chlorine levels

[fhorta]

i dont have a current cya reading. havent had the chance to get a water test. i just been keeping cl dark orange to dark yellow.

last night when i got home psi was at 12. felt return jet pressure and felt little weak. i backwashed and light blue-ish stuff came out. psi went down to 7 and return jet pressure felt stronger . added de again and this morning psi at 9. and jet pressure still strong.

the color of the stuff i'm dealing with has definitely changed from a noticeable brown for the most part. now when i brush i see a whitish cloud rise up from the pool floor. so there is definitely stuff still on the floor. i am wondering if its the residue of the granular chlorine i been putting in.

what i plan on doing is doubling the clorine this evening (16lbs) because i thought about cya levels increasing meaning cl levels need to increase too to have affect. going to leave pump on one more night. tomorrow will take water sample and tested. plan on vacuuming to waste after wards. can't think of anything else to do.

i will be taking some distiilled water home tonight and will do a cl range read as instructed. if i do get a reading between 15-25ppm, which is recommended to fight this stuff, will this be the actual cl reading regardless of the cya levels? in other words, a cl level of 15ppm is exactly that regardless of the cya levels? my T2006 test kit is on the way. thanks

[aylad]

Yes, your chlorine level is what it reads, regardless of the CYA level. However, with all the trichlor you're adding, you are also greatly increasing your CYA. You would really be doing yourself a favor to switch to bleach or liquid chlorine. Remember that you're going to have to keep a higher level of chlorine in the pool the higher your CYA is. Eventually you're going to have to switch chlorine sources so your CYA doesnt get so high you can't compensate for it--now would be a good time to do that so there's one less problem to deal with

Janet

[fhorta]

sorry if i'm posting twice. didnt see my last reply posted.

i will try to get some liquid cl/bleach. kind of hard right now. if i'm not able to can i do partial drain and refill with fresh water to bring cya down? this off course would be after dealing with this algae.

also, if i am able to get some liquid cl, how much would i use? again, 20k gal inground pool. never used liquid before.

well i would imagine instructions would be on container of liquied cl. but what if i get store bleach. how many gallons of that stuff would i throw in? thanks again.

[aylad]

When you originally make a post, it goes into a queue for one of us mods or Ben to look at, and won't show up on the forum until we approve it. Sometimes it takes an hour or two, but between the 5 of us, somebody is usually on the forum most all day. I deleted your other duplicate post.

IN a 20K pool, each 2 1/2 quarts of 6% bleach will raise your FC by roughly 2 ppm. Most of us use the regular, generic Ultra bleach from WalMart.

You can do a partial drain and refill with fresh water in order to lower your CYA. Just don't drain too much at one time so that you don't float your pool.

Janet

[fhorta]

Ok. Got it.

Went ahead and purchased walmart clorox. Threw 4 gallons of it last night. This morning the pool floor looked better than it has looked in a long time. Seems like it worked. Also back washed and added de before throwing clorox in. Been vaccuming all day. Will throw in other 2 or 4 gallons of clorox and run pump all night again.

Tried shot glass cl measurement and according to readings my cl was 20 ppm last night before throwing in clorox. Also tested water this morning and was told my cl was high, which I knew and also ph. Said cya was fine at 30?

Weird. Seems I had the adequate cl and cya to get rid of this stuff but I guess water preferred clorox rather than granular chlorine I was using..? Hopefully I can get rid of this stuff completely within next couple days with clorox. Also went ahead and got some liq chlorine from les lies. Wl be using this stuff until algae is totally gone. I will also plan on changing sand filter. You think this may be necessary? Thanks for the great advice everyone.

[aylad]

If you mean changing oit the sand in your existing filter, it's probably not necessary, unless you've recently converted from bacquacil. Glad you're making progess with the bleach-- sounds like you just had to get that cl high enough to get over the "hump"!!

Janet

[fhorta]

ok. i was just thinking since traces of algae may be left in sand i would change sand out.

well, since last post pool floor still looks good.

the only thing is that when i brush the floor, plastic brush or wire brush, this stuff still there. not as noticeable anymore. not as thick or brown. but a thin pale cloud still there when i brush. had 20ppm of clorine constantly at least since may 10th. what else could this stuff be:

my pool is plaster- could this stuff be residue from the plaster like if plaster was wearing away?
could it be residue from all the tri-clor ganules i've been putting in?
could it be pollen?
again, this stuff is not in patches or some here and some there. it is evenly distributed throughout the whole pool flooor and walls.
i have nothing covering my pool. its opened to the environment. should i just assume that i'm always gone have something on my pool floor whenever i brush, like dust/silth and it's never going to be completely clean?

assuming this stuff is algae, and it's dead, if i throw in some algae preventer will it still work?

how can i know what this stuff is? i have made some progress thanks to this forum's advice. just wish i could get rid if this stuff completely so that i know my children will be safe going in.

ps- the distilled water i've been using to do the shotglass cl measurement has fluoride in it. would this throw off the readings?

[fhorta]

the amazon link does not show amato industries as the seller for the k2006 test kit. it shows it for the k2006c kit. should i still buy from the non-amato sellers?

[Watermom]

I would buy the K2006C from Amato Industries if it were me. That is the same kit as the 2006 but just has a larger bottle of some of the reagents. (I'll let Ben know that the 2006 is not shown as from Amato at this time like it was and hopefully will be again. Maybe they have just sold all they had in stock since we have been referring so many people to buy that kit!)

Regarding the distilled water ------ distilled water should have NOTHING in it. Tap water has fluoride in it, but distilled does not.

Lastly, regarding the pool ---- can you turn off the pump and let everything settle and then slowly vacuum to see if you can pick up whatever the silt is?

[fhorta]

would fluoride throw off cl readings significantly?

i will vacuum to waste saturday morning after leaving pump off all friday night.

with kit, are the reagant bottles refillable and will any taylor refill bottles work with this kit? for example, will the oto refillable bottles we purchase at local pool stores work with this k2006 test kit? thanks