I keep getting a reading of 2ppm combined chlorine and 2ppm total chlorine. The water is crystal clear ph is 7.5 CYA is 20 and the sand was just replaced. I shocked the pool up to 15ppm two nights ago. Question-Should I continue to shock the pool until the reading is .5 or less CC. I had a few baq. test strips left and no baq is showing up on those which I know are not that accurate. When I first started my conversion my pool store guy had me put in three bottles of baq. clarifier to speed the process. Could this be interfering w/ my chlorine? I don't know what is in the clarifier but it took my baq sanitizer down to zero in two days.
Combined Chlorine
- Thread starter LuLu
- Start date
Yes, you need to keep the chlorine level up until you get the CC down to 0.5 or below (ideally zero). This will be easier if you bring the CYA level up to between 30 and 50. That way you won't lose as much chlorine to sunlight. The more consistant you are about keeping the FC at 15 the faster the whole process will go.
I have some silk tabs that I got pool stored into getting before I landed on this site and have added them to my chlorinator to get the cya level up. I will also continue to add the liq. chlorine. I am using the TFP test kit (love it) Thanks so much!
Just keep in mind that BioGuard Silk Tabs are mostly Trichlor so will increase Cyanuric Acid (CYA) levels. For every 1 ppm FC raised by this product, it also adds 0.6 ppm to CYA. Silk Tabs also contain a small amount of a water softener so you may find that Calcium Hardness (CH) levels drop somewhat though it is also described as some sort of coating that will protect metals. It's officially listed in the MSDS as a "Trade Secret Ingredient" 5% by weight so I don't know what it is exactly.
When I finally decided that baquacil was not the pool sanitizer for me I went to the pool store and they loaded me up on silk tabs and cheap algacide. I found this web site and realized after years of owning a pool both an above ground at a previous home and an inground now that I had let the pool store control my pool. I had no idea what I was putting in my pool or why. The baquacil was my choice because I have a child that had eczema when she was younger and I thought that baq. would be better on her skin. After reading posts on TFP I decided to take control of my pool and ordered the test kit and read as much as possible. I decided to throw away the algacide and use the silk tabs to control the cya in the pool only when it is necessary. Thanks for all of your advice. I am still learning.
Once you've stabilized your pool with an appropriate CYA level and then maintain a bare minimum FC level of 7.5% of the CYA level (probably target around 10% of the CYA level most of the time), then let us know how your child does with the pool, assuming that eczema is still a potential problem.
I've saved the pool calculator on my comp. favorites for easy access. Her eczema is not as severe as it was when she was 2 years old and under. She's eight and really only has an occasional problem.
