Chlorine issues

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stpatty

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May 26, 2012
7
So I uncovered my pool about a week ago, and had a swamp in my IG (34000 gal). I cleaned out basically all of the organic load in the pool...vacuumed the entire pool last night and got almost nothing out. I had shocked the pool earlier this week on Monday with double the shock that was needed, filled my chlorinator and everything is in service, but my water has been cloudy since then, and doesn't seem to be clearing up very much at all. I have a TF-100 for my testing and ran the numbers last night. On my drop test, I noticed that when I added the DFD powder, the water didn't turn pink, but a greyish color. I rinsed, cleaned and re-sampled until I got the water in the graduated cylinder pink, then put one drop of 870 liquid in, and the water turned a greyish color. I never could get it back clear. I also used the included daily test kit chlorine test, and it came back clear. I have shocked the pool multiple times in the past week to try to make sure I killed the organic load. So my question is...how long are the chemicals in the kit good for? I've had the kit for about 2 years, always kept inside a drawer in a dark room. Is it possible that even though I've overloaded the pool with chlorine that the sun/organic load has gotten past it? I've also noticed that my chlorinator won't charge full with water, but the pucks are dissolving. Could my chlorinator be bad or have bad flow control?

FC - as mentioned above, couldn't determine...looked on the final test as 0.5 or lower
FC - (daily kit) clear, showed nothing
CYA - 70ish
pH - 6.5ish
water clean, but cloudy, can barely see the bottom of the shallow end

As always, I appreciate any and all advice, and have always gotten nothing but the best from this site
 
Add a drop of chlorine to tap water and drop a scoop of powder in there to see if it turns pink. My reagents are 2 years old and work just fine.

You have very cloudy water that can't hold FC, that doesn't sound like clean water to me. You are going to need to properly SLAM your pool to get things balanced. First though you will want to drop your CYA. If you are going to continue using pucks then you need to drop your CYA down to about 30, which will involve a ~60% drain.

If you could add your pool info in your signature that would be extremely helpful so we can easily see what you are working with.
 
stpatty said:
Is it a viable option to stop using pucks and just adjust my chlorine levels accordingly with the CYA I currently have? Then adjust the chlorine levels with liquid bleach?
Click to expand...
yes, it can be done but involves keeping a closer eye on everything. As you see in my signature my CYA is at 80 and I'm living with it.
 
About 1-2/month. CYA doesn't break down very fast, that is why it builds up so fast with trichlor use.

Are you going to SLAM your pool? I believe that will solve your cloudiness and chlorine demand issues.

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt.
 
stpatty said:
So what could I reasonably expect for a CYA drop using that method? Any rough estimates, or just monitor and adjust?
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the CYA drop will be extremely slow. Only water replacement will drop it quickly. I went from 200+ to my now 80 with aggressive vacuuming to waste and multiple 2 foot water replacements. Other than that it is monitor and adjust. The problem with the higher CYA is the resultant higher shock level if you need to SLAM.
 
Yes. I was planning on using the chart from pool school and bringing FC up to the recommended shock level using liquid bleach, remove the remaining pucks from the chlorinator and adjusting daily with liquid until I can get the CYA down to 30-40 before returning the chlorinator pucks to service. I'll have some pH adjustments I'm sure of, and I feel certain I'll need to work on alkalinity as well.
 

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SLAM in progress, updated from yesterday

I had posted some readings with some questions and got great help yesterday, as usual from the community here! It appears my readings were a bit off after re-sampling multiple times. So they appeared as follows after the first phase of SLAM.

FC - 34
CC - 0.5
pH - 6.6
CYA - 50
Alkalinity - couldn't be determined

These readings were the same from just after sundown yesterday to just around sunrise this morning. I vacuumed, backwashed and rinsed, and got close to no organic load from the pool (couple of leaves). The water is cloudy, though I'm not getting any organic material from vacuuming. The alkalinity was worrisome to me, since when I tested it with the TF-100, it turned pink immediately when adding reagents...no green whatsoever. I tested the water before adding 9 gallons of 8.25% liquid chlorine, then a couple of hours later, then again this morning. So my question is, is the alkalinity affecting my water clarity to this degree, and should I attempt to raise it during the SLAM process? Again, thanks for all the help with my previous questions...the reagents are still good in the kit, and the above posted numbers are what I believe to be accurate after multiple sampling tests.

.......posts moved from new topic started to the existing thread......woodyp
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Stop!

1. Let the FC drop below 10.

2. Test and adjust pH first. Get to the low 7's using Borax.

3. Test and adjust TA to about 70 using baking soda.

4. Retest everything and post results for us.

5. Resume SLAM.
 
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stpatty said:
Yes. I was planning on using the chart from pool school and bringing FC up to the recommended shock level using liquid bleach, remove the remaining pucks from the chlorinator and adjusting daily with liquid until I can get the CYA down to 30-40 before returning the chlorinator pucks to service. I'll have some pH adjustments I'm sure of, and I feel certain I'll need to work on alkalinity as well.
Click to expand...

Any mods catch the "adjust daily until can get CYA down before returning to pucks? Pucks ADD CYA to water. Bleach/chlorine does NOT lower CYA...mods will suggest stop using pucks period. They are the source of high CYA
 
Well you don't need to wait for a moderator to inform the OP not to use the chlorinating tablets. Yes they add chlorine that dissipates daily but they also add CYA which is cumulative. That is the problem with them. You need the daily chlorine but you likely are already at or even above your desired CYA level if you've used them for any time. It only gets worse the longer you continue to use them.
Leave the tabs in the garage, not the pool.

The only way to lower CYA is to dump water out of the pool. :cry: See the Pool Math calculator or read up on CYA in Pool School.
 
smforte said:
Any mods catch the "adjust daily until can get CYA down before returning to pucks? Pucks ADD CYA to water. Bleach/chlorine does NOT lower CYA...mods will suggest stop using pucks period. They are the source of high CYA
Click to expand...

Yep, good catch :goodjob:

stpatty, the pucks are what caused this pH/TA crash. They also caused the high CYA. You need to use another method, TFPC method, which involves adding chlorine without all the side effects! SWG or bleach/liquid chlorine with/without automation. We'll help you through this.

But right now, address the pH and TA!
 
stpatty said:
Is it a viable option to stop using pucks and just adjust my chlorine levels accordingly with the CYA I currently have? Then adjust the chlorine levels with liquid bleach?
Click to expand...

Those of us that follow the TFP method use bleach for chlorine and a separate stabilizer (CYA) as needed.
Pucks are rarely ever recommended unless it's a fresh fill and you need the CYA or maybe going on vacation and you put up with a little CYA you may not need just to get the chlorine while you're away.
If you regularly use tablets for your chlorine you will always end up with too much CYA.
 
stpatty, please respond to post #'s 12 and 14. Do this before you do anything else!

Once the pH and TA are under control, please retest everything for us and post a full set of test results.

Let's give OP an opportunity to get pH and TA under control and respond before we add more posts :D
 
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