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r/pools•
LT-Riot

New to pool maintenance, is it normal for the chlorine in my pool to appear balanced for weeks without adding more?

I am just learning to maintain my pool. I have been testing it twice a week and chlorine, PH, and Alkalinity all come back in nominal ranges. I thought I would have had to add chlorine by now? I have been maintaining the pool for about 3 weeks and honestly I don't think my pool guy added chlorine for awhile before I let him go either. Is this normal?

Posted Sep 9, 2020, 4:38 PM UTC

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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LT-RiotOP•

No, it is not saltwater. I did have it covered for about half of the time the past 3 weeks. But I keep testing it and it keeps coming back on the upper end of normal for Chlorine, PH on low end of normal, and Alkalinity normal. Seems weird. Thought I would have to do more, more often?

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slow_connection•

Check your cyanuric acid. This is likely to happen if it's thru the roof as cyanuric acid stabilizes chlorine

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LT-RiotOP•

Looks like I need a new test kit because the two I have do not test for that. Thanks for the info. Is there any drawbacks to having sky high cyanuric acid to keep the chlorine lasting longer?

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slow_connection•

Yes- the chlorine becomes unable to do its job. Cyanuric is more of a buffer than anything to prevent UV rays from the sun from burning off chlorine.

Depending on who you ask, cyanuric should be anywhere from 20-70 ppm. Personally, I shoot for 20-30 outdoor, 10 indoor.

Many chlorine tablets (specifically trichlor and dichlor) have cyanuric acid in them, and since cyanuric acid never burns off, it's bound to eventually fuck you if your pool doesn't have a massive leak. Pool companies love to sell these chlorine tablets because cyanuric acid will get you in trouble, and then they can sell you even more chemicals to fix your problems.

Tl;dr: test it, drain and refill your pool as needed, then re chlorinate with calcium hypochlorite (or liquid chlorine, but your pH will be more stable with calcium hypo)

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LT-RiotOP•

Thanks for the info. I ordered a CYA test kit and some chemical that will lower it in case I need to. I live in SOCAL so I cannot drain the pool so it looks like they got me and I will have to buy chemicals to lower the CYA. The tablets you mention are exactly what my pool guy used and what I used since as well so I am betting that is whats going on. I will get my CYA down to a reasonable level, then retest the water and go from there. Thanks for the info.

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slow_connection•

There is no such thing as a chemical that lowers CYA (I was a commerical pool operator for 7 years). It's all snake oil.

All you can do is backwash your filters a little more than what's required and hope it gradually goes down.

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falcopatomus•

If you live in a state with hard water, cal hypo is most likely going to mess your pool up more than tabs.

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1new_username•

That seems a bit suspicious. Are you sure you don't have a tablet feeder system or some other auto-feeder system back at your pump? On my pool, I have a chlorine tablet feeder system at the pump and don't put tabs in a floater or in my baskets or anything. I can load it up fully and could probably make it 2-3 weeks without refilling and my chlorine would stay pretty stable. It's really handy if I have to go out of town.

Other than that, might try getting a new/different testing kit. Are you using strips to test or a full on kit like the Taylor K2005 kit?

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LT-RiotOP•

I was using test strips though I understand now from this sub that those are suspect . But yeah, I started doing my own pool maintenance 3 weeks ago. I have had it covered about half the time and the chlorine, alkalinity, and PH have all been pretty stable, maybe a slight dip in the PH. Hard to tell when I am comparing colors to each other.

And no to the automatic feeder. This sub seems to be anti tablet because of CYA build up. Does that overly concern you? (Using tablets).

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1new_username•

Good thread here

https://www.reddit.com/r/pools/comments/i2l3o6/why_do_people_use_chlorine_tablets/

My opinion is that if what you or your pool guy was doing, then don't worry about it. If you're constantly struggling to keep your pool algae free, then cya is a good thing to look at.

Mine is higher than most would recommend (typically around 70-75) and I primarily use tabs, but I almost never have to put any other chemicals or things in my pool and it is almost always crystal clear.

Other pool, areas, etc may be very different though.

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BluePoolTXAL•

Be sure to understand "what type of Chlorine" you are using too. And CYA is a sneaky thing with tabs. https://blog.mysutro.com/chlorine/?ref=sutroblog

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A-Newt•

Have you tried masturbating into it?

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A-Newt•

Assert your dominance.

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