I don't have an autofill, so that's not it. Yeah, I know what ultimately caused this (low FC and a lot of rain) and I know how to fix it. This is the geek in me needing to understand what's going on in this giant chemistry set we call a "pool"
What happened to my water?
- Thread starter Drew80
- Start date
This is an amazing thread.... you keep adding chlorine and still don't register. So like you said, maybe something is instantly eating up the chlorine. Test validate your testing reagents and stuff have you tried filling up a gallon jug of water, adding a dash of chlorine to it (setup a new "Pool" in Pool Math as 1 gallon and it'll tell you the amount of Chlorine to add to 1 gallon to get an FC of like 5) -- and then test your 1 gallon jug with the dash of Chlorine to make sure your test kit is reading accurately? You can do the same with pH too in that 1 gallon jug, to verify you're kit is reading pH properly. Just a thought.... Unless you're 100% sure your kit is good already.
I never saw a pH that color either. I guess I'd just keep adding chlorine constantly until it starts to register and keep that pump active constantly and maybe even help move that water around yourself with whatever you can? Keep us updated.
I never saw a pH that color either. I guess I'd just keep adding chlorine constantly until it starts to register and keep that pump active constantly and maybe even help move that water around yourself with whatever you can? Keep us updated.
Hello all. I have an update. After many, many gallons of chlorine, I finally managed to get the water to register an FC above 0, and then I accidentally overshot and ran it up to about 30. Oops, but at least it finally got clean. So that leaves the question of how I got there to begin with.
I still think I had ammonia in my water. It smelled awful and was neutralizing the bleach immediately, and that seems to match the description. But how did I get ammonia?
I *might* have an answer. We just discovered that we have a MASSIVE infestation of aphids in our trees. We left town for a week and came home to a back yard completely covered in sticky goo (lovingly referred to as "honeydew" in the articles I've read). It's apparently wreaking havoc on pools all over town, with some people even having to drain them. No idea why they would drain, but anyway.
Anyone have any experience with aphid infestations? Could honeydew be overloading my FC? It also grows lots of sooty mold on the leaves, and all of that probably blew into my pool with the big rain. Could that be the ultimate cause of this mess?
I still think I had ammonia in my water. It smelled awful and was neutralizing the bleach immediately, and that seems to match the description. But how did I get ammonia?
I *might* have an answer. We just discovered that we have a MASSIVE infestation of aphids in our trees. We left town for a week and came home to a back yard completely covered in sticky goo (lovingly referred to as "honeydew" in the articles I've read). It's apparently wreaking havoc on pools all over town, with some people even having to drain them. No idea why they would drain, but anyway.
Anyone have any experience with aphid infestations? Could honeydew be overloading my FC? It also grows lots of sooty mold on the leaves, and all of that probably blew into my pool with the big rain. Could that be the ultimate cause of this mess?
This article seems to corroborate my story, if anyone is interested.