Just opened pool and Zero CC

[clambert1273]

Is this where you take a sample to a pool store?

Never

 

[PoolStored]

Is this where you take a sample to a pool store?

Nope. Avoid pool store testing.

Sincerely,
PoolStored.

 

[jfh342]

Going down a rabbit hole introducing straight bleach into a testing procedure.

In the presence of VERY HIGH chlorine (straight bleach) FAS/DPD will flash pink and then return to clear immediately.

OP, please perform the OTO chlorine test (R-104) and report the color you see.

How old is the kit?

The chemicals were purchased on March 23, 2023. I cannot find any details about the OTO chlorine test (R-104).

 

[Saturn94]

According to info I found on the CDC website, 1 part 5% bleach in 49 parts water results in 1000 ppm concentration.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/make-chlorine-solution.pdf

So it doesn’t take much chlorine to create an extremely high ppm solution.

 

[Saturn94]

The color of the new powder is white. No grey tint at all, which I thought unusual.

White powder is normal. I’m guessing it’s fine. It starts to darken when exposed to moisture/humidity, which is why it should be kept in a dry location.

 

[Texas Splash]

@jfh342, my concern now, other than giving you technically accurate info, is ensuring you don't get overwhelmed. As you can tell, your thread is like blood to a shark, and you have a lot of folks trying to help. If this gets overwhelming, just let us know to slow down.

I want to step back and go over a couple things:
1 - Your FAS-DPD "should" be fine since you stated it's from this year and it's white.
2 - You should be able to test your tap water. Tap water has a low level of FC in it, so give that a try. If you record 1-2 ppm of FC in your tap water, you're testing (and reagents) are good. If you still get no FC out of your tap water, you could try a 5 gallon bucket of water with like one teaspoon of bleach as a test. That ratio should be okay without overwhelming the reagent.

So let us know if any of those prove productive results.

 

[jfh342]

Tested my tap water and recorded 2ppm. So reagents are good. I guess I'll just do nothing and wait to see if it becomes testable when the chlorine level drops. It's somewhat unsettling not knowing how high it is. I have never had this issue in the past nine years. I have successfully tested with the FC level over 30 when shocking the pool.

 

[Texas Splash]

Tested my tap water and recorded 2ppm.

Fantastic! At least that's one mystery behind us. Seems odd that your pool water wasn't registering anything before all of this or after some additional bleach additions. Since you were adding a weak % bleach, I'm not so sure it would be exceptionally high. I suppose one test you could do is to grab a water sample from the pool, then bring it inside and dilute it in half with tap or distilled water.

 

[Texas Splash]

Oh, and I think Dave had a typo earlier with that R-004 comment. You can try the OTO viewer if you like using the R-0600 (yellow cap) solution. If it's light yellow you have some FC. If it goes a crazy dark orange or browns, then yes, your FC is very high.

OTO Chlorine Test

This test is the most reliable way to check for the presence of chlorine. If … Read more…

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[jfh342]

The 50/50 pool water/tap water resulted in 6PPM. I was finally able to get a reading from the pool after that and it is 11PPM. I'll check again in the morning. It seems to have fixed itself.

 

[Texas Splash]

Good to hear! That was quite a crazy hour or two. Now that you have confidence in your testing again, we'll leave you to it. Let us know if you have any other questions later. Remember, since you just opened, it may be a good idea to run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test at some point just to be safe (algae). Other than that, have a good evening.

 

[jfh342]

Thanks to all who assisted. This is a great forum for exactly the type of issue I was dealing with.

 

[FlappyLipps]

For future reference of testing the testing kit to make sure it works.
1 drop of chlorine into 450 ml of water is 10.0 FC

 

[jfh342]

Noted. Thank you.

 

[MITBeta]

1 drop of chlorine into 450 ml of water is 10.0 FC

This depends on the initial concentration of the bleach.

You can always test the strength of your chlorine by diluting 10,000 to 1 - Put 1ml of bleach in 100ml of distilled water, mix well, then take 1ml of that and mix into another 100ml of distilled water. Then test this mixture with your test kit like normal. Whatever ppm you get as a result is equal to the percentage in your jug.

 

[reggiehammond]

For future reference of testing the testing kit to make sure it works.
1 drop of chlorine into 450 ml of water is 10.0 FC

6% bleach? 10%? 12.5%?
Which is it?

 

[FlappyLipps]

10%