I think I added too much BurnOut 73

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May 2, 2016
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Chicago
New to forum, new pool. Build was completed in early December, and we opened mid-April. The water has been sparkly clear since opening in mid-April, but we've had trouble keeping the FC up throughout the day. Thanks to this forum, I suspected low CYA. I have a Taylor K2006 test kit on it's way, but in the meantime I brought a sample to the local pool store because we've been battling high pH and low FC during the day essentially since the PB opened the pool. I have a SWG that's been set at 100% with pump running 24/7. When I open the autocover first thing in the morning, the FC reading is 2.0 (using OTO kit). When I test an hour later (on sunny days) FC reading is 0. I have the strips, which are super hard to read (why I ordered K2006 after reading through this forum), but on the strips it looked liked CYA was in the 30-50 range. According to local pool store readings today (3pm sample), these were the numbers:

FC 0
TC 0.1
pH 8.0
CYA 0
TA 175
Salt 3000

Fun. So as I thought (thanks to reading here), all this FC issue is likely due to non-existent CYA (I know I have pH and TA issues as well, but from my reading here, CYA and FC are most important to get on top of first). The guy told me to add 4 pints muriatic acid, followed by 1.75 lbs of BioGuard Stabilzer 100 (severely under-dosed according to pool calculator here which shows I should add 134 oz or 8.375 lbs of cyanuric acid to get to 50ppm) followed by 6 pouches of BioGuard BurnOut 73. Wait one hour in between the addition of each chemical. I know TFP recommends using bleach and not BurnOut products due to cost as well as adding calcium along with chlorine, but I did it and it's done now, so can't go back.

I added the 4 pints of muriatic acid (we previously added a full gallon of the 30% over the course of the last 2 weeks), and added the stabilizer to a sock in the skimmer basket. Before adding the stabilizer, I added the 6 bags/pouches of the BurnOut 73. Then, as I was looking at my printout, I noticed it said to add 2 bags of BurnOut 73 (NOT 6!!!). I asked the guy several times if he was sure about the 6 bags/pouches of BurnOut 73, and he said yes. So now of course my FC is instant purple (10 ppm) on the Aquacheck test strips I'm using.

My question is, how long will it take to burn through all that added chlorine? Did I do any permanent damage? Do we have to wait to swim until it's back down to <10pmm? I'm hoping it'll be a sunny day tomorrow here in Chicago-land, and with that non-existent CYA the chlorine will burn off fast. I turned off the SWG and left the pump on (as previously stated, we run the pump 24/7 because we're new to this and don't know any better right now).

Thanks for any help and insight!
 
The question of damage will depend on factors like how much organic material was in the pool, and if you added it while the sun was still shining on the water. Getting FC that high with no CYA in the water could certainly cause problems, shorten life of the rubber parts in your pump, etc. However the thing I would be more concerned about is if the pool store CYA test was right or even in the right ballpark. In general we find CYA levels are the test that pool stores get the most wrong.
 
I'm going to disagree with Isaac a bit.

I would burn the test strips. Make a nice little fire and cook a hot dog over them. That way you will get something out of them. While I don't trust pool store values I suspect they are right on the CYA.

You chlorine is probably way above 10 ppm so wait a few days. When you get the Test kit run the tests and adjust accordingly.

I would stop running the pump and SWG 24/7. Cut it down to 12 hours. If you do have to make up chlorine use liquid -- buy it at WalMart

Cutting down the salt cell will help get your ph under control also.

Relax you didn't kill the pool it will live -- just don't buy that burn out stuff stick with liquid chlorine to supplement the salt cell. Use pool Math on here to tell you how much to add if you need to add some.
 
Thx for the advice and reassurance! I found an older thread where the pool store had the poster add 40 bags/pounds of the BurnOut 73 over 24 hours. He had a bigger pool, but oy, that's a lot of product!! Made me feel better than I didn't just destroy all of my equip with the 6 bags. Will relax and keep kids out of pool until the test kit arrives, then get it all figured out.
 
Good news, all equipment seems to be working well and FC is down to 3ppm (per OTO and Aquacheck strips) after 3 hours of direct sunshine. I turned the SWG back up to 60% and will just sit tight until test kit gets here on Friday. I did leave the stabilizer sock in the skimmer bc I'm certain my CYA is far below recommended levels based on good FC first thing in morn with total burn off within an hour, combined with pool store 0 CYA reading and low aquacheck strip readings consistently over the last 2 months....
 
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I did not mean to imply that this single high dose of FC would kill the equipment, just that such high FC levels can and does cause deterioration in rubber parts, pump seals, and other plumbing parts. So while it likely did nothing to cause immediate failure, it may have noticeably shortened the life of the equipment, meaning it may have done a month, or six months worth of wear in six hours.
 
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