Famous Chlorine

[chem geek]

Definitely add more 20 Mule Team Borax to get the pH up to at least 7.0 though preferably to 7.2 to 7.5.

Are you starting to get FC readings yet? 0.5 isn't considered a solid reading. If you add chlorine and still aren't getting FC, then I suspect you may have had bacteria convert CYA into ammonia over the winter. Given the low pH, I suspect you were using Trichlor pucks and probably had a CYA level when you closed the pool last year.

If you want to estimate how much chlorine it will take to clear the possible ammonia, you can do a bucket test using 2 gallons of pool water and add chlorine where 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach is 10 ppm (1 teaspoon is 40 ppm) until you measure FC that doesn't drop significantly over an hour. You could also get an inexpensive ammonia test kit from a fish/pet/aquarium store though the bucket test is more definitive since there can be more for chlorine to consume than just ammonia.

[gfritz1]

My test kit only measures TC so am I out of luck until get the Taylor 2006???????

I checked my 3 inch chlorine and what was being used was BioGuard Silk Tabs which are tri-chlor as you suspected

Walmart was out of bleach in the 1.42 size tonight so did just add

(1) box Borax to try to raise the PH a little more towards a solid 7.3-------OK ?

(6) 3 quart bottles of 6% bleach.Did you notice all the bleach is now only 3 quarts when you think your getting a 1gal? It was 6%.Hopefully in morning will have more.

Any advise for the attack in the morning ??? I iwll look for response from Ben or Watermom or Chem Geek or Carl or anyone as this thing has me consumed . I had the same problems the last two years and only way to get out of it was a partial drain . It is very expensive as they hit you on the water which is not bad but then the sewer like they are treating the water .

Am about to order Taylor

Waiting for advise

[chem geek]

You should most definitely order the Taylor K-2006 kit you can get at a good online price here. You'll want to test your CYA level as well as the other levels. Any pool store test, especially for CYA, is essentially useless -- they are almost always wrong. In the meantime, why don't you do the bucket test I described to get an estimate of how much chlorine it's going to take to clear your pool.

If your CYA level is through the roof, then you'll need to do at least some partial drain/refill. If it's not, then it may just take a lot of chlorine which the bucket test will tell you.

As for whether you want to continue to add chlorine in the morning, that's up to you. Basically, you only have two choices -- add a lot of chlorine or dilute the water. Any other oxidizer other than chlorinating liquid or bleach is going to cost you more. Dilution will cost you the water and sewer costs though even a partial dilution could be helpful -- it depends on chlorine vs. water/sewer costs. A bucket test will at least give you an idea of how much chlorine you'll need.

[gfritz1]

Chem Geek how do I do the bucket test with no method to read FC as all I have is a 6 way kit that does TC and the aqua strips ????

[chem geek]

It only does TC? So it's an OTO test where you compare shades of yellow? Or is it a DPD test where you compare shades of pink? If it's the latter, then that should be fine since it should measure Free Chlorine (FC) and Total Chlorine (TC) where Combined Chlorine (CC) = TC - FC. The key is FC.

If your kit doesn't measure FC, then if you can't wait for your good test kit, see if you can get the cheapest chlorine test kit that is DPD and says it measures both Free and Total Chlorine -- especially Free Chlorine.

[gfritz1]

ok yesterday added what was in the 20ppm range of bleach 4 times plus aearate the pool 24x7
Today as requested dug up history which which was way to attach a Excel sheet but here goes and hopefully some answers that will help you guys and gals solve the issue.
Date CYA PH FC TC Alk
7/09 7 6 6
8/8/09 151 7.1 1.3 1.3
8/22/09 125 7.1 0 0
8/23/09 125 7.3 0 0

So it appears my CYA was very high in 09 and I closed with 0 CC 0 FC .I would have closed around Labor Day .Not sure why it drop from 151- 125 but looked like had some issues that went to pool store two days in a row
Now for 2010
Date CYA PH FC TC Alk Hardness
5/14 55 7.1 0 4.2 203
5/16 56 7 0 9 197 Water was somewhat cloudy and thus went to pool place two days in row. Would have done normal start up with shock and algacide ,metal out plus phos out.Using 3 inch tabs tri chlor is side chlorinator. Did the recommended triple shock every three hours for one day or 6 bags of shock each time .Then left town as emergency in SC
5/25 110 6.5 0 0 186 Here is when added the murtaic acid
5/29 110 6.5 0 0 166 Started the Borax and Bleach between 5/25-5/29
5/30 70 6.7 0 0 191 Continued the bleach and borax
5/31 70 7.0 0 .5 210 Aerate,4 applications of 20 ppm bleach
6/1 78 7.0 0 0 210

Test kit OTO so can only measure TC .Ordered the K-2006 last night . Cannot do bucket test because no FC test kits

Reading threads it appears I had a issue with high CYA and TC-FC CC last fall at closing but when opening the CYA was at 55 .Thus as thread stated this means the CYA was converted??

So any thoughts on what to do other then wait for test kit? I will add Borax today for the PH

At the pool store 4 out or 5 people complaining about no chlorine readings.They are pushing Caribbean Blue product . wow

await a reply
Gary

[CarlD]

You can simply aerate your water to raise your pH from 7.0. Just point the return at the surface.