very low free chlorine, ideal to high chlorine, ideal ph...

What is floc, clarifier, stabilizer, cyanuric acid,
algaecide, brightener, dichlor, sodium hypo,
sodium bisulfate, ....??
crowland2
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very low free chlorine, ideal to high chlorine, ideal ph...

Postby crowland2 » Tue 24 Jul, 2007 13:33

I used to only check my pool for ph and chlorine using pool water and drops, but recently bought the test strips with 5 readings. My pool is starting to get algae, but not too bad, yet and looks a bit cloudy. My chlorine reading using the original kit shows ideal to high and the ph ideal. Using the test strips, I get the following results:

Total Hardness - 800 (max according to the box)
Free Chlorine - 0/0 to 1/2 (very low)
Ph - between 7.2-7.5 (low to ideal)
Total alkalinity - 120 (ideal)
cyanuric acid - 30-50 (ideal)

I have a 25,000 gallon pool and run my pump about 12 hours a day. I have an automatic chlorinator set on about 2.5-3. I had raised to it to 4 thinking that would raise my free chlorine, but it didn't.

How do I get the free chlorine up without having the regular chlorine level go way up? Any other ideas on my chemical balance? Thanks.


Backglass
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Postby Backglass » Tue 24 Jul, 2007 14:33

Free chlorine, Total Chlorine and Combined Chlorine are all interrelated.
Combined Chlorine = Total Chlorine - Free Chlorine.

You only posted a free chlorine reading which shows how much chlorine is available to kill algae. As you know it's very low and you should be adding chlorine ASAP to get this up. If your total chlorine is higher than your free chlorine, that means you have Combined Chlorine and something is eating your chlorine up (algae, organic matter, pee, etc).

You need to raise your pool to shock levels (10ppm+) and hold it there overnight to burn off your combined chlorine, kill the algae and raise your free chlorine.

You should invest in a real test kit. Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. You have an expensive pool...$60 on a good test kit is small change.
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crowland2
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Joined: Tue 24 Jul, 2007 11:34

Postby crowland2 » Tue 24 Jul, 2007 14:46

I've always gotten by with the pool water at home test that just tests the chlorine and PH. I just bougt the strips to try them, but I haven't really been impressed. My pool water tests (where you put a little water in a container and drop 5 drops of liquid in it) is showing very yellow which means it has plenty of chlorine. I'm not sure I understand, but did you suggest adding 10# of shock and let it the pump run overnight? It just seems that would add way too much chlorine. Thanks for the response!

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