Clorox Outdoors Now what??

[waterbear]

----------- not completed -- will finish later ---------------------

Hm-m-mh. That's why we try to emphasize "plain 6% household bleach"

#1 - Cetyl betaine
This is an amphoteric surfactant (synthetic detergent) and one of the causes of the foaming. I will eventually break down. An enzyme product with hasten the breakdown.
#2 - Sodium carbonate - "pH Plus" -- raises pH and alkalinity; not a problem.
#3 - Sodium hydroxide - raises pH; not a problem.
#4 - Sodium silicate Not very dangerous, but not necessarily leaving the pool, either. Wikipedia
Also called "waterglass". Will tend to act as a flocculant and should eventually filter out. Not harmful.
#5 - Sodium xylene sulfonate Science Lab MSDS. Not very dangerous, used in shampoos, not sure how low it will persist in pool
This is an anionic surfactant (synthetic detergent) and hydrotrope (soap like substance) often used as a foaming agent and foam stabilizer. It will also eventually break down. Once again, an enzyme product can help.
#6 - Propylene Glycol n-Butyl Ether Not very dangerous, should evaporate in within a week. 2008 Dow Chemical safety page (archived)

hope this helps.

[chem geek]

In general, chlorine takes a very long time to get rid of most surfactants. Chlorine doesn't react with the long-chain saturated hydrocarbon and the nitrogen in the cetyl betaine is like an amide that doesn't react very quickly (it's a cationic or positively charged surfactant). Likewise the sulfur in the sulfonate is not reduced so does not react with chlorine (as Evan noted, it's an anionic or negatively charged surfactant). These surfactants will tend to form micelles in the water and form a single-molecule thick film at the surface. Mostly what happens is that circulation moves them to the filter where they generally adhere. The filter is where most water-insoluble material ends up. When I clean my filters each year, it's mostly full of the parts of suntan lotion that are not water soluble and that chlorine does not break down.

As Evan noted, an enzyme product can be used to break these substances down, especially if you have trouble filtering them out. Usually though, most people are able to just let circulation do its job. If some remains on the surface because your flow rate isn't high enough to pull it down into the skimmer, then you can use a scum ball to help remove it.

[PoolDoc]

Richard, Evan;

Do you know of particular enzyme products that have delivered fairly consistent positive results. Those products are intrinsically 'mystery soup', so the only way to pick one, is to try to find one with a track record. I can't do so, because I've never used them.

[waterbear]

Only one I have ever used is Natural Chemistry's products but from what I have been able to gather about them they are all very similar if not the same.

[chem geek]

The ones I've heard about others using are the same as Evan mentions from Natural Chemistry:

Pool Perfect™
Pool First Aid™ - seems to be the same as above, but stronger in strength

I had orenda™ technologies CV700 put in my pool once when the owner was out in my area and we did some experiments. There wasn't much to clear up, but it did seem to take care of some leftover suntan lotion film on the surface rather quickly, but the product also has a small amount of phosphate remover (lanthanum chloride) as well so isn't an enzyme-only product.

[waterbear]

The ones I've heard about others using are the same as Evan mentions from Natural Chemistry:

Pool Perfect™
Pool First Aid™ - seems to be the same as above, but stronger in strength

I had orenda™ technologies CV700 put in my pool once when the owner was out in my area and we did some experiments.

Richard, THAT is a name from the past. I haven't spoken with him in several years now (since he reformed his company to produce enzymes and phospahte removers)!

That would make his product similar to Natural Chemistry's Pool Perfect + PHOSfree

[motomom]

Bleah. I'm glad to see that I am not the only crazy person who has ended up with this stuff in the pool. That's what I get for allowing hubby to take care of the pool for me this week.

[topless]

I bought Clorox splash proof at SAMs club. It has put a thin layer of foam on top. Due to mechanical problems, I just got the pool uncovered this morning and had 15 bottles of the stuff ready to go in, so it's in. Pool had a lot of green and mustard algae in, but not as much as I thought it would, opening it up so late.
Since the chorine already dropped to less than 5ppm, I just put in some plain old bleach and added cya. It's starting to turn blue, but I will need more bleach by tomorrow.
Stay away from the "splash proof" Clorox, it will foam on you.

[PoolDoc]

Yep. That's why we say "PLAIN 6% household bleach".

Actually, the detergency may have helped in your case, since it probably improved dispersion of the biofilm (mustard algae).