Will I Ever Have Chlorine?

[drburrhus]

Hello all,

I am new to this board. I have been reading and reading for about 2 weeks now. I came here because my daughter was sick and I didn't go to the pool for a couple of days. When I went and checked on it the 3rd day it was completely green. I new immediately the algea was back, I have dealt with that before and it is not uncommon in south texas with the heat. So I went to work on that and the pool was no longer green but very cloudy and I understood that was because of the dead organic matter. No problem rinsing filter several times a day and vacuming the pool and it is looking better still very cloudy but my levels were all out of wack. So I used the pool calculator and everything looks great except the free chlorine. So here is where I started and where I am now with readings. I just added another 1.5 gallons of bleach to the pool and hopefully that will bring it up finally.

Before now

TH 100 TH 100

FC 0 FC 0

PH 6.8 PH 7.5

TA 80 TA 120

CYA 0 CYA 50

Should I expect to have to use more bleach that the 1.5 gallons or do you think this will do the trick. Also if it doesn't do the trick should I suspect ammonia is my problem? If so how much bleach does it take to get ammonia levels down?

I sure hope someone can help me because I am about at my end point with this pool!

Thanks,

ROma

[chem geek]

If your CYA dropped and you are having trouble getting FC to register (it gets consumed within an hour), then it's likely you've got ammonia. You can get an inexpensive ammonia test kit from a pet/fish/aquarium store and figure it will take about 10x that amount of cumulative Free Chlorine (FC) to get rid of it. Or you can just keep adding chlorine until it starts to hold. It may be a lot. My experience of this when it happened to me when I accidentally let the chlorine go to zero is described here.

[drburrhus]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to get an ammonia kit and test. After I added the chlorine last night I waited and hour and then tested FC 10. YEAH! So this morning went out and tested FC back to 0! THis stinks!!!! I am off to buy more chlorine today!

ROma

[chem geek]

So if the chlorine held for around an hour but then was gone overnight, then that's a couple of other possibilities. It's less likely to be ammonia, but could be a lot of Combined Chlorine (CC). Does your chlorine test measure Combined Chlorine (CC)?

Another possibility is organics or algae in the pool, with the latter being the most likely since you DID have algae. A pool with dead algae still consumes chlorine and takes a while (few days -- a week if circulation isn't great) to clear. You need to raise the FC and maintain it by adding more chlorine. Read Defeating Algae for more info.

The reason I suspected ammonia was that your CYA got to zero, but it may just be an algae problem alone, especially at this point. In any event, the solution is the same -- chlorine, chlorine and more chlorine to sustain a shock level of Free Chlorine (FC) which for a CYA of 50 ppm is 20 ppm FC. A FAS-DPD chlorine test kit makes this easier which is why I always recommend either a Taylor K-2006 you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 from tftestkits.net here with the latter kit having 36% more reagents so is less expensive per test.

[drburrhus]

Went and got more chlorine this morning. My test does not measure CC. I do think it is algea but I wondered if it was taking so long because of maybe ammonia. Anyhoo I added 2 gallons of chlorine this morning. Test shows FC up at 20. I am retesting every hour and have plenty of chlorine on hand. I will beat this!! LOL!

Thanks for all of your help. I do plan to get a better test kit as soon as I can.

THanks,

Roma

[frugal1]

I am searching for answers too. I have been working with 2 local pool companies and have been putting $$$ into the pool. I have an inground 22,000-24,000 gals, vinyl lined. I almost had my pool set and we got hit with some very wet and cold weather. I have a Frog mineral system so ideally, I use less chlorine. My test strips showed:

Hardness - OK

Alkanity - 100

PH - 6.8

CYA - < 0

Chlorine - 0 (or very little)

I was told to add Balance stabilizer 100 ( & not to backwash for 3 days) and Balance 200 to bring the PH up. I have my chlorine turned up and my Frog down to get balanced. I have also added and added chlorine and it doesn't even register! PH has moved either. Maybe Cyanuric Acid has come up to 0. It went cloudy and still low PH, Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid.

