My first positive CC result, and it was easy to fix!

[sedalbj]

This is season three of our new pool and I have been using the TFP method since the second month. Yesterday, for the first time, I woke up to a cloudy pool. It had rained a lot and I had forgotten to add bleach for a few days. Just forgot.... Oops.

Uh oh, what have I done. FC was zero, and CC was reading zero. Weird, and I didn't believe the CC for a second. pH was testing fine, which it shouldn't have been because I ran out of MA about a week ago. CYA was reading really high but I knew it couldn't be right because I had tested it 2 weeks ago and it was 40 plus I didn't have any pucks in the feeder because the CYA was good.

So, I thought about everything I have read here and assessed the situation. First, I addressed FC and shocked it to FC 12 and turned on the pump. 2 Hours later I retested and FC=12, CC=1.5, CYA= 40 and pH was unreadably high. OK, these results make sense.

I saw the positive CC and was actually excited! I hadn't had it test positive before. The test works!!! Added 1/3 bottle MA, set the pump to run overnight, made dinner, and left it alone.

This morning the FC=11, CC=0, pH needed a little more MA. I yelled at the pool "I WIN!!! YOU LOSE!!!"

Thanks TFP. Really, I love this method. We have leaves, pollen, frogs, mice, and kids in the pool. And too many inches of rain this spring. And me, who forgets to maintain it sometimes. But the water is so balanced and reliable that it compensates, and the one time that I need to fix it, it was easy.

I am convinced that someone in my area is doing this method too, because our local grocery store seems to have a problem stocking plain generic bleach! I had to buy Chlorox brand (yikes, the price!!) for the shock yesterday.

Thanks again TFP....

 

[Jezza]

Just a couple of points that stand out to me
-Your pH will read inaccurately high when FC is over 10 so you might want to recheck it as soon as FC drops below 10 to see what the actual number is
- Also wasn’t quite sure whether you performed a proper OCLT test to confirm that your pool was algae free? You said you had 12 during the day and then 11 in the morning. Did you add any more chlorine in between these 2 readings?

 

[sedalbj]

Good points! I check pH every time I test FC. So I'll know if it's still high as FC falls. We have a waterfall and well water so it's always creeping up. Thanks for the reminder.

And, I expected a little FC loss, I didn't do the tests after dark and before sun up. It was close, a few overcast hours in the evening and early morning. I'm planning on testing FC/CC/pH a few more times today.