High reading for CC after shock treatment

[poolaris]

I was going to drain my spa water into the pool, The water looked good with a CL reading of 3 & ph at 7.4. Just to be on the safe side I poured 8 oz bleach which raised CL to 16 but also produced a CC of around 12. All tests with Taylor kit. Is it possible that the CC reading is wrong due to the high level of CL?

[Watermom]

No. Adding bleach will not cause a CC level. Maybe try the test again.

Testing demo videos here:> http://pool9.net/K2006-vid/

[poolaris]

I tested it 3 times now, the last one 12 hours after 2nd test. Before I added the Chlorine the Combined Chlorine reading was zero. The water still looks crystal clear. Surely if the CC was really that high the water would be cloudy?

[Watermom]

Can you explain your steps to running the FC and CC test?

[poolaris]

Same as I've always done it - used the 5ml mark, 2 sp dpdpowder RO870. This time had to add 32 drops R0871 before the pink went clear, then added5 drops R0003 to turn it pink again, then again 20 drops of 871 again before it went clearagain

[Watermom]

A couple of things:

If one scoop of powder turns the water pink, you don't have to add the second one. That will make the powder last longer.

If you are going to use the 5mL water sample, you multiply the number of drops of R0871 by 1ppm. So, 32 drops would be 32ppm of FC. (Are you sure you used 5mL water sample?)

(When using 10mL sample, multiply number of drops by 0.5. With 25 mL sample, multiply by 0.2.)

[Watermom]

Do you have a CC reading from before you added the bleach?

[PoolDoc]

I was going to drain my spa water into the pool, . . . . Just to be on the safe side I poured 8 oz bleach which raised CL to 16 but also produced a CC of around 12.

Most likely this result could mean you've used the spa quite a bit, and haven't drained it recently. It could also be weird pool / spa chemicals have been used on the spa.

Have you been using any non-BBB chemicals on the spa? Do you cover your spa?

If you want to find out WHY the spa is like that, hang on to the water for a while. Otherwise dump it -- not into the pool! -- and refill.

[poolaris]

The CC reading immediately before adding the CL was zero.The water has been in spa for 3 weeks and I have only used the spa 6 times and always after a shower so there would be no lotions or sweat. It is always covered when not in use and the filter is on 24. No other chemicals have been used. When testing I fill the plastic container to the 1st mark from the bottom and use the.2 muliplier. Sorry if a gave the wrong # asI always use that mark and its been awhile since I looked at the scale numbers. Too late, as the water looked sparkling I already dumped it in the pool a couple hours ago. The pool reading is 3.0 on FC and less than 1 CC. It was zero yesterday, so tonight I'll pour half gall of CL.This is a mystery as the highest reading for CC in the spa has been 1.0 and that is when the water starts to look cloudy.

[PoolDoc]

No chlorine + people 'goo' equals FC=0 *and* CC=0

Add 10 ppm chlorine to a pool with no 'goo', and you get FC=10. But add 10 ppm to a pool or spa full of 'goo' and you can get anything from FC=0 & CC= 0 to FC=0 & CC=10 to FC=5 & CC=5

Talking about people 'goo' . . . bugs many people, because they aren't comfortable the stuff that their body does, or that other people do.

Without getting into more detail, putting 2 people in a hot tub on 6 different occasions, and keeping the spa covered between is MORE than enough to account for your CC results.

You *can* chlorinate the CC out, but unless you are in a water restricted area, it's better to use it to water the flowers than to add to the pool. (Plants like people goo, more or less!)

[Watermom]

When you fill to the bottom mark on the tester, that is 10mL and you need to use the 0.5 multiplier.

[poolaris]

Still don’t understand why CC was so high. As mentioned, the spa has only been used by myself and always after a shower, also for only about 5 minutes at a time. Chlorine has always been kept at a min. of 3. Could it be that after shocking it that there was so much gunge in it that it was converted into lots of chloramines? If that was the case, how could it have got there? Strange that the water was so clear & sparkling.

[PoolDoc]

There are 3 possibilities that I can think of:

1) People goo
2) Possibly in the past, you added some sort of pool chemical that reacts badly with chlorine
3) Some sort of testing error occurred.