Test Strips results on small pool -- rash on swimmers

[cynthia78cc]

Hi...I just checked my small above ground pool with a test strip and it seems my water is completely off. Results are FCl 10 - ALK 40 - Bromine 20 AND pH it was yellow. the water is visibly not as clean as it was in the beginning of the summer and my little one developed a rash on her skin, therefore, I need to clean my water before she can go back it. How can I fix all those issues?

[PoolDoc]

1. Your pH to TOO low, possibly VERY low. Acidic pool water can definitely cause a rash. And, with test strips, there's no way to tell how low. Go to Walmart and buy 1 boxes of borax per 1,000 gallons of pool water. Add 1 box for every 2,000 gallons (not, 1,000). Wait 12 hours, retest. Repeat if pH is still yellow. Buy more borax if needed.

2. While you are at Walmart, buy fresh filter cartridges if they have them. If not, order some from Amazon. (see FAQ in section I've moved this thread to). Change the cartridge. Run your filter -- with or without new cartridges -- 24/7 till water is A-OK in every respect.

3. If Walmart has the HTH 6-way drops kit, buy one. If not, order the K2006. (Links for all this, below).

4. While at Walmart, buy 1 gallon of Pool Bleach or 2 gallons of PLAIN household bleach per 5,000 gallons. Stop using any 4-n-1, 5-n-1, X-n-1 voodoo everything chemicals. Use bleach to chlorinate. BUT I need to know your stabilizer (CYA) level to know what level of chlorine you should use.

Walmart

Pool Essentials Chlorinating Liquid
Great-Value-Cleaning-Bleach-128-fl-oz/
20-Mule-Team-Borax-Box

Amazon

Get a HTH 6-Way Test Kit (~$23) (made by Taylor) from Amazon or Walmart . . . to start. Note that there are only 3x tests for CYA in that kit.

And you'll need the K2006 if you don't already have one.

[PoolDoc]

Upgraded membership and moved thread to the Intex-typel section. You may need to log out and back in to see everything.

PS.You can search use Google to search multiple pool sites, using Google's 'advanced search operators" to limit your search to specific sites. This page of mine will create the search links for you. Google knows my site -- and all the others -- much better than those sites internal search functions! And, if you need to post pictures -- of your pool, filter, pump, piping, what-not -- there are instructions on this page

Please note: the Super Search page does NOT search directly; it only CREATES special Google links, that enable a FOCUSED Google search!

[cynthia78cc]

Hi and thank you for responding.

1 - I bought Clorox Pool&Spa pH Up to bring up the pH since I had read about Borax and I wasn't happy about the cancer findings that it was associated with. Will the Clorox Pool&Spa pH Up work as well? (haven't used it yet).

2 - I have a new cartridge for the pool and I will put it in but just to know - what are the affects of replacing the cartridge?

3 - I have a "Poolmaster 22260 5-Way Swimming Pool and Spa Water Chemistry Test Kit" from Amazon. Will that work just as well?

4 - how do I figure out my CYA?

[PoolDoc]

since I had read about Borax and I wasn't happy about the cancer findings that it was associated with. Will the Clorox Pool&Spa pH Up work as well?

1. Chloro pH UP will work. OR, you can use Arm and Hammer "Washing soda" and spend less money. Both products are plain sodium carbonate. But . . . you'll be increasing your carbonate alkalinity a LOT. If you happen to have a lot of calcium in your pool -- and you may, depending on your source water and the chemicals you've been using -- then your pool may end up looking like milk. Really.

Borax can be used without FIRST knowing a LOT more about your pool's water than you or I know.

So, worry about borax if you like . . . but if you get started on worrying about chemicals, there's no end to it. I can give you a long technical discussion about why there's no problem, but here's a shorter one.

