Chlorine off the scale

[cajunfla]

I had been gone for about 13 days, and came home to algae bloom under plastic solar cover. Poured in 5.7 gal. of 6% kmart bleach, and ran pump for about 36 hours using trichlor pucks in a puck tower. All nice and clear now.


WalMart AquaChem drop test kit. FIBERGLASS IG POOL. NorthEast Florida.

Tested yesterday, 14 May.
Alk = 140
Ph = 7.9
CA = didn't check
Chlorine was off the scale, so dark a yellow, it was almost brown.



Todays readings:
Alk = 140
Ph = 7.9
CA = over 100
FC = 7.0
CC = 0

Where do I go from here? Thanks! You folks are wonderful.

[CarlD]

What's your CYA? In the meantime, raise FC to 12, and lower pH to 7.3-7.8.

[cajunfla]

Sorry, I had CYA labeled as CA, which was over 100. thats the highest number on the tube. As far as raising CL to 12, why would I want chlorine that high? I don't understand. The manufacturer of my fiberglass pool suggested 1.0. Besides, my little tester only goes to 5.0.

[Watermom]

With a cya reading of over 100, running a chlorine reading of 1.0 will give you your green pool back in no time. See the chart at the following link for more about chlorine levels and cya levels.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

Cya over 100 could be a lot of numbers. We really need a more exact reading. We typically suggest a cya reading of 30-50. You can do a partial drain and lower it. Don't drain the whole pool. You may have to do a partial drain a couple of times to get the cya down. Your other option is to keep your high cya level and just run higher than normal chlorine levels per the chart. I would suggest buying the kit sold at the sister site to this forum www.poolsolutions.com as it will allow you to test chlorine readings to 50 plus everything else you need to test. Hope this helps.