mntn-biker Posted July 2, 2008 Report Share Posted July 2, 2008 Newbie here on the forum and to pools. We have a new above ground 21' diameter pool (10,600 gals) and went to the free pool school at Watson's. I understand that the free and total chlorine should be the same. If the total is more than the free, there is dead chlorine and a shocking will be needed. For the past few days, my free and total chlorine have both been between 5 and 10 on my test strip. I have had the inline chlorinator turned down to 0 for the past few days. We have a solar cover on whenever the pool is not in use (water temp reads about 82 F). The cya acid level reads about 10. Ph is a little low around the 6.8 mark. Isn't the chlorine supposed to evaporate? I thought that the issue would be not enough free chlorine but is seems I have too much. Any ideas what to do? Thanks - Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted July 2, 2008 Report Share Posted July 2, 2008 Mike, Instead of using test strips for measurements, get a better test kit instead, the Taylor K-2006 you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here with the latter kit having 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced "per test". Your CYA level should be higher, but I wouldn't trust the test strip reading. Did you just recently fill your pool with water and not add any Cyanuric Acid to it upon startup? That would explain a low reading. If you've been using Trichlor pucks/tabs in the inline chlorinator for a while, then the CYA level is probably higher since for every 10 ppm FC added by Trichlor, it also increases CYA by 6 ppm. Chlorine doesn't evaporate (at least not quickly in pools with CYA), but it does break down in sunlight and does so quickly if you don't have enough CYA in the water. Your pH is probably low because Trichlor is very acidic. You should probably add pH Up (Arm & Hammer Washing Soda; sodium carbonate) unless your Total Alkalinity (TA) is high. pH Up raises both pH and TA. For more info on how to manage your pool, read the items in the Pool School. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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