Ewwww ewwwww ewwww. No more swimming for the Poopy Pants Twins in MY new pool. Ack.

I am a new pool owner too, so can't offer much advice. I just wanted to share that I would have the same response as you are before someone with kids comes along and says, "Oh, these things DO happen and are unavoidable."

Bleah, ick. Sorry about your misfortune. Good luck. I am sure you will get lots of good info.

"before someone with kids comes along and says, "Oh, these things DO happen and are unavoidable."

YUCK!! I have 3 kids and these things are absolutely avoidable! If they were small enough to poop uncontrollably they should have had swim diapers on. Shame on that parent for letting that happen.

Hold the chlorine level up for at least 24 hours. Run the pump that entire time. After that let the chlorine levels settle back down to normal and test the pool for combined chloramines to see if the... ummmm.... "contaminants" are gone.

How old were these kids??????

We had some floaters in our pool before. Just shock the heck out of it and don't swim in it till you've given some time for the chlorine to do its job.

Ban the poopers!

gk5040- Love your pool, these kids were 5 & 7. Old enough to know better.

barco or anyone- How long should I wait before I let anyone in to swim again? How long should I keep the Clorine levels raised?

Sure there wasn't a dog around? They are prone to doing this

"Yum, Baby Ruth..."

thx jim - now I am really disgusted!! LOL

bf-tx - no dogs around and they would have had to jump a 5' fence

Jim, I was thinking of that exact scene when I read the post, LOL!

Nu2This, 5 and 7??? Well certainly they shouldn't need swim diapers! My 5 year old swims in our pool almost daily and has never left a "deposit". Maybe some wild animal jumped your fence and performed a dump-and-run :-)

Jimbar- I was going to copy your pool house and shower plans but I believe that I need to focus on your outdoor bathroom now.
I really like what you have done with your pool and its surroundings.

For fecal issues you need to make a decision immediately. The standard is "formed" or "non-formed". In lay terms, that means the proverbial Baby Ruth bar or diarrhea. The two are far different when it comes to response. RWI's (recreational waterborne illness) can kill people in the right scenario. CDC standards change constantly but the current version is this.

CT or "contact time" is the key. For a formed stool in the water, it should be netted and not vacuumed. Treatment is typically a 2.0 chlorine dose, a pH of 7.2-7.5 at 77 degrees and a 30 minute closure.

For non-formed stools, the situation is more severe. The chlorine goes to 20ppm and you need to achieve a CT of 15,300. The CT value is calculated as CHLORINE LEVEL x the number of minutes. When that total is 15,300, you're clear. Obviously, the higher the dose, the shorter the closure.

Backwash the filter after the CT value is reached and wait for chlorine to lower to a safe level.

E.Coli, Hepatitis A and Giardia can be inactivated in less than an hour at the most. Cryptosporidium is the key in the high CT value. You should not assume that all fecal issues contain crypto but it is a safe assumption to make if you want to err on the good side.

The simple fact that someone has a case of diarrhea and is not in your pool needs to be addressed as well. A person with a case of diarrhea should not be using a pool as they can pretty much have the same affect on a pool. They should wait 3 days after it ends before swimming.

Repair Guy- I don't want to gross anyone out, but they looked solid on the bottom but, I believe because the fecal material soaked for approximately 10 hours, when I went to net it, it fell apart.
If I want to be safe using your 15,300 CT then I would keep the CL at a level of 12 for 21.25 hours. Is this correct? Thanks for the valuable information.

Yep. Let the filter run continually during this time and tear down the filter to clean it afterwards. If these little poopers continue to use your pool, consider a product such as SeaKlear PRS. It is the only product certified to say it traps crypto for removal. It's an awesome clarifier that will turn your pool to glass at the same time.

Awesome advice repair guy!

nu2this- Thanks for sharing even though the subject is not so pleasant, it was very informative. I also had this same experience with a 2 year old guest right after we filled our pool. Fortunately, I caught the "problem" right after they left and it was.....hmmmmm....."formed".

To this day, I still check the pool after all guests have left.....the scars are still too deep and have not healed!

Sounds like I should start pre-screening for diahhrea also!

