Chlorine refuses to raise

[Fe2O3-Y]

Hello!
I’m new to the group, but I’ve been reading though numerous pool school articles and posts. I have what was sold to us as a “PermaSalt” pool. We’ve had it for several years with very few issues, however after doing some research I learned that these pools can be unsanitary due to dangerously low chlorine levels. So, this year I opted to switch to a regular chlorine pool.

Following the advice from pool school and the group, I bought a Taylor-2006 test kit and tested my water. Here were my initial results.

FC- 0.0
TC- 0.0
CYA- 20
CH - 250
TA -90
Ph- 7.2

I tried adding 2 gallons of 6% liquid bleach, but that did nothing. This was when I learned about the role of CYA. I also, read a post that discussed how ammonia could cause problems with chlorine. So, I got some stabilizer and some ammonia test strips. I tested for ammonia (it was 0) and added the stabilizer according to the pool calculator. My CYA is now 70.

Yesterday, I added a total of 3 gallons of 6% bleach and my FC and TC didn’t move off 0.

The pool is clear and clean, new sand in the filter mid season last year. I’m not sure what to do next. I seen someone mention a metal issue, could that be my problem? The PermaSalt systems utilizes a copper generator to keep the algae at bay, the generator is not being used anymore and I'm not sure how copper would interfere with chlorine. Could copper be causing this? Or some other metal or something I’ve not tested for yet?

Here are my latest test numbers as of today:

FC - 0.0
TC - 0.0
CYA - 70
CH - 250
TA - 90
Ph - 7.1
Ammonia - 0

Oh, my other issue is finding liquid chlorine, most places are sold out because of the pandemic.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
You say the pool is clear and clean. Can you call heads or tails of a quarter in the deep end?
Most areas you can locate liquid chlorine at Walmart (garden section), Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, etc.

You are correct, your water has copper in it. That will not effect the chlorine. Do you have any dark stains on your pool surface? Any blonde hair turning green?

I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[IceShadow]

How big is your pool? Please fill out the signature.

 

[Fe2O3-Y]

Sorry, its a 27' x 54" round pool. (20k gal.)

Yes, you could see a quarter on the bottom (4 ft). The water was somewhat cloudy when we uncovered it, but it cleared up pretty quickly once we turned the filter on (see attached).

I manged to find 4 gallons of 10% chlorine at our local Ace Hardware.

No, dark stains, no green hair. Never had an issue with either.

The ABC's of Pool Chemistry was very helpful. That is where I learned about the role CYA plays. Also,
after reading a couple threads I bought a Taylor K-2006 testing kit.

Should I just keep adding chlorine? Is there anything else I should check first?

 

[IceShadow]

Have you added any non-chlorine shock, or any other chemicals?

Either way, the best thing to do is keep adding enough FC to get to around 10ppm and test after 30 minutes. Eventually it will hold chlorine. Depending on what was in there it might take some, but I haven't heard of much that isn't the ammonia that you've already ruled out (especially since it's holding CYA) that burns through it that fast.

 

[Fe2O3-Y]

I don't recall ever using any non-chlorine shock (but it is possible)2. It used to be a "permasalt" pool. They keep their chemicals a mystery to their pool owners, so there were other chemicals added in the past couple years, but I have no idea what they were.

Today I added a total of 4 gallons of 10% & 2 1/2 gallons of 8% liquid chlorine, testing every 30-45 minutes. An hour after adding the last round of chlorine my FC is only 1 and my CC is 1. The FC would rise up to around 6-9 ppm about 10-15 minutes after each dose , but quickly drop back down to near nothing in no time.

I'm guessing that I'll need to SLAM it in order to get it on track. If I can find enough chlorine, it's super hard to find in my area right now.