I keep adding chlorine to my pool and no matter what i do it keeps reading no free chlorine..?
Question:I have bought stabilizer and shock and nothing raises the free chlorine reading.. any ideas?
Answers:
What EVERYONE has failed to mention is that if you have too much chlorine in the water it will bleach out the reagent and you will get a 0ppm reading. It could be as simple as this.
Do you have a total chlorine reading? If so then you have chlorine lock and you need to reach breakpoint (7x the combined chlorine level which in your case is the total chlorine). If you add less than this amount then you will only compound the problem by adding more combined chlorine.
Shocking the pool adds free chlorine, you don't get it only from the tablets. The tablets supply stabilized chlorine but you can get chlorine from anything that contains it and liquid household bleach is a common alternative. Especially when you can find it on sale for $.99/gallon. 1/2 gallon will raise the chlorine by 5ppm in 10,000 gallons of pool water. This is an extremely cost effective way of adding chlorine to your pool when shocking.
As mentioned, stabilized chlorine won't burn out of your pool but unstabilized chlorine will degrade when exposed to UV light. Direct sunlight on unstabilized chlorine can remove all the chlorine in a pool in less than a few hours.
If you don't trust your own test then take a sample to the pool store. Feel free to email me the results at robandliz1992@yahoo.com and I can get a tailored response based on the readings as well your gallon size of the pool. Please include free chlorine reading, total chlorine, pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid levels, gallon size of your pool, pump system/filtration system, and any chemicals you have currently added to the pool (and amounts). With this we can get you back on track to a healthy pool.
*EDIT*
In response to Shannon. The reason your chlorine is dropping to zero is because it is being burned out by the sunlight. Adding chlorine granules won't do a think unless you have some cyanuric acid in the water to stabilize the chlorine. Pick up a jug at the pool store and add it according to the directions. You want to maintain a level of 20-40ppm so add just enough to get you to 20ppm according to the directions. The day after adding this to the pool you will have residual free chlorine in the pool. Feel free to contact me as well and we can go over some of the things you may be encountering with your pool.
maybe its not the pool maybe its the chlroine reader.
Take a sample to your local pool dealer and let them advise you. Maybe you should check the implement you are using to do the reading it may be defective. Did you do a half- water change? Try the dealer option.
It's not your pool, it's your reader, go back to where you got it and have it checked out. Alos, chareful with all that chlorine
There could be a few items that could be creating this situation.
1. Your test strips are expired - While this seems stupid, it happens.
2. Your pool is shallow and in direct sunlight - Sunlight depletes the amount of free chlorine.
3. You are not adding enough Chlorine. One bag of shock, actually works on 9,000 gallons of water, however, shock is used to kill organisms not stabilize the chlorine in the pool.
Free Chlorine is brought about by adding tablets or granules.
I personally use a tablet system that floats on the surface. The chlorine drops while running my filter and increases when the filter is off.
I also use Clarifier - this bonds to large particles and drops them to the bottom so that your vacuuming is productive.
Providing the pool water is clear - my weekly routine is is to add one tablet of chlorine, 1 bag of shock, 1/4 gallon of clarifier, 1/2 gallon of algaecide. This is for 12,800 gallons
My water is crystal clear every day! No one complains about the chlorine level and most people tell me that they can't even smell it.
Give it a try however if you still want to measure the chlorine in your pool - try raising the ph.
I agree with the previous answers, the first thing you do is get it tested by another source. Wherever you buy your chemicals will do a free water chemistry test and tell you what they think you need to do to remedy the imbalance. And shock does raise the free chlorine levels. If you actually "shock" your pool.
Okay.We are having the same problem with our pool this year. We have chlorine tablets and we are adding 4lbs of chlorine granuals every night. I can test the water at night when the chlorine is added and the test strips show evidence of chlorine. As soon as the sun comes out..NO chlorine. We have had our water tested at 2 local pool stores and they say we have no chlorine, but no one seems to know why. PH is good, ALK is good.NO chlorine... Oh and test strips obviously work, because it shows chlorine at night.
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