I believe the word in the movie was "doodie"

Forgot one thing as it is usually the next question.

Vomit and blood are treated as formed stool incidents. No biggy in a technical standpoint but thoroughly disgusting. It's always fun to tell a commercial client that someone throwing up in the pool is merely an incident of someone dumping their salad in the pool. Heck the pH drop is good for the pool.

I was in a pool (at a condo once) and my friend's 2 year old pooped right on the steps (no one saw her actually doing it of course). She was wearing a swim diaper -- it did not hold it in!!!!

I had my friend get some paper toweling from the bathroom and I picked it up and threw it in the toilet. It was pretty solid so I did not tell anyone about it.

This a large commercial pool and I can't believe a a piece of poop on the step for 2 minutes was going to kill anyone.

Don't know if I did the right thing but I didn't want to embarrass my friend any more.

Are you absolutely sure it could not have been an animal of some kind?? My kids are 6 and 8 and in my wildest nightmares I don't think they would ever do that!

One time we were at a waterpark and this kid started heaving like she was going to throw up. The mother lifted the kid out of the pool onto the edge and the kid threw up mostly on herself and the decking. What does the mother do? Washed her kid off by splashing the pool water onto her and then proceeds to scrape everything INTO the pool. The lifeguard didn't see, so I told him what happened. The pool had to be shut down for an hour thanks to that mother's "quick thinking"!

I heard on the news today (DFW), that a local child died today of crypto. There have been alot of outbreaks around here. Mainly commercial pools, but still....

I've been around commercial pools for a quarter century and to this day would never swim in one, even the ones I maintain. Diarrhea is one you will never know when it happens. Only the person who did it and most of those are deliberate. I've got a property in Temecula, CA that serves 1000+ owners and the pool shuts down about every 10 days for something.

Thanks Repair Guy,

I am headed to San Antonio for the weekend to stay at the Hyatt Resort and planned on floating in the lazy river pool.

Maybe not now

I am sorry about what happened to you. I at least to my knowledge never had that happen to me.

To everyone that lets toddlers in the pool make them wear the "swimmers" not diapers.

I appreciate everyone's quick response and help, especially repair guy. I kept the CT up for 2 days, just in case. I already ordered some SeaKlear and tomorrow I am tearing apart the filter.
Stir Fryi - as much as I hate to think about it, I am pretty positive that it was not an animal. I could tell what it was when I was looking at it and thinking "Oh S*it", :)

I think I would have to mention something to the mom of these children....I would not accuse them, but tell her what you found and if she could mention it to the kids so that this sort of thing does not happen again. I would be mortified if my child did that, but would want to know so I made sure it never happen again. A 5 & 7 year old know better.

ps...we love our remodeled pool too:)

Pool guy how much do you charge your customers for having to clean your equipment before going to your next stop.

Mine is on a graduating scale. First offense is the service call, the chems to treat the local affected area plus any additional to get to the FC level I need, plus 15 gallons clean the hose and head. That last part is typically done by a slow siphon of a drum on the top step of the pool while still in the vac mode.

Second offense is 150% of the service call, 3rd, 200% and so on. They reset on those charges every billing period.

Algae is pretty much the same, only on a smaller scale. If I'm going to have to clean up someones mess, they pay to clean me before I move on. A drum of chlorine right now is pushing $75 to the owner.

When ever we invite new people to our pool the first thing we do is show them where the bathroom is..children are told 'make sure you go potty before you go in the pool' you never want to go potty in a pool it is very dangerous...that usually puts the scare factor in them and they always jump out when they need to go..we have allowed children under 5 to pee in the bushes because they always wait until the last minute and don't make it to the bathroom. It is an easy way to fix the problem before it happens!! good luck and next time potty first swim second!!

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

Repair guy is 100 percent correct in both.
There's a GIANT difference between a torpedo (solid stool,doodie,baby ruth,etc) and diarrhea.
The pool must be closed until chemically addressed, period.
And, although typically more disgusting, puke is like a torpedo. Gross but not the end of the day of swimming. Shock aggressively with cal-hypo or 10% bleach, net out the offensive debris, stir around the area's water slightly with the net, and then wait an hour.

