Don't know what part of Texas you are in, but in San Antonio Costco, Sam's, & Wallmart have the best bleach price. Be sure and check the strength of the bleach you buy and use that in the Pool Calculator to arrive at how much you need to keep your chlorine level up. The reason you need a good test so you can have confidence in your CYA can be demonstrated by putting the numbers in the Pool Calculator. Using the Warehouse numbers you need to raise the level of Chlorine to 19 which will take 2.25 gal of 6% bleach or Leslies you will need to raise the Chlorine level to 25 which will take 4.75 gal of 6%. If I was trying to meet a deadline, I would add about 2.5 gal of 6% bleach and brush the pool every couple of hours. But before I did that I would add enough Muratic Acid (from Home Depot or Lowes) to bring my PH down to about 7.2 and let that circulate for about 30 min then I would begin the shocking. The range of MA is 22 oz to 31 oz, so I would probably go the 22 oz. The Chlorine will work better if the water is more acidic, but you do not want to go to low. If my pool cleared before my test kit arrived, I would cut the Chlorine back to once a day. You will have to use your own judgment and others may have a different opinion. When you get your test kit, post your numbers and you will get some good advice. In the meantime, reread Pool School and master the Pool Calculator. Good luck.
Pool Cloudy and Green
- Thread starter KickABuck
- Start date
The general advice given here is that it is safe to swim up to shock level for any given CYA. Since you do not know your CYA level, if I were in your shoes the pool would be closed until I know the CYA and Chlorine levels. You have posted that your test kit will arrive on Wednesday and you goal is to be swimming on Saturday. If you CYA is actually 100 you will want to lower it and the only way you can do that is by replacing some of the water which will lower the CL level as well. If on the other hand your CYA is actually 30 then the CL will burn off and you will probably be down below shock level by Saturday. One other note on CYA, it can take as long as a week to get an accurate reading after you add it. So the full effect of the 4 lbs you added will not be know for a few days.
The Leslie’s I go to caps out at 5 on their chlorine test. They record anything over 5 as 5. On occasion they will tell you it’s over 5, more often than not they just say to remove any chlorinators and write down 5.
Same thing with the CYA test, it caps out at 100. If you go back this afternoon take some diluted pool water in another container for the CYA test (only). Use tap water and dilute your pool sample 1:1, do measure carefully and mix well. Whatever number they give you this time for your cya you will double. You’re still at their mercy for testing accuracy, but it sounds to me like Leslie’s is a little more accurate than Warehouse.Regarding the high chlorine levels: If the pool is still green you still have live algae. Killing the algae uses up the chlorine. So, even though you put a lot in there and have high levels, those levels will drop quickly as they are used up killing the algae. This is why you are being advised to continually dose the pool with more chlorine. If the chlorine level drops too low the algae that have not yet been killed will immediately begin producing more algae that you will then have to kill. Keep the chlorine level up- and use bleach to do this. The difficult part for you is that you can’t run out and test to see what your level is to make necessary adjustments.
You can pick up an inexpensive chlorine/ pH test from Walmart for a few dollars- you want the OTO (yellow) test. Grab a bottle of distilled water and swing by the pharmacy and ask for a couple of the spoons they have for dosing children’s medicine- they have graduated cc markings and will usually give you these for free. You are going to dilute your pool water with the distilled water to get a close estimate of your chlorine level. You can’t do this with tap water as it contains chlorine. Start with a 50/50 dilution, then double the result on the OTO test. If the 50/50 diluted test is a darker yellow than the comparator tube recognizes, then go for a 25/75 dilution (4X the result). Use your medicine spoon to accurately measure your ratios. This is not perfectly accurate, and becomes less accurate the more diluting you do, but it will get you in range. Once you know what your current level is, input that in the Pool Calculator, along with the recommended level for the CYA level you got from the diluted sample from Leslie’s. (You have found the Chlorine/ CYA chart in Pool School, yes?) The Pool Calc will tell you how much more bleach to add to get to the right level.
Using the diluted sample CYA test from Leslie’s, and the diluted sample from your Walmart OTO test kit you can get a good start on clearing your pool. I strongly suspect that if you wait until Wednesday you won’t make your Sat. deadline for a sparkling pool.
Terry has a better approach than the guessing approach I suggested. I had forgotten about diluting with distilled water.
Here we typically say the chlorine smell and stingy eyes are caused by combined chloramines - a product of under-chlorination.
You can make your eyes water studying chemistry here pool-water-chemistry-t628.html
but the basics of it are pretty simple. CYA dramatically reduces the amount of active HOCL (the good chlorine) in the water. At 0 CYA and 5ppm FC there is appox 2.4ppm HOCl in the water. At 100ppm CYA and 50ppm FC there is approx 0.5ppm active HOCl in the water. That's why there's a bit of concern over what your CYA level actually is - without knowing that it's hard to say how much chlorine will give you enough active HOCl in the water to be effective.
Targeting 30ppm FC in your pool of somewhere between 30ppm CYA and 100ppm CYA is going to come out to somewhere between 2ppm and .5ppm active HOCL - lower than you might find in a typical indoor pool with no CYA.
Sorry if that was a bit more technical than you needed....
