Low Chlorine/High PH

[costanzoeric]

Good afternoon,

I’ve browsed a few threads here and have looked over pool school and somewhat got the answer I was looking for, but still don’t have a firm next step as I am very new to this.

Pool is 14000 gallons. Salt water with Hayward salt cell. Using Taylor 2006 testing kit. Pool was installed a couple of months ago. I originally had very high chlorine, around 20. Did a partial discharge and refill and adjusted the SWG and had the chlorine and other levels just about perfect for a few weeks.

My problem now is low chlorine, possibly 0, but I’ll say .5-1 and PH around 8. CYA is around 55. I have the chlorinator at 20% for 4 hours per day.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Bperry]

Good afternoon,

I’ve browsed a few threads here and have looked over pool school and somewhat got the answer I was looking for, but still don’t have a firm next step as I am very new to this.

Pool is 14000 gallons. Salt water with Hayward salt cell. Using Taylor 2006 testing kit. Pool was installed a couple of months ago. I originally had very high chlorine, around 20. Did a partial discharge and refill and adjusted the SWG and had the chlorine and other levels just about perfect for a few weeks.

My problem now is low chlorine, possibly 0, but I’ll say .5-1 and PH around 8. CYA is around 55. I have the chlorinator at 20% for 4 hours per day.

Any help would be appreciated!

Welcome! Can you post the test results to get more specific advice but there was probably no need to drain water. Chlorine burns off in the sun pretty fast so just let it do that in the future.

With no chlorine and a CYA of 60ppm, you need to keep the FC at least 4ppm and anywhere below SLAM level (which is 24ppm).

Try doing an overnight chlorine loss test (OCLT) and if it shows something eating the chlorine, you’ll need to do a SLAM. -> SLAM - Shock Level and Maintain

 

[PoolStored]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Let's put some of the puzzle pieces together.

• FC of 0 means that your chlorine is being consumed faster that you are adding it with the cell. (or the cell isn't working).
• UV increases in spring through summer, as a result, your FC demand (daily use) will go up. It will go back down in the fall.
• 3-5ppm is typical FC demand in the summer, depending on latitude, etc.
• You need to compensate for that by turning up your output %, or run time to keep up the the FC demand. And turn it down in fall.
• Always round your CYA up to the next 10, your CYA is 60.
• You should keep your FC at the top of the recommended range for your CYA. Link-->FC/CYA Levels
• Now that you have gotten to 0, add liquid chlorine to get back to range...it may take the cell a while at high output continuously to raise FC.
• Do you have PoolMath? Use it to calculate, then add LC to get to FC target for your CYA.
• Also use it to figure out how to add enough output% and runtime to add 3ppm per day to your pool. Then use those poolmath recommendations, and change the runtime and output% on your pump and cell. We can fine tune from there.
• And because you got to 0, it may be that you have algae, even if you can't see it.
• Do an overnight chlorine loss test that @Bperry indicated. Link-->Overnight Chlorine Loss Test
• You Fail, you SLAM. Link-->SLAM Process

 

[Newdude]

I have the chlorinator at 20% for 4 hours per day.

Thats 0.2 FC per day. Your SWG is adding about 4 ounces (1/2 cup) worth of bleach to a 14k gallon pool in a warm climate. No kidding its low.

We got you now and soon you'll understand all this too.

Welcome to TFP.

 

[costanzoeric]

All of these suggestions help tremendously! Thank you. What I’m hearing has validated some of what I was I was thinking. I did think that I may have had the cell running low. I’ll get pool math and I will go through each point and see if I can figure this out and report back. Thank you again!