Help with CC...dilution or chemicals?

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kjhearne

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May 14, 2012
5
FC: 0ppm
CC: 10+ppm
pH: 6.9
TA: 0 (with stabilizer correction)
CH: 160ppm
CYA: 25ppm

Just for reference...my readings on 5/11 (Friday) were as follows:
FC: 0.1ppm
CC: 9.9ppm
pH: 6.8
TA: 0 (with stabilizer correction)
CH: 150ppm
CYA: 15ppm

Both times these readings came from taking the water to be tested at the pool store.

At that time, I was advised to add 4 cups of di-chlor, shock the pool, add 6lbs. sodium hydrogen carbonate and 2 lbs. of the stabilizer...I followed all of these instructions.

Water is pretty clear with a little bit of surface cloudiness (almost like an oily substance...I am sure that is symbolic of my high CC readings from all I can gather). I have had the house/pool for about 6 weeks, and have gone from green to its current state in that time. It was a foreclosure that I don't think sat for a ton of time, but may not have been maintained for a longer time even when the former occupants were there.

My question is...I keep battling the CC level. Have never been able to reduce it below 10ppm. I have shocked the pool about 4-5 times in those weeks, and have worked on the pH & CA levels to get them to where they are.

I am wondering if it is time for dilution or if I should keep battling with chemicals?

I am also wondering what is the risk in trying the dilution on my own (I have heard horror stories of cracked pools and pools popping out of the ground. The water table is very high where we are...I have a wetlands in a lot next door.
 
:wave: Welcome :wave:

I am going to suggest a lot of "homework" in the form of reading Pool School which is found at the upper right of every page.

Specifically starting with ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry to know what is going on in your pool. CCs are the "bad" byproducts of the FC breaking down something in your pool. You just have to keep adding chlorine to help the sun break down the CCs (do you have a cover on the pool?)

Second, you are not "shocking" your pool. There is a shock PROCESS that is required to clean up your pool. Read: Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis and Shocking Your Pool

I see nothing in your posting levels that would lean toward replacing water. You just need to properly shock your pool ... and get you pH up in the 7s and your TA up. See Recommended Pool Chemicals for what to use to raise the pH and TA.

We hear believe in understanding our pool and only adding what the pool NEEDS and not what the pool store wants to SELL us. To do that, you really need to have your own GOOD test kit ... see the link in my signature for more information.
 
Welcome to TFP!

Get your PH and TA up to normal levels as soon as possible. Also, we never use corrected TA, we always use TA straight from the test kit.

It looks like you most likely have ammonia in the water, presumably from CYA breaking down over the winter. The solution is lots of chlorine, shock until CC goes down to 0.5 or lower.
 
kjhearne said:
FC: 0ppm
CC: 10+ppm
pH: 6.9
TA: 0 (with stabilizer correction)
CH: 160ppm
CYA: 25ppm

Just for reference...my readings on 5/11 (Friday) were as follows:
FC: 0.1ppm
CC: 9.9ppm
pH: 6.8
TA: 0 (with stabilizer correction)
CH: 150ppm
CYA: 15ppm

Both times these readings came from taking the water to be tested at the pool store.

At that time, I was advised to add 4 cups of di-chlor, shock the pool, add 6lbs. sodium hydrogen carbonate and 2 lbs. of the stabilizer...I followed all of these instructions.

Water is pretty clear with a little bit of surface cloudiness (almost like an oily substance...I am sure that is symbolic of my high CC readings from all I can gather). I have had the house/pool for about 6 weeks, and have gone from green to its current state in that time. It was a foreclosure that I don't think sat for a ton of time, but may not have been maintained for a longer time even when the former occupants were there.

My question is...I keep battling the CC level. Have never been able to reduce it below 10ppm. I have shocked the pool about 4-5 times in those weeks, and have worked on the pH & CA levels to get them to where they are.

I am wondering if it is time for dilution or if I should keep battling with chemicals?

I am also wondering what is the risk in trying the dilution on my own (I have heard horror stories of cracked pools and pools popping out of the ground. The water table is very high where we are...I have a wetlands in a lot next door.
Click to expand...

When they say shock is a process what they mean is that you have to maintain the level of FC in the pool at shock levels until

You lose less than 1ppm FC overnight
water is clear
CC <0.5

So if your shock level is 20, you need to keep your FC at or above 20ppm at all times. This could mean adding gallons bleach every 30 minutes.
 
Thanks for the replies...

I did some homework, including reading everything suggested, and I especially found the "Shocking Your Pool" page helpful.

My next question is...as I wait for a test kit to come in the mail, what should I be doing in the meantime?
 
Also...sorry about the signature not being available before. I edited it, and then didn't "submit" so it wasn't there to give all the info...now it should be, although I do not have the pump info.
 
I would recommend reading some more and starting to learn to use the poolcalculator.com (see link in my sig).

Assuming your CYA is somewhere around 30ppm, your FC shock level is 12ppm (according to Chlorine CYA Chart)

You can use poolcalculator.com to determine the amount of bleach you will have to add to reach this shock level. {I get 299oz of 6% to raise from 0 to 12ppm if you want to check your work}

You can also use it to determine the amount of baking soda to raise TA and borax/washing soda to raise your pH into the 7s ... although you may not want to add the full amount until you can verify your levels with your test kit.

Which did you order? The shipping on the TF100 is very fast and you should have it by the weekend if you ordered from TFtestkits.
 
This brings us to the next point, correct chlorine level both normal and for shocking depend on knowing your CYA stabilizer level, it was obviously on the low side before you added all that dichlor and stabilizer, but since you have not told us the size of your pool we have no way of estimating what those chemicals did to your CYA level. Also it takes a week or more before CYA from dry stabilizer shows up fully on tests.
 

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