Losing chlorine

[PoolDoc]

Hi Joe;

Sodium hypochlorite adds sodium and chlorine to the pool, but no stabilizer (cyanuric acid, CYA). However, you need to find a bleach that shows % -- should be around 6% sodium hypochlorite. Some highly dilute bleaches are sold 'cheap', but are actually a rather bad deal.

Regarding CYA and draining, with most kits it's very hard to accurately measure CYA levels above 100. In other words, your level could have been 300 ppm and you may have now reduced it to 200 ppm . . . but it would 'test' the same. If you do a 1/3 drain again, you'll reduce (hypothetically) that 200 to 130 or so, and STILL look pretty much the same.

As to how far you can safely go, without knowing more about your pool, I can't tell. If you want to take some pictures and email them to me, I'll post them and reply. (poolforum AT gmail DOT com)

Ben
"PoolDoc"