New pool owner - Chlorine saga

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With your CC being so high, your chlorine is getting used up very fast. That's my guess anyway. CC 1.5 for 2 tests is better than the CC 2 you've been getting lately, so hopefully it'll keep dropping.
 
Good evening

I have been following this saga from afar. I understand your frustration in this whole situation. Most importantly it is the health of your family that keeps you going. Here are my 2 cents:

Is there a university lab that can analyze what was behind your lights? That way you could know exactly what grew there?

Have you checked every light in your pool? Every return? Every opening?

I just think something else might be lurking there, which is scary. I honestly wish you the best for your family. I wish I could send you some bleach.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Mrs Hanson
 
JoyfulNoise said:
You sure you have your pool volume set correctly? And the bleach strength is correct?
Click to expand...

I'm positive about my volume and I've switched to Walmart 8.25% with a date of 202 17 as the 12.5% pool store bleach was a little older.

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MrsHanson said:
Good evening

I have been following this saga from afar. I understand your frustration in this whole situation. Most importantly it is the health of your family that keeps you going. Here are my 2 cents:

Is there a university lab that can analyze what was behind your lights? That way you could know exactly what grew there?

Have you checked every light in your pool? Every return? Every opening?

I just think something else might be lurking there, which is scary. I honestly wish you the best for your family. I wish I could send you some bleach.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Mrs Hanson
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Unfortunately, no. I do work at a hospital and considered bringing for culture, but don't want to risk my job. I have checked everything and the only thing remaining is the buried plumbing. I've even used aqua finesse that my pool store gave me for free to treat biofilm. I'm about out of fight, and money.

Thanks for the wishes and feedback.
 
I did. It sounds like the aqua finesse product my pool store/neighbor gave me. I'm trying that first, then I'll try the Ahhhsome if I need too. I'm going to try calling them Monday as well.

After 180+ gallons of 8.25% bleach, my FC is 19 and CC is finally coming down! Somewhere between 0.5 and 1! Don't know if it was the aqua finesse or just the SLAM. Now to pass an overnight test. I'm cautiously excited!
 
I'm now starting to think I had CYA eating bacteria over the winter. I ran across this

http://poolsolutions.com/gd/spring-swimming-pool-startup-problems.html

and it sounds an aweful lot like what I am experiencing. My original pool store said I had no stabilizer and had me add some when we opened this year. Chem_Geek was mentioned in the above link. Maybe he could help out or share thoughts? Thanks everyone.
 

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kaminski54 said:
I'm now starting to think I had CYA eating bacteria over the winter. I ran across this

http://poolsolutions.com/gd/spring-swimming-pool-startup-problems.html

and it sounds an aweful lot like what I am experiencing. My original pool store said I had no stabilizer and had me add some when we opened this year. Chem_Geek was mentioned in the above link. Maybe he could help out or share thoughts? Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...

Richard doesn't post on TFP anymore, unfortunate as that is. It is certainly possible in a green swimming pool to have the CYA consumed by certain types of fungi and bacteria that use it as a food source. Their by product is ammonia and, unless other bacteria are present to convert ammonia into nitrates, you are left with a lot of ammonia to clean up. Every 10ppm of CYA consumed creates about 3ppm ammonia and then it takes about 10X the amount of ammonia in FC to destroy that by converting it in chloramines. Considering the nasty goop you had hiding inside your light niche, it's not at all out of the question. If you added a lot of CYA to the pool when opening, you may have exacerbated the ammonia problem and then slowed down the ammonia clearing since CYA will moderate the chlorine/ammonia reactions to a certain extent. There was one user here who had so much ammonia in the pool that the water literally fizzled when he poured chlorine into the pool and the gasses evolved caused choking reactions. He was likely generating nitrogen trichloride and other nasty volatile compounds. If the ammonia levels are high enough, it's often better to just drain away half the water and refill to try to dilute it.

See this post for details on how CYA is converted to ammonia - Degradation of Cyanuric Acid (CYA))
 
In hind sight, I wish I would have done a drain refill multiple times (vinyl), bit I'm so deep into this now. Thanks for the link to the post.

Would running my SWCG somehow interfere with SLAM? I ask because I have been running it this whole time. I saw somewhere that you should NOT run a SWCG while shocking. So tonight I turned it off, added 22 gallons (FC was 8) and for the first time the pool is cloudy and you can actually smell bleach. Something is definitely different. Thoughts?
 
I doubt the SWCG had any effect. It would put out such little chlorine compared to what you have been dumping.

The smell is a good sign. You are finally attacking some organics and CC's are being released.

You should check your salt level after this. With all the bleach you have added you have added some salt.

Take care.
 
Added another 22 gallons last night. Pool actually had that white haze like when shocking with Cal-hypo. Tested this morning: FC 44, CC 0.5. This is the first morning the FC actually rose significantly like this and I have not had to add any bleach! Here is to hoping I can pass an overnight test and be done. Equivalent 121 oz. 8.25% bleach bottle count to date: 230

What would be the symptoms of a small vinyl liner compromise? I ask because I keep getting a dark (blackish) buildup on a vinyl seam in my shallow end about every 12 hours. It is just enough to kind of fill in the seam. It easily brushes away into solution... no clumps or anything. It also seems to collect on the corner transitions down to the deep end but seems to take longer to build up there. The vinyl seam in the shallow end seems to buildup and be noticeable more often. I'm wondering if that seam can be compromised and could be contributing to my problem??? (although I think my main issues are ammonia/urea from CYA breakdown and subsequent white water mold outbreak) I don't appear to be losing any water if that helps. Thanks!
 
Went to pool store to get new light bulb and had them test my water for fun. Actually came out similar to my results, but said I had phosphates of 1000. Didn't try to sell me anything. Just stated that was really high and good for algea food. Can someone help out with phosphates? Thanks.
 
kaminski54 said:
Went to pool store to get new light bulb and had them test my water for fun. Actually came out similar to my results, but said I had phosphates of 1000. Didn't try to sell me anything. Just stated that was really high and good for algea food. Can someone help out with phosphates? Thanks.
Click to expand...

1000ppb is not that bad. I would only treat for them once you get your FC demand fixed.
 
You can safely swim with FC at or below shock level for your CYA; you can see the bottom of the deep end; and your pH is between 7.2 and 7.8
 

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