What causes red, stinging eyes?

[Maestro]

I'm on day 10 of balancing my pool chemistry, and so far, so good. On the second or third day my wife and I had a little bit of red, stinging eyes which seems to be gone now. At that time, my pH was about 7.2 (now 7.5), TA was about 50 (now 120), and FC was all over the place between 1 and 10 (probably will start to stabilize now that I've brought the CYA up from 0 to 30). Also, CH has come up from 25 to 150 and will be more tomorrow as I added another dose of calcium chloride today. CC was 0.5 on the first day and has been 0 ever since.

What is the most likely culprit that causes eye problems? Low pH? High FC? Low TA or CH? Something else? I'd like to be able to tell my wife what I did right so she continues to keep thinking that I know what I'm doing!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

If you've tested and there are no CCs in the water, the most likely culprit would have been the lower pH in my opinion.

How high are you looking to take your CH? Stop at 220 or so.

 

[Divin Dave]

Very high FC (above the FC/CYA recommendations) can cause stinging eyes.
Also very low or very high pH can do it, but not at 7.2.

The most common cause, is chloramines, which is a byproduct of chlorine that has been "used up" while killing off organics.

 

[jblizzle]

Usually that is due to CC or the pH being off. But if you had almost no CYA and a FC up around 10ppm, that would be very very harsh.

 

[Divin Dave]

^^^yup^^^

that would certainly do it.

 

[Maestro]

Thanks, everybody. YippeeSkippy, my CH target is 200-220. No sense going higher than that with fiberglass. And I'm aiming for 40 for the CYA and hoping that keeps the FC level stable. I don't know what I would have done without these guidelines!


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[YippeeSkippy]

Good plan! I hope the red eyes have now resolved :nemo::sun: