Pool will not hold chlorine at all

[tx_pool]

Hi everyone,

We just bought a house back in November and inherited a 26' round AGP with it. The house we sold had a 23' long oval AGP. I never had any trouble maintaining chemical levels in our old pool. When I got ready to open this round one up for the season, I tested the water and the Ph was 5, the TA was 20 and TC and CC were both 0. Since it would take some much soda to bring the Ph up, I decided just to empty and refill the pool, based on the Ph and TA of the water straight from the tap (which was right in the normal levels).

So, I filled this big sucker up and then started with 16oz of 73% Cal-Hypo to get it cleaned out. I checked the water the next day and the TC and CC were again 0. So, I made sure the filter (brand new cartridge type) was clean and there was no debris in the basket attached to the pump, and added 32oz of 73% Cal-Hypo this time. Tested the next day and again... ZERO! My mind of completely blown at this point. It was fairly sunny most of the day and the water currently has 0 CYA, but man... ZERO chlorine after unloaded all of that Cal-Hypo powder into it?? I want to get the CYA going, but the directions on the product say to get chlorine to 1-3ppm first. :-| It's like a catch-22.

The Cal-Hypo I'm using is the granular stuff that you can buy from intheswim.com. I used it in our old pool, and just a little went a long way. I am at a complete loss here. Have any of you experienced anything like this before?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

 

[Texas Splash]

Mike, the sun will steal that chlorine in a matter of hours with no CYA to protect it. With summer approaching, I would increase the CYA to 40 using our PoolMath APP to help you with the amount. Use the sock-soaking method for that stabilizer, then switch to liquid chlorine or regular bleach for the FC. You don't need any calcium in that pool, and it's not nearly as efficient to increase the FC. Always refer to our FC/CYA Levels to ensure the FC and CYA are balanced together. Hope that helps.

 

[CrystalRiver]

UV from the sun burns off unstabilized chlorine very quickly. It's something like 3-6 ppm per hour. Get stabilizer in there and your chlorine will start holding.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Get about 30ppm of CYA in a sock and dangle it in the water in front of a return. For your pool, I estimate at 15,000 gallons you'll need 60 ounces of dry granular CYA stabilizer to reach 30ppm.

Then you'll need to start using LIQUID CHLORINE..... 19 ounces of 10% Liquid Chlorine = 1 ppm Free Chlorine. To SLAM your pool you want to keep your FC level at 12ppm until the pool clears. SLAM Process FC/CYA Levels

I used the classic web version of PoolMath to figure these sums out. Check it out! Great helper tool. PoolMath

Maddie

p.s. Vinyl pools don't need calcium.

 

[tx_pool]

Thanks everybody! I had no idea the UV would eat up the chlorine THAT FAST!! I was stymied by the requirement of the CYA to first have a stabilized pool, too. ha! I see Lowe's has some 10% NaClO liquid, so I'll pick up a few jugs of that tomorrow as well. I'll do the CYA sock, first, though.

Thanks again!

Mike