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.
What is Chlorine Loss? Chlorine demand is the consistent inability of your pool to maintain chlorine levels. It's usually caused by a high level of inorganic and organic contaminants in the water. Those contaminants force the chlorine to work extremely hard to oxidize them, leaving little chlorine to protect swimmers.
Bring your chlorine levels to 20ppm or three times higher than the current levels. We recommend using a non-chlorine oxidizing shock until your free and total chlorine reads the same. We typically see more pools with a high demand for chlorine during spring opening season.
If you test your pool water and can't get a chlorine level reading at all it may be due to a very high chlorine demand. A high chlorine demand is the inability to keep an adequate level of chlorine in the pool water even though the water appears to be balanced and properly maintained.
Warmer air will cause the chlorine to evaporate more rapidly. If you decide to place the water in a jug that's left open in the refrigerator, the chlorine should evaporate completely within 24 hours. For quicker evaporation times, leave the water at room temperature.
Warmer air will cause the chlorine to evaporate more rapidly. If you decide to place the water in a jug that's left open in the refrigerator, the chlorine should evaporate completely within 24 hours. For quicker evaporation times, leave the water at room temperature.
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.
Total chlorine is simply the combination of free and combined chlorine. Shocking then releases the combined chlorine and off-gasses the contaminants, increasing the amount of free chlorine in your pool or spa.
The Bottom Line about Pools and Chlorine
As mentioned above, you could probably swim in a pool without chlorine without any major health issues. However, long-term use of a pool lacking chlorinated H2O could make you sick or, at the very least, contribute to rashes and other types of skin irritation.
You'll want to follow the rule of 3 pounds of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water.
Chlorine has a low pH level, and in order to maintain your pool water's clarity and balance, shocking weekly will allow you to quickly raise the chlorine level, which will rid the pool of contaminants, without lowering the water's pH levels.
When you're shocking a pool, the goal is to raise the free chlorine level of the pool water to roughly 10 times the combined chlorine level.
As little as two hours of sun exposure — that's all it takes to reduce chlorine content by 90%. That's because ultraviolet light is a type of electromagnetic radiation. This, in turn, makes it powerful enough to split apart chemical bonds. In pool chlorine, UV light breaks the bond of the substance's hypochlorite ions.
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.
Liquid chlorine and granular shock have the same active chemical that sanitizes your pool, what changes is the strength and the way you use it. Liquid chlorine is less costly, unstabilized and comes in liquid form. Granular shock is stabilized and comes in a solid form that dissolves in your pool.
The best time of day to shock your pool is in the evening. This is because the sun's rays can affect the effectiveness of the chlorine by dissolving it too quickly, before it has a chance to rid the pool of contaminants and clean the water.
Low levels of chlorine or bromine may not be able to kill algae spores, resulting in algae blooms and cloudy pool water.
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.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO MINIMIZE WATER LOSS
The number-one way to combat evaporation is with a pool cover. It's estimated that a pool cover will reduce evaporation by 95 percent. Solar covers can heat your pool in the off-season, too. A pool cover reduces the pool's chemical consumption and reduces your cleaning time.
How Long Does It Take for Chlorine to Evaporate Out of Water? Water needs to sit for a minimum of 24 hours to dechlorinate. It can actually take almost 5 days for chlorine to evaporate completely from the water, depending on the initial concentration of the chlorine, and the total volume of 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.
After Shocking Your Pool
It is safe to swim once your chlorine levels are around 5 ppm or after 24 hours.
Neither will chlorination be effective with a diffuser and without a pump. The best thing to do is to apply liquid chlorine in the pool. Then, you have to circulate the pool manually with the use of a telescopic pole or paddle. This will ensure the chlorine disperse well.