Free chlorine is non existent

[CarlD]

I have good news and bad news for you.
1) The good news is you can replace pH Up and Balance Pak 100 cheaply.
2) The bad news is pH Up is EXACTLY the same chemical as Arm&Hammer Washing Soda (in the yellow box) for $.80lb and Balance Pak 100 is EXACTLY the same chemical as Arm&Hammer Baking Soda in the orange box, also about $.80/lb. And both are in your supermarket.
3) More good news: Ben is always right, unless we disagree, in which case I'm right (JUST KIDDING, BEN!) You can't go wrong following his advice. Ben left out that to raise your pH, which he told you to do, you should use Borax (20 Mule Team Borax). Borax is usually right next to washing soda in the supermarket. If Ben wants you to raise pH by alternate means he'll update this.

Carl

[Mdpools]

Having a hard time replying to thread from iPad. Anyway I completed steps 1-5. The first reading after the initial 5 gallons of bleach was 7.2 ph and 1.5 chlorine. I will update this thread as things progress. Thank you guys.

[PoolDoc]

Sounds good. -ben

[Mdpools]

Night 2. Five more gallons of bleach. Reading 1 hour later are ph 7.2 and chlorine 1.0.

Next day chlorine is still very low. Will continue for 2 more days.

Question, any idea what is eating up all the chlorine? Going back to the 20 plus bags I put in last week? Very curious about that. Thanks.

[PoolDoc]

Without stabilizer, you can lose 90% of the chlorine in your pool (regardless of how much is there) in 2 hours of full sun. There are lots of variables here -- how clear is your water, how "full" is the sun, how deep is the pool -- but you get the idea, I hope.

Also, if you HAD stabilizer in your pool last year and didn't, when you opened this year, and did NOT drain your pool, you may be WORSE than unstabilized: you may have no stabilizer AND have ammonia left over which bacteria 'pooped' out after eating your stabilizer.

Best way to check: add chlorine late in the day; test levels an hour later and then again in the morning within 2 hours of sunrise. If there's a big difference, you have some sort of goo in the pool that's using up your chlorine.

In general: lose chlorine at night = goo; lose chlorine during day = many things but often, no/low stabilizer.

Ben

[Mdpools]

Thanks. Adding CYA may help?

[aylad]

Yes, if you're losing your chlorine to the sun. CYA and stabilizer are the same thing. Also called "balancer", "conditioner", look at the ingredient label. If the main ingredient is cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, it's the right stuff.

However, if you're losing your chlorine to stuff in your water, the stabilizer isn't going to help you much.

Janet