Harm in running high levels of Chlorine?

[devilphrog]

Hello All, Great Forum you have here, very helpful. I intend on going from 3" pucks to the BBB method.

I have a 14,400 Gal In Ground Pool. My CYA is off the charts (I calculated ~160 ppm after diluting half the sample then multiplying by 2). My CH is high as well, 510 by my calcs.

Trouble is, the better half doesn't want me to drain and refill the pool until it cools off for the year, so I can go one of two ways. Wait until she's out of town to do this, or wait until the fall. If I start running liquid chlorine and quit using the tabs, will that hurt anything?

My numbers below:

FC: 12
CC: 0
CYA: ~160
CH: 510
TA: 90
PH: 7.6
Temp: 86-90 deg F

[PoolDoc]

Actually, you can use the Best Guess chart to run a pool successfully with CYA at that high level. The only real requirement is that you MUST use an FAS-DPD kit to test chlorine; there's no other way pool side that I know of.

I'd just dry out the tabs in the sun on a dry day, close up the bucket, put in a heavy garbage bag and tie it up, and put that in a garbage can. This it's fairly safe to store. Just be careful to open it out doors, whenever you begin using it again. And do NOT close up any damp tabs, or tabs that have been wet. Use those up in your pool.

Don't worry about the calcium, other than to lower your pH some.

And, avoid letting algae get a start. Use polyquat if you need to -- the levels to eradicate algae, with that level of CYA, are REALLY high, and take a LONG time to come down.

Ben

[CarlD]

I would add that you should do NOTHING to allow your Total Alk to rise or your water can go cloudy due to the high CH.
The tabs will drop your pH, but if it's 7.2 or better that's fine.
IF pH goes lower, I strongly suggest you raise pH either with Borax or via the aeration method--fountains, kids splashing, bublers, etc, but do NOT use any pool store pH chem as it will raise T/A. If you find pH isn't stable we can address that then (remember: It WILL go down using up the wet tablets Ben talked about. That's normal. Once you are only using bleach/liquid chlorine pH shouldn't vary much).

Carl