No Chlorine!

[ComsMom]

I am at my wits end. I Live in central Pennsylvania and opened 15 foot above ground swimming pool two weeks ago and have nothing but problems! I have had the pool for 5 years and opened it the same way I always do - usually no trouble. Last year we had a hard time holding free chlorine. Pool store suggested Phosphate Remover since we live near farms and that did the trick - we had a trouble free pool season after that. This year is another story. We again could not hold free chlorine so we thought that it was the same problem as last year and added the phosphate remover again. This time no luck. All levels were PERFECT except FC and CL. Pool is crystal clear. Pool store seemed stumped after testing water and suggested Metal Out - tried that, no luck. Went to second pool store who told me to add 3 lbs granular chlorine because it was "locked" - still no luck. Added MORE Phosphate Remover let run for 26 hours, vacuumed, backwashed and shocked last evening, tested water - still nothing! I have scrubbed, vacuumed and backwashed like crazy. This morning pool water still looks great but a little dirty on bottom. Almost looks like a little algae, if that's possible. Not sure what to do next!

[PaulR]

There are some cases where people have found that bacteria converted their CYA to ammonia. I hear that pet stores will have an ammonia test (intended for fish tanks) you can use to see if this is the case. Ammonia takes lots of chlorine to clear out. And of course you have to replace the CYA.

--paulr

[Pool-newb]

There are some cases where people have found that bacteria converted their CYA to ammonia. I hear that pet stores will have an ammonia test (intended for fish tanks) you can use to see if this is the case. Ammonia takes lots of chlorine to clear out. And of course you have to replace the CYA.

--paulr

that very thing happened to me. Certainly check your ammonia levels and keep adding cl until you get .

You could also get your own testing kit just to rule out any problem with the store or even the container you use to obtain the water sample.

[Pool-newb]

oops - almost forgot: check your CYA levels. I believe CYA cannot be "chemilized" out so if it went down drastically that would be another indication of a CYA eating bacteria. Ammonia dissipates rather quickly in the presence of chlorine so just because you measure no ammonia doesn't mean this isn't the problem.

[ComsMom]

Thank you for your suggestions - I have tested the sample bottle, have several test kits (and still get the same results) and just tested for ammonia and there is none. Is it at all possible that I DO have an algae problem?

[Pool-newb]

How much CYA do you have? (I believe our previous two posts were almost simultaneous).

[ComsMom]

How much CYA do you have? (I believe our previous two posts were almost simultaneous).

I think you're right. My CYA level is 40

[Pool-newb]

40 is a bit low unless you use bleach and haven't added any CYA in a while. The bigger question is when was your previous measurement and what was it? (assuming the 40 is since you've had the problem).

On the other hand, when this bacteria thing happened to me, my CYA went down to about 15, others have reported down to zero.

What kind of chlorine are you using? If you are using bleach you can probably just keep adding, filtering, brushing and backwashing until it fixes itself. Keep an eye on combined chlorine and free chlorine. If cc is high it is possibly algae. Once it goes down you should see fc start to hold.

Difficult situation and I understand why the pool store is stumped despite having a plethora of junk he could sell you to throw at it.

[chem geek]

You can do a bucket test to see what the chlorine demand is in your pool. 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach in 2 gallons of pool water is 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC).

[ComsMom]

You can do a bucket test to see what the chlorine demand is in your pool. 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach in 2 gallons of pool water is 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC).

Thank you for your reply. I just followed your instructions this and it only showed 3ppm on total Chlorine and 0 on FC. Not sure what to do next.

[imnay]

We are NOT the expert water chemists here - over the 20 years we have had our AGP like maybe three or four times our chlorine became so very bound up that we had to go to extreme shock measures - we always use liquid chlorine to shock and normally we achieve a good shock with like just a half gallon - at these rare times we had to add a HUGE amount of liquid chlorine to achieve a complete shock reading on our tester - one time I recall I had to add like 17 gallons to get the correct shock reading - once we achieved a true shock everything went back to normal.

