Chlorine Level 50?

[ana]

water crystal clear yesterday. Husband used the tub last night. Did not treat after because chlorine level was high (0.7)

This morning water milky/ cloudy.Added 4 oz of non chlorine shock . After 1 hour used the Taylor k2006. Water pink after adding the R0870 then after 60 DROPS of R0871 water turned purple, stayed purple after 40 more drops. 50 CHLORINE???

I just added 4 oz of hydrogen peroxide.I need to go to work .will check responses later.

Viking tub, 6 person. 3 months old. Switched from bromine 3 weeks ago.

Using Well water with a water softener

Yesterday morning TA was 375. Water was clear.

Added ph down. This morning was 275. Have not use ph down since until I can find out what is going on with the chlorine.

Cya 50

Thank you for your help.

[waterbear]

water crystal clear yesterday. Husband used the tub last night. Did not treat after because chlorine level was high (0.7)

.7 ppm is not high but low FC. Is this a mistype?

This morning water milky/ cloudy.Added 4 oz of non chlorine shock .

MPS (non chloirne shock) will cause interference with the chlorine tests unless a special reagent is used. You can order it directly from Taylor.

After 1 hour used the Taylor k2006. Water pink after adding the R0870 then after 60 DROPS of R0871 water turned purple, stayed purple after 40 more drops. 50 CHLORINE???

How much of the DPD powder did you add? If it was only one or two scoops your chlorine was not high. The pink color will bleach out at very high FC levels and requires the addition of additonal DPD powder to maintain the pink color.

I just added 4 oz of hydrogen peroxide.I need to go to work .will check responses later.

This was probably a mistake but not a major one.

Viking tub, 6 person. 3 months old. Switched from bromine 3 weeks ago.

Did you drain and refill when you switched from bromine? If not you still have a bromine tub.

Using Well water with a water softener

Yesterday morning TA was 375. Water was clear.

Added ph down. This morning was 275.

Where is your pH?

Have not use ph down since until I can find out what is going on with the chlorine.

Cya 50

Thank you for your help.

It would be most helpful if you would post a FULL set of test results for FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, and CYA. If you get any strange readings like you did with the chlorine test then post that also. Once you do we will look at them and see what you should do next.

[ana]

Thank you for the reply.

Chlorine test not conclusive. Water turned pink then purple while I was still doing the swirl.Turned purple after adding R 0871 and stayed purple.( Test strips shows 0.5 ppm. Is it possible the chlorine is too low and not high as I thought.

PH above 8.0 ( hot, hot pink color)

TA 250 ppm

Calcium ..... not conclusive.After the 5 drops of R0011L , water was kind of light blue - lavender in color, not red. After 9 drops of R0012 turned to almost colorless (hint of blue)

CYA 50 (2mm above 50, toward the 40 mark)

Thank you for your help

[waterbear]

Get yourself an inexpensive OTO/pH two way test kit. You can identify such a kit because the chlorine comparator uses shades of yellow.

OTO (orthotolidine) only tests total chlorine which is why it is not used in better test kits BUT it has one saving grace, it is bulletproof no matter how high the chlorine or bromine level really is!

Do the test and if the color is colorless to pale yellow then the chlorine is very low

If the colow is yellow the chlorine is in normal range

if the color is intense yellow to orange the chlorine is in shock range

if the color is orange to brown to reddish the chlorine is extremely high.

Both DPD and FAS-DPD and test strip tests will beach out or give false readings with very high sanitizer levels, OTO does not.

I suspect that you might have a high chlorine because of what you said about the pH and calcium tests, although your very high TA would also explain the high pH. Also, you added MPS shock and that will cause some interference also (and will also show up on the OTO test. However, you will know if your chlorine/mps levels are low, normal, or high and can then take appropriate action.

Once you get that done we can work on getting your water balanced since it is way off.

What form of chlorine are you using for sanitation?

[ana]

I have a OTO test kit I use for the pool in the summer. I will get it in the morning ( back shed, dark now and I have to move some of the outdoor furniture out of the way) then post the results.

I did not drain the tub, just stop using bromine, about two weeks ago . Twice I used granular shock bought at Lowes ( swimmer's choice 99% sodium dichloroisocyanurate)) and less then 1 oz of nonchlorine shock after each use, , about 8 times in the last 2 weeks. Have not used bleach yet .Also added 4 oz of borax 5 days ago

( I see you shaking your head )

Was gathering information from various posts , acted before I had the full understanding of dichlor/ bleach method.

Is it a way to fix this without draining, like going back to bromine?

Hot tub is inside, water hose stored away, outdoor faucet turned off....... dog ate my homework......

Sorry, i'm really crying on the inside. Did not want a hot tub,just a sun room.Husband wanted the tub. Built the sun room and got a tub.Husband happy, me stressed.

Thank you again for the help.

[ana]

Got the OTO kit

No chlorine reading

PH high

Shocked a small amount of water , just to make sure the solution drops still ok, and when testing got the chlorine reading.

Need to go to work and hate not to do anything, if I treat with nonchorine shock would it be ok? Or adding bleach is the way to go.

Thank you

.....

Bleach not the way, tub full of suds.All scooped out.

