Question about shock and chlorine

[donovan.lambright]

I've got a 15' x 48" Intex Easy Set pool. I don't know the exact capacity but, based on googling the pool and looking at various listings, I believe it's in the neighborhood of 4,000 gallons. This is only my second summer with the pool. When I set it up a week ago, I added a whole pound of shock along with 5 or 6 one inch chlorine tablets in the floater. This was about 3 times as much shock as needed, of course, as I found out later when I referred to my notes from last year (that's what I get trying to work from memory). The chlorine levels weren't rising as fast as I had expected and I started to worry about algae. Therefore, I added 6 more chlorine tablets a couple of days later.

Now, my chlorine levels are too high. I took the chlorine floater out of the pool about 2 days ago and have been testing twice a day. I assumed the levels would have started dropping by now but there's been no change. The weather has been on the cool and cloudy side and I wonder if that is a factor (I seem to recall reading that heat and sunlight speed up chlorine dissipation). I'm testing with the AquaChem kit that uses 5 drops of two chemicals, one for chlorine and one for pH. I'm sure you know the one I mean. pH looks pretty good, although I did have to lower it a few days ago after a big rainstorm.

I'm wondering if I'm on the right track here or whether I should be doing something else. Sorry if I haven't posted all the relevant information. Or a bunch of irrelevant information. :-) Thanks for any information you can provide.

Donovan

[aylad]

Hi Donovan, and welcome to the forum!!

When you say your levels are too high, what exactly do you mean? Can you post results for your chlorine and pH, taken with your kit? If your chlorine is higher than what the yellow scale will register, you can always dilute the pool water 1:1 with distilled water, mix, and test from that--and multiply your test result x 2. It's a ballpark, but it gives us more information than "too high".

What was the ingredient in the shock? How does your water look?

Sunlight will bring the chlorine down (as will a large bather load ), but you may still be okay to swim...

[donovan.lambright]

Thanks for the welcome!

I am at work right now and can't give you the exact numbers but will post tonight after I test again. I can tell you right now, though, that the chlorine is off the yellow scale. pH is in the normal zone.

The water is very clear, except when I run the pump which makes it cloudy. There's some fine dirt in the pool which is getting stirred up so I think that's a red herring. I vacuumed a lot out yesterday but there was still some settled on the bottom this morning.

You mentioned it maybe being OK to swim. That leads me to the other question I was going to post today. I was going to make it a separate thread but since we're already here... We did go ahead and swim on Saturday (a couple of days ago) even though the chlorine was high. Two of us (me and a four-year old) are fine. The third (six-year old) woke up the next morning with tiny red bumps all over. Very itchy. I remember her being more sensitive last year, too, so I can't say I'm that surprised. We're treating her with various lotions and baking soda in the bathtub but swimming is out of the question for awhile. Which leaves me with a question. Is this the "pool rash" I hear so much about? And, if so, what causes it? I've read online about high chlorine and bacteria being known causes. Is there any way to know which is which?

The fact that only one of us got it PLUS the high chlorine levels in the water (which I'd think would kill bacteria) make me pretty sure it was the chlorine that did it. Still, I've yet to see anything online that really explains the difference between the two causes.

Thanks again and let me know if I need to move that second issue to a new thread.

Donovan

[donovan.lambright]

OK, got some numbers. The chlorine level has finally come down and is around 1.5 to 3.0. I'm having a hard time pinpointing it further because I'm having a hard time seeing the color difference between the two levels. I think I need to get a more precise testing kit. pH is 7.6. The active ingredient in the shock is Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione. As I said above, the water is crystal clear. I mentioned it getting cloudy when I ran the filtering pump; I ran it all last night and the water stayed clear this time.

