Backwashing and shocking

[jmcrae]

You bet Watermom! Thanks ever so!

[jmcrae]

Watermom - I'm really, REALLY, new to this testing stuff, so please bear with me (after you finish laughing).

I started this morning at 7 am; I vacuumed then backwashed; I added 1 quart of bleach which resulted in the following levels: FC - 5; TC - 5; CC - 0; and pH 7.8.

At 2:30 I added another quart of bleach and got the same levels.

The little measuring container has two ports; one labeled Cl Br, and the other labeled pH.

The Cl - Br side looks like this:

Cl Br
5 10
3 6
2 4
1 2
.5 1

The pH side:

pH
8.2
7.8
7.5
7.2
6.8

My question is: How do I measure 10pmm and 20pmm if it's not marked on my container? The kit I got from Leslie Pools cost $47. Is there another kind of measuring container with higher levels on it? Am I making any sense?

Thanks for your patience...perhaps we should move my posts to kiddy/remedial?

Judi

[Watermom]

I hate that you already spent $47 on a kit, because you really need a better kit. We like the Taylor K-2006 and it will let you test higher cl readings than just 5ppm. Read more at this link:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=10006

In the meantime, you can make your kit go higher than 5 by using dilution. Take one part pool water and an equal part of distilled water, mix, and then run your test with this. When you get your result, multiply by 2. To go higher than that, take one part pool water and two parts distilled, multiply results by 3, etc. This dilution method is not super accurate but is better than what you can do now. You really should consider a better kit. It will pay for itself in no time by avoiding problems in your water.

How does the water look? You are not adding enough chlorine at a time to get to shock level. When you test, add enough bleach to take your cl level back to 20. Each quart adds 2ppm so if you test and it is 5, then you need to add 15ppm which would require 7 or 8 quarts of bleach added all at one time. If you don't take it to shock level, you will never clear the pool. Try and test at least two or three times a day and each time raise the cl back up to 20. If you do this consistently until you can go overnight without losing more than 1ppm of cl, then your pool should clear right up. After you can hold cl overnight, then let the cl drift back down to 5-10.

BTW -- Don't worry about asking what you think are silly questions. We were all once pool newbies. You'll get the hang of this and before long, you'll know exactly what to do.

[CarlD]

Just a caveat:

If your kit is the "DPD" kit, using the "DPD" test for chlorine, you cannot use the dilution method--that only works on the OTO chlorine test.

But the good news is if you can find an OTO kit that measures to 5ppm (and they are around although most are only good to 3ppm) you can use dilution with that--and they aren't expensive. You CAN use dilution with a 3ppm kit, but you have to dilute the pool water with 4 parts of distilled water to measure to 15ppm. With a 5ppm OTO kit you only need to dilute with 2 parts of distilled water to get to 15ppm--far more precise.

[jmcrae]

CarlD - Watermom

DPD? OTO? I can just barely see under the sticker on the front of my test kit... it is DPD. I guess I stopped reading when I saw the name "Taylor Technologies" on the label.

I have a headache... I think I'll have a R-0001 on the rocks and go to bed.

Thanks

[polyvue]

DPD? OTO? I can just barely see under the sticker on the front of my test kit... it is DPD. I guess I stopped reading when I saw the name "Taylor Technologies" on the label.

I have a headache... I think I'll have a R-0001 on the rocks and go to bed.

Phosphates on the rocks. Yummy.

Does your Leslies kit contain tests for Total Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness and Cyanuric Acid (CYA)? If not, would recommend that you get the Taylor Complete FAS-DPD Test Kit K-2006, competitively priced at Amato Industries and Poolcenter.com.

If your kit already has these other tests, you can pick up a FAS-DPD chlorine test for about $21, here.

[CarlD]

Sorry!

There is a learning curve on chlorine tests. There are 3 tests:
1) OTO. This is simple and reliable and comes in the cheap, $5-$10 test kits that test chlorine and pH. But it's got two limitations--the kits usually only measure to 3ppm and a FEW go to 5ppm--we frequently need measures up to 15 to 25ppm. Also it only measures Total Chlorine. The good thing about OTO is the color gets more and more intense with higher chlorine even if you cannot measure it.

2) DPD. This is a test capable of measuring chlorine levels up to about 10ppm--but the test kits rarely go above 5ppm. It can measure both Free Chlorine and Total Chlorine, allowing calculation of Combined Chloramines (which, if more than 0 means something's growing). But above a certain point, the chlorine BLEACHES the tests making them look like you have NO chlorine. For these reasons I don't like DPD.

3) FAS-DPD. This is the gold standard. You don't need to recognize shades of color--you add a powder to get a colored solution and then you add drops until it goes clear again. You can safely measure up to 50ppm of Free Chlorine and it also measures Combined Chloramines. (you get TC by adding Free Chlorine and Combined Chloramines). If you use FAS-DPD testing, you don't need to use any other chlorine tests.

Also there are strips, but to me, they only indicate if you have LOTS of chlorine or need to measure it with OTO, DPD, or FAS-DPD.

[jmcrae]

Thanks Polyvue and CarlD.

I appreciate the input. It rained tons last night (due to hurricane Alex) so I'm in the pool to vacuum and backwash. There's lots of stuff on the bottom but nothing on the sides yet. I'll check back in when I get the FAS kit and post the new levels. Meanwhile, I'll vacuum, backwash, bleach, vacuum, backwash, bleach, .....

[aylad]

Once the fallout from Alex is over with, I would definitely shock the pool--goodness only knows what kind of crud came with the rain from the gulf!!

Janet

[jmcrae]

I vacuumed this morning at 6:30 and put in 7 quarts of bleach. By 4:00 pm, the pool was full and I could see a layer of brown on the bottom. It's almost 7:00 pm, I've had to let more water out of the pool (so much for the bleach!), and it's still raining cats and dogs. I'm setting the alarm for 3:00 am ... thanks so much for all your encouragement everyone!