Splashing in pool making swimmers cough.

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D

dkmackay

0
May 11, 2017
9
East Palestine
I have been a member of the site for several months and have to say how much I have appreciated reading the helpful tips and advice from all of the contributors. I have tried to maintain a healthy pool by vacuumin weekly, test strips (aquacheck 7 way) etc... and thought I was doing ok.
About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that whenever someone would splash and a lot of bubbles would come to the surface, you would get a faint chemical smell and then start coughing (similar to choking). It got to the point the other night that my 6 and 8 year old daughtwrs had to sit to the side for a couple of minutes to recover. (They were playing a splash as much as you can with your legs game.) I bought an official tf100 and tested the water. We do have some wild cherry trees about 12 feet from the side of the pool and I have been struggling with the tiny flowers and other things that fall in the spring. Water test was:
Temp 90 (heater set at 80)
FC 2.0
CC 1.0
TC 3.0
TA 110
PH 7.4
CYA 55
CH 150
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel bad telling my daughters they can't get in the pool
 
HI and Welcome to TFP! Glad to hear you have been having "okay" water for so long with just the guess strips.

I think our first clue to what is going on is the CC of 1. That tells us something might be brewing. The slight smell also tells a story of this as well.

Let me ask a couple of questions to make sure we have a good picture of your pool:

-I see a coverstar cover listed....how often and for how long is it open? Tell us your routine with it.

-Do either girls have asthma at all?

Now lets get to your test numbers:

-CYA-round the 55 up to 60 and set the FC to that using this chart: Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

-FC-as you can see from the above chart your FC is low. You need to ramp your SWG up or your pump run time up so you get and keep the FC up. Make sure it does not fall below 5.

This should get us started. Lets get the girls back in that pool!!!

Kim:kim:
 
Thank you for your reply.

None of the family members have asthma. No family history.

The pool remains covered most of the time, except when we use it for anthere from 1-4 hours each day. We open it when we are ready to get in, turn the returns upwards towards the pool surface and get in. We follow the reverse procedure when we close the cover.

It looks like I need to raise the CYA by 10. I will add some of that today.
 
I would not add any CYA for right now. Lets work on getting and keep the the FC up and CC down first.

How long have you owned this pool. I see it was installed in 2014 but want to make sure of your time with the pool.

Kim:kim:
 
So you know this pool inside and out. Good!

Now lets get that CC down as I am wondering if that is what caused the coughing. CC is the "bad guy" in your water. It is the "used up FC".

To do this I think you need to do a short SLAM. Here is the link to that: Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain You will need to use liquid chlorine to do this. Do you have a pool store near you that carries it? If not you can use liquid chlorine from Walmart. They carry it in the pool supply area. It is labeled as "shock" sometimes. Do not use power shock as that is not fast enough for what we want to do.

Kim:kim:
 
Certainly, leave the cover off the ENTIRE time you are doing the SLAM.

After you complete the SLAM (follow the article EXACTLY), I suggest you leave the cover off more than you are now........the outgassing (and subsequent coughing) I believe will go away.
 

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To echo what others have said, your FC is too low for your CYA, allowing something to start growing in your pool. The smell and coughing is from the CC, which is the byproduct of FC breaking down organic material.

FC should never be allowed to fall below 7.5% of CYA, which for you would be roughly 4 ppm. I personally prefer to keep mine around 10% just to be safe. It is perfectly safe to swim with FC up to 40% of CYA, which is what we refer to as SLAM level.
 
I retested the water before heading to get the bleach. (After leaving the generator at 100% overnight) the FC is up to 8.5. I'm still assuming that I need to SLAM and Pool math is now calling for 4 1/2 gallons based upon that number. CC is still at 1.0
 
Yes you need to get it up to slam level ASAP and hold it there. You don't let it drop below slam level for even a second until CC is 0ppm water is crystal clear and it passes an OCLT.

I seriously would have bought like 15 jugs worth of bleach because that's probably what it's going to take, you can't just add it once you have to keep adding it.
Check FC every few hours and remember do not let it fall below the slam level until you're done. I've only ever had to slam once and when I did I actually slammed an additional day even after I passed all the tests just to make sure.
 
You don't let it drop below slam level for even a second
Click to expand...

i like the focus but that is not very realistic.

The more you keep the FC at SLAM level the better. But even below SLAM level, the FC is still killing algae, just not as fast. So fit the SLAM into your life, some have to work, all have to sleep. At the very least try to test your FC and dose with LC back to SLAM level at least 3 or 4 times per day.

Going above SLAM level is not recommended. It is a waste of chlorine.

Take care.
 
mknauss said:
i like the focus but that is not very realistic.

The more you keep the FC at SLAM level the better. But even below SLAM level, the FC is still killing algae, just not as fast. So fit the SLAM into your life, some have to work, all have to sleep. At the very least try to test your FC and dose with LC back to SLAM level at least 3 or 4 times per day.

Going above SLAM level is not recommended. It is a waste of chlorine.

Take care.
Click to expand...


I like to set the goal high.... :p keep the focus on keeping it at slam level as much as possible... yes, unless you are a robot and dont sleep, its impossible. but if one strives to keep it at slam level at all times, you will have a more successful slam. I never meant to advocate going over slam level, just stressing the importance of maintaining it. guess I could have worded it a little better.
 
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