[ana]

Got the OTO kit

No chlorine reading

PH high

Shocked a small amount of water , just to make sure the solution drops still ok, and when testing got the chlorine reading.

Need to go to work and hate not to do anything, if I treat with nonchorine shock would it be ok? Or adding bleach is the way to go.

Thank you

.....

Bleach not the way, tub full of suds.All scooped out.

-----

5oz nonchlorine shock, pale pale yellow reading(1/2 half hour after treatment )

Added 5 more oz , and leaving for work.

Fingers cross I still have a useable tub when I return.

Thank you.

[waterbear]

OK, first rule you need to learn:

You can convert a chlorine tub to bromine without draining (just add sodium bromide and tabs in a floater) but you CANNOT convert a bromine tub to chlorine without draining because the dimethylhydantion carrier used in bromine tabs 'stabilizes' the bromine so it stays around until you drain. If you have not used tabs by only sodium bromide and an oxidizer (2 step bromine) then you might get rid of all the bromide in the water in a few weeks IF the spa is exposed to full sunlight and not kept covered (and if you have been doing 2 step bromine you must have a masochistic streak since it is trick at best, IMHO, and has no real advantage over chlorine!)

I suggest you read Bromine for Beginners and learn how to do bromine properly. It usually is NOT done properly, even by many dealers!

If you really want to give chlorine a try you are going to have to drain and refill, no way around it.

In a nutshell, chlorine is a bit more work than bromine in a hot tub and requires more attention. If you are going to use the spa several times a week (or at least test and add sanitizer that often) then it is not a problem. If the spa might go untouched for a week or two at a time then three step bromine is a better choice since it is a bit more forgiving.

Let us know what you decide to do and we can guide you from there!

[waterbear]

Got the OTO kit

No chlorine reading

PH high

Shocked a small amount of water , just to make sure the solution drops still ok, and when testing got the chlorine reading.

Need to go to work and hate not to do anything, if I treat with nonchorine shock would it be ok? Or adding bleach is the way to go.

Thank you

.....

Bleach not the way, tub full of suds.All scooped out.

Foaming is an indicator of NO sanitizer in the water. MPS is NOT a santizer, just an oxidizer. If you have not been building up a bromine bank then adding MPS is not going to do much good!

-----

5oz nonchlorine shock, pale pale yellow reading(1/2 half hour after treatment )

Added 5 more oz , and leaving for work.

Fingers cross I still have a useable tub when I return.

Thank you.

You need to get a sanitizer in the water, shock with bleach (plain, unscented laundry bleach only with out thickeners, additives, or speciality bleach like 'outdoor bleach, these are not plain sodium hypochlorite and can foam!) and put your floater with bromine tabs back in. If you want chlorine you will need to drain and refill!

[ana]

Back to Bromine.

Thank you very much for your help.

Called home, bromine is back in the tub

What is my next Step ?

Thank you again.

[waterbear]

Just follow the steps in the bromine for beginners link a few posts up!

[ana]

Just follow the steps in the bromine for beginners link a few posts up!

After 5 hour last night and another 4 hours this morning ,testing, treating, retesting, reading other posts, making notes, ... over and over again ( wishing my name was BinaryBob, ) , I have the following results:

Using Taylor K2006 :

PH 9 ( Used PH down from large to small amounts ( read that in another post ) over 2 hour period. Overshot, then PH up, overshot again, then PH down to current reading.

TA 120

calcium not conclusive, after the 5 drops of R0011, turned pink , then 15 drops of R0012 water is colorless . ( I added 2 oz of liquid chlorine, this morning will add more after all the other issue are addressed)

CYA 48

-----------------------------------

Using OTO pool kit

Bromine 8.5 ? ( about 2 shades darker then 6.5. top marking on OTO kit) I put in a floater with bromine tablets NOT the original frog that has the bromine and mineral cartridge.

I did try the Taylor kit you, Waterbear, sugested to BinaryBob , the water turned purple after the 2 dippers and a dark blue after 28 drops of 0871.

What has me worried is the fact that on the test strips ( used just to solidify the OTO kit results, bromine mark turns to dark yellow almost orange when the safe range is light green) .

The PH , TA and free chlorine are ok on the strips.

Also when using OTO kit to test PH level (just to compare to Taylor kit results) ph shows higher then 8.2 ( top marking on OTO kit) but there is some staff floating around, then settles to the bottom , fuzzy yellow color.

I'm going to buy another testing solution, present solution being over a year old ( expired 11/2011)

Water is very clear, but after reading other post I still have 4 concerns.

1. Is my bromine level tested with the OTO kit, ok?

2. Fuzzy yellow matter in the OTO tester for the PH

3. Scumball floating on top of spa has a collected a very small amount of light green foam

4. When jets running water has a lot of, soda like, fizz.

Thank you .

[waterbear]

Did not know you were using a spa frog.

They add metal to your water. I would drain, refill, and start over fi ti were my spa.

Also, when posting test results it would make it easier to see a "snapshot" of your water by posting like this

FC

CC

(or Br if using bromine instead of the above two)

pH

TA

CH

CYA (if using chlorine)

[WuhWuzzat]

Are you using The Pool Calculator to estimate the correct dosage of chemicals?