Chlorine Locked?

[reesie]

I got the OTO kit Saturday morning. Pooldoc was right. The results did not match the results from the Taylor kit. According to the OTO kit, I had 5 ppm fcl. I added bleach till dark yellow ( much darker than the cell in the test kit) & then let it drop. I was trying for medium yellow but it dropped to 1.5 ppm. I used the pool calculator and the reference amount Watermom gave me above and put 1 gallon of bleach in tonight to bring the fcl back up to around 5.
ph is 7.4
cya is 50
alk is still 160
I haven't checked tcl or ccl
What should I do now?
Does it sound like we may be reaching the end?
Will we be able to use the 3 inch tablets this year? We had already bought a big bucket of them (40 lbs.) I wish I had found this forum before I bought them.
Thanks, everyone!

[reesie]

Hi, I just realized there are posts that I hadn't seen. I was really busy this weekend between the pool and taking my 9 yr. old to King's Dominion (Class Trip) and getting ready for 3rd grade Graduation. (I didn't know they had Graduation from 3rd Grade!)
Somehow I missed the 2nd page of posts.
Wow!
I thought I was just about done!
I really appreciate all the time and trouble everyone has gone to to help with this problem.

[reesie]

I tested my pool again tonight with both the Taylor kit and the OTO kit. I actually got the same results with both kits.
fcl 1
tcl 3
ccl 2
ph 7.4
these were just from the Taylor
alk 140
cya 50
Is it possible we have almost conquered this? We actually started this last year and gave up and started again the first week in May, 2011.
With the readings the way they are right now, do I add more bleach ( We added 1 gallon last night) or should I go with non chlorine shock to try to get rid of the rest of the combined chlorine?
Or none of the above?

[waterbear]

Add bleach to 15 ppm and report your test results.

[Watermom]

Looks like you are gaining on it. Stay the course!

[aciam]

Hi Reesie - I just saw your post to my thread and I find it so interesting that we both used the CDX system ( as well as those oxidizer tablets) these last few years - even more evidence that the CDX is playing a role in why our conversions are not going as planned.

Every time I think I am gaining on my pool, it backfires. For example, I had a day when my FC was 5 and CC was 0.5 - and then the next morning it was 4 and 1. When I then added bleach ( to keep my FC high like is recommended) my FC only raised to 5 but my CC went to 6! It has happened again today. Very discouraging.

I read on another forum one person who said it took 2 months to convert. And I would rather not wait that long.

I have ordered the sodium percarbonate and will try it in a 2 gallon or so bucket at the recommendation of chem geek before I put it in the pool. At the same time, I am making preparations to do a drain and refill. This is a really busy week for me with work so nothing will happen quickly, but feel free to follow along on my posts - I will certainly let you know if I have any significant luck with the percarbonate! Hopefully your conversion continues to move in the right direction. aciam

[reesie]

I added 4 gallons bleach last night. I didn't get a chance to test until 1:00 pm today. It's not very sunny today.
OTO results:
fcl >5
tcl >5

Taylor:
fcl 15
tcl 15
ccl 0
ph 7.4
alk 140
cya 50
Another interesting note: We had a thunderstorm that knocked the current off. My husband went out to the pool to turn the pump back on and decided to take the cover off of the filter before he turned everything back on. Now, we just changed the sand on 5/29/2011 at the pool store's recommendation. The water has been completely clear since around 5/15/2011. There has not been any debris or algae anywhere in the pool. When my husband opened the filter, there was a bunch of gunk in the filter. Baqua-poop?
So, what next?
Change the sand, let the chlorine levels drop and swim?
or am I being too optimistic?