chlorine seems to be red instead of yellow?

[DMAZ]

Attached is a snap of my chlorine test to confirm that something aint right with my chlorine balance. I'm using the Pentair test kit Rainbow Model 78. The fiberglass pool is covered most of the time and the water looks good. The test instead of showing up yellow, it is showing up red. Can someone point me in the correct direction?

 

[Newdude]

That's GREAT !!! The test goes orange around 10 FC and brown around 20 FC.

Just like yellow it's pretty useless to get an exact # but orange means you have enough FC for today and likely a few days.

Use the fas/dpd powder regularly and spot test with the comparator block when you're only concerned with having 'enough FC'

 

[JamesW]

Your chlorine is crazy high.

You need FASDPD to get an accurate reading.

Do you have an SWG?

If yes, turn it off.

How big is the pool?

For 10,000 gallons, 6 quarts of 3% hydrogen peroxide will lower the FC by 10 ppm.

I would begin by adding 10 quarts of 3% hydrogen peroxide and then rechecking the FC and add another 10 quarts if needed until the FC in back in range.

What is the CYA level?

 

[Mdragger88]

To add to what @Newdude said -
Your Total Chlorine is above 3ppm.
That is all we can truly surmise as that test only shows total chlorine.
Fc (free chlorine- good stuff)
+
Cc (combined chlorine- bad stuff)
= TC (total chlorine)
To understand if this is good or bad you need to know fc & cc separately (using an fas/dpd test)
along with knowing your cya level
If your cya is high that much chlorine may be ok
If you’re cya is low it may be way too much chlorine

FC/CYA Levels
Test Kits Compared

 

[Mdragger88]

Why/how did you get so much chlorine in the water?
Are you trying to “shock” the pool?
How are you chlorinating?
do you know your current cya level?

 

[JamesW]

This typically happens with a SWG and an autocover.

The SWG continues to make chlorine but the autocover prevents the loss of FC and the levels just keep increasing.

If the water is exposed to the sunlight, the level will eventually stop increasing when the loss rate equals the gain rate.

With zero loss rate, the gain rate can increase the FC to well over 100 ppm.

 

[Newdude]

And we're 8 days out from the shortest day of the year (THANK GOODNESS)with the lowest sun angle.

You'd be losing next to no FC if the pool was uncovered and it's easy to overshoot.

 

[proavia]

Test Kits Compared

 

[JamesW]

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