Can my CC be this high???

[wilkinsonneal]

Hey all,

I’m new to this SLAM thing and I need some support.

I have a 30,000 (approx) gallon pool.
Started slamming 24 hours ago.
CYA wasn’t registering in my first 2 tests, so I put in 8lbs of CYA over the past week: still wasn’t registering today so I added another 2lbs.

When I started SLAM last night at 9pm, my reading was:
pH: 7.4
FC: 0.5
CC: 0.5
For a SLAM target of FC 12, I added 441oz of 10% bleach.

At 11pm the readings were:
FC: 3.5
CC: 10.5
Added another 326oz of 10% bleach.

At 6am:
FC: 6
CC: 11.5
Added 230oz of 10% bleach.

At 3pm:
FC: 3
CC: 14
Added 345oz of 10% bleach.

The water has become covered in patches of bubbles.

At 7pm:
FC: 5
CC: 15
Added 269oz 10% bleach.

At 10:30pm:
FC: 7.5
CC: 20
Adding another 173 oz or 10% bleach.

Should my CC be that high? And what about the bubbles that are forming (photo attached)?

 

[mknauss]

High CC after adding liquid chlorine can be a sign of ammonia in the water. The ammonia is a result of a bacteria in the water that consumes CYA, which you added a bunch of.
To check and defeat ammonia, if necessary, is to raise your FC in the water using enough liquid chlorine to get to 10 ppm using PoolMath. Circulate the pool for 15 minutes. Test FC and CC. If FC at 5 or below, add LC to get to 10 using LC, circulate for 15 minutes, repeat until your FC is above 5 ppm after the 15 minute circulation.

 

[kimkats]

+1 what Marty said! You are in for a battle for a little while. It will take a lot of chlorine and testing to get on top of this monster. Do NOT add any more CYA until we tell you to.

How much would a drain and refill cost you? Might be something to think about.

 

[duraleigh]

First, if you put in 10 lbs of CYA, your CYA in the pool is 30 ppm....perfect for a SLAM. Assume you have 30 ppm in your pool and don't test for CYA until later.

Next, Can you post a COMPLETE set of test results this AM? (Monday). Don't tell us what you have added prior to this or your results prior to this.........we need to get a firm baseline and go forward.

What have you been using for chlorination prior to finding TFP? This is not a baquacil pool, is it?

No need to drain but you are probably gonna' need quite a bit more chlorine.

 

[wilkinsonneal]

8am this morning (first of the day):
FC: 5
CC: 19.5
pH: 7
TA: 170

Going to get more bleach and do the circulation to get FC above 5ppm. After that, do I go back to the regular SLAM? Or should I be doing the circulation test regularly?

 

[justinc]

Fight the ammonia as Marty said. Once you think you have finished off the ammonia and you notice your chlorine holding better you can move back to regular SLAM... but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Ammonia takes priority. Don't worry about SLAMing right now. Your combined chlorine of 19.5 means you still have an ammonia problem...

 

[JamesW]

Have you added any chemicals like Jack's #2 copper and scale stuff?

Did you just open the pool?

It might be ammonia, but ammonia usually won't create CC that high.

Usually, the thing that creates CC that high is sulfamic acid.

 

[wilkinsonneal]

Ok, so I added 1.2 gallons of 10% bleach and did the recirculation, and after 15 minutes the FC was above 5ppm. How much above, I can't tell you because I ran out of R0871 reagent when I got to 14 drops (7ppm). I'm going to go by the pool store and pick some up this afternoon and will post full test results ASAP.

What does it mean for the ammonia that I have above 5ppm after recirculation?

Answers to other questions:
- Have you added any chemicals like Jack's #2 copper and scale stuff? No.
- Did I just open the pool? Yes.
- What have I been using for chlorination prior to finding TFP? No it is not a baquacil pool. My pool care guys (who I don't like) had be use EZ-Pool and chlorine tabs in a chlorinator. I had an algae problem last year so they used algaecide on it in the Fall.
- How much would it cost to refill? I don't even want to think about refilling...

 

[Jimrahbe]

W,

Just check with your city and see what it would cost.. For a 17K pool it costs me about $50 bucks...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[JamesW]

EZ-Pool? Yuck. More like queasy pool.

It's a mixture of the following:
1) Potassium persulfate (potassium peroxydisulfate)
2) Sodium bisulfate
3) Ammonium chloride
4) Calcium chloride
5) Sodium Bicarbonate
6) Aluminum chloride (possibly Aluminum chlorohydrate, which is what is in HTH Green to Blue).
7) Copper sulfate

Persulfate will read as CC, but it must be pretty high. The ammonium is also part of the problem.

Since your CYA is gone, you probably had bacteria eat it all and create ammonia.

So, you have multiple things contaminating the water. The copper will probably begin to stain at some point.

Drain and refill is the way to go if you can do it safely without floating the pool out of the ground.

 

[JamesW]

If you don't think that you can safely drain and refill, you're going to have to continue with the SLAM.

It should eventually work, but it's hard to tell how long it will take without knowing what's in the water.

Do you know what the ground water situation is?

 

[jblizzle]

You may not find the R-0871 locally ... most pool stores do the sell it ... because then why would you need them to test your water if your test kit is better than theirs

 

[Wobblerlorri]

EZ-Pool? Yuck. More like queasy pool.

now that's just funny right there. Made me snicker.