New pool owner, struggling to keep chlorine levels up.

[Crumble619]

Hi all,

Purchased house about 6 months ago, with dark green swamp water pool. I live in a very hot climate (Temecula, CA), but not super hot yet. Bought new filters, slammed it, used clarifier, and it is nice and clear now. The issue I'm having now is that the chlorine is getting burnt super fast. I literally have to add like 4 gallons a day to keep the levels up. When I tested CYA a few months ago, it was around 40, but after water evaporating and adding more, the CYA test (Taylor 2006) is still clear to the top of the tube, so less than 30 CYA. This makes sense because I can dump 4 gallons of chlorine in, and chlorine is at 0 the next day.

Numbers are:

Chlorine = 0ppm
PH = 7.7
TA = 80
CYA < 30
CH = 160

What should I do to my pool so I am not burning money on chlorine constantly? I've never added CYA to my pool, so not sure what I should buy. What level CYA should I shoot for in a hot climate? Are the rest of my numbers ok? People always say to add this much per 10,000 gallons, but I have no clue how many gallons my pool is.

Thanks guys

 

[PoolGate]

Do a proper slam. Get a proper test kit if you don't already have one.

SLAM Process

 

[PoolStored]

POOL VOLUME

1. Your pool is a triangle. What is the length of the two sides that meet at 90 degrees? How deep is the pool water? The spa is roughly the size of the table...so
2. Use those numbers in this calculator, choose triangle shape to calculate your pool volume. https://www.swimmingpool.com/resources/tools&apps/pool-volume-calculator/
3. Download pool math and put that volume in, when you configure your pool. Link-->PoolMath

Testing

1. Next question, and this is important. How are you testing your pool water. Brand and model number of the kit.
2. If you don't have one of the recommended kits, get one. Link-->Test Kits Compared
3. Stop here until you get your kit and add 3ppm of liquid chlorine a day until you have your kit.

If you have one of these kits, great, let's continue.

CYA Into the Pool

1. Get some granular chlorine stabilizer. Use pool math to add 30ppm of stabilizer to your pool. Use pool math to calculate how much in weight to add to get 30ppm in the pool. Use the sock method to get the CYA into the pool. You can test CYA again after 24 hours after it has dissolved.
2. When the sock hits the pool I want you to test and replace FC daily with enough FC to raise your FC to your target CYA (30). Link-->FC/CYA Levels
3. Since your chlorine was low, we need to test for algae...even if you can't see it. At this point do this test-->Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

Next Step after that?

1. If you fail OCLT, you need to follow this process to get rid of the algae-->SLAM Process
2. If you pass OCLT, then we can slowly raise the CYA...we don't want to overshoot. Recommended range is 30-60. I would add in 10 increments, wait 24 hours, then see what the chlorine usage is. If it is still too much daily, then raise another 10. Don't exceed 60.