This kind of stuff happens, and it's typically from a child who's having so much fun he/she forgot until it was to late. Many times they'll be trying to get out of the pool when the accident happens.

See ya,
Kelly

You guys are getting just plain sick. However, I noticed now that I really don't want to swim at all in public pools. Its amazing the difference between my pool and public pools. We were at a pool this weekend in Houston at a major 4-5 star hotel $250 a night room. Pool was cloudy and the chlorine was through the roof. The pool was also sickly warm...too warm. I could only swim for a few minutes and was getting too grossed out---and that was before I read this now extending on to loosing your salad. And, I would say this is one of the better commercial pools that I have seen.

Try one in Mexico. They think cloudy water is a good day there. And, this was a Marriott. A good thing to take along if you absolutely must swim in a hotel pool is a small bottle of test strips.

Want the worst place to avoid? Waterparks!

Yeh, my kids wanted to swim...but I kept telling them no, you go ahead. And then they asked my while I didn't want to. So I really had to explain it to them and then they didn't want to swim either. They can feel the difference too. We have neighbor kids coming over and they tell us that our pool is the cleanest, most clear pool they have ever swimmed in. There is just a night and day difference between commercial pools and public pools. I am spoiled already and now I don't see myself going into anymore commercial pools at all after these stories.

Funny you mention it. I took my test strips with me to the Hyatt. Some people looked at me strangley but more opt I got the smiles of understanding and was watched.
I think if I had turned around or not let my kids swim, the pool would have been empty.

On Sunday though we went to Sea World, wouldn't catch me dead and floating in that water park. Besides the beer is free there.

On Sunday though we went to Sea World, wouldn't catch me dead and floating in that water park. Besides the beer is free there.
>
LOL.

Are you talking about Sea World San Antonio by chance? Thats the first place where I have noticed that the smell of sweat and feet can overpower the smell of chlorine in the water. No, I wouldn't go in that water even BEFORE I got the pool.

Not just free beer but free energy drinks too....now thats a perfect combination for SeaWorld. ;)

Yup Seaworld in SA, Texas

How about the water rapid rides with the algae blooms and seaweed growing in the water along with mold on the ride seats

YUK-Never again

All I can add is here, yuck, ew and GROSS!!! We live in New Braunfels, now in addiion to avoiding the massive crowds, I can also argue as to why I don't want to go to Schlitterbahn, Sea World, Splashtown or Fiesta Texas! That is just plain disgusting but it sure does make me appreciate putting in "our very own" pool.
Just to add about the commercial pools, my 15 year old went running in our neighborhood the other day and said that when she ran by our neighborhood pool the "clorine smell" made her eyes start watering. The pool is on the opposite side of the parking lot from the street!!! I paid attention when I walk in the mornings and discovered that she is right! (All be it her nose is super sensitive) You really can "smell" the chlorine from the street!!!
Ack!!!!

susan,

In reality that smell is a sign of no or very weak levels of chlorine. Pools are to be maintained with a level of FREE CHLORINE. That is chlorine that is ready to do its job. COMBINED CHLORINE is free chlorine that has been used up and remains in the pool as CHLORAMINES, a weak sanitizer that is useless in the pool. It is the chloramines that give the smell of chlorine as well as the irritation to eyes. The only way to rid the pool of chloramines is the addition of chlorine to a point of what is called breakpoint chlorination or 10x the level of the combined chlorine reading. Sounds crazy but it's true. When you have a chlorine smelly pool that is highly irritating, add chlorine to burn off the chlorine byproducts which are primarily ammonia.

Aha! Repair guy, you are so knowledgable!!!! (is that a word?) I wondered about that and just dont surf around here enough to know. I cheat and just head to our local pool supply store weekly. Our chemicals are never/just barely off so I haven't had to do much other than some muriatic acid every now and then... thanks for the explanation. After I posted it also occured to me that the "topic" of this post was the other reason that we chose to go with a pool. It occured over and over again last summer to the point that the pool was inoperable most of the summer. And these were not kids either.... HOA responded by replacing our 4 ft fence with an 8 ft iron fence and security cameras. That I know of, it solved our "deposit" issues... Just blech.....!