just got good test kit. HELP PLEASE

[Watermom]

I cannot explain why the big change in TA.

Hang in there with the high chlorine. I know it gets frustrating but you'll win. 4 days isn't all that long to fight the water when something is brewing.

[PoolDoc]

Hey Shub;

Some of the contributors and I have been discussing high Cl + high CYA operation, and there is a better method for testing pH for you. You'll need a gallon of distilled water, a measuring cup, and your pH kit. Simply mix pool water 1:2 with distilled water: 1/4 pool water & 1/2 cup distilled water in a glass measuring cup, stir, and test.

You don't report pH (for obvious reasons) but I'm guessing your pH had climbed quite a bit, which affects measured alkalinity levels in its turn. If you keep lowering pH to below 7.0, and then letting it rise before lowering again, you will lower your TA over time.

Regarding chlorine consumption - it may, or may not be unusual to lose 5 ppm per day.

However, cloudy water in the AM after a clear PM, has always -- in my experience with commercial pools -- been associated with either incipient algae (rarely) or heavy bather load (lotion, urine, sweat) with inadequate chlorination.

So let me ask some more questions and clarifications:
+ your pool is about 17K gallons
+ you mention lots of kids on the deck: how many users in the pool daily?
+ are your users heavy users of lotion or sunscreen?
+ do you have any 'slip and dippers' -- ie, lotion up, lay out, rinse off, repeat ? (This creates heavy chlorine demand.)
+ is your pool a long way from the bathroom and / or have you forbidden wet swimmers in the house? (= pees in the pool)
+ are any of your users competitive swimmers? (USS swimmers are accustomed to pee in the pool. Really. It's universal.)
+ is your pump on a timer? What are the settings?

[shub_31]

Thanks for the response.
My PH was never high. I would add Borax once in a while to get it to 7.6 range.
It as been 4 years that I have opened to a milky pool. The first couple were fine but I was using cal hypo before switching to trichlor pucks
pool is 17,000
Ony my son on most days with maybe 1 friend. Once or twice a week maybe 4 or five kids
yes to the lotion fanatics Kids r always slip dippers (wifes doing)
I try to keeps wet swimmers out of house but they do go pee inside
pump has been running 3 months straight.(yes really) electricity isnt an issue. Wife likes a clear clen pool

[shub_31]

Im in trouble now. As soon as I replied wife told me our 7yr old isnt alowed in pool. Had runny poo from swimming yesterday in 30ppm. Mine was green. I know i didnt drink any pool water

[PoolDoc]

Can't fight City Hall! Do what you gotta do.

However, "runny poo" is not a symptom of chlorine over exposure.

In your last post, you mention opening cloudy, but earlier you'd mentioned cloudy in the AM -- different, unrelated problems. Which are you trying to solve? Cloudy in the spring, or cloudy in the morning? I thought it was the latter; if it's the former, we've been on the wrong track.

Regarding your chlorine demand -- if you have heavy lotion load (and it sounds like you do) and you have frequent peeing in the pool (and I suspect you do), 5 ppm loss per day is not surprising, so the PM to AM drop may be normal for you, and your pool.

If your pool is clear now, go ahead and let it drop (as if you have a choice ), but stop the drop at 15, and then hold the 8 - 15 ppm level you need for 100 ppm CYA. If that's intolerable to City Hall, you'll have to drain and refill till you get your CYA down to 40 ppm or so.

BTW, I'm 99% sure your poo issues have nothing at all to do with your pool issues. But, as I have always told my commercial customers here, even when the health inspector is wrong, they are still the inspector, so if we can we go along!

[shub_31]

Now im confused. Every spring ive open to a couldy milky pool. Then if i ever let my FC drop to near 0 I would wake up to a cloudy pool. I assumed my high CYA as been allowing algae blooms to go on for years. Now you want me to drop my FC. I still cant maintain my FC overnight. I dont want to stop shocking until thats accomplished unless you recommend it. Ive spent alot of money on bleach so far. Its very hot now so I cant drain now. i plan on doing it this fall. Thank you very much for replying. By the way my wife will have to suck it up since ive gone this far

[PoolDoc]

Hi Shub;

Different strokes, and all that. For some of our users once the wife lays down the law, the discussion's over.

OK, you've added a bit of information I didn't have before (maybe I overlooked it?). Anyhow, it is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL for a pool that's being used regularly to get cloudy overnight if the chlorine drops to zero the preceding day, ESPECIALLY when you have heavy lotion users, using the pool. To prevent that, you MUST keep the chlorine above the minimum level shown in the Best Guess chart -- if you haven't read that page, you really should do so -- for YOUR CYA level, whatever it is.

Currently, with your CYA at 100, that means the MINIMUM allowable level is 8 ppm.

Without considering your wife's preference, here's what I would recommend you do:
+ Hold your current levels for 2 days AFTER the last trace of any algae. (You may already be past that.)
+ Once you've gone 2 days with NO algae, and no slipperiness on the sidewalls, let the chlorine drop to 10 ppm.
+ When the chlorine drops to 8 - 10 ppm, add 2 gallons of plain 6% bleach that evening. Test chlorine daily (for now) and repeat the 2 gallon dose in the evening of each day you see a level below 10 ppm FC.
+ Meanwhile, use muriatic acid to drop your pH to just below 7.0. Let it rise to 7.4 (it will); repeat the acid dose when it reaches 7.4. This will gradually lower your TA.
+ If you want to do so, you can ALSO raise the borate (borax) level in your pool to 60 ppm or so. This will make your pool more resistant to algae, but NOT to lotion / urine / body oil based cloudiness. Let me know if you want to do so -- it will take 16 boxes of 20 mule team borax and around 4 gallons of muriatic acid if you want to do this.
+ Do what you can to eliminate peeing in the pool - for a lot of boys, it's as simple as giving them permission to "pee behind that bush over there"! Urine really does use up a lot of chlorine.