Free Chlorine testing loss of faith

[Planenuts]

Opened my pool last monday with lots of leaves in the bottom, scooped them out and got the pool going, color is good but water has been cloudy since than, I can barely see the bottom in the shallow end. I doubt it is algae as the water is at 54'F and none when I closed, most probably leftovers from the leaves and antifreeze from the pipes. I am getting a little frustrated as I am starting to doubt my Free chlorine test readings, I will do the test once and be at 15 re-do it a second time and be at 4, also I notice that sometimes if I let it stir a little longer it goes from clear back to pink. (I have never seen that before, and I am using a new TF-100 test kit, however note the powder was rock solid when received) 1.5 seconds for a drop is the speed I do it at. I would also expect chlorine consumption to be fairly steady or slightly higher if the day has more sun, yesterday I put 15 oz all day of 10.3% bleach and today a cloudy day about 80 oz. can any one spot what I am doing wrong? and what is in the water to cause the cloudiness?
my readings are as follows:
FC 2
CC 5 (I stopped counting at that amount)
TA 120
CYA 30
CH 200
PH 7.6
54'F

 

[mknauss]

High CC and quick loss of FC is indicative of ammonia in your pool water.

What was the CYA at closing? How confident are you of the 30 ppm CYA test result you show?

Ammonia - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[aussieta]

fc testing need to aim for one drop per second
when testing for cc try to keep time between tests to a minimum 10 seconds? and again one drop per second
but does look like an organics problem and is burning your chlorine off quickly

 

[Planenuts]

To reply to mknauss CYA was at 80 when closing, was at 0 when I opened I just re-checked CYA and I lost the dot halfway between 30 and 40.
for the FC test do I stop as soon as it gets clear the first time?

 

[mknauss]

So you have added some CYA?

Follow the process in the ammonia article to check for it.

 

[mknauss]

for the FC test do I stop as soon as it gets clear the first time?

Yes.

 

[Planenuts]

thank-you for the input, at pool opening (monday CYA was 0, wednesday evening I added 1 lbs dry stabilizer and tursday evening I added 1 lbs, Iwill go to the pet store tomorrow to get a ammonia test kit hopefully they will be open, and the critical question what happens if I run out of chlorine for a day can it get worse? I believe all stores will be closed on sunday.

 

[generessler]

fwiw, Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware tend to have chlorine in various forms, and they're open Sunday. You should check the specific store before driving, though. Note that since you're trying to boost CYA anyway, trichlor tabs in a floater are a way to go. That's the most common form available at the big box stores in my experience.

 

[Planenuts]

I am in montreal, canada and here it seems like all stores will be closed for easter, not trying to boost CYA as it is at 30 or so now, going higher will require more chlorine to keep at SLAM level and risk feeding CYA to the monster living in the pool at the moment.

just got back from adding more chlorine. so my main question is what happened today to increase consumption through the roof compared to the previous days? can it be compared to some sort of algea bloom but with bacteria?

 

[mknauss]

what happened today to increase consumption through the roof compared to the previous days? can it be compared to some sort of algea bloom but with bacteria?

Unknown. If ammonia is in the pool water, the chlorine is very quickly consumed. So if you found that the water held a FC level, for more than a few minutes, it is unlikely you have ammonia in the water.

 

[Planenuts]

To report back, picked up 4 gallons of 4% bleach this morning and was consumed in no time, as it was way to expensive since that was all that was available today I did not buy any more, knowing I was out of bleach and at 0 FC left I had nothin to loose, so I set the SWG to shock (I know it might not be the best for it) to at least try to get some chlorine in the water, also drained about a foot of water and refilled, two hours after I refilled, I tested and FC is at 2, also noticed that there was a bit of foam/bubbles on the surface. I have hope that I have gotten through the worst of it as there is some FC in the water and that the SWG is at least keeping up with the consumption of FC.