Zero Free Chlorine Reading

[PoolDoc]

@ Janet -- in this case, I'm not sure yet that she's been pool-stored. If she closed last year with very high CYA, and it all converted to ammonia . . . then she may be simply cleaning up the mess. What I'm not sure about is the Aqua Blast product -- I can't find out what it is, and she would have had to have EXTREMELY high ammonia to consume 100lbs of cal hypo.

@ killr
1. Get that OTO kit, like Janet told you.
2. Tell me EXACTLY what the Aqua Blast chemical ingredients are, and ALSO the EPA Est. (establishment) and product numbers are.
3. Add borax (20 Mule Team, detergent section of Walmart) 2 boxes at a time (slowly, to the skimmer, pump on). Wait 4 hours, and test pH with the OTO kit. Repeat till your pH is getting near 7.8.

For what it's worth, we find that pool store computerized strip testing is VERY unreliable. That said, this portion of the results

Free Chlorine-.55ppm
Combined Chlorine- 4.61ppm
Total Chlorine-5.16ppm

suggests that you may have closed with very high CYA last year, and ended up with sky-high ammonia this spring. Ammonia takes HUGE quantities of chlorine to clean up -- but I'm suspicious that the Aqua Blast product is some highly diluted form of 'shock'.

[killrnails]

A HUGE thanks everyone for your suggestions, I really appreciate it!

@ Big Dave: We just bought the house last October & the pool was already closed, so we don't know the cyanuric acid readings. Had we known more about water testing we definately would have asked the previous homeowner a ton of pool questions. The chemicals in Aqua Blast are 68% calcium hypochlorite. The previous owner did leave a water test kit, but it's the Taylor K-1001 so we're heading out to get the one you recommended (the K-2006 one).

@ Aylad: The water test wasn't a strip test, they used a syringe type thing & poked a hole in a small foil sealed retangular container squirting the water into the container. They then placed the container in a small machine thing which was how they got the water analysis. Is this what's called a drop test?

@ PoolDoc: The Aqua Blast chemicals say 68% calcium hypochlorite & "other ingredients" 32%, contains no cyanuric acid. It's manufactured by a company here in MI called KB Leisure, Ltd. & there's no product # other than the bar code #'s. And yes, the Aqua Blast as well as the Induclor we're using now is a shock treatment. What would cause the high ammonia?

Good news is we finally have freed the chlorine. Hopefully it'll be in the high 70's tomorrow so I can get in the pool & brush the walls instead of walking around the pool & doing it!

[PoolDoc]

+ CAUTION: you can NOT "head out" to get the K-2006. As far as we know, no pool stores ANYWHERE sell them. They are only available online. (Why would a pool store sell a kit that makes them obsolete?)

+ I'm not familiar with testing that used sealed cells - it is potentially an rather accurate photometric method. However, because of the limitations of photometric testing for chlorine, you STILL need either the K-1515 or K-2006 titration.

+ "68% calcium hypochlorite" is the good stuff -- but you need to test your TA and Calcium. Odds are, it's way too high now. Until you've tested, don't operate an SWCG or a heater, if you have those.

+ The high ammonia would be caused by bacteria eating (pretty much literally) chlorine stabilizer (CYA) and pooping (again, pretty much literally) ammonia. *IF* this happened, you probably had high CYA last fall, and none now. If that's not the case, we need to back up and reconsider: we're not aware of any other routine events that cause such enormous chlorine demand, except inch-thick layers of algal slime.