Seriously Red Eyes....

[19redwings]

Yesterday was the first day for the adults. Everyine that went in had red eyes. The background:

I never added CYA until I found this site. The SWG always seemed to work ts magic last year and I only had one outbreak. So, after reading this, I checked my CYA = 0.

I added about 8 pounds on Thursday and it is all gone from the skimmer.

Like I said, Friday, our eyes got really red, but it did not feel like a chlorine 'burn' when in the water.

Chemistry this AM:

Cl = 5 no CC
Alk = 110
pH = 7.5-7.6
CYA = 40

Any ideas? We are about to go back now.

TIA!
Bill

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

CYA can take up to a week to dissolve fully. I would retest again in a few days, it may be higher than 40 and just not registering yet.

I don't know if it would cause red eyes...

Doesn't happen in our pool, our CYA is 70. But I also don't have salt....

hmm. I'm stumped.

 

[duraleigh]

There is nothing in your test results (please confirm that your CC's tested "0") that would indicate a cause for the eye redness.

I would suggest you shock the pool up to 15-20ppm one time with liquid chlorine just in case there are any "bugs" in the water causing the redness.

SWG's call for 60-80ppm CYA. You have been working your's pretty hard with no CYA and still working it harder than normal with a CYA of 40ppm. I'd bring it up to 60ppm

 

[Matt]

The pH is fine. While the chlorine is higher than some people recommend, I keep my pool over 5 generally, and no one gets red eyes from it. If it were one person, I'd think hypersensitivity, but with everyone suffering, I'd have to guess it's not the chlorine or the pH... UNLESS your test results are off... is the test kit old/expired? Can you confirm its accuracy with results from the pool store maybe?

I'd agree with the above... shock it in case there is some kind of pathogen in there that's causing problems. The other possibility I suppose, although remote, is that some other chemical you put in (did you put in anything else?) is causing the reaction. I think that's unlikely though.

 

[19redwings]

Thanks for your responses so far!!

I opened the pool is mid May. Had a layer of green on everything and used bleach early to get Cl up around 20 for a few days. Added salt to get back to 3000 and Cl has been consistently around 5 ppm.

My test kit was ordered frm the link in someone's signature on this site. Just got it around Memorial day and have been using the taylor cl/pH. I did a CYA test on Wed which is why I put in the CYA Thur. This morning was the first time I did the dropper Cl test. 5 ppm with no CC.

The only CYA that was in the pool last year was if it was in their 'beginnings' salt that was put in at startup.

Just talked to the wife and she said both kids claimed blurry vision yesterday.

I have bleach and shock it, let me know if you think this is the way to go.

Again, thanks so much for the advice!!

 

[Matt]

Shocking should remove any biohazard issues, but if it's chemical, it may not do anything. Still, I can't think of anything else to try right now.