When I went back with the info and another water sample, they checked the Phosphate - it was very high and then I was give Phosphate remover and told that my pressure would be going up and to backwash in 24 hours - that is why I had no chlorine, it was eating it. I backwashed after running my pump for 55 hours straight, it took the pressure close to normal. It was still cloudy and no change to the chemicals.

I went in to have the water tested again, there was still phosphate and still low PH, Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid. I had to add more PH+ and stabilizer and a clarifier run the pump for 10 more hours turn it off, vacuum and bypass the filter (waste). Well now I was out of chlorine tablets. I have filled that put the pump going again and tried to get the chlorine going again. I will vacuum tonight (Happy 4th by the way!), but the chemicals haven't changed. My hardness has always been acceptable and alkalinity OK, with some variance.

Hopefully when the chlorine gets circulating, it will improve the other tests. I have only been following the instructions of one place but checking with another company to verify their findings. I have a feeling that I should just empty the pool and start over. I am ready to fill the pool in.

[chem geek]

Phosphate does NOT eat or consume chlorine. It is simply a nutrient for algae. I have 2000-3000 ppb phosphates in my pool but algae is prevented from growing by having a sufficient Free Chlorine (FC) level relative to the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level. I would not trust test results from pool stores. Get yourself a good test kit (the Taylor K-2006 or the TF100 from tftestkits.net). If the CYA is truly zero, then you can use stabilized chlorine (Trichlor or Dichlor) for a while, but to shock the pool you can't use Trichlor tabs -- they take too long to dissolve and algae will consume the chlorine too quickly. You need to add a lot of unstabilized chlorine, preferably chlorinating liquid or bleach (though Cal-Hypo is OK if your Calcium Hardness is low and you pre-dissolve it in a bucket of water first). Read the Pool School including the section on Defeating Algae.

[drburrhus]

Good day, I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th! I have been staying on top of the chlorine and this is where we stand

TH 100

FC 20

PH 7.8

TA 120

CYA 30

My CYA went down a little bit so I put my panty hose with CYA in it back in the pool . THe FC went down to about 6 overnight and I added more chlorine this morning and brought it back up to shock level. You can actually see the bottom of the pool now but it is still cloudy. I brushed the bottom of the pool and I still have one section with dirty looking stuff which showed up after the algea. Once that settles tonight I am going to vacumn the pool and then add more chlorine. It is holding the chlorine for longer each day and this is the first morning it held it overnight so we are making headway. I just have to remember to be patient.

Thanks,

ROma

[Romulous]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to get an ammonia kit and test. After I added the chlorine last night I waited and hour and then tested FC 10. YEAH! So this morning went out and tested FC back to 0! THis stinks!!!! I am off to buy more chlorine today!

ROma

Check my last post. You might have nitrogen in your pool. We had a similar problem trying to keep chlorine levels up with NO success and then just shocked the pool very heavily with liquid chlorine. This fixed our problem as we freed up the chlorine and got rid of the nitrogen.

[ttrublue]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to get an ammonia kit and test. After I added the chlorine last night I waited and hour and then tested FC 10. YEAH! So this morning went out and tested FC back to 0! THis stinks!!!! I am off to buy more chlorine today!

ROma

Check my last post. You might have nitrogen in your pool. We had a similar problem trying to keep chlorine levels up with NO success and then just shocked the pool very heavily with liquid chlorine. This fixed our problem as we freed up the chlorine and got rid of the nitrogen.

To clear cloudy water after killing algae you need to apply a flocc treatment,this will allow dead algae to settle

to bottom and then you vacum to waste/drain as these particules are too small for your filter to remove.

Depending on degree of algae infestation you may need to repeat this proccess.

[chem geek]

To clear cloudy water after killing algae you need to apply a flocc treatment,this will allow dead algae to settle

to bottom and then you vacum to waste/drain as these particules are too small for your filter to remove.

Depending on degree of algae infestation you may need to repeat this proccess.

Unless you have poor circulation in your pool, you do not need to use a flocculant. I do agree that if you have a pool without a floor drain, such as many above-ground pools, and you have a weak pump, such as most Intex pools, then a flocculant followed by vacuum-to-waste is helpful. For an example of clearing a pool using only chlorine and no flocculant, see here.