More than Algae

[funtimeken]

My dearest Watermom,

I am writing with my best wishes for a long and hardy life with lots of pool advice. The "Neon Green Monster" seems to have pulled it's tail between it's legs and vanished into the great beyond, or where-ever he goes to hide until the next round. I guess he could not take the 8 gallons of 12.5% chlorine 3 times a day since the 29th ( do not forget the 38 bottles prior to that over the prior 9 days ( yes, 110 bottles and the pool is finally clear)!!!

However, (and there is always a however) my chemical readings are a bit baffling. As I did the chlorine, I filled the small tube on the test kit as instructed, counted in the 5 drops of reagent #1, then added 5 drops of reagent #2. the water in the tube first turned a lovely shade of magenta ( that would be bright pink), then immediately went clear!!! When I added the 5 drops of reagent #3, to my surprise, the water went first to bright yellow and continued to get darker until it hit almost brown mud!!! Alrighty now, I decided to test my abilities on some other areas as well. The ph, after adding the 5 drops was a bright purple, and the CYA was somewhere in the middle between the 40 & 80 marks, I would guess around 65. Just for HA-HA's I took out a test strip. LOOK OUT!!! Total hardness (meaningless as it is because I have a vinyl liner) was around the 200-250 mark, just right. The total chlorine was baffling again. The little color pad was dark yellow on the outside and dark green (almost black) in the middle!! The free chlorine was off the chart purple (if I had to guess, around 14-16). The PH also was off the chart purple, most likely around a 9. THe alkalinity was perfect at 80, but the CYA was darker than the 300!!!

OMG - in texting language, that would be "OH MY GOD"!!! What now?? Do I lighten up on the shock now that the "Neon Green Monster" has left the house (I would presume so)? Should I also just give the pool a few days to get it's head screwed on right, let the pump run 24/7 and wait 3-4 days? Or do I run to the "Pool Guy" yelling "HELP, HELP" -----NOT!!!

Any thoughts??

Most admirably,

Funtimeken

P.S.
I hope I do not end up in the "Hall of Shame" due to this one!!!

[Poconos]

I just modded in your post and wanted to let you know Mom will check in after work later this afternoon. I haven't been following this situation so I can't help.
Al

[chem geek]

It sounds like you are using a DPD chlorine test where you compare the color of the sample to a standard which is varying shades/intensity of pink/red. High chlorine levels will bleach out DPD which explains the flash of pink turning to clear. The dark color after R-0003 reagent indicates high CC though the very high FC may be interfering with that somewhat.

You really should have a better test kit with a FAS-DPD chlorine test. If you don't have a Taylor K-2005 test kit already, then get the Taylor K-2006 which you can get from Amazon here. If you already have the K-2005, then you can get the Taylor K-1515-C kit from Amazon as well (same link as above, but then search All Departments for "Taylor K-1515". The FAS-DPD chlorine test will not bleach out (extra powder is added if you see a flash of pink) and it can measure up to 50 ppm and can measure with an accuracy of 0.5 or 0.2 ppm depending on sample size.

In the meantime, you can dilute the pool water sample with distilled water (even tap water would be OK, though would increase the reading a little but since it's so high already that's not a big problem) so if you use 1 part pool water with 4 parts distilled water, then you multiply the result of your tests by 5.

[Watermom]

Ken,
Glad the pool is clear! Algae monsters can't take the high cl levels and retreat as you have found. Now, you just have to make sure it never comes back by diligently maintaining proper water chemistry. Chem Geek has steered you towards the test kits we recommend. Hope you'll consider getting a good kit. It will make taking cared of your pool a lot easier.

Try the dilution method and see if you can get some readings and then repost.

BTW -- I merged your new post into the original thread. Better to keep all the information together to make it easier for us to help.

[funtimeken]

Hi Mom,

Thanks for the info. I will try the dilution to see what happens. Also, could you or someone else please explain the difference between the "DPD" test kit which I have (from 2001 by the way), and a "FAS-DPD" test kit? I am really not sure what the difference is. I tired to look and Googled it, but it really was not much help.

Thanks.

Funtimeken

[Watermom]

With the DPD test, you add drops of two different reagents to a water sample, mix, then compare the color to those shown on the side of the test block. You are limited as to how high of a chlorine level you can read. (I think most can read up to 5ppm.)

With the FAS-DPD test, you add a scoop of powder to a water sample which turns it pink and then add drops of a different reagent until the sample turns clear, counting drops as you go. Your reading is the number of drops X 0.2 or 0.5 depending on how much of a water sample you use. You can test much higher chlorine readings with FAS-DPD up to at least 50 or more.

Hope this info helps clarify. My recommendation is to get a FAS-DPD kit -- the Taylor K-2006 is the one we suggest.

[chem geek]

You can see how the FAS-DPD test works in a demo shown in this link.