Q: I have a Pentair chlorinator ic40 for a salt water pool of 30,000 gallons. All lights are green and I bumped it up from 60 to 100, yet no chlorine level is showing. I took water to the local pool store for testing and all is good except no chlorine! I added 2 gallons of liquid chlorine but it only increased the level to .50 — the unit is approximately 2 years old and the Pentair variable pump is just 1 year old. Any recommendations? – B.H. in Surprise Arizona!
A: Do you know your cya or stabilizer level? Being in Arizona – it is possible your sun is getting to the chlorine faster than your test results can read it. CYA should be at between 30-60ppm – it allow a place for the chlorine to connect until it needs to work on organic material in your pool.
Also – once a week you should shock or superchlorinate your pool – either produce at 100% for 24 hours, or use an alternative shock – either liquid or a calcium based granular shock if your pool is gunite or fiberglass – this breaks the bonds between used chlorine and contaminants and allows more “free chlorine” to be available in the water. If you have a total chlorine level of 3ppm and your free chlorine is 0ppm for instance, it means you do have chlorine in the water, it’s just all been used up by contaminants and you need to get the free chlorine level up.