This is a real eye opening discussion. Clearly there are a lot of reactions happening in the swimming pool, many of them chaining together, apparently in an endless loop.
If I'm reading this correctly, most of the carbon based molecules (organics, oils, plant matter, algea) are ultimately gassed off as carbon dioxide. Did I get this part right?
I'm still confused though, if the chlorine doesn't go anywhere as JamesW suggests, then why must additional chlorine be continually added? If it all stays in the pool, and more is routinely added (conventional, not SWG) eventually you would have quite a build up of various chlorinated compounds. The only exit I see is the creamy white sludge that gets hosed off of the (cartridge) filters, and that doesn't amount to much, but since it is concentrated as a solid and not a gas or liquid, maybe its enough?
Thank you to all in this conversation for keeping it clean and positive. Sorry I'm not a chemist (but I paid attention in my high school and college chem classes). I'm trying to see it from a "black box" viewpoint: stuff keeps going in, so eventually when the box is full (or saturated), stuff has to start coming out somewhere. In this case, my 'stuff' of interest is chlorine and/or sodium.