Water temperature, sunlight & chlorine levels.

Jump to latest Follow Reply
P

PeterDM

0
Jun 22, 2016
55
Toronto, Ontario
Opened my pool late this year due to cold spring. Quite green on opening. 10 days of slamming cleaned it up. I've had completely clear water for the last month. However, until the recent heat wave the water has been at, or below 24C (I don't heat it) & I kept the solar blanket on except when swimming in order to elevate the water temperature. I only had to add a relatively small amount of chlorine every night to keep the levels above 5 or 6 ppm.

In the last week of 30C + weather the water temperature has risen steadily to 28/29C. I haven't been putting the solar blanket on the pool as I don't mind the water cooling a bit at night & i don't want the water to heat up anymore. For a couple of days the FC levels seem to have dipped below 1 ppm by the end of the day. I had to start adding a lot more chlorine at night. Yesterday, I noticed a little bit of algae on the sides of the pool. I don't know if this means I have to SLAM?

What is the relationship between water temp/sun exposure & chlorine use? Will keeping the solar blanket on during the day reduce chlorine use?
 
Seeing algae = SLAM time.

Chlorine is only lost to 2 thing: organics in the water and the sun breaking it down.

Higher water temps will require more chlorine to keep algae at bay.
Also, the lack of solar cover will also allow higher chlorine losses to the sun.
 
I was a bit surprised at the difference in chlorine loss over the last week. This seems to indicate that the exposure to high sunlight levels has dramatically increased the usage of chlorine. I'm wondering if keeping the solar blanket on during the day will help reduce the chlorine loss somewhat while I stabilize the pool, even though it will increase the water temp?
 
Poolzzz said:
Not necessarily. You have algae now. Need to fix that.
Click to expand...

The water was crystal clear for weeks & around 24C. I was adding fairly small amounts of chlorine each night with the chlorine levels staying pretty steady around 5 - 6 ppm. Then the air temps hit the 30's for a number of days, the water temp increased to 28C. I left the solar blanket off for a couple of days & I noticed the chlorine level had dropped suddenly to below 2 ppm. I added significantly more chlorine to bring the level up to 8ppm, but by the next evening it was back down to 1 ppm.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply