Newbie - SWG not working in 3rd year

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C

camedia

0
Oct 29, 2017
32
Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Hi, I have a Jandy aqua pure SWG and even after boosting I can't seem to get the chlorine up. The pool has an automatic cover on it and so rarely gets sunlight except when actually used (1-2X a week). I cleaned the cells (which did have a little scale) but still nothing. My CYA is reading near 50 but imagine that is unlikely the culprit as it stays covered 95% of the time. I do have high phosphates 4000 but advice here seemed to be to generally ignore that.

It is a NatureFusion2 SWG, and a 27K gallon pool.

Open to any and all advice! Thanks
 
C,

Unless there is some obvious failure with the SWCG, the most likely problem is that your pool is consuming all the chlorine that your cell can make.

I suggest that your run an Overnight Chlorine Loss test or OCLT... This is how... Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

I suggest that you get your FC up to about 6 ppm by adding Liquid Chlorine and then run the OCLT.. With the Cell off of course.

How long do you run the cell each day and what is your Target FC level?

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks so much. I just got my TFTestkit in the mail so tested the CYA and it looks like its 35 (not 50 as Leslie's had said).

Do you think I need a higher CYA even if it remains mostly covered?

I run it for 8 hrs a day @ 45% for the pool, 15% for the spa, but I did boost it 48 hrs ago. The 8hrs is what the installer did and I never changed it. My target was 3 FC but not really with great reasoning.

When you say its consuming all that chlorine, does that mean there is algae? My FC is reading 1.5 w CC of .5.

I can go buy the liquid chlorine and try as you suggest - Thanks! But do you think my pool has stuff growing in it?
 
Cam,
your CYA is rounded up call it 40. Even if its covered you should have min 50 but I like it higher. Consuming FC means exactly that, something like algae is burning it up. Time to do an OCLT to see what is really going on.
 
You can also do an OCGT (overnight chlorine gain test) which is the opposite of the loss test - you test once the sun has gone down, then run the pump overnight with the SWG set to whatever % you want, then test again in the morning and see how much chlorine the generator produced. Compare to the theoretical value generated by PoolMath and see whether it lines up or not.

With the SWG, you'd do well to run your CYA higher - around 70-80, that will give your SWG a helping hand in keeping the chlorine levels up. I have the same model you do and last week brought my CYA up from ~50 (it had fallen over the last couple of months) back to 80 and within 2 days of doing that my FC increased from 6-7 to 9 simply through the added protection and therefore stability in FC numbers throughout the day.
 
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Ben,

You kind of want to do the OCLT first to make sure the pool is not consuming the FC at night..

Then you run the OCGT to see if the cell is making the amount of chlorine it should.

If you run the OCGT first, and you get say half of what you expect, you still don't know if the cell is good or not.. It could still be that the pool is consuming more than it should.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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Thanks all. I am trying to follow the suggestions but got some weird readings that I'm struggling to make sense of.

Before I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine 12.5% my FC was at 1.5. Then an hour after adding it, it was at 13.5. Based on the Pool Math calculator for a 30000 gallon pool it should have only gone up to about 6.

Any idea what I did wrong?

In practicality, its actually fine as I probably needed to slam the pool anyway but a bit unnerved that I didn't get the expected jump in FC.

Really appreciate all the guidance - I won't even bore this group with the advice I got at Leslie's, even knowing so little it didn't make sense and I came home and ordered the TFTestKit:)
 
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camedia said:
Any idea what I did wrong?
Click to expand...

C,

I doubt you did anything wrong, but no doubt that something is not right...

128 oz. of 12.5% Liquid Chlorine would have brought your FC up to about 6, as you said..

So, either your pool is not close to 30K, or the Liquid Chlorine was way more than 12.5%..

How did you measure the 13.5 ppm ??

Was the SWCG off when you added the Liquid Chlorine or was it also running?

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
Ben,

You kind of want to do the OCLT first to make sure the pool is not consuming the FC at night..
Click to expand...
Totally agree! For some reason I thought an OCLT had already been suggested it thread (hence my 'also') but I see maybe I'd just imagined that.

Good clarification, thank you.
 
I got the liquid chlorine from Leslies - at least the label says 12.5%

As for my pool, it is 20 X 45 (will measure again tmw but at smallest its 20*40). It does have a 10X10 spa inside so maybe I should subtract that.

I also think its certainly possible I did the test wrong as it was the first time using the TF-100 but I did it twice after adding the chlorine. Maybe I did the initial one wrong before adding the chlorine - but that's unlikely bc I did both the OTO and the FSD which were consistent.

I'm perplexed
 
So measured this morning and the FC is down about 2 (from 27 drops to 23 drops).

So does that mean I should keep adding more liquid chlorine this morning? If so, how much given the reaction I got last time. The SLAM chart says around 13 for CYA of 35. Using pool math that's almost half a gallon but just a bit worried it will massively overshoot. Was thinking I should start w a quarter of a gallon and then measure an hour later to see how much its gone up?

Also as my pool is covered, can I essentially do a FC loss test during the day or is that a bad idea?
 
There isn't any harm in using smaller amounts to help you dial in your testing and the size of the pool. Make sure you use enough to see an measurable increase.

Good question on the OCLT with an auto cover. It sounds right in theory but I'll wait and see what others have to say. I'm curious since I have an auto cover as well and it never occurred to me to try the test during the day.
 
Hi all, I used the 10ml sample.

So some new info has given me an idea of why it jumped. This morning I added 4 cups of the liquid chlorine and an hour later my FC went up 3-4. This was from a new bottle (used up the first gallon yesterday). Interestingly that rate is basically the same from the bottle yesterday but basically 3-4X what the pool math says. So I think it has to be that the Leslie's bottles are just much more concentrated than labeled.

The only other option is my pool is much smaller than I think but checked it is 45X20, 8 ft deepest, 1 ft shallowest.

Has anyone else ever had this experience? The label clearly says 12.5%.
 
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