Opening the Pool, what goes first?

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What is your CC? Maybe you have ammonia in the water consuming your FC. Clearly you failed the OCLT before you started ;)

Do you have the yellow OTO chlorine test to verify?
 
jblizzle said:
What is your CC? Maybe you have ammonia in the water consuming your FC. Clearly you failed the OCLT before you started ;)

Do you have the yellow OTO chlorine test to verify?
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jbizzle, I can see you are completely discarding the fact that chemicals can be bad? I checked drops and they are still clear, the powder was darked and clumped up so I crashed it a bit and tested again just now. Still went back clear after 1 or 2 drops on two occasions, tried less and more powder (it was less pink then on first try). I do not see anything about the powder going bad? How would I know if I have ammonia in the water and what would I do to fix it? is there something I should be doing? I cant very well be adding 7 jugs of bleach every hour since I am not seeing any improvement? Yes I do have the OTO chlorine test, I checked when u asked me yesterday and it showed somewhere between 1 to 2 when my FC was at 1. It is very late so i am not gonne go outside again to verify this (my wife already yelling to keep quite as out daughter is asleep) but I am pretty confident it will still show the same. assuming it will show 1-2 what does that prove? that my FC reading is bad?
 
So did you just say that you added the R0003 to check for CC after the FC test and the water stayed clear? And you have checked the OTO and it is light yellow?

Everything certainly points to there being no chlorine in the pool.

Well based on this recent info, there are 2 possibilities, either there is something in the pool consuming all the chlorine, or there is no chlorine in all the bleach you have put in. I have never heard of the second thing happening.

The solution is the same as it has always been, you need to add more chlorine.

It is odd that you would not be seeing high CC values if this was indeed ammonia.
 
jbizzle, do you think I should try to use shock today instead just to be sure the Bleach is no good? On Sunday I added 5 drops of the yellow solution and it turned slight yellow (OTO Test), between 1 and 2 ( what i meant is that the drops used to test FC are still clear, it says if they go yellow means they are bad, sorry dont recall numbers of solutions). The FC tested at 1 at the same time on sunday. Yesterday FC tested at 1 again and I did not run the OTO test. What is weird is that FC stayed at 1 all day on sunday, if something ate all that Chlorine within an hour wouldnt it quickly drop to 0 (my cholorinator is seto to 0%)? Have you ever seen sparkling clean water pools consuming so much chlorine with something in the water?? Perhaps I should mix the bleach 50/50 with water and test? maybe that would give an insight as to wheather the chemicals are bad or the Bleach has no chlorine? or take water to a local shop to confirm my tests?
Frog, I just bought the Bleach this past sunday at Wallmart. On sunday I used 4 bottles of Bleach from last year and got similar results although it could be a coincidence. Test Kit was purchased Sept 2011, always stored in the dark in kitchen cabinet.
 
I did mention it seems i have some kind of a clog between my spa and second pump, how likely its some kind of dead animal or such in there and its eating up all the chlorine? not really familiar with what can eat chlorine so I might be sounding stupid :) plus i dont think that water is really moving much or at all through the pool so its probably unlikely?
 
I am not an expert on the test kits, but I believe it's recommended to have a new supply every so often (perhaps once a year?). So it is possible that your test kit is not giving good results. I know I had a very frustrating few days when I first started using the kit because I reversed the order of the drops and put the R-0003 in first, and so it looked like I had no chlorine! Once I got things around the right way, everything made much more sense.
 
jblizzle said:
You have still not been clear as to whether you are testing the CC after the FC FAS-DPD test. Not sure how many ways I can ask this.
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I did reply to you that I tested on sunday and that I could not test last night when you asked, I am at work now so will not do any testing till tonight. I wish you could give some options so once I know I can proceed. I know you guys are busy so once I test I will need to wait a few hours for a reply and another day passes :) When I tested on sunday the OTO test was showing 1 to 2 CC. I imagine I would have gotten the same thing last night but thats just a guess. I am going to pick up some HTH shock at Wallmart on my way home today so I can try shocking with that instead, this is the first time im shocking only with Bleach while opening and running into nothing but trouble :) (last year i started off with regular shock I had left over)
 

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My opinion is that you need to re-read the testing instruction. The OTO does not test for CC directly. You should be testing the CC using the same water after the FC test using the FAS-DPD. Adding 5 drops of the R0003 and then counting drops with the R870.

