Moblaine's pool

[aylad]

Borax was hard to find but I did locate 4 boxes at a grocery store. Is this also pertinent to add at night?

No, you can add Borax anytime you want...the sun doesn't break it down like it does the chlorine.

[moblaine]

Okay, now what? Last night I put in about 950 ounces of 6% household bleach as per Ben's advice (3 gallons per 10,000 gallons). Yesterday my FC was 0.4 and so was my CC. This morning, the results are not what I expected: FC 1.4 and CC 1.8. I anticipated CC would have been lower, not WAY higher. My current course of action will be to test tonight and put in a similar amount of bleach but wondered if there were any other recommendations.

[PoolDoc]

Hi Moblaine;

My apologies for posting the wrong links to your Pool History form and log; here are the correct ones. If you use them, it will make the pool clean-up more comprehensible, and will make it easier for us to help you.

Pool History Form
Pool History Results

Your dose -- 3 gal 6% per 10K gal -- is about 18 ppm. If you have TC=3.2 this AM, you still have some ferocious chlorine demand. There are only 2 ways to get rid of it, that I know about: drain & refill the pool, or chlorinate till it's gone.

Draining and refilling a vinyl pool requires professional help (and even then, old liners may not survive), OR a pool cover that's about 16' larger on all sides than the pool itself.

Chlorinating requires lots of unstabilized (bleach or cal hypo) chlorine. You can do a bucket test to get an idea how much, but knowing doesn't change anything. We've seen much more of this, this year, than any previous year. Probably something in the weather favored ammonia formation, but we really don't know what stabilizer-eating bacteria sometimes 'poop' nitrogen gas (harmless) and sometimes ammonia (what you've probably got).

The most efficient way to do this, is to add chlorine in the evening so all your loss is eating 'goo', rather than to sunlight. You can increase the dose to 4 gallons per 10K (10 gallons or 13 96oz jugs), but I wouldn't go higher lest you bleach your liner. You didn't report pH, but if it's below 7.6, add 2 - 3 boxes of borax (20 Mule Team, slowly, via the skimmer, pump ON) to raise the pH. The byproducts of oxidizing ammonia tend to be less noxious at a higher pH.

If you'll log your tests and doses in the spread sheet, it will be much clearer to you, what's happening.

[CarlD]

I would use the 10ml test for your FC and CC tests. Using the 25ml test will burn thru your reagents quickly and give you no addional useful info.
Carl

[moblaine]

For the past four nights, I've been adding 7.5 Gallons of 6% bleach each evening (or 4 gallons 12.5% liquid chlorine, depending on which I can get my hands on). The filter has been running 24 hours per day (pressure did not rise for days until today it went up 2 psi to 12) and the pool continues to look great. I test 1x or 2x per day with the K-2006 and while FC is hovering around 0.5 to 1.0 ppm, my CC has ranged from 1.0 to 1.8 during this time.

Will this cycle end? I was planning to increase the dosage slightly tonight (equivalent of 4 gallons/10,000 gallons) but wondered if I should be doing anything else. Also, is it normal for water to run a bit yellowish/greenish after pouring in all that bleach? Within a short time (like an hour), it's always back to blue.

any feedback appreciated.

[PoolDoc]

Will this cycle end? I was planning to increase the dosage slightly tonight (equivalent of 4 gallons/10,000 gallons) but wondered if I should be doing anything else. Also, is it normal for water to run a bit yellowish/greenish after pouring in all that bleach? Within a short time (like an hour), it's always back to blue.

1. Yes, the cycle will end, but I don't know when. The only way I know to tell is to do a bucket test, with 20 - 50 ppm FC additions, and testing to see when the CC residuals in the bucket end.

2. Regarding the "yellowish/greenish" water. I don't know what that could be. As noted above, the "mineral pack" contains 99.5% of something "inert" but that doesn't mean it can't react with high chlorine. Can you take it out? It's not impossible that it's the source of your CCs. Are you pouring the chlorine in via the skimmer? If so, change to pouring directly into the pool, preferably in front of a return, so it will mix rapidly.

[moblaine]

I don't know what that could be. As noted above, the "mineral pack" contains 99.5% of something "inert" but that doesn't mean it can't react with high chlorine. Can you take it out? It's not impossible that it's the source of your CCs. Are you pouring the chlorine in via the skimmer? If so, change to pouring directly into the pool, preferably in front of a return, so it will mix rapidly.

No, I'm pouring the liquid chlorine all around the pool each night, primarily in front of the return jets then I brush to move the water around. Yes, I can take the Mineral Reservoir out and see if things change but then I'm unable to use my tri-chlor tabs. Is this okay for a few days since in lieu of the tabs, I'd be super-chlorinating each evening? Or, am I asking for trouble that way?