My chlorine keeps rising and a few other water issues

[bobby2175]

Hi!

Tested my water this morning and things seem a little off and wanted to make sure I'm getting things straight before I'm out of town for a week.

Current test:
FC - 19.5! Was 14 five days ago and 12 two weeks ago and have an SWG.
CC -.5
pH - 7.8
TA - 100
CH - 375, but was 375 before I added 20 lbs of calcium chloride earlier in the week (I was trying to raise it)
Salt - 2800 (was 3000 five days ago)
CYA - measured 2 weeks ago at 80

My pool has been cruising along after getting help from everybody here. In the past few days, we've had a ton of rain - almost to the point where I thought I may have to drain a little bit, so I'm thinking something with the rain is creating this.

My questions:
Why is chlorine increasing at such a fast rate when over the past month, it's been generally steady except when I had to add some liquid chlorine about 2.5 weeks ago when I got low and it seems to keep rising with only my SWG? My SWG is currently running 24X7 (recommendation from here) and has generally been maintaining my chlorine until this week where it is rising like crazy!

Should I add more calcium even though it seems like it made no difference when I added 20 lbs of calcium chloride this week?

Should I raise my salt again as I just added 40 lbs of salt 2 weeks ago?

My SWG diagnostics are attached.

Pool is about 3 years old.

Thanks in advance!

Bobby

 

[HermanTX]

My pool has been cruising along after getting help from everybody here. In the past few days, we've had a ton of rain - almost to the point where I thought I may have to drain a little bit, so I'm thinking something with the rain is creating this.

I had similar thing happen down in Texas. All of a sudden, couple of cloudy days and a touch of rain and the FC increased as the daily loss of FC decreased.
Suggest you turn down the SWCG but continue to monitor your FC at least every 2 days. It could swing back the other way.

Your calcium is fine - I would leave it for a week or so and test again. I keep mine in the 300-400ppm range.

The salt test has an error of +/-200ppm (1 drop) and your SWCG is happy reading at near 3000ppm with avg at 3200ppm
If the SWCG starts to read low salt, then consider adding more then.
Always turn off your SWCG when you add salt to let it dissolve so the SWCG does not get a large slug of highly concentrated salt water.

 

[bobby2175]

So, tested again today and my salt is down to 2600. I also turned down my chlorinator on Saturday from 24X7 100% to 24X7 70% and my FC just hardly moved from 19.5 to 19 from Saturday to today.

It almost seems like my chlorinator is on overdrive right now and producing way too much chlorine. Is this possible and what would cause this? The last few days have been hot and sunny after some heavy rains the few days prior.

Also, I'm leaving today to go out of town for the week - should I turn the chlorinator down further and add more salt before I leave?

Thanks.

Bobby

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Most pools lose up to 4 ppm of FC daily during peak swim season. Running your SWG 24/7 at 100% should increase FC by 5.6 ppm daily. This would account for the daily increase in FC you noted. At 70%, FC increases by 3.9 ppm. This is likely closer to you actual FC loss. You shouldn't have to run your SWG at 100%. You may be seeing variances in daily FC losses caused by cloudy conditions and bather load.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Also, I'm leaving today to go out of town for the week - should I turn the chlorinator down further and add more salt before I leave?

No one knows your pool better than you. At 19 ppm, you have a pretty strong FC buffer. Your SWG should be good at 70%.

 

[bobby2175]

No one knows your pool better than you. At 19 ppm, you have a pretty strong FC buffer. Your SWG should be good at 70%.

It's been really weird because over the past month, it's been cruising along with no issues and then all of a sudden, I'm overshooting the FC. I'll leave it at 70% until I get back and then see where I'm at!

Should I add salt before I go? Anything that comes to mind on what would lower salt so quickly over the past few weeks?

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

I would add salt to meet the SWG minimum level.

The only thing that will lower salt and CH levels is water loss/exchange. Since solids stay in the water with evaporation, evaporation does not result in lower levels.

Does your pool have an autofill? Have you been experiencing any unusual water loss?

Check out the link below. This will help you diagnose whether or not you have a leak. If you don't have time to do it before you leave, do it when you return.

Bucket Test

This is a simple method of leak detection is done by marking water levels on … Read more…

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[HermanTX]

FC loss can vary by each day due to amount of UV and bather load. I would not run at 100% so turning down to 70% should be suitable based on the data provided by @Rancho Cost-a-Lotta .

Obviously your SWCG is happy now but with you leaving town, I would add sufficient salt to get to at least 2800 or 3000 based on what the minimum is for your SWCG.

 

[bobby2175]

We do have an auto fill. Have not experienced any notable water loss all season.

The only thing that has really changed is we had a significant amount of rainfall last week. It took my water levels from halfway up the skimmer to almost overflowing the pool. It was more rain than I've seen in the 3 years we've been here.

I've been just allowing evaporation to bring the level back down and it hasn't moved much (and hasn't hit the auto fill levels yet).

I do have a small leak at my acid doser, but it's small and we haven't been able to get anyone out to fix it. It's been around since the pool builder kinda left us with a bunch of issues. That will be a topic for a new post where I can use some help!

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Are you sure you do not have an overflow pipe/drain? Is it possible you lost some water through overflow?

 

[bobby2175]

Are you sure you do not have an overflow pipe/drain? Is it possible you lost some water through overflow?

Can you clarify what an overflow pipe drain is? And how would I find it? Definitely not out of the realm of possibility, but the pool builder had not mentioned it, but they also just kinda left us in the middle of things.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Mine is simply a pipe situated below the deck, above the water line. Some have drain covers. You may also find one inside of the skimmer or the autofill basin. There are many different types. Search here and Google for overflow drain and check images for different types. If you have a autofill, you likely have an overflow. This would explain your water loss.

 

[mc2021]

I'm a bit west of you but I have noticed over the last week or so my CL demand has dropped to maybe 1.5ppm a day. It's been hot and sunny and I can't explain it either but I have noticed it too. I usually need to run my SWG around 90% this time of year and it's down to 50% right now. This may not help you except to say you are not crazy

 

[HermanTX]

We do have an auto fill.

If you have an auto fill - open up the cover to it. If there is an open ended pvc pipe sticking straight up about 1 foot or so from the bottom, then that is an overflow. If the water rises above that, the pool will self drain into that. If your rain was real heavy, you may not have noticed because the rainfall overwhelmed the overflow and therefore rose to what like it may overflow the coping.

The float in the autofill only opens when the pool water level drops and closes at some preset point.

 

[bobby2175]

Ok. Will look when I get back to town this weekend! Thanks for all of the help!