High Chlorine Reading - Help


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Old 05-18-06, 12:17 PM
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Question High Chlorine Reading - Help

Hello everyone, I have been away from here for a while. I just opened my pool {25,000 gals in ground vinyl lined pool) on May 6 by adding 5 gals of chlorine as I do every year. I ran the filter and vac'd the bottom until crystall clear like I do every year. I took my water sample for the opening chemicals to balance and my chlorine reading was 8 last week and 7 this week. They said they cannot balance the water until I get it down around 4. Ideal is 1 -3. Without costing a fortune, how can I reduce the chlorine level. I know that the water is safe to swim as is but I don't want everyone having irrated eyes and skin. I have never had this high of a reading when opening.

Thank s for the advice.

Regards,

Doug
 
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Old 05-18-06, 02:09 PM
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Without additional chemical or draining/replacing some of the water, aeration is the quickest way to reduce the chlorine.
 
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Old 05-24-06, 06:16 AM
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was this the total chl. or available chl. they should be the same. what was the stablizer ( Cyanuric Acid ) is it high ? just because you have a high chl. residule doesn't make the water sanitary, if the tot. chl. is 7 and the available chl. is 0 then you have a prolbem. i have seen 1 pool do this in several years, you will have to shock it to bring it down, what that means is that you have to break the Chloramines (bad chl.) this is due to using poor sanitizers. go to you pool store and have them check the total and available chl. they should be the same or very close. they can instruct you on how much shock to use to break this. do not be suprised if it takes 25 -30 lbs of granular to fix the prolbem, i know it doesn't sound like you want to add more chl. i had 1 pool i was called to fix it was 34,000 gal took 75 lbs of granular to break the Chloramines residule. draining may help but you still have a prolbem.
 
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Old 05-24-06, 12:26 PM
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Man, I wonder if it's cheaper to just completely drain and refill the pool with fresh, clean water instead of trying to super-shock the thing with tons of chlorine which would cost you an arm-and-leg regardless...

Not to derail this thread, but how often is one supposed to change the water? The water I have in my pool is about 4yrs old, not counting the amount I've been adding to keep it topped off.
 
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Old 05-25-06, 06:58 AM
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as long as the (T)otal (D)issolved (S)olids is not high i wouldn't worry about changing. as long as you keep the tot. chl. and avail. chl. and ph and tot. alk. and Cal. hard(really important for gunnite) within a acceptable range everything would be fine. as far as changing the water this is a possibality, however VINYL lined pools as suceptable to shrink, so the chance to lose a liner is always in play, as far as gunite/fiberglass there is a chance for blowouts/popouts. until he gets a sample to a pool store and gets it anylized we are assumeing the worse case scernario.
 
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Old 05-26-06, 05:43 AM
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Talking Still High Chl

Hi, VC Racing & others,

Both the total chl. & available chl. were high {8ppm then 7ppm}. I took the water sample to my pool store for balancing both times and this was their readings. They advised because how high the chl is that they cannot test the water for balancing. I am hopeful that when I go today, both chl levels have reduced to a point that they can balance the water.

I will keep you all posted. All I have done to date is run the filter and hope for evaporation. The pool store is the one that said it is safe to swim.

Regards,

Doug
 
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Old 05-27-06, 05:42 AM
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have them check the stabilizer level, if the stablizer is high, you may have chl. lock, and the stablizer is what prevents the chl. from dissapating quickly. to much will cause the chl. to lock.
when they check the chl. are they using tabs or drops. if they are using tabs (good) if the reading are still high, the chl. residule may be higher, and the chl. is bleaching the reagent out, actually giving a false reading.
 
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Old 05-30-06, 05:33 AM
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Talking Good to Go!!! Finally

Sorry for the delay, long weekend and to much partying. Anyway on Friday my Chl was at 4 and they were able to balance the rest of the water, which after the chl came down was real close to being perfect. Next year I will take a sample of the water in prior to shocking and let them tell me how much to use to shock. They said I went way overboard with the 5 gals of liquid I used. These guys seem a whole lot more interested in repeat business then the other company I used. They just sold me chems on top of chems. These people wanted to bring the levels into line and then will work to keep me in line. In the long run, it appears that this will be cheaper for me, which in turn will make me want to stay with them.

Thanks for all the advise.

Regards,

Doug
 
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Old 05-30-06, 04:23 PM
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yes sounds like you have a reputable dealer. the company i WORKED for had been in business for 20+ years when they decided to open a new store in a different location, they have now been there 15 yrs and they maintain both locations. i know that when they opened the new store i was there for the begining and stayed for 3 years and we strived to be the best. we had over 300 customers the first year, by the 2nd year we doubled that, to top it all off all our repeats (over half) were all on a 1st name basis, so it was more than customer service, it was like a extended family, because if they had a prolbem , well then we had a prolbem.
 
 

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