If ANY of the following are true:

+ You smoke anything -- tobacco, marijuana or 'vapors'
+ You have more than 1 alcoholic drink per day, or more than 3 in any day. [ CDC Fact Sheet ]
+ You use any sort of illegal drug [ Articles: WebMD, NHS ]
+ You fail to exercise 30 minutes per day [ Articles: Medplus.gov, Mayo Clinic ]
+ You are more than 10lbs overweight [ CDC ]
+ You drink sodas or energy drinks with corn syrup regularly [Articles: Wikipedia, HuffPost ]
+ You have a diet high in processed carbs (white flour, white rice, etc) [ Articles: Harvard , WebMD ]
+ You eat red meat more than 3x per week (beef, pork, lamb)[ Articles: NIH.gov , Harvard Health ]
+ You fail to eat multiple servings of fruit and veggies daily[ Articles: NIH.gov , Harvard Health ]
+ You fail to get at least 7 hours of sleep daily[ Articles: , ]
+ You sit -- at work or at home -- more than 8 hours per day[ Articles: , ]
+ You watch more than 20 hours of TV weekly[ Articles: , ]
+ You get sunburned annually . . . even one time per summer[ Articles: , ]
+ You are emotionally stressed all, or most, of the time[ Articles: , ]
+ You use NSAIDS or acetaminophen more than 3x weekly[ Articles: , ]

THEN you don't need to worry about the risks from borax, since EVERYONE OF THESE ACTIVITIES has a risk of premature death that is MANY TIMES of the risk from borax, which is tiny . . . IF it actually exists at all (the research is weak and contradictory).

Even taking the worst case studies on humans . . . borax in your pool is safer than eating peanut butter! Google "aflatoxin". [ IARC report ]

2 - I have a new cartridge for the pool and I will put it in but just to know - what are the affects of replacing the cartridge?

2. Filtering better. And if you'll buy some Unicel cartridges, you will filter even better than that AND you can re-use the cartridges after cleaning! See http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php/29039

3 - I have a "Poolmaster 22260 5-Way Swimming Pool and Spa Water Chemistry Test Kit" from Amazon. Will that work just as well?

3. Sorry, but no. Throw away everything in that kit EXCEPT the OTO (yellow drops) and phenol red. Keep those to for quick tests when the pool is OK. By the way, the phenol red in that kit will NOT work properly if the chlorine level is 5 ppm or above.

4 - how do I figure out my CYA?

4. Get the K2006 or the HTH 6-way.

___________________________________________

PS. I ran out of time footnoting all the health risk references. But I, uh-h, get frustrated with these sorts of questions about the risk of chlorine (usually), borax (occasionally), or other stuff . . . since they are so small. This stuff has been 'beat to death' in long complicated threads that live in "The China Shop" section. But I need to take the relative risk comparison I started here, and extend it into a full FAQ post.

But it really is true that people are 'majoring in minors' when they worry about the risks of chlorine or borax. The anti-chlorine hype originated with radical environmentalists who are opposed to the use of chlorine for reasons that have NOTHING to do with YOUR health, but who constantly 'pump' the media system which chlorine scare tactics to advance their agenda. Opportunistic pool product dealers are more than happy to exploit pool-owner chlorine fears to sell their 'alternative' system which usually have a GREATER (but still tiny!) health risk associated.

The borax thing is just part of the general concept that "any risk is a serious risk" philosophy that has gained ground in Western media, and even in some poorly trained health officials. Asbestos, alar, dioxin, PCBs, radon gas, UV, etc are ALL associated with REAL risk . . . but in most case, those risks are MUCH smaller than the risk of the unhealthy behaviors I mentioned above.

Much of this public misinformation goes back to the pattern set by Rachel Carson's famous "Silent Spring" which fraudulently indicted DDT as the root of most evil. Even today, her book continues to KILL people who die of malaria that COULD be controlled with DDT, with minimal environmental consequences. But this idea is heresy to environmentalists who'd rather save a tiny bird, than a tiny baby. [ Article: How Rachel Carson Killed Millions; I actually wrote an account of a similar issue, caused by the US EPA, years ago, here: What's the Real Danger from Chlorine? ]

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/11/m...adon-alar.html
https://fee.org/articles/an-endless-...health-scares/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhen.../#7f01146421ad


___________________________________________