No Chlorine Stability

[Colleen Murphy]

Can not keep Chlorine levels in pool. Phosphates are at 1000 and can not bring down, treated with phosphate remover and does not affect. Also, 32 gallons of liquid chlorine/shock added last week still no chlorine detected. Chlorinator filled and on full, floating chlorine dispenser filled and tablets in skimmer and still no readings. Anyone have any ideas. Inground pool, since 1987. New liner in 2002, never had any chemical problems until now.

[pemoye]

What's the pH? What kind of test kit are you using?

[Colleen Murphy]

I use aquality (mark iv) liquid drops and Insta test 3 and 5 test strips (LaMotte).

PH - 6.8 and have treated with alkalinity which brought up PH to 7.5.

Still have NO chlorine reading.

[Craig]

I use aquality (mark iv) liquid drops and Insta test 3 and 5 test strips (LaMotte).

PH - 6.8 and have treated with alkalinity which brought up PH to 7.5.

Still have NO chlorine reading.

Colleen, I have the very same problem. We've had a pool for 18 years and this is the first time we've had this crazy problem. Did you find out anything yet? I'm not sure if the problem might not be in the DE filter or the age of the chlorine we are using.

[quarterhorsemom]

I cannot get chlorine to register either. I bought all new testing supplies
high dollar ones) thinking that might be it and still no chlorine registering. PH is good and I am having a next to impossible time getting pool clear, blue cloudy water. We are vacumming the crap out of it and still the same.

I am at a loss. I have spent hundreds of dollars on chemicals which I could have spent hiring a pool company to handle it.

[Craig]

Quarterhoursemom,

I finally got a low level chlorine reading and it seems to be going back up. I shocked the pool 3 days in a row and cleaned it with a hand pole vacumn. The shock actually is the bacteria fighter and then after adding chlorine tablets to my two skimmers, It finally started to come up and the chlorine started working. If you don't shock the pool regularly, I'm told it takes all the chlorine to fight the contamination which pulls the chlorine out of the pool and you get a NO Reading on your test kits/strips.
Later!

I cannot get chlorine to register either. I bought all new testing supplies
high dollar ones) thinking that might be it and still no chlorine registering. PH is good and I am having a next to impossible time getting pool clear, blue cloudy water. We are vacumming the crap out of it and still the same.

I am at a loss. I have spent hundreds of dollars on chemicals which I could have spent hiring a pool company to handle it.

[JUdy]

I had the same trouble with my pool. 1st time in 40 years. I removed the chlorine floater that had stabilized chlorine in it & I started shocking it every night for five or six nights with liquid chlorine/chlorine bleach. It finally started registering, I put the floater back in & has had perfect chlorine readings ever since.

[Buggsw]

Craig & Judy - Yep, you got it. You have to hit it high and long with chlorine.

You have had a problem with chlorine lock or too much algae consuming the chlorine. The former is caused by too high of levels of CYA - which causes you to need to use more and more chlorine. You should switch to liquid chlorine if this is the case. The latter is well, just hungry algae.

[LeftField11]

I had this same problem this spring. I took a sample of my water to a pool store and had it tested.

The problem was that I had no CYA (or very little) in my water. I dumped three 3 lb. bottles in my 33,000 gal. pool and the chlorine seems to be stable.

This might seem too obvious, but it got me.

[Backglass]

Sound's like a CYA (stabilizer) problem.

If you don't have any CYA, the sun causes the chlorine to disappear within an hour or two. If you have too much CYA, it inhibits the chlorine and it can't do it's job. The key is to strike the balance!

Since you have a "high dollar" test kit, it should have a CYA test too. What is your level?

[Chad-R]

I wonder if someone can comment on this... when I opened the pool this year, the stabilizer (CYA) level was very low. After vacuuming the pool and backwashing, I then added 10 lbs of CYA (32k gallon pool). Now, just 3 - 4 weeks later, the CYA levels are near zero... according to 2 different tests at the pool store.

After adding the 10lbs of CYA, I've only backwashed one short time and added just a little bit of water to the pool. I don't understand this since CYA supposedly is only lost from water being taken out of the pool... vacuuming to waste or back-washing. Anyone have any ideas where 10lbs of CYA could have gone??? Thx.

Chad R.

[JIMNSC]

Please tell me more about the "liquid chlorine" you all are referring to as I have high CYA and cannot get any free chlorine readings. I am using Trichlor like it was free and still no luck. I must get the chlorine stabilized!

Could you be referring to Chlorox bleach?

[Backglass]

Please tell me more about the "liquid chlorine" you all are referring to as I have high CYA and cannot get any free chlorine readings. I am using Trichlor like it was free and still no luck. I must get the chlorine stabilized!

Could you be referring to Chlorox bleach?

Yes..chlorine is chlorine, just different concentrations. Many pool stores sell liquid chlorine which is around 12-15%. Store bought clorox bleach is exactly the same thing at 5-6%. The benefit is that neither have CYA (Stabilizer) in them to build up and they are a lot cheaper than pucks/sticks/powder/etc. It's all the same stuff.

[JIMNSC]

Thanks so much, Backglass - you have made my day!

Jim

[Backglass]

Thanks so much, Backglass - you have made my day!

Jim

Your welcome!

Download this awesome program called Bleachcalc to help figure out how much Clorox to add inplace of shock/15 chlorine, etc. It also will do dilution for too much CYA.

www troublefreepool com/files/BleachCalc262.exe