Hi everyone.
So, I decided to open up the pool a bit early this year, trying to get the most out of the season. Since opening, I've had only problems with the water quality, specifically the Combined Chlorine Level. The following is the sequence of events:
- May 4 open the Pool, start the system with no issues, put 2 x 1Kg of pool opening chlorine shock, clean walls, such up all the gunk, backwash, etc.
- May 5 test for chlorine levels with the sticks, I get nothing. I poor 8 litres of liquid chlorine in the pool. Still nothing on the strip.
- May 6, take the water for testing PH is good, Alka is good, Calcium good, CYaA (Stabilizer) a bit on the low side, Free Chlorine 0.3ppm and COMBINED CHLORINE 9.8PPM. I am puzzled, the pool shop puzzled. They recommend shocking to pool again, using chlorine or non-chlorine shock. Come home, add 8 more litres of Liquid chlorine that night. Put a stick in, no chlorine reading again. Also clean pool and backwash again.
- May 7, I put 2 x 1lbs bags of chlorine shock in it again. Put a stick in, no chlorine reading. Go for the water test again. All good, except Free Chlorine 0.7ppm and Combined Chlorine 17.8PPM. Pool shop looks at it like there was no tomorrow. They say put 4cups of non-chlorine shock (oxidizer) x 4 times. Go home, spread the doses over 24 hours, almost 8kg of Oxidizer went in.
- May 8, put a stick in it, no chlorine. The water smells, you can feel the chloramines. Take the water to the test, all good but Free chlorine 0.8PPM, Combined Chlorine 18.5PPM. They don't know what to say. I take the rest of the water to a different pool shop. They test, very similar results except their machine can't read over 15ppm of Combined Chlorine. They are baffled also. Tell them the story, they recommend waiting another 24h and retest, considering how much oxidizer I put in.
- May 9, test the water again at the second shop, all good except: Free Chlorine went down to 0.5ppm and Combined Chlorine again over 15ppm. They don't know what to say.
- May 10 - I don't know what else I can do, so far I've spent about $200 in attempting to treat the water, likely the same cost of draining and refilling...
Has anyone seen something like this, where the Combined Chlorine is so high and adding chlorine renders the Combined Chlorine levels higher? Do you have a suggestion or a place to try, before I make the decision to cut my losses and dump the water?
Thanks!
So, I decided to open up the pool a bit early this year, trying to get the most out of the season. Since opening, I've had only problems with the water quality, specifically the Combined Chlorine Level. The following is the sequence of events:
- May 4 open the Pool, start the system with no issues, put 2 x 1Kg of pool opening chlorine shock, clean walls, such up all the gunk, backwash, etc.
- May 5 test for chlorine levels with the sticks, I get nothing. I poor 8 litres of liquid chlorine in the pool. Still nothing on the strip.
- May 6, take the water for testing PH is good, Alka is good, Calcium good, CYaA (Stabilizer) a bit on the low side, Free Chlorine 0.3ppm and COMBINED CHLORINE 9.8PPM. I am puzzled, the pool shop puzzled. They recommend shocking to pool again, using chlorine or non-chlorine shock. Come home, add 8 more litres of Liquid chlorine that night. Put a stick in, no chlorine reading again. Also clean pool and backwash again.
- May 7, I put 2 x 1lbs bags of chlorine shock in it again. Put a stick in, no chlorine reading. Go for the water test again. All good, except Free Chlorine 0.7ppm and Combined Chlorine 17.8PPM. Pool shop looks at it like there was no tomorrow. They say put 4cups of non-chlorine shock (oxidizer) x 4 times. Go home, spread the doses over 24 hours, almost 8kg of Oxidizer went in.
- May 8, put a stick in it, no chlorine. The water smells, you can feel the chloramines. Take the water to the test, all good but Free chlorine 0.8PPM, Combined Chlorine 18.5PPM. They don't know what to say. I take the rest of the water to a different pool shop. They test, very similar results except their machine can't read over 15ppm of Combined Chlorine. They are baffled also. Tell them the story, they recommend waiting another 24h and retest, considering how much oxidizer I put in.
- May 9, test the water again at the second shop, all good except: Free Chlorine went down to 0.5ppm and Combined Chlorine again over 15ppm. They don't know what to say.
- May 10 - I don't know what else I can do, so far I've spent about $200 in attempting to treat the water, likely the same cost of draining and refilling...
Has anyone seen something like this, where the Combined Chlorine is so high and adding chlorine renders the Combined Chlorine levels higher? Do you have a suggestion or a place to try, before I make the decision to cut my losses and dump the water?
Thanks!
