Help - what's going on with my water??

Jump to latest Follow Reply
chessie6

chessie6

0
LifeTime Supporter
May 21, 2010
188
East Hartford, Connecticut
Hi, we opened our pool three weeks ago; the water was quite clear and there were no issues. However, I've recently noticed that the water has an odor when standing nearby; it's an odor of like stale beer or something. I also had this odor last year spring and thought it was the winter algecide, so last fall I didn't put in any algecide; only bleach. I will admit that my chlorine level had fallen below the minimum of 2 ppm because I was caring for my dad in an at-home hospice program . . and now that it is over I'm trying to get my pool back up to snuff. As a reminder, I had pink slime last year, and I believe it never fully goes away. I have no visible signs of either pink slime or green algae.

So, I brought the pool to shock level (13 ppm actually) on Sunday, May 9 evening and in the overnight I lost 1 ppm, for a reading of 12 ppm Monday morning. Yesterday was sunny as is today, Tuesday, May 10 and my present reading is 1 ppm. Now with a cya reading of 30, is this why I lost so much chlorine in 1 1/2 days? We aren't swimming yet and the water is ~62 degrees. Or should I have maintained a shock level for longer?

Here are my stats:
FC = 1
CC = 0
TC = 1
PH = a bit more pink than to be exactly at 7.2
TA = 70
CH = 100
CYA = 30
Not swimming yet; water is around 62 degrees

If you could advise me, I would really appreciate it. Thank you,
Jan
 
You need to not only get to shock level, but keep it there until you pass the OCLT (overnight chlorine loss test). That may require several days. You need to test and add chlorine as often as every hour to begin with.

Once you are done shocking you must keep your FC above the min for your CYA at all times. If you have extenuating circumstances that may require you to leave the pool for several days you might want to consider a chlorine injection system or swcg.
 
Hey Jan :wave:

I betcha it's Mr. (or Ms.) Pink again, trying to take hold :wink:

Do as Dave (Bama) says and then be sure to keep the minimum FC all summer :hammer: Knock this mold (slime) out and be sure to keep it out!

Then sit back and enjoy a trouble free pool in the nutmeg state :cheers:
 
Thank you everyone. I was up at midnight :sleep: which is a miracle for me and added three more bottles of bleach to bring me up to 16 ppm for the overnight, hoping it would keep me at shock level by the morning, and it did - I'm at 15 ppm. I'll continue to keep it up there until the water passes my sniff test . . I have a nose like a beagle dog and what I have now is unacceptable :hammer:

waste, nice to hear from you and I hope all is great for you! :) CT is in it's prime right now with the leaves popping out and the flowering trees in full bloom. It's been colder than normal however and I hope we are going to have a good summer for swimming.

I'll post back on my results - thanks again,
Jan :thequeen:
 
Oye . . I hope this will be over soon. :hammer: Chlorine held overnight, but there's still a smell, although reduced, to the water. :rant: I will not back down!! :whip:
2q8rfih.jpg


Jan, aka Pink Queen :thequeen:
 
Hi, I'm ready to scream. After having a reading this morning of 17 ppm (no chlorine loss overnight) now four hours later I'm at 8 ppm. Please someone tell me that I'm not putting all this bleach in my pool in vain, and sometimes it takes days for this to work.

@robbie, the bleach is good . . it's Aldi bleach at 99 cents a bottle and two bottles raises my pool by 5 ppm. I had bought Great Value bleach once and the mfr. told me the strength is 2.5% - some Great Value! Thanks for your concern,
Jan
 
It can take days for sure. It took 5 or 6 days to get mine stable. Luckily I was low on CH so I could use Cal Hypo 73% for mine - it takes a lot of chlorine to get 44,000 gallons to shock level! Honestly, I don't EVER want to shock again! So after finally getting all my algae dead, it took another several days to get rid of the cloudiness. But now it sparkles like a diamond!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
This is turning into a blog . . but I'm posting for the information of anyone who has to take a journey like this themselves. Today the odor in the water has lessened. I brushed last night and then this morning scrubbed the skimmer area. It's weird, but the chlorine level holds overnight then as soon as the sun hits the pool, it drops.

robbie, I don't blame you for never wanting to shock again with 44,000 gallons . . :shock:

My bleach consumption continues . . and bear in mind that there were ~15 bottles at the start of this story that aren't in the picture.
10oeals.jpg
 
Jan, are you sure the cya is 30? It seems like the sunlight is burning up your chlorine :?

Can you describe the stink? If it's like rotten eggs, there's a chance sulfur has somehow entered the water. (just a WAG on my part that it might be sulfur)
 
Hi Ted, the smell is like what I call stale liquor - like walking into a bar where it smells like old stale booze or stale beer - rather sour. :shaking: I had it last year too at this time and thought it was the winter algecide. Since I don't use algecide anymore I didn't put any in last fall. The only thing other than bleach that went into the pool water this spring after we opened it was the non toxic pink RV pipeline antifreeze we used to protect the plumbing from freezing.

My chlorine levels hold overnight at 15 ppm, then by 10:00-ish a.m. they are down to 8 ppm. During the day in order to keep it above 13 ppm I'm adding 9-12 bottles of bleach a day. I wondered too about the cya - I tested it a couple weeks ago with my TF100 test kit and was sure of my reading; however, I will test it again tomorrow. When we closed the pool last fall, the cya was 40; I figured the current reading of 30 made sense because we always lose some water over the winter. But in the past when I opened, my cya was always zero, so seeing a reading is something new for me. I ordered a fresh set of testing chemicals this morning and will test again when they arrive.

As of tonight, I've made progress with the odor - it has further reduced since this morning. :flower: So, next step is to see what tomorrow brings; thank you all for your support!
Jan :thequeen:
 
Update: If you hear screaming, it's coming from Connecticut. :x Day 6: overnight chlorine loss 4 ppm. Water still has an odor that's noticeable around the skimmer or when stirred up. I re-checked the cya (original reading posted here was 30) and I got 25; I've put a couple pucks into the auto feeder as a start to raise cya levels. Thought I'd go for getting up to 35 for cya. Water is sparkling clear.

If it's cloudy out, is there still enough strength from the sun to destroy chlorine?

The lowest reading I've ever had in this process is 8 ppm that I've gotten during the day - because this is below shock level, is this why it's taking so long? :(

I re-checked for combine chlorine - reading is zero. :)

After all the bleach I've been pouring in my ph is still 7.2 - I would have figured that it would have gone way up by now.

I'm going to work on keeping the chlorine levels higher than 13 - say around 18 or 19 and then if it falls it will still be at shock level. Other than that, I don't know what else to do. I saw a product on the internet that is supposed to break down biofilm but I'm not going to bite, especially since they won't list what it is. :shock:

:thequeen: Jan
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply