Safe to swim with chlorine at 5 ppm?

[feather78]

Hello everyone. Just got my first Intex pool, and of course, discovered all this after putting it up. I had no idea pools were so much work, as I grew up in lakes and the ocean- I thought the only chemical they needed was chlorine. (HA!!!) Anyway, I just used the cheap tests we got (I now know about which kits I should buy), and the chlorine was at least 5ppm and the pH was 6.8 or less. I added some hth pH increaser, but I couldn't find anything at Wal-Mart to lower the chlorine level, so I haven't done that yet. The water is kind of brown looking, but I do have well water, and didn't follow the steps beforehand. I'm not particularly worried about the metals as long as it's not harmful. Don't care about staining bathing suits. But here's the question- as long as the pH and chlorine levels are ok, is it safe to swim? Is there anything else I should be worried about testing right now?

[topher]

you should be fine at 5ppm using http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?365-Best-Guess-CYA-chart ens best guess chart as long as your pool is under the shock level (according to your stabilizer level) you are fine to swim.

[BigDave]

Congrats on your first pool.
What kind of cheap test kit? Strips really can't be trusted.
Sunlight will reduce the chlorine quite quickly if there's no stabilizer in the water.
What kind of chlorine did you put in?

Have you look through the Pool Chemistry for Intex-type Pools forum? You have to log out to see it.

[feather78]

Thank you both for answering!

I have the OTO and phenol red drops. We put in the hth chlorine granules (http://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-Chlorinating-Granules-for-Pop-Up-Pools/17043620). I tested it again today, and it was still at 5 ppm. Our house is built into a mountain, and the only level ground is under lots of trees, so it doesn't get much sunlight. Would this be why it's not breaking down more quickly?

From what I've read, I'm thinking stabilizer is the CYA level- if I'm right, is it necessary to test for that? I guess I'm supposed to if I want to use the best guess chart...

Last thing: I don't think the filter is working. The pool is filled with little floaters. Any troubleshooting ideas?

Thanks so much for your help!

[BigDave]

Am I correct in assuming the 5ppm is the highest the OTO reads? Is the sample much darker than the color in the comparator?
I can't read the label in the picture on the website. What's in the chlorinating granules?
Yep, shade will help prevent the chlorine from breaking down quickly.
Yep, stabilizer and CYA are the same thing.
The little filters that come with the Intex kits can't keep up with much load - if it's pumping water through the filter and back to the pool, that's about all it's going to do.

[PoolDoc]

It's almost impossible to add enough chlorine to a swimming pool to make it un*safe* to swim. Uncomfortable for your eyes? Yes. Damaging to your swimwear? Yes. Unsafe? Not as far as I know.

Until just a few years ago, potable water companies (drinking water) could supply you with water that had 10 ppm FC for you to drink and bathe in. In some cases, where they had a problem keeping chlorine in the lines, all the way to the end of the system, they did just that, for customers who lived close to the water plant. Now, they have to *mostly* maintain levels of 4 ppm or lower . . . but if they occasionally exceed that and reach 10 or 20 ppm, they have to tell the EPA about it (not you!) and take steps to 'correct' the problem. So long as they take reasonable steps to correct the high levels fairly quickly, there is no penalty.

I contracted to help supply chemicals and training to large (>100,000 gal) commercial pools for years; I've encountered BABY pools that were accidentally operated at > 50 ppm for a week or more . . . with NO complaints. One heavily used infant pool was operated at 100+ ppm for at least 5 days, before I found it. Again, no reported problems or complaints.

A large country club pool -- ~180,000 -- gallons had a maintenance man who thought he understood pool chemistry better than we did, and dumped (3) 50 gallon drums of the 15% bleach we had supplied into the pool over a 2 day period -- producing a chlorine level of more than 125 ppm. The club had a women's luncheon during this period, and ended up reimbursing members for about $2,500 of ruined fashion swimwear (the LEAST chlorine resistant suits available, in my experience), but had NO complaints of skin problems or other issues.

The club manager and I had a heart to heart talk with the maintenance guy, after I was able to show the manager that our explicit written instructions had been violated. But we kept working there, and kept using relatively high (> 5 ppm) chlorine levels to keep the pool clear, clean, and pleasant to use.