large differences between free chlorine and total chlorine indicate lots of stuff is being killed by the chlorine. Free chlorine is active hypochlorite available for killing things. When the chlorine kills stuff, it creates chloramines which are just the byproducts of chlorine mixing with organic matieral and this is no longer available to kill stuff. Total chlorine is free chlorine+chloramines. In a "clean" system, total chlorine = free chlorine because there are no byproducts of stuff being killed. You need to know free chlorine and total chlorine. Knowing just total chlorine is useless.I've been running my system on sodium hypochlorite for a month or two and I'm struggling. Immediately, I noted a slight musty smell in the shower. It wasn't offensive and no one else in the house noted it, so not a show stopper. It's just not as nice as hydrogen peroxide. What is a show stopper is that I'm struggling to get the taste out of my drinking water using the reverse osmosis system. I was OK for a week or two, but it's a problem now. If I put the water into my water cooler, after a few days the taste will disappear, suggesting that the taste is from something that oxidizes with time.
In the midst of all of this, I learned that the pool test kit I'm using (OTO) only tests for total chlorine. I don't know how I missed that for 10 or 15 years, but this has likely contributed to past problems with chlorine and maybe even the current problem. I do have some test strips I'm using currently, and , and they suggest I have 3 ppm of free chlorine. I've ordered a Taylor FAS-DPD test kit, but I'm 2 or 3 weeks from getting it (they are hard to get and expensive in Canada). Is it common to see a large difference between total chlorine and free chlorine?
I'm debating going back to hydrogen peroxide, but will continue to give Sodium Hypochlorite a longer trial.
I'm curious if anyone is running UV lights in conjunction with H2O2? Would that give me a means of controlling slime AND the great water I've come to enjoy with H2O2?
chlorine is the fallback because it works. the vast majority of municipal water supplies in the world use it to treat their water. A whole lot more research and money have been devoted to those water supplies than you will be capable of expending. What do you know that they don't?@gsmith22 Thank you. I wasn't ignoring you or your prior post (I've read in it in the last 10 days). I've also done lots of reading at troublefreepool.com. If I'm guilty of anything, it's being very slow There are too many options! Everyone's fall back for bacteria/slime is chlorine, but I'm not reading of folks that are treating for bacteria AND have a pH of 8.6. I can reduce the pH when I shock (and I did this last time), but I'm more interested in setting up a system that doesn't need to be shocked more than once a year and doesn't have any upsets (H2S slippage).
This is awkward, but...
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