Red eyes after swimming?

[Woodberg]

My kids have been spending quite a bit of time in the pool lately and I've noticed that their eyes seem pretty red when they get out. They said that they hurt a little. The pool is very clear with no traces of algae and my pool numbers seem OK (see below). CC level is 0. My question is whether the higher level of FC in the pool is causing this. I understand about the CYA/chlorine relationship and keep my numbers in sync with it. Even though most of the FC is tied up with CYA, would high FC levels affect their eyes? I'm contemplating running the pool at 2-3PPM of chlorine and using Polyquat 60 to help fight algae. Is this crazy talk?

FC 5
CC 0
PH 7.6
TA 100
CH 240
CYA 40
Phosphates - 1000ppb

 

[reebok]

that's expensive talk, but whatever is worth it for you...
I run at 8-10 (cya 70) and don't have that problem. I do have approx 1800ppm salt (from liquid chlorine) and I just added borates but haven't swam yet (darn these storms). both of these are supposed to help with that sort of thing I think...at least the brochures for the SWG systems say so maybe you could add some salt if the pros think that it would help.

 

[JasonLion]

I am not sure what might be causing the irritation in your case, but it isn't because of the chlorine level. I have been swimming at far higher FC levels, as have many many other people, without any problems at all.

 

[Guest]

red eyes are caused by CC. Remember that when chlorine reacts with proteins in the skin, etc. it will form CC. This will happen no matter what the FC level is but is more of a fucntion of length of exposure. I assume the kids are spending hours in the pool?

 

[Woodberg]

The other thing I failed to mention is the use of our Paramount Clear O3 ozone generator. I've been thinking that with it generating ozone for 12 hours per day, I could probably lower my normal FC level since the ozone is handling some of the sanitization. I have an Intelliflo VS pump and turn the pool over about 1.5 times per day in the 12 hours.

I am new to pool ownership and am still trying to really understand what is important and what is not and I'm still trying to learn the ins and outs of our pool. Right now, I'm doing a lot of testing to see how the pool reacts.

We have decent amount of aeration in the pool so my PH tends to stay high. I added some aced a couple of days ago to get it back down to 7.6 from 7.8. Would higher PH's irriate eyes?

As for the extra cost of the Polyquat, based on what I can tell, it would cost about $6 per week to use it for my pool volume. Some of that would be offset by using less chlorine I would think.

 

[chem geek]

You might try turning off the ozonator and see if that makes any difference on the eyes. Though the ozone isn't supposed to get into the bulk pool water in too much quantity, it might and that could be irritating.