An interesting thing to look at is the effect CYA has on active chlorine levels in the water.KickABuck said:
You can make your eyes water studying chemistry here pool-water-chemistry-t628.html
but the basics of it are pretty simple. CYA dramatically reduces the amount of active HOCL (the good chlorine) in the water. At 0 CYA and 5ppm FC there is appox 2.4ppm HOCl in the water. At 100ppm CYA and 50ppm FC there is approx 0.5ppm active HOCl in the water. That's why there's a bit of concern over what your CYA level actually is - without knowing that it's hard to say how much chlorine will give you enough active HOCl in the water to be effective.
Targeting 30ppm FC in your pool of somewhere between 30ppm CYA and 100ppm CYA is going to come out to somewhere between 2ppm and .5ppm active HOCL - lower than you might find in a typical indoor pool with no CYA.
Sorry if that was a bit more technical than you needed....
Pool test this evening 7pm.
Warehouse:
FC 10
TC 10
CC 0
PH 7.8
Hardness 160
Alkalinity 100
CYA 80
Total dissolved solids 1900ppm
Leslies:
FC 5
TC 5
CC Did not test
PH 7.4
Hardness Did not test.
Alkalinity 100
CYA 100
Total dissolved solids 1800
Pool is much clearer now, sort of blue but still kind of cloudy. We put in 3 gallons of bleach last night and have not touched anything else.
I spoke to both Leslie's and Warehouse staff this evening about why there was a difference in the CYA and Chlorine. Leslies stated their Chlorine reading topped out at 5, Warehouse topped at 10, so anything over that was a guess, however they were not allowed to input that into results for me. Both said they *thought* it was much much higher of course, but only stated as much when I questioned them after seeing the results. Originally Warehouse stated they thought the chlorine was just high and I should lay off for awhile. Leslie's staff said it looked good. Only after I quizzed them did they both admit it showed higher. *grr*
I'm still waiting on my kit from Taylor, should be here tomorrow I hope. Still shooting for a pool party Saturday if possible, but scared that may not happen due to the expected high levels of chlorine and CYa.
Should I lay off adding anything else until I get the testing kit? Do you think I can still balance things enough for a party for kids this Saturday?
Again, the pool is actually looking pretty good right now, just a bit cloudier than I would like.. but I'm not sure if that will mellow up before this weekend.
My wife wants me to put in some clarifier we have, but I'm hesitant.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Warehouse:
FC 10
TC 10
CC 0
PH 7.8
Hardness 160
Alkalinity 100
CYA 80
Total dissolved solids 1900ppm
Leslies:
FC 5
TC 5
CC Did not test
PH 7.4
Hardness Did not test.
Alkalinity 100
CYA 100
Total dissolved solids 1800
Pool is much clearer now, sort of blue but still kind of cloudy. We put in 3 gallons of bleach last night and have not touched anything else.
I spoke to both Leslie's and Warehouse staff this evening about why there was a difference in the CYA and Chlorine. Leslies stated their Chlorine reading topped out at 5, Warehouse topped at 10, so anything over that was a guess, however they were not allowed to input that into results for me. Both said they *thought* it was much much higher of course, but only stated as much when I questioned them after seeing the results. Originally Warehouse stated they thought the chlorine was just high and I should lay off for awhile. Leslie's staff said it looked good. Only after I quizzed them did they both admit it showed higher. *grr*
I'm still waiting on my kit from Taylor, should be here tomorrow I hope. Still shooting for a pool party Saturday if possible, but scared that may not happen due to the expected high levels of chlorine and CYa.
Should I lay off adding anything else until I get the testing kit? Do you think I can still balance things enough for a party for kids this Saturday?
Again, the pool is actually looking pretty good right now, just a bit cloudier than I would like.. but I'm not sure if that will mellow up before this weekend.
My wife wants me to put in some clarifier we have, but I'm hesitant.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
I wouldn't do the clarifier yet - hold off for a day or two.
I also wouldn't add any more chlorine until you can test with your own kit...
I also wouldn't add any more chlorine until you can test with your own kit...
Thought I should follow up.
Pool ended up being spectacular for our party. And I give all thanks to those that helped here at www.troublefreepool.com =)
I'll spare the details, but will jump in line behind those that say "Screw what your local pool store says, buy your own test kit and get the real deal"
Adding chlorine only completely fixed my problem. I now test on a daily basis and am able to add liquid chlorine as need in order to maintain my proper balance. The difference between what my K-2006 claimed, and my local, multiple pool stores, is amazing. They were completely ignorant as to what my proper chemical balance was. Plus they had contributed to my problem by selling me many unnecessary chemicals.
It truly is about the BBB. Read the Pool School.. and once you read it, ready it again a couple more times. =)
Much thanks to the community who helped me get my sh&t together.
Pool ended up being spectacular for our party. And I give all thanks to those that helped here at www.troublefreepool.com =)
I'll spare the details, but will jump in line behind those that say "Screw what your local pool store says, buy your own test kit and get the real deal"
Adding chlorine only completely fixed my problem. I now test on a daily basis and am able to add liquid chlorine as need in order to maintain my proper balance. The difference between what my K-2006 claimed, and my local, multiple pool stores, is amazing. They were completely ignorant as to what my proper chemical balance was. Plus they had contributed to my problem by selling me many unnecessary chemicals.
It truly is about the BBB. Read the Pool School.. and once you read it, ready it again a couple more times. =)
Much thanks to the community who helped me get my sh&t together.
Thanks for the feedback. Now don't be a stranger and you can share what you have learned with others. It's all about helping each other. Glad the pool was ready for the party. See you around.