[Watermom]

You are right that you need a good test kit. The only one we truly recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C. You can get it through the test kit page in my signature below. It is only available online however, so you'll need something to use while you wait on your good kit. Get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol test kit, or if available at YOUR Walmart (check availability), get the HTH 6-way DROPS test kit, which is compatible with the Taylor K2006. Test the pool as soon and you can, and post the results. If you get the 6-way kit, ALSO test the water you FILL the pool with, especially if it's a well, and post THOSE results as well. (The HTH is the best available kit you're likely to find locally, but it's not the K-2006. It can only provide rough measurements chlorine levels above 5 ppm, and it measures "TOTAL" hardness, rather than "CALCIUM" hardness, which is not ideal.)

It's much easier to answer your questions, when we know something about your pool. We often 'waste' the first few posts back and forth collecting information. So, please complete our new Pool Chart form -- it takes about 30 seconds, but will save much more than that.

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

Can you look on the label of the dichlor package and see what other ingredients are listed? Some pool chemical companies are starting to add a bunch of unwanted stuff.

One very important reading that we need is your CYA level. If you don't find the HTH 6-Way kit, see if you can find a reputable pool store who can test your CYA level for you. (By the way, that is one of the tests that comes in the K-2006 kit.) You only want them to do the test for you if they do the "disappearing black dot" test. Don't let them talk you into buying a bunch of stuff while you are there. And, they will try!

Hope this helps some.

[donovan.lambright]

Just to be clear, I've been checking the chlorine with the OTO kit. It looks like the local WalMart has the HTH kit and I'll pick one up this afternoon after work. The Taylor kit looks nice and I'll see about getting one ordered. I'll check the CYA level and post results tonight.

I tried to fill out the Pool Chart Entry Form but got hung up on my PF User ID. It's required and I can't seem to find it. I don't have access to My Profile yet, presumably because I'm still a Trial Member.

About the shock. The package doesn't list any other ingredients other than the dichlor. It just says 58.2% dichlor and 41.8% Other Ingredients. :-)

[donovan.lambright]

This is a continuation of a thread of the same title I started over in the Getting Started forum. I can no longer post there, presumably since I'm no longer a trial member. Apologies in advance if this is not the preferred way of handling the situation.

Anyway, Watermom and aylad (who have been awesome) asked me to post some more information. I didn't get it done yesterday due to a summer thunderstorm that kept us all inside for the day. But now I have test results (hth 6-way test kit) on my fill water:
Alkalinity: 290 ppm
Hardness: 300 ppm

Numbers from my pool, tested a few minutes ago:
Chlorine: 3
pH: 8.2

Just to recap, here are the test numbers from Tuesday (06-19-2012):
Chlorine 2
pH 7.8
Alkalinity 260 ppm
Hardness 310 ppm
CYA <30 ppm (ran out of room in the test vial before the black dot disappeared)

I've done nothing to the pool since Tuesday other than add 1/3 lb of shock (58.2% dichlor and 41.8% Other Ingredients), which I did Tuesday night. Hope that didn't screw up our troubleshooting but it had been a week since I shocked it and I let my worries get the better of me.

aylad mentioned my chlorine tabs RE: the high Hardness reading. It's been over a week since I put any in but the ones I have are 99% Trichloro-s-triazinetrione / 1% Other Ingredients. aylad also suggested tackling my high pH and Alkalinity using muriatic acid, which I can do next. Having said that, I'm going to hold off until I hear back from one of you now that I've posted more test results.

Finally, aylad suggested checking my Chlorine in the early morning to see if I am losing any overnight. I will do that first thing tomorrow and post the results.

I have ordered the Taylor K-2006A and expect to have it in a few days. After that, I can other tests as needed.

My daughter is mostly recovered from her rash but my wife has (not unreasonably) vetoed any further swimming until I figure out what happened. She also was talking to someone who suggested dropping chlorine and using bromine. I don't know much about that but what little I've read makes me not want to do it. Plus, it would mean that the chlorine problem defeated me. :-)

You folks are awesome. Thanks again for your help.

Donovan