I just purchased my home in November, it had a in-ground pool, and it's my first time having a pool. We had it professionally opened a few weeks ago.
Yesterday we had a couple friends over for the first time, all the girls noticed a burning/itching sensation, mostly on their legs. The two guys, nothing very noticeable, after being in the pool for hours.
This led me to believe that perhaps our chlorine was too high, plus I had not shocked the pool yet. So that evening I added shock (Doheny's - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051BI6UE/) and tested this morning. My test kit is a Taylor K-2006 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BGF7TI/). The chlorine was off the charts, everything else seemed normal. Free Chlorine was 9.0ppm and Combined Chlorine was at 0.4ppm. My normal chlorine that I had been doing was putting 4 3" In The Swim tablets (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WKJ5R0/) in one of the skimmers, replacing when they were fully disolved.
From my understanding, there should be no combined chlorine, and even with the shock, it still tested at 0.4ppm.
Do you think that these high levels are what caused the skin irritation for the girls (assumed it was mainly on legs due to shaving)? What should I do at this point? Is it even safe to swim?
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm happy to answer any questions as well.
Update - Tested Water
FC = 2.5-3ppm
CC = 2.5ppm
pH = 7.4
TA = 100-110
CH = 380
CYA= 75
Yesterday we had a couple friends over for the first time, all the girls noticed a burning/itching sensation, mostly on their legs. The two guys, nothing very noticeable, after being in the pool for hours.
This led me to believe that perhaps our chlorine was too high, plus I had not shocked the pool yet. So that evening I added shock (Doheny's - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051BI6UE/) and tested this morning. My test kit is a Taylor K-2006 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BGF7TI/). The chlorine was off the charts, everything else seemed normal. Free Chlorine was 9.0ppm and Combined Chlorine was at 0.4ppm. My normal chlorine that I had been doing was putting 4 3" In The Swim tablets (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WKJ5R0/) in one of the skimmers, replacing when they were fully disolved.
From my understanding, there should be no combined chlorine, and even with the shock, it still tested at 0.4ppm.
Do you think that these high levels are what caused the skin irritation for the girls (assumed it was mainly on legs due to shaving)? What should I do at this point? Is it even safe to swim?
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm happy to answer any questions as well.
Update - Tested Water
FC = 2.5-3ppm
CC = 2.5ppm
pH = 7.4
TA = 100-110
CH = 380
CYA= 75