Thanks so much Vickery and Kellyfair. My water has warmed up with this heat and the water has been in the 80's this week so it is now plenty warm. I have been testing daily with the powder, strips and the blue box kit and all are getting the same results. That is the first time I have been told to only glance very quickly at the CYA test so I will try that, sounds like very good advice. I went in swimming for the first time yesterday and today I woke up with my ear canal very swollen, some sort of swimmers ear I think. I am wondering if that could be from the iron in the water causing some kind of bacteria? It seems like with the high chlorine level that I should not be getting an ear infection? Thanks again for the advice.
Help! Brand New SW Pool Just turned green
- Thread starter Silkartisan
- Start date
While there is iron bacteria, it attacks iron, not humans. Swimmer's ear results from water from any source - pools, lakes, oceans, showers. It is possible that the chlorine level is higher than your body prefers, though I would expect both ears would be affected. It occurs when the protective lipids - oils- get washed out of the ear canal. Perhaps you didn't get all of the water out of that ear and it irritated it.
Very helpful. Thank you. I have had it 2 other times in my life and all 3 times it has been in the right ear. It is true that I am very sensitive to chlorine so that was interesting to read.
I used to get swimmer's ear as a kid. When my mother realized that the drops sold at the pharmacy were simply alcohol in water, she made her own! Cleared it up quickly, something about the alcohol helping the water left in the ear to evaporate quicker.
I bet you aren't off by 100 or more. We have seen pool store CYA tests off by 100, 200 or more. Your test results are better. No matter what you say I will always say use and trust your own test results.
I have seen thousands of wrong pool store test results, sometimes chemically impossible results.The good drugstore drops are 50% rubbing alcohol, 50% vinegar. Lowering the pH helps kill any pathogens.
Sorry about not replying, somehow I missed the last few posts. Thanks so very much for all the ear advice. The alcohol and vinegar mix works great! I think it was the high chlorine causing all the skin, eye and ear irritation so I had to stop using the pool after only a few days. I am very happy to report that over a month after originally setting up our pool we have finally gotten our chlorine to come down. Yay!!! We did have to drain some water and add some fresh water, then filter out the iron again, but we are up and swimming after a month of trying to get this all figured out without running the SWG (Iron turning water green, CYA levels, High Chlorine). We finally took a stab in the dark that our CYA was too high and draining some water off then refilling worked like a charm. Now that we finally got the chlorine numbers to go down we have turned on our SWG and we are swimming in this end of July heat!
Thanks again. Enjoy you pools and the rest of your summer.
Be Well,
Linda
Thanks again. Enjoy you pools and the rest of your summer.
Be Well,
Linda
Glad that you've got it under control and able to enjoy it during this hot part of the summer. Just remember to keep your FC at the appropriate level for your CYA.
Can you point me to a link with more info on that so I get get a better understanding of that balance? I thought I was just aiming to keep FC above 3 and below 5 according to the Intex pool manual. Thanks!
The link is in my signature. See Chlorine cya chart.
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