Chemical Help

[PoolDoc]

Sounds pretty normal, for an ammonia filled pool. But, you'd be better off putting in 6 gallons at night, and skipping the AM dose. That way, all the chlorine you lose, will be lost converting ammonia, rather than losing some to sunlight.

[mreesept]

Update:

FC 15 CC 6 pH7.2 TA 200
Added more Borax and will keep adding chlorine.
Pool is more cloudy but no smell really noted.

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I dont know if I am doing something wrong but my chlorine numbers are all over the mark... my FC dropped to 5 and CC now 11? I am using the 10mL method... I have taken the water from the same place and tried to be very consistant with measuring chlorine. Is this part of the process??? I add Chlorine FC goes up CC drops, then a few hours afterwords the FC is down and CC up???

[PoolDoc]

Cleaning up ammonia is not a nice, and well defined process. It's a messy, keep-adding-chlorine-till-the-ammonia is gone process.

We don't know how much ammonia is in your pool - some, most, or all of the CYA could have been converted. We don't whether it's just ammonia (which reacts quickly) or other things that can form, and which react slowly. There's no time line on this -- just that you'll probably be done by next week sometime.

The primary ingredient needed, besides chlorine, is P.O.P. -- Pool Owner Patience. What happens, where there's not enough POP, is the pool owners get desperate and in a hurry, and go to the pool store for a quick fix. The pool stores will almost ALWAYS sell you a quick fix, even though they don't have one. Well, in a way they do: the products they sell are a quick fix for the store owner's thin wallet, but not for your pool.

Sorry, but once the bacteria has filled your pool with ammonia 'pool' (or metabolic by-products, if you prefer) you're in for a lengthy and not entirely predictable recovery.

[Watermom]

But, the good news is that the process eventually will end! We see this every spring --- a frustrated pool owner who has a pool full of ammonia and they are dumping in bottles and bottles of bleach and they think it is never gonna hold and then one day it does! You can read through some of the older posts in the forum from previous springs where people have had this very same problem.

[mreesept]

I added 2 boxes of Borax but pH still 7.2
Water cloudy, I have been trying to vaccuum the bottom which has a fair amount of silt (I use a mesh loop lock cover and have shrubs close and overhaning oak trees)
FC 15.5
CC 7.5
pH 7.2
TA 210

No smell

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Pool Doc,

Can you explain "wait time" for reading chlorine levels??

[PoolDoc]

+ Add 2 more boxes of borax, and then stop. Don't bother with more pH tests for now: they aren't very reliable with chlorine that high.
+ Dose each evening, but skip dosing when FC > 12 ppm in the evening.
+ Who said "wait time"?

[mreesept]

Re: spring startup

I don't think so, but it will slow reaction times, so you may want double or triple the time you wait before reading, especially on the chlorine and CYA tests.

PoolDoc / Ben
(This was in reaction to a question if 50 deg water changed the figures)

[PoolDoc]

Is your water still 50?

If so, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let tests stand for a full minute, before final mixing and reading.

[mreesept]

I am still getting super high CC levels.....
I have been able to get my FC up to over 10 at times but my CC level has been on the rise. I have gotten CC readings that seem to be outragous from what I have read on this forurm... over 11 at one point but not that high now. I still get in the 5-7 range which is still a very high reading. I did use a commercial "shut down" package from In The Swim before shut down in the fall. Could this effect my CC numbers??? Is there an end in site???

Recent Measurments:
FC 6.5
CC 7
pH 7.6

Is there ANYTHING I could be doing wrong with the Taylor test that could be giving me a false positive for CC? My powder that I add 2 scoops is not a fine powder but rather small crystals and does not dissolve real well. Most times it will not fully dissolve no matter how much i swirl.
My water is rather clear with sediment on the bottom and no odor?

Thanks,

Mike

[mreesept]

I ran out of cl testing reagent can't test until I get more. Water starting to clear but cc still up at last test. I just hope I am testing right.