I have had my pool for about 3 years. The first 2 seasons were fine. Took a sample to the pool store once a month and added what they told me. I got tired of pouring liquid chlorine into the pool so I put in a holding tank and dosing pump. I have the pump hooked up to my Jandy system to deliver a small amount of chlorine each day based on how much I was adding when I was doing it by hand. This worked great for 1 1/2 years. At the beginning of our season this year we started having green algae on the walls of the pool. We would brush off and check levels and add additional chlorine as needed. This continued to happen so I figured that there must be something wrong with the pump or the chlorine in the tank had lost some of its strength.
I started dosing by hand. I poured in 2 1/2 gallons of 10% over the course of 2 1/2 days but still the walls would get green spots and some occasional black mold as well. My FC would constantly drop to 0 or less than 1 ppm. It is possible that the 2 1/2 gallon jug of chlorine that I added was purchased at the same time as the chlorine in the tank so it may have been bas as well.
I was able to go to the pool store yesterday. I brought a sample and this is what they found FC 0, Alk 80, pH 7.7, CYA 35, Phos 1000. I got 5 more gallons of chlorine, some stabilizer and some granular chlorine to sprinkle over the areas with the black mold after I brushed the area first.
Last night when I got home I put a gallon of chlorine in the pool. I let the pump run for a few hours and checked FC with my Taylor K-2006/FAS-DPD and it was 8 ppm (CYA up to 40, ph 7.8). I left the pump running but I forgot that I have a feature enabled that would shut anything that was left on off at midnight. When I got up I turned the pump on again and let it run for 1 hour and checked the FC it was 7 ppm (ALK 80, pH 7.8, CYA 45). I went to work and when I got home the FC was less than 1 (likely 0.5 ppm). I added another 1/2 gallon of chlorine and checked again a few hours later and found FC 2.8. Tonight I checked again and FC was less than 1 again (0.8 ppm). I have added 4 more cups of chlorine tonight based on pool math app.
When I came home and found my FC <1 I felt that since my CYA was at target then there must be something else consuming the chlorine. I decided to clean the filters even though the pressure reading was not to the level where I normally clean. The filter cartridges had a noticeable bleach smell (chloramines?). The filters were dirty but not anything that I hadn't seen before. I also cleaned the leaf filter on my pump and found some sprouted seeds in the basked. So there was likely a fair amount of organic material in the filter and in the pump basket.
I hope that this will be the solution to my problem. Anything else that I should be looking at?
I started dosing by hand. I poured in 2 1/2 gallons of 10% over the course of 2 1/2 days but still the walls would get green spots and some occasional black mold as well. My FC would constantly drop to 0 or less than 1 ppm. It is possible that the 2 1/2 gallon jug of chlorine that I added was purchased at the same time as the chlorine in the tank so it may have been bas as well.
I was able to go to the pool store yesterday. I brought a sample and this is what they found FC 0, Alk 80, pH 7.7, CYA 35, Phos 1000. I got 5 more gallons of chlorine, some stabilizer and some granular chlorine to sprinkle over the areas with the black mold after I brushed the area first.
Last night when I got home I put a gallon of chlorine in the pool. I let the pump run for a few hours and checked FC with my Taylor K-2006/FAS-DPD and it was 8 ppm (CYA up to 40, ph 7.8). I left the pump running but I forgot that I have a feature enabled that would shut anything that was left on off at midnight. When I got up I turned the pump on again and let it run for 1 hour and checked the FC it was 7 ppm (ALK 80, pH 7.8, CYA 45). I went to work and when I got home the FC was less than 1 (likely 0.5 ppm). I added another 1/2 gallon of chlorine and checked again a few hours later and found FC 2.8. Tonight I checked again and FC was less than 1 again (0.8 ppm). I have added 4 more cups of chlorine tonight based on pool math app.
When I came home and found my FC <1 I felt that since my CYA was at target then there must be something else consuming the chlorine. I decided to clean the filters even though the pressure reading was not to the level where I normally clean. The filter cartridges had a noticeable bleach smell (chloramines?). The filters were dirty but not anything that I hadn't seen before. I also cleaned the leaf filter on my pump and found some sprouted seeds in the basked. So there was likely a fair amount of organic material in the filter and in the pump basket.
I hope that this will be the solution to my problem. Anything else that I should be looking at?
