chlorine level high

[Tristan]

upon doing the chlorine test, OTO it was red in the tube, while doing the fas dpd test, we added 20 drops yet it was still pink and had not turned clear.

If anyone has any idea what could cause this?

 

[jblizzle]

20 drops would only be testing the FC up to 10ppm. The OTO is suggesting that you are likely up near 30ppm or more. You have to just keep adding drops.

 

[jmbradwell]

Your chlorine is more than likely higher than 10 ppm if using the 10 mL sample. Keep going, it will turn clear.

 

[Tristan]

Chlorine extremely high

Our chlorine was over 20ppm on our test! our CYA is 80, my plane is to buy some sodium thiosulfate tommorow and add it to our pool, we feel the chlorine is very much effecting the accuracy of our test results. once we get the chlorine down i will re do all the tests, with the CYA being 80 were planning on probobly emptying part of our pool( water bill is gonna HURT)

 

[tim5055]

Re: Chlorine extremely high

While 20 is high, it's not even half way to shock value for your CYA of 80. it's safe to swim at that level and it should come down in a couple of days.

 

[jblizzle]

Threads were merged. Please do not continue to make new threads. Keep your related posts together. Thanks, jblizzle.

 

[Tristan]

just did the test, Chlorine is 26.5 with a CYA of 80, this is actually good right?

 

[jblizzle]

Just above you were worried about 20ppm being too high and now you thing 26.5 is good? I guess I am not sure what you mean by it being "good".

It is fine, certainly higher than you normally need, but lower than required if you were SLAMing. It certainly explains your questions in your initial post.

How are you chlorinating that allowed the CYA and FC to get so high?

 

[Richard320]

just did the test, Chlorine is 26.5 with a CYA of 80, this is actually good right?

If you're doing the SLAM, it's actually low. If it's day-to-day levels, it's high, but not so high it will prevent you from swimming. How did it get that high? Were you intending it to be high? Anyway, sunlight and swimming will lower it, so there's no need to spend money on thiosulfate.

And almost as an afterthought.... you were using a 10 ml sample and multiplying by .5, correct? It's easy to get confused and use the 25 ml sample by mistake, in which case, you're at 10.6 FC, which would be perfect.

 

[Tristan]

I used the 10ml sample yes, and it was because of my use of Trichlor pucks, Im not sure if you guys know, but i live with my parents and im dicussing this with them, they want to lower chlorine to 1.00 and im trying to explain that with a CYA of 80, the chlorine will do NOTHING, but they want the chlorine that low so not much i can do

also, what do you guys think of Bioguard-Smart sticks?, and are there any Chlorine pucks that have no cya

 

[jblizzle]

No, there are no chlorine pucks for pools without CYA.

I am afraid you are doomed if your parents are not going to listen to you (who now knows much more than them). You MUST stop using solid chlorine and switch to bleach and you MUST keep the FC above 6ppm at all times if you are going to keep the CYA that high.

Ideally, you should replace almost half the water to get the CYA into a reasonable range.

 

[scott.MI]

1.) Don't they make Calcium chlorine tablets? Not that they should be used or are they recommended. You would be trading 1 problem (High CYA) for another problem (High calcium) which will have other problems. (Scaling, calcium deposits) Don't do it, stick with liquid if you can.

2.) The only test that should be affected by your high chlorine is the PH test.

 

[jp12]

I'm pretty sure jblizzle meant to say there are NO chlorine pucks without CYA.

 

[jblizzle]

1) They are not meant for residential pools. They dissolve too fast and turn into mush without a special feeder.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks jp12, fixed.

 

[Tristan]

Yeah, they are under the impression that the Nature 2 reduces the need for chlorine, i told them how it just kills algae not disinfects,but no point there

i think what our current plan now is, Lower chlorine significantly with Sodium Thiosulfate, we are going to get some Bioguard Smart sticks, or some bleach tommorow

Once chlorine is not as high we will do the complete diagnostic with the TF-100, then we will go from there

 

[jblizzle]

Why lower the FC, it will drop due to the sun ... that is just wasted money.
And the sticks are no better than the tablets.

 

[Tristan]

our cya is sooooo high though at 80 it will take a long time, and its only 7$ for a pound

 

[zimm]

Yikes, leave it alone- the chlorine will drop daily. It's not chem warfare. Then use plain liquid bleach, or plain liquid chlorine if you can find it. The triple packs of clorox at costco are a good deal. Stop using the pucks, the CYA level is already too high and will only go higher, forcing you to drain half the pool. Pretty sure those "smart sticks" have CYA in them too.

That pool store stuff is just slick marketing. Looking through the bioguard website- I can't believe they don't tell you the ingredients in their products. Just buy everything and dump it in! Smooth this, smart that, silky there.

 

[jblizzle]

Who cares how long it takes ... those are just days when you do not need to add chlorine. It is still perfectly safe to swim and the active chlorine level is lower than you will find in a public unstabilized pool with a FC of 2ppm.

 

[Tristan]

Well my parents want it done soon, ill try and get us to start using bleach, my parents really dont wanna empty the pool because of how much water is down here(you have no idea) is there ANY way to get cya down without dumping

in my opinion i told them would be dump half the pool, fill it back up then move from there, gets rid of all our problems and provides a good chance to really scrub the walls