super high chlorine

[slowtan]

I am going to switch this year to the three B's.

When I took my cover off this year, I put a lb of shock and 4 tablets in the floaty dispenser.

When I took my water to the pool store (I know big mistake) they said the chlorine levels are super high and that not to do nothing for a week to hope it comes down or I might have to drain the pool. They advised to fill the pool to the top of the skimmer.

They couldn't give me any readings because they said the super high chlorine is bleaching all the other stuff out.

When I use a test strip it goes straight to a bright purple vs water from inside my house is near white with a slight yellow.

Is there anything I can do to lower my chlorine levels?


18' round , 4.5'ft , DE filter , 1HP pump .. currently running 6 hrs 10AM-4PM

[SJohnson]

You could go pick up some roadkill and toss it in . . . that would bring it down. No, seriously . . . You should post a complete test result so everyone can get a better idea of your other levels, particularly your CYA levels. If your CYA is high, then it shouldn't be a problem, as most chlorine would be inactive. What you really need is Ben's test kit to test for high levels of chlorine or try the shotglass method, diluting your sample then multiply it by 2x, which will give you a ballpark number. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about it, it will come down on its own . . . just pull those tabs out asap, though. Actually, if you have been using trichlor or dichlor tabs for a while, your CYA levels may be high. Have you noticed that you seem to be using more and more chlorine to keep it clear?

-SJohnson

[CarlD]

I am going to switch this year to the three B's.

When I took my cover off this year, I put a lb of shock and 4 tablets in the floaty dispenser.

When I took my water to the pool store (I know big mistake) they said the chlorine levels are super high and that not to do nothing for a week to hope it comes down or I might have to drain the pool. They advised to fill the pool to the top of the skimmer.

They couldn't give me any readings because they said the super high chlorine is bleaching all the other stuff out.

When I use a test strip it goes straight to a bright purple vs water from inside my house is near white with a slight yellow.

Is there anything I can do to lower my chlorine levels?


18' round , 4.5'ft , DE filter , 1HP pump .. currently running 6 hrs 10AM-4PM

1: Find another pool store--if they can't check chlorine levels up to 50ppm they don't have the right equipment. But they are right--it will come down on its own. That doesn't mean that's the best thing to happen--it may, but we need more info.
2: You have a small pool. 4 tabs is FAR too much. It will drive up your stabilizer levels to levels that will make chlorine ineffective. It will lower your pH to levels that will damage your liner.
3: All your strip is telling you is chlorine is higher than 10ppm. That may be good, may be bad--you need the CYA (stabilizer) level. With Ben's kit, or the Taylor or Leslie FAS-DPD test kit, you can measure FREE Chlorine up to 50-100ppm (FC--the good stuff), Combined Chloramines (CC--the bad stuff) and compute Total Chlorine (TC= FC + CC). The BEST CC score is zero.
4: Meanwhile, you want the pool store to test for you:
pH (just like HS chemistry--7.3-7.8 is the best range),
Total Alkalinity (90-125 is the normal range, but if you are below 180, with a vinyl pool, that's "normal" too--if it's low add some Arm & Hammer baking soda--that's all the pool store Total Alkalinity Raiser is).
CYA (stabilizer--best to be 30-50, but it's probably much higher--pull those pucks out).
Calcium (Ca or CH--in a vinyl pool, anything from 0 to 500ppm is FINE--do NOT be talked into adding calcium to a vinyl pool EVER--calcium is for plaster and concrete pools)
5: If you cannot get Ben's kit, try to get the DPD-FAS kit from Taylor or Leslie's (made by Taylor). Leslie's also has a nice kit that does all the other tests, plus the useless "acid demand" and "base demand" tests. I never bother with those.
6: Some WalMart stores may still have the HTH 5-way drop test kit--a super-bargain at $15.
7: Whatever kit you get, be sure you can test chlorine to at least 5ppm--unless you can get the FAS-DPD kit or Ben's kit. If the highest you can go is 5ppm, use my Shotglass method to measure higher--use ONLY distilled water to dilute your pool water: Take one shot of pool water and two shots of distilled water, mix and test in your kit. If it reads "4ppm", you have 12ppm of chlorine. If it reads "5ppm" you have 15 or more ppm. You are tripling the score.
If you only use one shot of distilled water, you double the score. If you use 3 shots of distilled, you quadruple the score (and can measure to 20ppm).
HOWEVER this gets more inaccurate the more you dilute--it simply allows you to go higher than 5ppm

CAVEAT--do NOT use the diluted pool water in any test BUT the chlorine test.

Hope all this helps.

[slowtan]

I am going to go and get a dropper kit. I use the dropper kit on my fish tanks but the pool store recommended strips. They also recommend not to use bleach but we all know how that works. I spent alot of $$ last year because it was my first year to own a pool and they pool guy kept saying I don't want to void the warranty so bring a sample in every two weeks or every week. It seems like there was always something wrong and they always took my money with after the sample. This year no more pool store!!

[kaybinster]

Just go take a leak in the pool, that will drop the chlorine ;)