Trouble Maintaining Chlorine and Stabilizer

[Turbo1Ton]

Are these refillable jugs? If so, no telling how old the chlorine really is.

Good point. I don't have anything like that available here (that I'm aware of) so wasn't thinking about that.

Which would also explain the no date code on the bottle.

--Jeff

 

[xxkylexx]

These are not refillable. I toss them in the recycle when done.

 

[proavia]

Odd that they don't have a date code then. Is there anything on the label or bottle like 21xxx or similar? "21" is the year, "xxx" is the day of the year - so 21250 is the 250th day of 2021. Maybe ask at the store as to where the date code may be.

 

[TampaKathy]

@xxkylexx I was just at a Pinch A Penny and asked the owner about the chlorine. She said they get a delivery weekly that fills up their large container/vat and then they fill up the jugs there daily (they don't put date stamps on them). So the chlorine is probably not more than a couple weeks old.

 

[Casey]

Well we know one thing... you have something in your water. Keep SLAMing it. Also keep reading and learning so you can educate yourself on your individual pool and its needs and you wont ever have to go through this again. Glad you're here.

 

[xxkylexx]

Wanted to post an update here. I have completed my SLAM and the pool is no longer losing FC quickly. I don't know what was in the water, but it took about 7-8 days of SLAMing (~12 gallons of liquid chlorine) to get rid of it. I kept FC levels at 10-12 during that time and CYA was left at ~0-10.

Now that the SLAM is complete for a few days, my FC is at 10 and slowly falling. I still have not turned on my SWG since I want the FC to fall back to the normal range.

Now I want to add stabilizer to bring my CYA up the the recommended level of 75. According to Pool Math, I needed to add a little more than 7 lbs of stabilizer to go from 0-75 CYA. So that I don't overshoot, I decided to start with ~6 lbs of stabilizer, which should bring my levels to 60-65. After waiting ~48 hours, I tested my CYA and am getting ~35.

Why is my CYA not coming up to the expected values? Is this stabilizer bad or something? Does it go bad? I have been buying the 7lb bags off of Amazon here. Is there something else I should be checking? It has been suggested in the past that my pool volume might be incorrect, but towards the end of my SLAM when things stabilized I was getting expected values with bleach additions. Again, my pool volume number comes from my builder and from some basic math calculations seems to be correct.

 

[Newdude]

Why is my CYA not coming up to the expected values? Is this stabilizer bad or something

The math is the math. 6 of 7 lbs will raise you 6/7ths of your target with pool math doing the hard parts on your behalf. (Seriously, LOVE that lil fella). It’s not like chlorine where something can eat some of it leaving you with less leftover.

How did you add the CYA ? If it was socked in front of a return and allowed to disperse into the pool, 48 hours should be plenty to see the expected results. If it was socked in the skimmer, or poured directly into the skimmer, it could be bound up in the filter media for a week or so. Any backwashing / deep cleans in that time will likely send it to waste.

 

[xxkylexx]

The math is the math. 6 of 7 lbs will raise you 6/7ths of your target with pool math doing the hard parts on your behalf. (Seriously, LOVE that lil fella). It’s not like chlorine where something can eat some of it leaving you with less leftover.

How did you add the CYA ? If it was socked in front of a return and allowed to disperse into the pool, 48 hours should be plenty to see the expected results. If it was socked in the skimmer, or poured directly into the skimmer, it could be bound up in the filter media for a week or so. Any backwashing / deep cleans in that time will likely send it to waste.

I just dumped it directly into the skimmer, as instructed to on the bag. I haven't done anything that would rid water from the pool. Maybe I need to just wait a week or so and test again, as suggested.

 

[Newdude]

Ok GREAT. Well, not great but we will get to that part. Great is we know where your CYA went. It’s stuck in the filter dissolving slowly. Give it a week.

Not so great is you added acid directly through your equipment. No harm this one time. And you couldn’t have known, it’s on the manufacturer for steering you wrong. But from now on fill a sock and prop it out a few inches from a return so the jet of water will mush it up and then you can squeeze it out of the sock into the pool.