Opened this year with a switch Chlorine

[YippeeSkippy]

No, it should turn pink if there is chlorine in the water, in my experience even when the level is low. Do you have the small Taylor K-1000 OTO tester? The one where you put 5 drops of the yellow reagent in? That one is a good test to determine the presence of chlorine even if other wise you're not getting a reading.

I'm not sure about the second scenario....but know that once a normal test water is clear after testing for CC's that if left alone it will return to pink. That is normal and means nothing. But if the water is zero to begin with..... I dunno!? Let me ask around...

 

[PoolOnB]

We just took a reading right now and it did not turn pink, so we concluded FC is 0, didn't bother with the CC test, and added the appropriate liquid chlorine. However, the water sample sat for about 2 mins and we noticed it turned light, but noticeably, pink, which is what prompted my question.

I used the small Taylor 1000 kit, and it also came back effectively at zero - maybe a very, very mild yellow, but I had to strain to see it.

So, it would seem we still have significant chlorine losses. Hypothetical, but given what we've experienced so far, isn't it likely that even if we get the FC up tomorrow morning to the shock level FC like we've been doing the last four days (likely a 7am test/treatment), it will all be burned off by the time we are home after work in the evening? Apart from the pool now being crystal clear, I'm afraid we're not making a lot of progress....

 

[domct203]

Have you been experiencing a high chlorine demand since opening?

What has been the avg daily FC ppm loss since you opened?

Dom

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I still think you must have some bacqua in the system....perhaps in the filter? That would cause the FC to disappear quickly.

Do you have any lights to check behind for goo?

 

[PoolOnB]

We've cleaned the filter twice this season, once this past Thursday. Where would be we looking for the goo? We haven't looked extensively for it, but there is no appearance of anything 'goo' like.

 

[kimkats]

Pool School - Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine

Lets do this ^^^^^^ act as if your pool DOES have the Bac in it. It should not take long but I think it is best to do the full conversion to be on the safe side.

Start as if you have done nothing to the pool. Let us know how it goes.

 

[PoolOnB]

We're beginning to get discouraged. We laid off SLAMing the pool for 2 day's and we're back to a cloudy pool without any chlorine. We are going to need to refill our test kit.

I've come to the conclusion that we need to get the CYA down. We've only been below 70 once. Both pool math and the CYA chart recommend draining about a 30% of the water in the pool.

Is this the only way to get the CYA down. We're not jazzed about the idea of draining and refilling but, we've put what seems to be a lot of chlorine into the pool (probably over 20 gal) and have seen very many results.

We just want to know that this is what we should be doing. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[kimkats]

It is up to you. You will still need to do the conversion but it may be easier if you lower the CYA.

 

[jblizzle]

Is there a reason you are refusing to follow the conversion process? Although now with CYA in the water that becomes more difficult.

 

[PoolOnB]

We're not refusing to follow it. It did not make sense to start this process mid-week as we are home for very limited hours.

While we already 'converted' earlier this season per our local pool store (fully acknowledging their (mis)guidance is likely a large part of our problem) and that we haven't had any ongoing evidence of bacqua goo, we are trying to take a step back and synthesize all of the information we've learned in the last few weeks on TFP. The guidance that stands out is the fact that our CYA is so darn high, with an average reading north of 70 since we started testing.

Given, this, before we 'convert' again using the TFP guidance, we wanted to bring the CYA down. Overnight, we drained and subsequently refilled about 1/3 of the pool. This morning here are our results:

FC: 1
CC: 0.5
TC: 1.5
CYA: 40 (YAY!!!)
CH: 375
TA: 190
PH: 7.2
Water Clarity: 2 (with 5 being clear)

This morning, before we left for work at 7:30am, we did round one of the bacqua conversion, adding enough liquid chlorine to achieve FC 15. We will continue the process tonight when we get home and then all day tomorrow - we'll be able to check more frequently over the weekend, so the timing of starting this process is good.

 

[domct203]

I asked this earlier in the thread but perhaps you missed it.

Have you been experiencing a high chlorine demand since you opened? I'm a bit south of you in New Haven CT, and throughout May I only lost 1-2ppm of chlorine a day with pool temps in the low to mid 60's (I broke 70F May 25).

Our concern is that the conversion was not fully completed.

Dom

 

[PoolOnB]

I don't disagree that the initial conversion was either not complete or guidance was bad. It's hard to know exactly how bad losses were before we started TFP testing 2 weeks ago. Our pool store didn't share results - just told us what to do/what to buy (convenient, huh?). They took our water after we completed their conversion process and told us we were fine and on our way.

Following that, at home test strips continued to not register any chlorine. Then we took water in to them, they tested, they said we were fine and go to X,Y,Z for weekly maintenance (none of which included adding liquid chlorine). 4 weeks and a lot of money later, we said forget it and found TFP.

Now that CYA is lower, we are in the midst of TFP's conversion process.

 

[jblizzle]

I think I recall a discussion about conversion and once any cya is in the water, the conversion is much much slower, possibly to the point where a full drain is easier. Pool stores are doing a great disservice by having people add cya too soon.