High Chlorine Testing

Thanks to this site, I think I’m slowly learning what I think is some great stuff. My wife and I are about 4 weeks new to the pool game and we’ve already been pool stored a few times. We just started renting a house with an above ground round pool, which we believe is around 31ft in diameter and it’s using a Heyward pump and filter system. Before this site, my wife and I had only used test strips to check the water quality and used the chorine tabs in a floater. We recently got an algae issue and tried shocking with multiple 1lb “Super Shock” bags several times with little or no effect which brought us online to search for solutions…

We think the algae issue first manifested itself when the on/off switch on our pump motor went out for several days and we couldn’t address it. I ended up hot-wiring the pump to make sure we didn’t need a whole new one and I’m still waiting for the switch to come in. I’ve been running the filter non-stop since I hot-wired it. We also live in Central Illinois and have been having multiple days of 90/100+ weather which I’m also sure hasn’t helped our situation either. Last night I ended up going to Walmart and got the test kit you recommended and bleach. I’ll post my other pool levels soon but our test strips show normal except for the chlorine, but it looks like from what I’m reading those strips aren’t always very accurate. I was mainly trying to identify the CYA level which appears to be 70. If I understood the charts here, that would mean I need to get to 20 to “shock” my pool. I used a calculator from poolcalculateror.com to see how much bleach that would require to add to go from 6 (guess) to 20. I ended up adding all 5 of the 1.5 gallon 6% jugs I had bought after dark and this morning the green was gone and it’s white cloudy…

My immediate questions and concerns:

1. What’s the best method/kit to measure high chlorine content? Does the recommended 2006 kit from Amazon contain tests to measure high chlorine content?

2. How long do I need to keep my pool at “shock” level? Sunset to sun up without losing less than 1ppm? Without a high chlorine tester I can’t be certain…

3. Is adding too much Chlorine an issue and if so what kind of issues or concerns should I have?

4. Is the white cloudy effect I’m seeing today a result of the excessive chlorine or dead algae or both? How do I get rid of that or is it just a time thing?

5. What chlorine levels are safe for activities in the pool? Example, opening eyes under water?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum!

1. Yes, the K-2006 will measure high chlorine levels and if you have high CYA, then you definitely need to order one.

2. We typically advising keeping the chlorine at shock level for one additional day after you have a night where you lose no more than 1ppm of chlorine. (for a little added insurance!)

Until you get a K-2006, you can force your test block to read higher by using a dilution method. (Not super accurate, but better than nothing.)

Info here: Testing Without a Good Kit

3. If you take your chlorine TOO high, you can bleach out your liner. If you haven't already done so, please take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below.

4. White cloudy is usually dead algae. Chlorine kills algae but the filter is what removes it. While you are working to clear the water, run the pump 24/7 and clean your filter as necessary.

5. See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart.

Please take a minute and fill in your pool's information in our pool chart. It makes it easier for us to help.

Pool Chart Entry Form

Hope this helps!

membership upgraded. -ben