Cant hold chlorine

[herrmanncr]

Sounds good. I will shock up to 20. Hopefully I get my test kit tomorrow and wont' have to go to pool store. Awesome help. Thanks again!!!

[peekaboo]

BTW sorry if I offended a "good" used car salesman on this forum>I meant to say a "bad,over anxious,obnoxious,about to be evicted,late with the child support,gotta make a sale NOW,used car salesman"

[herrmanncr]

Added approx 5.25 gal bleach 830pm last night. Had wife take sample to pool store at 1130am. Results are below:
FC - 3.5
TC - 10
CC - 0
PH - 7.1
CH - 212
ALK(input) - 149 ALK(adjusted) - 127
CYA - 65
I know I need to add some Borax to bring up PH. Wife is nagging to swim. I said no cause to much TC. Am I correct? Sorry for all the questions.

[aylad]

No need to be sorry!!
Actually, with a CYA of 65, a total chlorine of 10 ppm is the upper range of normal, and is fine to swim in. The CYA being high renders a higher amount of the chlorine inactive, for want of a better word, so while a Cl of 10 with CYA of 65 is fine, a Cl of 10 with CYA of, say, 20 would be too high. Does that make sense?

That being said, otherwise your numbers look good, except there's a problem with your chlorine. FC + CC = TC, so if your FC is 3.5 and your TC is 10, that would make CC 6.5, and you wouldn't have a nice, clear pool. So...either there's a typo in your numbers or you have an inordinately high CC, which I doubt. Can you recheck and repost those?

Janet

[herrmanncr]

My wife says the FC is 3.5, TC says 3.5 (but the pool guy scrated it out and wrote 10) and the CC is 0. Called the pool guy and he said the system won't let him print unless he balances it out. Don't look balanced to me. Can't wait for my kit!! Should we swim?

[aylad]

I'd add a gallon of bleach, wait about 30 minutes, and then go swimming!! The Cl range you need to keep is 5-10 ppm because your CYA is high. If you'll add a gallon now, that should put your TC at 6.5, which is fine. If you let it stay below 5 ppm you're going to have problems keeping it clear. So--add some bleach, go swimming, then test it again (if possible) tonight and add whatever amount you need to get it back up toward the higher end of the 5-10 range.

Hopefully your kit will get here soon and it'll be SOOOO much easier!! (I would ditch the pool guy if I were you--you can't just make the numbers be what the printer wants!! I'd hate to be trying to balance my pool based on his criteria......)

Janet

[herrmanncr]

Got my K2006 last night. Did some testing. Gonna take some getting used to. Added bleach to get back to 20 and Borax to raise PH. Tested this morning 330 am and results are.
FC - 13.5
TC - 14.5
CC - 1
ALK - 160-170
PH - 7.4
CH - 400
CYA - not sure if i did it right(transfer to comparator until black dot disappears). Shows over 100 but pool store yesterday said 65?


So if I'm right I need 6.5 ppm to get back to 20 becuase I'm still losing chlorine right?
If 1gal bleach adds 3ppm then I need to add just over 2gal which I did. How am I doing? This is a pain!!! Thanks

[CarlD]

Actually, your numbers sound right to me. 2 gallons of 6% should get you to 20ppm. But if you have CYA=100, you may consider that the shock level for CYA 100 to 200 is 25ppm. You are still getting a CC reading greater than zero which means you are still fighting something.

I would add 3 gallons then, to put you at around 23ppm, and see if it holds. Plus, you will need to maintain FC between 8 and 15 as long as your CYA is so high.

P.O.P.P: The most important ingredient--Pool Owner Patience and Persistence!

Yes, it's frustrating but high CYA forces one to commit to much higher FC levels than we normally think about.

You may want to consider dumping half your water and refilling to reduce your CYA level to 40 to 50--easier to maintain lower chlorine levels then.

[herrmanncr]

I'm trying not to drain just yet because the different readings between my test and pool store (65vs100) but I will try and raise the FC with more bleach and see what happens. Unfortunately my wife doesn't know how to use the kit yet so I will get her to take a sample to the pool store and get tested this morning and have her add bleach accordingly. Can she use the pool today with such high FC?

[CarlD]

It's not the high FC that concerns me--it's that you still have a non-zero CC (actually, if CC is .5 or less you are pretty much OK).

If the test shows CC is OK (less than .5), it's up to you whether she can swim or not. I tend to think not because I'm conservative, because you haven't yet been able to hold a consistent FC--and with that high CYA level, I would wait until FC holds steady for at least 1/3 of the day. Still, it's your choice. But warn her to use an older suit because the high FC could fade it.

Ultimately, the decision and responsibility are yours. We can only suggest.

BTW, I find that I always run my CYA test the same way: Hold the tube at waist level and face the sun. I move it around a little as I add the fluid, making the dot more visible, so if the dot peeks through I add more. Still, I believe your readings taken immediately from the water with the K2006 before I believe someone in a pool store, probably using strips.