One of the causes of a high chlorine demand is an excessive buildup of algae and phosphates. Although you're adding chlorine to your water, bacteria or algae are overpowering the chemicals causing it not to show up on tests strips or in water kits.
Your pH levels affect your chlorine levels and the ability for the chlorine to do its work properly. If your water's pH is too high, it hinders the chlorine's ability to efficiently clean the pool. A water pH level that is too low causes the chlorine to dissipate more quickly.
Chlorine lock can occur when there is too much cyanuric acid (also referred to as conditioner or stabilizer) in the water. This occurs when too much stabilizer is added to the water or when the swimming pool isn't being partially drained and refilled periodically. Chlorine lock can also occur if the pH is unbalanced.
If you test your pool water and can't get a chlorine reading, it may be due to your pool's high demand for chlorine. A high chlorine demand (sometimes referred as chlorine lock), simply means that although your water may appear clear and balanced, the chlorine in your pool is ineffective.
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate is naturally alkaline, with a pH of 8. When you add baking soda to your pool water, you will raise both the pH and the alkalinity, improving stability and clarity. Many commercial pool products for raising alkalinity utilize baking soda as their main active ingredient.
You'll want to follow the rule of 3 pounds of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water.
If your total chlorine level is high, you will use a non-chlorine shock; if it is low, you will use a chlorinated shock. As a rule, you will need to raise free chlorine to 10 times your combined chlorine to hit what is known as “break point.” Therefore, it is good to deal with combined chlorine while it is still small.
If the chlorine smell is very strong, however, you may soon spot “red-eyed” swimmers emerging from the pool. That's when the pool water is assumed to have “too much chlorine” in it. Ironically, a strong chemical smell around the pool and “swimmer red eye” may be signs that there is not enough chlorine in the water.
The best way by far to break a chlorine demand is to perform a chlorine demand test. This test is contained in a separate lab available to BioGuard Dealers, and it can give the exact amount of Burn Out® 35 or Burn Out® needed to break the demand.
Tap water chlorine dissipates almost fully in a day, but pool chlorine takes about 4 1/2 days. (Rough orders aro too many variables.) There are compounds which are considerably slowed by catalysts that make keeping a swimming pool level stable.
The addition of a cyanuric acid stabilizer to pool waters treated with chlorine is necessary to protect the active life of chlorine and its derivatives in the waters from the damaging effects of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays. When exposed to UV rays, chlorine evaporates rapidly.
Having too much chlorine in your pool water can be dangerous. Exposure to high levels of chlorine can cause lung irritation, skin and eye damage, and provoke asthma. Not only is it bad for your health, but it can be bad for your pool due to the increase in chlorine.
Accurate Amounts
No matter what type of chlorine system you choose to use for your pool, remember that the chlorine level should remain between 1.0 and 3.0 parts per million (ppm) to ensure a safe and healthy pool. If the levels are any higher, you may be at risk of swimmer's itch and red eyes.
Chlorine, either solid or liquid, is a pesticide used in pools to destroy germs, including those from feces, urine, saliva and other substances. But excessive exposure to chlorine can cause sickness and injuries, including rashes, coughing, nose or throat pain, eye irritation and bouts of asthma, health experts warn.
You cannot overshock a swimming pool or add too much. Adding too much shock or overshocking your pool will kill off algae. The negative of adding too much shock is it will upset the chemical balance of your pool.
Nope. If you own an outdoor chlorine or saltwater-chlorinated inground or above ground pool, proper stabilizer use will save you time and money on chlorine. Sure, too much stabilizer can cause problems. Just be sure to keep an eye on it every week along with chlorine concentrations to ensure proper pool chemistry.
Using liquid chlorine raises the pH of the water.
Liquid chlorine does not raise pH. When added to water, liquid chlorine (which has a pH of 13) makes HOCl (hypochlorous acid – the killing form of chlorine) and NaOH (sodium hydroxide), which raises pH.
In theory, if you have a cloudy swimming pool, you can add chlorine to “shock it” and clear things up. Chlorine will get the job done. But, the amounts may vary and you may have to really pound the pool with chlorine to get the water totally clear.
The ultraviolet rays of the sun can reduce chlorine by up to 90 percent in two hours! And if it's a hot day, warmer water tends to breed more bacteria, and so the pool's chlorine gets used up faster and must be replenished more frequently.
In outside pools the sun has a big affect on the chlorine via its ultraviolet (UV) rays. The rays actually cause the chlorine to dissipate. Without stabilizer a perfect level of chlorine in a pool or spa can be lost in less than two hours on a bright sunny day, solely from the sun's UV rays.
The Effect of Sunlight on Chlorine: Degradation and Reduction. As little as two hours of sun exposure — that's all it takes to reduce chlorine content by 90%. ... However, because the sun's UV rays break it down, the chlorine turns into a gas. This gas then rises into the air instead of mixing with the pool water.
Cyanuric acid (CYA) is one of the most important pool chemicals. You've probably heard it called “pool stabilizer” or “pool conditioner”. It comes in either liquid or granular form, but often is mixed in with chlorine tablets or sticks (also called trichlor) and in chlorine shock (called dichlor).