand. Not knowing any better I just so happened to have shocked the pool last night and this morning found the FC levels depleted so I guess I can rule out sunlight. I’ll be sure to update my info and thanks again guys.

 

[Blake1989]

Echoing what everyone else has said, avoid algaecides at all costs. The poly type is best one to use as it doesn’t have metals or ammonia, but it still isn’t necessary if proper pool chemistry is maintained.

Even if you have an algae bloom, you can easily knock it out by SLAMMING your pool. Some algaecides even have ammonia, which drastically eat up your FC.