Total Chlorine Unreadably High

[KyleAndVal]

We opened our pool 6 days ago. There was some visible algae around the edge but otherwise the water looked decent. Once we tossed in the polaris and it got hazy and cloudy, as expected. We dumped in liquid bleach to get things started. Last year we had an algae issue when we opened and it took at TON of bleach to kill it. So we blindly added about 6 jugs of bleach thinking we'd need at least that.

The water looks great now. It's clear, no algae. We have a Taylor FAS-DPD kit. When I test for chlorine, I'm getting levels well over 25. I've stopped adding drops because even at 25, the test is holding solid pink and doesn't even seem to be close. I feel like it could take the whole bottle to get a reading. I fear we over chlorinated but I also thought the levels should be dropping a little faster than what they are.

My other levels are:

PH 7.3
TA 90
CYA 55-60
Calcium Hardness:180
FC: 25+ ?
CC: not test (because I can't get a solid TC reading)

Anything else we can do to lower the chlorine? Or anything else I should be testing? Am I missing something?

Thanks for your help!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Wait a day or two and the FC will lower itself over time.

 

[mknauss]

If the bleach was 10%, that would have raised your FC to 18 ppm.

Are using a 10 ml water sample to test with?

 

[KyleAndVal]

If the bleach was 10%, that would have raised your FC to 18 ppm.

Are using a 10 ml water sample to test with?

Yes we are using a 10ml water sample. And my husband thinks we added 8 jugs.

So could it have possibly been higher (from the winter treatment) before we added the bleach because that doesn't seem to add up?

 

[KyleAndVal]

Yes we are using a 10ml water sample. And my husband thinks we added 8 jugs.

So could it have possibly been higher (from the winter treatment) before we added the bleach because that doesn't seem to add up?

And the bleach was only 6.5%

I'm puzzled!

 

[mknauss]

from the winter treatment

What was that?

 

[JamesW]

Are you sure that you're using the correct reagent?

 

[ajw22]

10ml sample every drop is .5 .... 25 drops you only got up to 13ppm.

Each gallon of 6% bleach is around 1.9ppm in your pool. You were around 15ppm with the 8 gallons added. You would have found out if you kept on going.

Do you use PoolMath?

Wait 3 days and retest. With CYA 60 your shock FC is 24 and swimming is safe anywhere below that. Go swim if you want to.

 

[ping]

You can also test with 5mL of water and each drop will count as 1ppm of FC. This is not ideal but it will save some reagent and will give you some assurance.

 

[KyleAndVal]

What was that?

I'm not exactly sure. We hired a company to close :-/

 

[KyleAndVal]

You can also test with 5mL of water and each drop will count as 1ppm of FC. This is not ideal but it will save some reagent and will give you some assurance.

I will try this. I've been using 10ml of water. And I've done 50 drops (so the FC is over 25). I'll try to 5mL next time and see if I can get an actual reading. Thanks!

 

[JamesW]

Check your tap water to make sure that the test is working.

 

[KyleAndVal]

I thinK I figured it out!

I went to take the test again with 5mL and I got FC: 10. And I also noticed my powder was clumping. I *think* the powder wasn't fully dissolved when I did the test before. I did the test again with 10mL and also got FC 10. So it's all making more sense!

Thanks all for your help!

 

[mknauss]

Glad that worked out.
You might consider some fresh reagents. TFTestkits.net has full refills for the K2006.

 

[JamesW]

It really won't make any difference if all the powder didn't dissolve. If you got a pink color, the test will work.