Okay - that's our experience and what worked for us. If what we did was not correct I can say it worked for us.

Best of Luck

[ComsMom]

We are NOT the expert water chemists here - over the 20 years we have had our AGP like maybe three or four times our chlorine became so very bound up that we had to go to extreme shock measures - we always use liquid chlorine to shock and normally we achieve a good shock with like just a half gallon - at these rare times we had to add a HUGE amount of liquid chlorine to achieve a complete shock reading on our tester - one time I recall I had to add like 17 gallons to get the correct shock reading - once we achieved a true shock everything went back to normal.

Okay - that's our experience and what worked for us. If what we did was not correct I can say it worked for us.

Best of Luck

Thank you so much for your input. From reading this forum, I sort of thought that adding a huge amout of chlorine was what was necessary. I'm just not sure how to go about it. It's a small pool (7500 gal.) I'm a bit gun shy since nothing else has worked and don't want to not follow the "correct" procedure and mess it up even more!

[chem geek]

In the bucket test, you keep adding more chlorine until you start to measure FC. What you did just showed that the chlorine was getting converted to CC. You need to add more and as imnay says, it could be a lot of chlorine. I'm sorry I wasn't clear about the bucket test -- you don't just add 1/4 teaspoon and stop. You can try again and add one teaspoon, wait an hour, and see if you measure FC. If you do, then that's 40 ppm FC minus what you measure as FC that you'll need to cumulatively add to your pool. If you want a more precise estimate, add 1/4 teaspoon at a time.

[ComsMom]

In the bucket test, you keep adding more chlorine until you start to measure FC. What you did just showed that the chlorine was getting converted to CC. You need to add more and as imnay says, it could be a lot of chlorine. I'm sorry I wasn't clear about the bucket test -- you don't just add 1/4 teaspoon and stop. You can try again and add one teaspoon, wait an hour, and see if you measure FC. If you do, then that's 40 ppm FC minus what you measure as FC that you'll need to cumulatively add to your pool. If you want a more precise estimate, add 1/4 teaspoon at a time.

Thank you for your time and assistance I truly appreciate your assistance. Since it is getting dark here now, I will begin in the morning. I hate to sound like dense, but when I do get the cumulative amount of chlorine that I need to add, do I do it all at once? Do I add to the skimmer or directly into the water at the return? I also assume that I should have extra on hand just in case.

[chem geek]

Thank you for your time and assistance I truly appreciate your assistance. Since it is getting dark here now, I will begin in the morning. I hate to sound like dense, but when I do get the cumulative amount of chlorine that I need to add, do I do it all at once? Do I add to the skimmer or directly into the water at the return? I also assume that I should have extra on hand just in case.

I wouldn't add more than about 20 ppm FC at a time, just to be on the safe side and to not overshoot by too much. I'd add it over a return flow at the deep end with the pump running. Lightly brush the side and bottom of the pool where you add the chlorine to ensure thorough mixing.

[ComsMom]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I put in 8 jugs of bleach and finally broke it! It has been holding for about an hour now at shock level. I will keep checking on it and add if needed. Finally, after 2 weeks I see a light at the end of the tunnel. My PH and ALK are showing low now but I finally have FC!

[chem geek]

Congratulations. It will now probably hold reasonably well and you can then adjust your other water chemistry parameters.

[ComsMom]

Congratulations. It will now probably hold reasonably well and you can then adjust your other water chemistry parameters.

I guess I should wait until tomorrow to adjust the PH, etc. I can't thank you enough!

[chem geek]

Congratulations. It will now probably hold reasonably well and you can then adjust your other water chemistry parameters.

I guess I should wait until tomorrow to adjust the PH, etc. I can't thank you enough!

Adjust the pH after the chlorine level drops from shock level. The pH test isn't valid at high FC levels -- it will tend to read falsely high above around 10 ppm FC (depending on the test kit).