Second swim season and appear to be having issues again Holding chlorine

[Cmelser]

So last year was a mess, months of fighting my chlorine until I found this site. After slamming it seemed to be on track for awhile and I was able to keep FC at level per app. Well as season starts again I find myself having to run cell at 45% or higher to just keep 3-4 usually 3. I appear to be passing overnight test, water is clear I added a bag of non chlorine shock as my CC was like .49 and levels went up and stayed well for a week or so. Then fell back. I added a bag of Dichlor the other day and held the level for a day then slowly came down and now back to 3ppm running at 45%. Today’s FC was 3 and CC looks to be 0.
here are my last test numbers :
FC-5.5
CC-0
PH-7.6
TA-90
CYA-70
CH-300
Swg at 45%
Salt-3000

 

[mknauss]

Pump run time per day?

Is the CYA test before or after the dichlor. The dichlor added 10 ppm CYA.

 

[Donldson]

I added a bag of non chlorine shock

That stuff isn't good for your SWG cell. I'd recommend sticking with the SLAM Process if you have future CC issues. Though 0.5 ppm (how did you get a reading of 0.49??) is a perfectly acceptable CC reading.

 

[Cmelser]

Pump run time is 9 hours. Starts up
At 9am and runs until 6pm. I know with the heat and sun I have to run higher but have been told that I shouldn’t have to run above 35-40, this is true when the temps are lower. I have been at 45 for about 2 weeks. I added the non chlorine stuff as since I was out of liquid chlorine and I originally didn’t want to use the dichlor. The .49 was from Leslie’s I had them run a test as I felt something in my kit was giving me incorrect results. I didn’t change it to .5 my fault. I knew it wasn’t high but wanted to push it down. I found liquid chlorine again and have a jug. I added 2 cups tonight to push up to 5ppm and to see if the cell would stay caught up tomorrow on 55. The CYA was after the dichlor I originally didn’t want to use this but wanted to keep level up per app and not take chances. This started happening last year and it was a mess. I had flakes in the pool from running pump and generator so much. I practice everything I can from here with the exception of the few items above. I am almost to over cautious on this pool this season, I clean it every week brush jt weekly vacuum even it not needed. Clean all the pool toys to be sure I am not bringing in something and still it begins this game.

 

[mknauss]

9 hours and 45% setting is 3 ppm FC per day. As you are under a screen enclosure, that should be sufficient.

Do your own testing.

 

[Cmelser]

I do my own testing with your kit weekly. I took it in as a check as I felt one of my reagents were not working. The CC test always seemed to show 0. With the loss of chlorine I felt that wasn’t right. So I had a test run to see how my tests were doing. Everything was spot on except the CC test. I only use them if I just want to make sure my tests are good. I am ordering more stuff this week to restock my kit from the site. 45% is allowing my levels to fall to 3-4 and dropped to as low as 2. All times I raised it manually with the liquid or the stuff I had above. My water temp is only 85. Screen room but sun all day. I had 5.5 yesterday afternoon now today I sit at 3pm. This is what blows my mind. Friends pool little bigger same conditions and he keeps his set at 25% or a max of 35 at times. We were on the same every thing for a week and I crashed he lowered his!

 

[mknauss]

Your pool is consuming more FC than you are generating. Do a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. If no loss over night, then raise your generation level. Or follow the SLAM process for a few days to see if that rights things.

 

[Cmelser]

Last one I did the other day I seem to be passing. Unless my stabilizer test is not correct when I read it I have no idea why it does this. No real place for algae to hide. Cleaned my skimmer basin, baskets brushed and vacuumed. Been a couple weeks since I washed filter down. It gets to the point where the pool is more stress than the time I get to enjoy.

 

[Cmelser]

Still looks like I am passing loss test. So if I manually raise chlorine with liquid or shock it holds. After a day or so it drops. So is it I need to run cya higher, pump longer or higher cell settings than 55%? Builder says it should run 8-9 hours and usually no higher than 35% as cell is oversized. I am seeing percentages apparently need to go up but I don’t want to have to put 8-10ppm in it because cya is 80-90. Last year I was running pump 12 hours a day then I was getting small white flakes looked like it was snowing in pool while using it. I am sure there is a balance but why is it this pool isn’t cooperating

 

[Texas Splash]

Since Marty isn't online yet, I'll ask a couple more questions:
- To be sure, was the SWG off last night during the OCLT? It's happened before.
- If the SWG was off and you passed a good OCLT, perhaps it's the cell itself? How old is it? Have you cleaned it recently?

 

[Cmelser]

I added the liquid to get the pool to roughly 5ppm about 30 min after pump shut off. Wasn’t dark but no direct sun. Pump doesn’t run at night so the sun was up this am and system off. Looks like I lost call it a even 1 in over 12 hours. I felt the salt cell was bad last year but it was brand new it’s not even two years old. I cleaned cell two weeks ago along with filter. Cell was just fine no real build up at all. All came off with hose. CC tests show 0 to maybe .2. Pool is always crystal clear except we notice some haze in the deeper part near drain. I am very diligent with this small pool and do my best to never let it get below 3. Everything else is balanced every Saturday.

 

[mknauss]

Your pool is consuming a higher amount of FC each day. Not unusual in your climate. It is what it is. Adjust the SWCG run time and /or %generation to make the chlorine you need.

 

[Cmelser]

I raised system to 55% yesterday. Was going to add an hour or two to run time but I didn’t want to start producing the flakes again. I am guessing this little pool gets hit harder than I expect

 

[mknauss]

Run time has nothing to do with the SWCG shedding scale. The CSI (calculated by PoolMath) provides the best indicator of scaling. Keep the CSI between 0 and -0.3 and you should have minimal scale from the SWCG.

 

[Cmelser]

Last year I was fighting the “new pool” so my CH, TA and PH were all high. I have had very little scale showing up on cell since during cleaning have only acid washed once.
i adjusted run time to start at 8am and run until 7pm left at 55% for now. Rough math it seems I am losing like 2ppm a day? Or 2.5 so cell is just ending the day with what pool math says it should make. I am starting today with 3.5. We will see how day goes. I did get a good rain yesterday. Temps are high. I guess the point is the pool builder is going to tell you what you want to hear but the pool will do what it wants.

 

[mknauss]

11 hours at 55% will generate right at 4.7 ppm FC per day for your pool size.

 

[Cmelser]

So am I normal in amount of loss per day? If I am losing normal amount then I can see it’s just a run time or system % issues.

 

[mknauss]

TFPC says 2-4 ppm FC loss per day is normal. My normal in June, July, and August is a bit higher, like 4.5 to 5 ppm per day. Small pool, high water temperatures, and extreme sun with few if ever cloudy days.

 

[Cmelser]

Sure would hate to see what it is without stabilizer and a screen. I guess I am not far off. Better than adding liquid chlorine I suppose. Bigger cell is my thoughts for later.

 

[Winger 03]

I'm curious - you have a VS pump, why not run it 24/7 at a low speed rather than skirt this fine line of being short on chlorine?