Wrong Arm&Hammer Box - Detergent

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R

rennis13

0
May 31, 2015
4
Huntsville, Alabama
:( So embarrassed to be seeking help. In trying to bring my TA up I reached for a box of Arm&Hammer that was in my garage, opened it and added to pool - in copious amounts. Smelled a little like a laundry room and much to my surprise, I had selected the detergent, not bicarb.

Needless to say I have a foaming pool. My question is to anyone who can give me advice on how to correct this. Or, if I can do anything about it besides drain the pool? Will this detergent cause any problems?

22000 gal
chlorine and sand filter

Thanks so much for any advice.

Jean
 
Welcome to the forum..:wave:

Sorry to hear about your trouble, but I am sure you are beating yourself up more than we can. Not much you can do out side of a drain, but that's pretty drastic. Elevated FC levels will get the soap broken down in time, but other than doing either of these, there just isn't much that can be done now. Someone else may have a better suggestion, but sorry I don't.
 
I think you're the second one to do that in the last couple weeks. I believe I remember correctly from the previous thread that the chlorine will break it down. It will just take a little time. Look at the bright side, no more doing laundry. Just jump in the pool with your clothes on. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
First, have everyone in the family put on their dirty clothes and jump in! :) I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that one. Rest assured, you are NOT the only one who has done something like that. Other than perhaps trying to scoop-out some of the foam, I'm not aware of anything specific you can/need to do to the water until it settles a bit and you can test it accurately. Those with sand filtration systems may have more advice though. Best of luck to you Jean. Put this one in your "Remember back when ....?" memory banks. :)
 
Others on the forum have mentioned a pool product that is good at breaking down enzymes......applicable to detergents. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of that product but I bet someone else does and will chime in.
 
Hi Jean,
well, its not the first time this has happened. As duraleigh mentions, there is something that can help break down the enzymes. I will look around for that and post back

EDIT:
After doing some googling, it appears the best thing to do is simply to elevate the FC to shock level and keep running your filter.
Time will be your friend. Laundry detergent will raise your pH substantially, so test your pH regularly and maintain it between 7.2 and 7.8
 
Thank all of you for your quick responses. Also for the humor, as you can imagine, I need right now.

I had read in some forum about aerating to tackle foam in some other context. Turned my spa jet on about an hour ago and the foam is disappearing - almost gone. However, it is a relief that no one said that I had to drain the pool.

Thank you again for the many comments and especially the smiley faces.

I will keep reading posts here as I feel that I am in the right forum. Who knows, maybe someday I will have an answer for someone else.

Jean
 
Glad to hear you are more relieved about it all. No major harm was done at that is good to know. Just watch this forum down the road to see when one of us makes a similar mistake so you can have a chuckle at our expense. :) Enjoy your swimming season!
 

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