My pool is out of control and swampy

[Watermom]

Yes, that is dichlor. What brand is that and where did you find it?

(The links didn't work for me either. Thanks for letting us know so we can get them fixed.)

[PoolDoc]

Yes. That's the right stuff.

Thanks for the tip on the links; they are fixed now.

[QuidStuprum]

Yes, that is dichlor. What brand is that and where did you find it?
(The links didn't work for me either. Thanks for letting us know so we can get them fixed.)

It is called Chlor Brite. I got it at Leslie's pool supply. I believe it is their house brand.

[QuidStuprum]

Well, the drain/acid wash/bleach clean went well Saturday. I rented a trash pump which worked great and my wife was a trooper and helped with the cleaning. It _only_ took us about 7 hours. Then, a mere 20 hours after I started refilling the pool, it finally got to the right level yesterday afternoon.

I bought a 25 lb bucket of the dichlor I posted earlier and thought I was being fairly conservative by leaving what I thought to be 4 lbs in the bucket yesterday. Based on my initial test this evening with the HTH 6 way drop test (2006C is en route) I either put more than I thought, my pool is smaller than I thought or I am horrible at testing the water. Full disclosure: I thought it would also be a good idea to have a couple of the chlorine pucks I had bought earlier floating around in the little basket.

Here goes:

Based on the nice shade of orange with the OTO drops and this link http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...sults-by-color, it appears that my chlorine is somewhere on the order of 20-25 ppm.

The Alkalinity test says that the sample should turn from green to red as you add drops. Multiply the # of drops by 10 to get ppm. I gave up after 20 drops. The sample was no longer green, but I wouldn't exactly call it red.

The pH read low. The color was very close to the 6.8 lower box.

When I added the 5 drops of the hardness indicator to the sample it did not turn red to indicate hardness.

The CYA black dot test really had me questioning my eyesight, but the best I could tell is that my CYA is 90-100 ppm

The good news: My pool looks great and my barracuda is doing it's thing as I type. The water *looks* great.

The bad news: It appears that it might eat the flesh from our bones if we swim.

I am going to let the TX heat work on the pool tomorrow and re-test the water tomorrow evening and post my results. And yes, I took out the chlorine puck basket.

[PoolDoc]

No dangers.

CYA = 100 and FC = 20 is no problem. Dermatologists *routinely* prescribe 50 - 100 ppm "bleach baths" (Google that phrase) for adult AND pediatric patients with skin problems! And that's with NO CYA present.

But, wear old swim suits. People are FAR less chlorine sensitive than women's swimwear. Ironically, the most expensive women's swimwear is the most sensitive; the least expensive is next. Mid range swim gear made by competition swimwear companies is the least sensitive.

Test your pH by mixing 1/2 cup pool water with 1/2 cup distilled water (from Walmart). Surprisingly, adding distilled water doesn't change the pH, but it does reduced the effects of high chlorine on phenol red.

Watch the videos for further info:
http://pool9.net/tk-guide/
http://pool9.net/tk-interfere/ <= explains the yellow/blue TA result