There is nothing wrong with the bleach and is you use a powder chlorine you will either be adding unneeded CH or CYA.
 
jblizzle said:
My opinion is that you need to re-read the testing instruction. The OTO does not test for CC directly. You should be testing the CC using the same water after the FC test using the FAS-DPD. Adding 5 drops of the R0003 and then counting drops with the R870.

There is nothing wrong with the bleach and is you use a powder chlorine you will either be adding unneeded CH or CYA.
Click to expand...
Ahh no I have not tested that at all, I recall you asking about OTO and I guess I assumed thats what you were talking about. I am not very familiar with the testing terminologies, I just follow what it says on the cover, SORRY :). MY CH and CYA are both low so I might try to shock that way just to bring those up anyhow? but I guess i need to get more bleach again on my way home
If CC is high it could be ammonia? I think you suggested to get rid of ammonia I need to shock right? is there a way to test for ammonia?

I read this "What is your CC? Maybe you have ammonia in the water consuming your FC. Clearly you failed the OCLT before you started
Do you have the yellow OTO chlorine test to verify?" from your earlier post, I guess I assumed CC comes from OTO test.
 
Sorry I was not clear. The OTO just verifies the presence of chlorine in the water. When you were saying that the powder did not turn the water very pink there are 2 reasons that could happen: 1. you have no chlorine 2. the chlorine is actually high and you did not use enough powder. The OTO is bulletproof. Because it was a light yellow, that confirmed that you FC was indeed low. If the FC were very high, the OTO would turn orange or brown.

There are ammonia tests available, usually from pet stores I think for aquariums.

You could try testing a diluted bleach mixture with the OTO test ... although I do not recall what mixture (there are a few threads somewhere around here)

REview the FAS-DPD instructions and always test for FC and then CC.

Here is more info about the tests if you have not seen it:
extended-test-kit-directions-t25081.html
 
Ok I will test when I get home tonight and continue shocking I guess, how do I get rid of ammonia if it is ineed that? Will it require a lot of shocking or such? not sure if I should be buying a truck load of beach or what :) If i am losing all chlorine in an hour or so then I need to drop 7 gallons every hour to bring it up to 19???? how likely is it I could end up dumping hundreds of gallons? I am stating to get really scared :).
I am beginning to think maybe running the chlorinator might help a bit? at least there will be constant production of Chlorine?
 
Technically you have not even really started the shock process because your FC is not registering at shock level yet. You need to continue to add more chlorine to get rid of whatever is in your water until the FC starts to register. Add 7 gallons, wait an hour, test again, add enough to get back to 19ppm, repeat. It take as much as it takes. The only other alternative is to drain and refill.

The SWG only adds the FC slowly, sure it may help a little, but will certainly shorten the cells life.
 
oh boy, I read some of the ammonia articles on here and am a bit scared...... i dont even think i can pick up enough bleach to do this for more then 2 or 3 hours, is there any harm if i stop and continue the next day after work (meaning will I be wasting bleach if i shock today and then wait almost a whole day to continue?) or adding bleach at any time will help? If consistency is important maybe i should wait till thursday when im home? I will pick up an ammonia test on my way home, hopefully wallmart will have it, i seen they have a whole fish section with aquariums and such.
 
If it is ammonia (nothing has confirmed that), than adding bleach when you can will help. If you are fighting algae, then I think being consistant becomes more important.
 
jblizzle said:
All we know is there is something in the water using all your chlorine ... keep adding it.
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wow u guys really dont like to talk about algea or anything without specific results :) I feel like we are in the court and we cant say anything proven or someone will go to jail :p
 

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