Ammonia??

[ian81]

Moderator comment: This post was separated from another thread

Not op, just following. I am having this same problem. Opened to a fresh fill, water was too cold for stabilizer to dissolve, FC fell to 0, now I can’t get any chlorine. I just put 4 jugs of 10% in and 40 minutes later I’m at 15.0...getting very frustrated.

I am also adding stabilizer via a sock but just took it out cause this “feeding ammonia” thing scares me...

 

[Richard320]

Re: How long until the sun depletes chlorine?

Not op, just following. I am having this same problem. Opened to a fresh fill, water was too cold for stabilizer to dissolve, FC fell to 0, now I can’t get any chlorine. I just put 4 jugs of 10% in and 40 minutes later I’m at 15.0...getting very frustrated.

I am also adding stabilizer via a sock but just took it out cause this “feeding ammonia” thing scares me...

The ammonia comes from CYA breaking down over the winter. If yours is a fresh fill and thus never had any ammonia, you don't need to worry

 

[ian81]

Re: How long until the sun depletes chlorine?

The ammonia comes from CYA breaking down over the winter. If yours is a fresh fill and thus never had any ammonia, you don't need to worry

Thanks Richard, even if cya and fc fell to 0 during swim season?

 

[cfherrman]

Haven't seen it like that but still possible, just do the ammonia test to rule it out

 

[Richard320]

Re: How long until the sun depletes chlorine?

Thanks Richard, even if cya and fc fell to 0 during swim season?

As I stated before, if you never had CYA in it, there's nothing to break down into Ammonia. You posted, "
Opened to a fresh fill..."

Was it a fresh fill or was it last year's water?

 

[ian81]

As I stated before, if you never had CYA in it, there's nothing to break down into Ammonia. You posted, "
Opened to a fresh fill..."

Was it a fresh fill or was it last year's water?

It was a fresh fill but I attempted to add cya without the sock method, it wouldn’t dissolve in 58 degree water. Then i get a cya reading, slight cloudiness when the tube was totally full, then FC falls to 0 due to my own fault, a couple days later the CYA tube is clear and LC is being depleted. Jugs upon jugs.

Last night after using the sock method it looked like I finally had 10 or so CYA. I believe Mknauss said in another thread you won’t get a cya reading until 30ppm but how can that be?

 

[ian81]

Re: How long until the sun depletes chlorine?

It was a fresh fill but I attempted to add cya without the sock method, it wouldn’t dissolve in 58 degree water. Then i get a cya reading, slight cloudiness when the tube was totally full, then FC falls to 0 due to my own fault, a couple days later the CYA tube is clear and LC is being depleted. Jugs upon jugs.

Last night after using the sock method it looked like I finally had 10 or so CYA. I believe Mknauss said in another thread you won’t get a cya reading until 30ppm but how can that be?

 

[Richard320]

It was a fresh fill but I attempted to add cya without the sock method, it wouldn’t dissolve in 58 degree water. Then i get a cya reading, slight cloudiness when the tube was totally full, then FC falls to 0 due to my own fault, a couple days later the CYA tube is clear and LC is being depleted. Jugs upon jugs.

Last night after using the sock method it looked like I finally had 10 or so CYA. I believe Mknauss said in another thread you won’t get a cya reading until 30ppm but how can that be?

Then I would say you're one of those lucky few who have CYA decompose into ammonia. It takes approximately ten times as much bleach as ammonia to neutralize it. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes 60 or 80 ppm bleach -- 14 gallons of 10% -- just to clear the ammonia. Maybe more. Crunch some numbers. It might be cheaper to dump it and refill again.

 

[mknauss]

Last night after using the sock method it looked like I finally had 10 or so CYA. I believe Mknauss said in another thread you won’t get a cya reading until 30ppm but how can that be?

From Pool School - CYA
"If the view tube is completely full and the black dot is only partially obscured, your CYA level is above zero but lower than the lowest level your test kit can measure (20 or 30 ppm)."

 

[ian81]

Then I would say you're one of those lucky few who have CYA decompose into ammonia. It takes approximately ten times as much bleach as ammonia to neutralize it. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes 60 or 80 ppm bleach -- 14 gallons of 10% -- just to clear the ammonia. Maybe more. Crunch some numbers. It might be cheaper to dump it and refill again.

Not what I wanted to hear ! I went to the fish store and got an ammonia kit.

Uncertain in the color..

 

[mknauss]

Put something white behind the vial of fluid. The blue pool is messing up the colors.

 

[ian81]

From Pool School - CYA
"If the view tube is completely full and the black dot is only partially obscured, your CYA level is above zero but lower than the lowest level your test kit can measure (20 or 30 ppm)."

Thanks for clearing that up, you guys are awesome. I am hoping for a better CYA read tonight when I get home.

 

[ian81]

Put something white behind the vial of fluid. The blue pool is messing up the colors.

I noticed that, The edit must of taken a second to update, I took a different pic right away. I just tested a fish tank I have that hasn’t seen a water change in a month and a half and the test yielded the same yellow color so I’m not sure how accurate the kit is either.

 

[mknauss]

According to that it is zero.

Why not just do the chlorine drill --

Add enough liquid chlorine to get to 10 ppm FC based on PoolMath. Circulate pool 30 minutes. Test FC. If at 5 or below, add LC to get to 10 ppm FC, repeat until your FC test after the circulation is above 5 ppm.

 

[ian81]

According to that it is zero.

Why not just do the chlorine drill --

Add enough liquid chlorine to get to 10 ppm FC based on PoolMath. Circulate pool 30 minutes. Test FC. If at 5 or below, add LC to get to 10 ppm FC, repeat until your FC test after the circulation is above 5 ppm.

I’ve got enough regeants for about two more tests until they get here tomorrow, but that is what I’ve kinda been doing, I’ll update my cya level tonight!