what makes eyes sting in the pool?

[waterbear]

I didn't write that, someone was being jokingly sarcastic in response to my starter post.
I know, it was in one of the other replies in this thread. Still good advice about the goggles.
Waterbear - my pool smells very chloriney - is that odor the result of all the excess CC? Seems like I will only worsen the odor by adding more bleach, but that is my novice forum member mind at work

Here we have a classic reason why a GOOD drop based kit is needed. Not only do you need to check for Total Chlorine, you need to see what your Free Chlorine is so you can determine your Combined Chlorine (Chloramines). Chloramines are the bad guys that burn your eyes and make the pool smell like chlorine! Ideally you should have no CC in the pool. If you do you need to add more chlorine to burn them off...this is called 'breakpoint chlorination' and is what you are actually doing when you shock. If your CC are .5 ppm or higher it means it's time to shock!

Most beginners find it hard to believe that adding more chlorine when the pool smells strongly of chlorine is the right thing to do but it is! This is the only way to burn off the excess organics in the water and to break the chemical bond in the CC that is formed by the ammonia and the chlorine. (Chloramines are a groups of chemical compounds formed from chlorine and ammonia or organic ammonia like compounds. These organic ammonia like compounds belong to a chemical group called 'amines'. (oversimplified explaination but essentially correct!). They get into your pool from all the bacteria, persperation, urine, feces, and all the other nasty stuff that is always getting into a pool that is being used and it is chlorines job to 'burn them up'! Chlorine is very good at this if you put enough of it in when you need to!

Hope this is helpful.

[medvampire]

Tear ph range 6.5 to 7.6 with a median of 7.0. Tears act as a buffer for the eye and will vary dependant on enviroment.The eye surface tissue is at 7.2 to 7.5. The salenity of tears is around 9000 ppm dependant on body hydration. Body ph is 7.35 to 7.45 and isotonic at 0.9 % or 9000 ppm.
Hope this helps.
Later
Steve