Chlorine too high??

[XaanaBear]

Hi All!
So I have a little 10ft Intex quickset pool. The first dose of chlorine I added to it when opening it was 4 1"pucks in a floater. I check the pool with 3 different test kits and after a week the chlorine was showing as non existent. There was still some pieces of the pucks in the floater but since it wasn't registering in total or free chlorine and the pump runs in the pool at least 8 hours a day so so added 4 more 1"pucks. This week they too are nearly gone in the floater but now all my kits (2 are strips and one is liquid) show total and free chlorine levels off all the charts. They are reading dark colors that are not even showing in the test kit keys (dark dark purple) My problem is this, the pool has had the cover off it now for the past 4 full days and the pump has been turned on all day each day as well.the pool is in full sun for at least 5 hours of the day and likely even more than that. Is it even possible that the chlorine levels are really that high?? The water does not even slightly smell like chlorine. Are my test kits bad?? I don't know what to do, currently the PH is on target and alkalinity seems to be within the good range as well. I also put (1.6 grams the correct dose for my tiny pool) of non-chlorine shock in it yesterday as well. Any suggestions??

 

[DrewLG]

Welcome to TFP!

As you'll see if you browse Pool Care Basics, the best thing you can do for your pool is buy a good test kit that contains a FAS-DPD test for chlorine and a CYA test. Strips just aren't reliable, and the color-comparison chlorine drop test doesn't measure exactly what's important (and it doesn't have a high enough range for useful free-chlorine levels). There's a comparison of the recommended test kits here: Test Kits Compared

At this point there's probably no free chlorine in your pool. A 10-foot x 30" round pool filled to 24" holds around 1200 gallons, so each addition of 2 ounces of trichlor (1" pucks weigh half an ounce each) raised your free chlorine (FC) by 11ppm. But that chlorine only entered the water gradually as the pucks dissolved -- and you have at most 12 ppm CYA in the water now (each addition added 6ppm CYA) -- so the chlorine burned off as quickly as it was produced.

You may also wish to read this: Guide for Seasonal/Temporary Pools

 

[XaanaBear]

 

[XaanaBear]

I just tested the water and got these results. Alkalinity is really high

 

[Griswald]

You don't know that. Strips are not accurate enough to make any assumptions.