Another chlorine question

[Donna's Poolboy]

I understand that you get combined chlorine after the free chlorine reacts with contaminants in the water. So is combined chlorine an automatic byproduct of the sanitizing job the free chlorine is doing? In other words, will free chlorine ultimately end up as CC if it's doing its job? I'm confused because in a thread from a week or two ago, there were people talking about only shocking their pools once or twice per season...some do it less than that!

I assume that you folks actually swim in your pools and get occasional rain storms, but how is it that you don't get significant cc levels? Does it have anything to do with the number of green dots in your forum profile? Is there a secret handshake or password I need to learn?

Or, more likely, is my concept of the sanitizing process incorrect?

[CarlD]

Oh, the password involves upper and lower case, irrational numbers, weird characters, and squirrel sounds.....

J/K!

If you maintain a high enough residual of FC, the CC won't appear. When they do, you have to shock to burn them out. I'm not completely sure of the chemistry, but I suspect that by keeping a solid FC residual, you prevent any large quantities of contaminants from building up, and with them, a large quantity of CC. Therefore the FC residual burns out the little bit of CC without needing to go to shock levels.

But that's guessing at the chemistry...

Now as for the secret handshake...

[waterbear]

CarlD just pretends he doesn't understand the chemisty but he does that to eveyone that doesn't have the password or knows the secret handshake! (He's NOT kidding about it either! The initiation ritual is just unspeakable and horrifying, and involves learing about working with huge quantities (ususally 10000 gallons and up) of dihydrogen monoxide, which can kill you if it gets in your lungs! See the posts in the China Shop section for more info)

Seriously,
Like he said, if there is enough of a reserve of FC in the water to handle the organic load there will be no CC formed. This can happen in a perfect world. In the real world if there is over .5 ppm CC then you need to shock to get rid of it becase in the real world things like rainstorms happen , the dog jumps in the pool, the 3 year old decides she doesn't want to leave the water to tinkle, the teenages invite 30 friends over for a pool party, and so on!

[CarlD]

CarlD just pretends he doesn't understand the chemisty but he does that to eveyone that doesn't have the password or knows the secret handshake!

Like he said, if there is enough of a reserve of FC in the water to handle the organic load there will be no CC formed. This can happen in a perfect world. In the real world if there is over .5 ppm CC then you need to shock to get rid of it becase in the real world things like rainstorms happen , the dog jumps in the pool, the 3 year old decides she doesn't want to leave the water to tinkle, the teenages invite 30 friends over for a pool party, and so on!

Too many people know too much about me!

The underlying chemistry is complicated and confusing and isn't super-necessary to follow. Just like you don't need to know the bio-chemistry and physics involved in tying shoelaces, you just need to know "Form the bow..." If you stay on top of your pool test numbers, and stay ahead of problems, you don't have problems.

[waterbear]

If you stay on top of your pool test numbers, and stay ahead of problems, you don't have problems.

And there, in a nutshell, you have the answer!

[Donna's Poolboy]

Okay...by staying ahead of the game, you're not preventing cc's from forming, you're preventing them from accumulating. Pool party tonight=beef up on the bleach.

(He's NOT kidding about it either! The initiation ritual is just unspeakable and horrifying, and involves learing about working with huge quantities (ususally 10000 gallons and up) of dihydrogen monoxide

That's why I came to this forum...the pool store guy prescribed that exact method for my 23,000 gallon pool. I knew I'd been had after the liner melted.

the 3 year old decides she doesn't want to leave the water to tinkle,

My 80 year old grandmother pulled the same stunt. Fortunately, I added some of that special "indicator solution" and the water turned purple all around her. She's now restricted to the deck area.

[waterbear]

Carl, I think Donna's Poolboy deserves the secret handshake and the password after that reply! What do you say?