Chlorine getting chewed up. Algae?

[Drew80]

You are not using a scented or splash-less bleach, are you?

No. 10% chlorine from Home Depot. There's nothing else in it.

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Foaming is usually the wrong bleach or cheap algaecide.

Did you add algaecide?

No algaecide, just 10% hypo.

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I do not understand. If your pool will hold 6 ppm FC, then you have no ammonia in the water.

When you say that ammonia will kill the chlorine instantly, how quickly are we talking about? Minutes? Seconds? I added enough to bring it up to 24 PPM about an hour ago. It foamed like crazy and it's now down to 2 PPM. It's definitely not holding FC.

 

[mknauss]

If the pool has ammonia, the chlorine is consumed immediately.

If you had 2 FC left after overnight, you do not have ammonia.

Follow the SLAM. Test FC and dose with LC to SLAM level every hour or so.

 

[JamesW]

Are the pH and TA dropping?

Are you getting any CCs?

Signs of ammonia are fast loss of fc, some CC (usually 2 to 4 ppm) and pH and TA drop.

I think that you can have some fc reading with ammonia. Maybe it's reacting with chlorine that is bound to CYA or ammonia and released by the dye in the test.

 

[Drew80]

Are the pH and TA dropping?

Are you getting any CCs?

Signs of ammonia are fast loss of fc, some CC (usually 2 to 4 ppm) and pH and TA drop.

I think that you can have some fc reading with ammonia. Maybe it's reacting with chlorine that is bound to CYA or ammonia and released by the dye in the test.

Latest readings:

FC 1.5
CC 1.5
pH 7

So the hypo I added this morning is basically gone. pH is roughly steady. I have no CYA - something seems to have eaten it, and that's why I think I probably have ammonia.

 

[mknauss]

The only thing to defeat ammonia is the addition of large amounts of chlorine. The following is the protocol we recommend.

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 30 minutes. Test FC. If at 5 or below, add LC to get to 10 using LC, circulate for 30 minutes, repeat until your FC is above 5 ppm after the 30 minute circulation is above 5 ppm.

 

[Drew80]

The only thing to defeat ammonia is the addition of large amounts of chlorine. The following is the protocol we recommend.

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 30 minutes. Test FC. If at 5 or below, add LC to get to 10 using LC, circulate for 30 minutes, repeat until your FC is above 5 ppm after the 30 minute circulation is above 5 ppm.

Got it. I'll try that now.

 

[Drew80]

In case anyone is interested, that did the trick. I added chlorine up to 10 PPM 5 times before it finally held. Every time I had a thin layer of white foam on top of the water, I assume because it was reacting with ammonia. The water is still a little dull, but I can at least see the bottom now and it's holding at 10 PPM.

 

[mknauss]

Now SLAM Process. Follow the [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA].

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Add 30 ppm CYA.

 

[Drew80]

Yup, already did that. The water is clear on the spa side. I'm doing the same on the pool side today.

 

[mknauss]

The spa and pool are not connected? You should treat them as one system if, as your signature says, the spa spills over into the pool.

Be sure to carefully read the SLAM Process article.

 

[Drew80]

They are. I was just using the spa as the testing ground for my little science experiment. I repeated the process on the pool side to remove the ammonia, and now I have it back in spillover mode to do a full SLAM.

 

[Drew80]

Ok, so I'm in the middle of my SLAM. Once I was comfortable that I had gotten rid of whatever was eating my CYA, I added about 30 PPM and brought the FC up to about 15. It's been holding steady, so that's good. My CC hasn't dropped below about 2 the whole time, and the water is still a little cloudy/dull. Interestingly, I woke up this morning to a little bit of white foam on top of the water, similar to what I saw earlier in this thread. Here's a picture:

Dropbox - IMG_0224.jpg

We got a pretty solid rain again yesterday. Is it possible that ammonia or some sort of other chemical is being introduced into the water when it rains, and that's reacting with the chlorine? There's no way I'm getting yard runoff, but it could be something washing off the trees.

Also, is it possible to test CC with a TF100 without having to first test for FC? I know my FC is high, so I'd rather not waste the R-0871 if I can test for CC without doing that step first.

 

[mknauss]

During a SLAM Process, testing the CC does not mean much until you run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. So you can not do the CC test to save reagents. But if do want to test CC, you must do the FC first.