High Chlorine levels ..... need help reducing

[chem geek]

Even if the heater is not on, if the water went through it when the pump is running then there could still be a problem. Only if the heater isn't piped in (i.e. there are valves routing around it when off) would the water not flow into the heater and that would be a strange setup.

So it sounds like you don't need to worry much about Calcium Hardness (CH). Some people say that 150 ppm is a good target for fiberglass as it may help keep the gel coat intact, but we really don't know for sure. I'd say that a 150 ppm target would be safe (for plaster/gunite/grout, the target would be higher, usually closer to 300).

I have no idea about how to get rid of the yellow stains on the fiberglass. Hopefully someone else knows how to take care of that and will chime in.

Now that you know how the pH dropped so much, from the Trichlor tabs (could you please verify that the chlorine tabs are in fact Trichlor? Does it say "trichloro-s-triazinetrione" or something like that on the ingredients?). You'll need to certainly use less chlorine, regardless of source, and for the spa I would suggest unscented bleach or chlorinating liquid, though initially you will use some Dichlor to add some CYA as well as chlorine (if you've still got lots of Trichlor, you can use that instead of the Dichlor, but need to carefully watch the pH and add pH Up as needed).

Richard

[pucklordofchoas]

if you have any jetting in the spa i would recoment keeping a close eye on it, traditionaly in my store ive seen issues with jet being eaten away by water inbalence, as well as chlorine seems to have a negative effects on any plastic jetting systems, thats why we put all our customers on bromine high chlorine levels actually void warrenty on jets. Any way besides keeping and eye on your jets i would recomend you get a pre filter to filling your spa. it's a small filter you can attach to your garden hose and then fill your spa through that, this will reduce your metal and harness levels from your tap water. you can find them at any spa supply store.

[GABoymom3]

If you are using a granular chlorine, remember it has acid in it and will bring your ph down. You can add some ph up slowly and it will be fixed.

Usually when one says "granular chlorine" they mean Cal-Hypo which is not acidic. Dichlor is sometimes called "granular" and other times called "powdered" and it is in fact acidic when accounting for chlorine usage (it's initial addition is only slightly acidic, but when the chlorine gets used up this is more acidic). There is even some Trichlor in granular/powdered form though usually it's in pucks/tabs and its very acidic, both on addition and after chlorine is used up.

So one really needs to look at the ingredients to know what they are getting. Granular or powdered "shock" could be Cal-Hypo or Dichlor and people often confuse the two.

Chem Geek help!! Cloudy water probably high PH and Orange test results on CL BR 3 way test kit. I’ve added PH Down and added clarifier and still cloudy so what should I do?

[Teapot1]

Chem Geek has not been on here for a long time, I believe he is very busy trying to get the chemistry requirements changed to sensible requirements.

To help you we need to know a little bit more about your water. You sound anxious and flustered, the way out of that situation on pools forever is to upgrade your tests kit to a Tailor test or TFP test kit. There is more to great quality water than pH. If you are not using bromine just quote the chlorine and forget the bromine level. We need a full and accurate set of test results including pH, free chlorine, total chlorine, ALk, calcium hardness, CYA . type of filter, type of pool, vinyl, glass fibre, tiled, plastered, pebbletec etc