Chlorine too High?

[OneMom]

Hi Everyone:

I just found the address for this forum on the Pool Solutions Forum. I'm so glad to see that there is now a forum available for those of us who hadn't previously joined that one!

Anyway, we just changed to the BBB system this month when we opened our 30 gal, IG vinyl pool. We had fought algae on & off last year & went crazy trying to kill it when we first opened the pool at the beginning of this month. I finally found the Pool Solutions site & got a "tiny" bit educated. Long story short....our CYA was close to 150.

We've drained some water and today's readings are:

CYA: 70
FC: 13.5
CC: 1
PH: 7
TA: 80

Obviously our readings aren't great. We don't mind living with the CYA at 70, and we know we have to increase the PH. However, what about the FC & CC? Is it okay to just wait for the FC to fall into the range indicated by the "Best Guess" Table? (It will take a while, we have a solar cover on most of the day right now.) Should I worry about the CC reading?

Thanks for your help!!

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum.

How does your water look?

My first thought is that your chlorine is too low. The CC reading of 1.0 indicates the need to shock so boost your Cl up into the 20ppm range and keep it up there 'til the CC drops back to .5 or less.

Your pH is only slightly low so I would address that later. If you'll get some Cl in there, preferably bleach, and keep your pump running 24/7 for a day or so, you'll eliminate any residual algae and then you can fine tune your other elements. Your not in bad shape, particularly if your water's not too messy......let us know and we'll all help get it sparking for the rest of the Summer.

 

[OneMom]

Our water looks clear. Up until last night, we've been running the pump (sand filter) 24/7 for about three weeks to clear out all of the algae. My husband vacummed the pool to waste yesterday to get any residual that might be left on the bottom & to help lower our CYA.

We'll go ahead & shock it as you recommended. If I'm understanding how the math works: we need to add 2-3 gallons of bleach (we have 6%) to boost our FC to 20. Does that sound right? (25-30,000 gallon pool)

Should we then keep running our pool 24/7 until the CC drops below .5?

My husband is also wondering if we should floc the pool....it always made the water clear & "sparkly" in the past. Or should we avoid floc now that we want to stay with the BBB method?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!!!

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

Keep your FC up until your CC clears.

You do not need to floc... keep with the bleach, brushing, and backwashing (HA! I just invented the 2nd BBB!!) and your water will be sparkly in no time!

Someone here (EDIT to correctly give credit to Waterbear) once said that a cloudy pool will clear in 7 days with good ol' BBB and patience, but with clarifier/floc it will take a week!

 

[chem geek]

I also suggest keeping your cover off during the day, especially during peak noontime hours. The sun's UV rays help to break down combined chlorine. You may only need to do that for one day, possibly two. It is possible that your particular cover lets sun UV rays through, but in case it doesn't, having the cover off will help (it also helps to allow more outgassing of the by-products of breakdown of combined chlorine).

 

[Guest]

Someone here (JohnT?) once said that a cloudy pool will clear in 7 days with good ol' BBB and patience, but with clarifier/floc it will take a week!

That was ME!

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

whoops! I have corrected my mistake!
8)

 

[Buggsw]

Our water looks clear. Up until last night, we've been running the pump (sand filter) 24/7 for about three weeks to clear out all of the algae. My husband vacummed the pool to waste yesterday to get any residual that might be left on the bottom & to help lower our CYA.

We'll go ahead & shock it as you recommended. If I'm understanding how the math works: we need to add 2-3 gallons of bleach (we have 6%) to boost our FC to 20. Does that sound right? (25-30,000 gallon pool)

Should we then keep running our pool 24/7 until the CC drops below .5?

My husband is also wondering if we should floc the pool....it always made the water clear & "sparkly" in the past. Or should we avoid floc now that we want to stay with the BBB method?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!!!

It will take more than 2-3 gallons of 6% bleach to raise your ppm from 1 to 20 for a 25-30,000 gallon pool. It will take 8 - 10 gallons of 6% bleach.

 

[duraleigh]

2-3 gallons is correct. She's starting at 13.5

 

[OneMom]

Thank you all so much for the quick replies. I really appreciate all of the help. I'll try not to bug you guys too often, but it sure is nice that there's somewhere to go if I get stuck!!