Lack Of Chlorine

[k9vetech]

Hey ALL

Totally frustrated with the lack of chlorine registering as none. I have shocked and shocked, gone to 3 different pool places in my area, treated w/specific instructions, will get to that later. I have gone through 17 gallons of shock and it is not holding, using pucks in the skimmer, and water is crystal clear, all other levels are perfect, PH, etc. THE pool places keep telling me to shock, shock, shock, even 4 gallons a day and the chlorine is locked somewhere???? I am confused, and really frustrated, and cannot figure out what to do! My pool is 18x36 inground and never have I had this problem. NOT a mesh cover, and each time I bring water to be tested, its more $$ to the point it is driving me crazy. Strips are good, pucks are good, what could it be?

HELP!!

K9

[Strannik]

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[Strannik]

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[Strannik]

You need to get yourself a test kit, and start testing yourself.

What's your cya level?

[k9vetech]

Hey ALL

Totally frustrated with the lack of chlorine registering as none. I have shocked and shocked, gone to 3 different pool places in my area, treated w/specific instructions, will get to that later. I have gone through 17 gallons of shock and it is not holding, using pucks in the skimmer, and water is crystal clear, all other levels are perfect, PH, etc. THE pool places keep telling me to shock, shock, shock, even 4 gallons a day and the chlorine is locked somewhere???? I am confused, and really frustrated, and cannot figure out what to do! My pool is 18x36 inground and never have I had this problem. NOT a mesh cover, and each time I bring water to be tested, its more $$ to the point it is driving me crazy. Strips are good, pucks are good, what could it be?

HELP!!

K9

[k9vetech]

You need to get yourself a test kit, and start testing yourself.

What's your cya level?

Strannik

I have a test kit, x3 at pool place too. NOW they want me to bring in a sample of water, put it in brown paper bag, do not let sun get at it, do some kind of test, but keep buying shock, 4 gal a day at almost 6.00 per gallon, UGHHHH.

They say the chlorine is locked somewhere??

Should I back wash, add earth or something?

I am totally totally confused.

I am running the pool 12-14 hours a day.

K9

[Strannik]

You need to establish what's your CYA level, and CC level.

And depending on that take appropriate actions.

By the way no need to buy shock from pool shop, you can use unscented clorox.

[k9vetech]

You need to establish what's your CYA level, and CC level.

And depending on that take appropriate actions.

By the way no need to buy shock from pool shop, you can use unscented clorox.

Strannik

Thanks for the replies, now how is this?

I have no clue right now what CYA and CC means.............K9 is new to this madness. ;-)

[Toddro61]

CYA is cyuranic acid, also called stabilizer. Stabilizer binds up chlorine and protects it from breakdown by the sun. It also inactivates the chlorine and makes it undetectable on a test. If you have a lot of stabilizer in the pool, all the chlorine is bound up and not showing up when you test the water.

There is a test kit you can buy at most pool stores that will tell you your stabilizer level.

If it is too high, the only way to lower it is to drain water and add new water, it does not evaporate.

Also, be aware that a lot of shock products have stabilizer in them. It is better to shock with straight chlorine.

[sirsilent]

I have exactly the same problem. I am adding chlorine without any results. Test shows always 0.

BTW, where do I get the cheapest chlorine? I used powder shocks and liquid chlorine, nothing helped.

[knohe]

I think I know the chlorine lock they are telling you about. Are they not being specific? What tends to happen is that organic material (i.e. leaves, frogs, ducks, worms, pollen) gets into your pool and leaches ammonia. This ammonia eventually builds up into solution and begins over powering chlorine faster than you can put it in. I work in a pool store- I've seen about 80 or 90 people already this season with your EXACT same problem (I had it in my pool last season). The only way to get rid of it is to dump high amounts of chlorine AT ONCE into your pool. By adding some chlorine everyday, the ammonia is just eating it up right away. I personally had to dump in 75lbs of granular shock (at 47%) at once and keep testing the chlorine. What you can do is ask the store of they do a chlorine demand test. What it should do is tell you exactly how many pounds of shock you'll need. Speaking from experience and preference, granular shock is the way to go. I haven't recommended liquid chlorine/shock EVER. If you can, find your local BioGuard dealer. BioGuard has a test called Accu-Demand. It's the test we use and its worked miracles. We've gotten every single one of the people with this problem back into a clean, clear pool! Hope this help, any questions- ask away!

[chem geek]

I agree with you that for many pools opening up that they can have a lot of ammonia in them, but it isn't just decomposition from leaves as even covered pools have this problem. It's the biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by soil bacteria that get into the pool because chlorine levels drop to zero. The degradation pathway is shown here. For every 10 ppm CYA that is degraded, it produces 3.3 ppm ammonia and takes around 30 ppm FC to clear it.

I disagree with not using liquid chlorine (chlorinating liquid or unscented bleach). If you use granular shock, by which I presume you mean Cal-Hypo, then that will increase Calcium Hardness (CH). For every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases CH by 7 ppm. Why do you never ever recommend liquid chlorine for shocking? With any source of chlorine, it should be added slowly over a return flow at the deep end and for a vinyl pool one can brush the side and bottom to ensure good mixing. All sources of chlorine produce identical chlorine (hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion) when added to water. The only difference is in their initial pH and in what they additionally add such as CYA for stabilized chlorine and CH for Cal-Hypo.

To find out how much chlorine you need to clear the pool, if there is ammonia in the pool, you can get an inexpensive ammonia test from a pet/fish/aquarium store and then add a cumulative FC that is 10 times the amount of ammonia. It does not have to be added all at once -- it's the cumulative amount that matters and you don't want to overshoot too much especially if the CYA level is zero. I've done this with quite a few people on the forums so far and the ammonia tests do seem to be fairly accurate.

Richard

[talkyfawn]

Richard is 100% correct. I just had what sounds like the same problem. At his suggestion I got the ammonia test strips and it tested 6ppm. What drove me crazy for two weeks and lots of $$ at the pool store was solved! I bought 5 gal drums of 12.5% liquid chlorine and added five gals at a time then checked after 1/2 hour and added more. The ammonia level kept dropping, added more. Finally after 27 gals of liquid shock I had a FC level 3ppm after having none for so long.

Do yourself a favor and check on this!! Everything is good now. PH is a little low but I'm working on that now.

by the way for comparison, I too have an 18' x 36' inground.