used to much yellow treat in the past

[chefington]

Hello.
i just read an article from pool solution that if one has used a lot of yellow treat or similar chemical you will have problems keeping chlorine levels. is this true? i am one that always used yellow treat because it worked really well for me and noe i'm thinking that is why i have a hard time maintaning good chlorine levels.

 

[Guest]

Yes, it's true. These products are either inorganic ammonia, which forms chloramines or a bromide salt, which converts your pool to a bromine pool. (Whichis why United Chemical says to test with OTO and not DPDn and to wait 5 minutes before reading the test. OTO will test either total chlorine or total bromine so it will give a reading even if the FC is low or absent. By waiting 5 minutes you are sure to read all the combined chlorine or bromine present.) If I am not mistakent Yellow treat is a bormine salt that converts a chlorine pool into a bromine pool. Bromine cannot be stabilized against sunlight like chlorine can,which is why it can be more effective at killing algae if there is CYA present in the water. It can takes weeks and a LOT of chlorine and sunlight to convert a pool treated with a bromine salt for fighting algae to become a chlorine pool again. If you have overused and overdosed on the product then you might need to drain and refill. Also be aware that many SWGs are NOT compatible with bromine and that it can damage them. If the product is an inorganic ammonia based one then you wil create a chlorine demand and have monochloramine instead of FC in your pool until all the ammonia is burned off by shocking. It might require repeated shocking to a much higher level than usual if you have overdosed on this type of product.