Testing for Dummies-Need Help

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We mentioned earlier that your CYA was also low. A low CYA means less protection from the sun for your chlorine (FC). Were you able to add more stabilizer yet? That could explain why your FC is falling so quickly during the day. The TX sun is getting hot.
 
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shellydsizemore said:
Helpful info, thank you! Since my initial test, I've just been testing the FC. It was super exciting to see it actually turn pink last night, lol.
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Absolutely! I do that test so much I know pretty well where I'm at once it starts turning pink. If it's a light pink sometimes I'll just dump the sample and add a gallon of Chlorine. If it turns dark pink right away, yup, I'll test it and see exactly where I'm at.
 
Texas Splash said:
We mentioned earlier that your CYA was also low. A low CYA means less protection from the sun for your chlorine (FC). Were you able to add more stabilizer yet? That could explain why your FC is falling so quickly during the day. The TX sun is getting hot.
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So no stabilizer yet. With my struggles to get any type of actual reading on FC, I've been focusing on getting that into the whole number level. I also understand that the higher the CYA, the more chlorine it takes to SLAM which is where I am now.

We started the season off with algae, though whether it is green or black is questionable at this point. With how it appeared, Leslie's diagnosed it as black. When we spent 3 hours brushing the pool last weekend, I'm inclined to think otherwise. Our pool has not been green and we had the classic black spots on our walls, though it was relatively minimal. After getting sucked into Leslie's $65 bottle of "black algae killer" & other instructions and still not getting anywhere is when I stepped into this picture. We brushed endlessly and it looked much better. Started adding the shock and researching when I found TFP. And here we are, lol.

I can run a FC test with my eyes closed now. After adding the 3rd gallon of 7% bleach this morning and seeing a 1.5 FC, I was thrilled. Tested again after picking up liquid chlorine this afternoon and was back to .5. So we backwashed, added 2.5 gallons of 10% and am now sitting at 11 about an hour after adding. We'll see how that goes. That was about 30 minutes ago.

Will be picking up the stabilizer tomorrow and definitely want to up my CYA, but am hesitant due to increased need for chlorine. Seems to be a tie. Sun burns up chlorine too fast due to low CYA (still hovering around 30) resulting in higher need for chlorine or increase CYA and need more chlorine to SLAM.

I opted to start the SLAM process as I'm not convinced our algae problems ever truly went away despite the pretty blue water. We couldn't get our levels high enough to kill it all. I've got 2 more gallons of 10% and can get more. My local Walmart has about 50 more jugs on the shelf. Will be a loooonnng weekend, and not in a good way, lol. But I'm cautiously optimistic since finding TFP!
 
11pm: FC 11
6am: FC 3.5

With only 3.5 left at sunrise, the rest of it will be gone by noon. That sounds like a LOT of lost chlorine with nothing to burn it but junk. I don't get it. I mean, I DO get it... it's feasting on something massive. But what? Our water is clear. Minimally cloudy, but barely. No green in sight. Minimal residual spots along the side that you can't even see until you are close up. Which I realize is still potentially consuming our chlorine, but it's not like I've got a swamp in my back yard. I'm so tired. And frustrated. And ready to fill it in.
 
Do you have lights? Take them out and scrub behind them. Do you have a ladder? Take it out and scrub inside the tube. Do you have an autofill? Scrub it. Scrub inside the skimmers, check the weir door foam for algae. Even the smallest amounts can consume a ton. This was my ladder. That little bit inside consumed LOTS for 3 days until I figured out the tubes were hollow...

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I know it seems like an endless cycle but I promise once you can really slam with cya enough to protect the FC so it can do it's job it will go fairly smooth. Right now you're just toying with it when you have to assassinate & go for the kill. I started from essentially a lake this year and took me 15 days of test & dose every couple of hours & blindly brushing quick every time I dosed. Once it went clear it took 3 OCLT's to finally pass & from then on I've been maintaining.
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Just bought another 7 gallons of 10% and on my way to a small mom & pop pool supply store for the stabilizer. I refuse to give any more money to Leslie's and my local Walmart did not have the stabilizer. What am I looking to raise my CYA to? From my understanding, it needs to be higher than normal, but not too high for the SLAM purpose?

Edit to ask: how soon should I test after adding stabilizer? Going to try to get liquid if they have it.
 
shellydsizemore said:
Just bought another 7 gallons of 10% and on my way to a small mom & pop pool supply store for the stabilizer. I refuse to give any more money to Leslie's and my local Walmart did not have the stabilizer. What am I looking to raise my CYA to? From my understanding, it needs to be higher than normal, but not too high for the SLAM purpose?

Edit to ask: how soon should I test after adding stabilizer? Going to try to get liquid if they have it.
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If you are in SLAM mode, your CYA of 30 is perfect, I wouldn't add more.

You can test after 24-48 hours. Use the dry stabilizer, not the liquid. Cheaper and less problems.
 
PoolStored said:
Do you have lights? Take them out and scrub behind them. Do you have a ladder? Take it out and scrub inside the tube. Do you have an autofill? Scrub it. Scrub inside the skimmers, check the weir door foam for algae. Even the smallest amounts can consume a ton. This was my ladder. That little bit inside consumed LOTS for 3 days until I figured out the tubes were hollow...

3.jpg

3.jpg

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We did a deep scrub of all of those hard to reach spots last weekend. My husband and I, both. 3 hours total. So that's like, what? 6 hours of scrubbing, lol? The only thing we weren't able to scrub by hand are the 2 drain things at the bottom, but we used the pole & stainless brush to reach it. Neither of us is very good at going under to that depth. No ladder.
 

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shellydsizemore said:
We did a deep scrub of all of those hard to reach spots last weekend. My husband and I, both. 3 hours total. So that's like, what? 6 hours of scrubbing, lol? The only thing we weren't able to scrub by hand are the 2 drain things at the bottom, but we used the pole & stainless brush to reach it. Neither of us is very good at going under to that depth. No ladder.
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Gotta get those drain covers off and scrub in there...Had three threads this spring where the main drains were the culprits...surprised all three owners the amount of algae in the main drains...
 
Here's one of them...

Water won't clear up

I just realized how much having the autocover has been saving my chlorine from the sun....had it open for a few hours for vacuum and lost about 6-7ppm. Just added more and will check it again in a couple hours. I do have a question though - if algae can live anywhere water can get, how is it...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
PoolStored said:
If you are in SLAM mode, your CYA of 30 is perfect, I wouldn't add more.

You can test after 24-48 hours. Use the dry stabilizer, not the liquid. Cheaper and less problems.
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I ended up with both since we're going to use it one way or another at some point, but yeah. Definitely not worth it under normal circumstances. Figured I can start with the liquid when the time comes to get it up just enough that I can afford the time it will take the dry to dissolve. But may end up just using the dry.

For comparison purposes... the dry stabilizer I got at the mom & pop shop was 5lbs for $13, or 2.60/lb. Leslie's 4lb tub is $33 which ends up being 8.25/lb. Sometimes it pays to shop small businesses!

Once I get thru this mess, I'll be jumping on the TFP Supporter bandwagon! You all have been a lifesaver and I want to contribute what I can to keep things going. Will be getting the paid app subscription and adding a donation as well.
 
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PoolStored said:
Gotta get those drain covers off and scrub in there...Had three threads this spring where the main drains were the culprits...surprised all three owners the amount of algae in the main drains...
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Well maybe we'll have to pay someone to do that...we have tried, but just physically cannot do it. It is, quite literally, impossible for either of us.
 
If you use the liquid, you must use the entire bottle at one time...and you must rinse it until there is nothing left in the bottle...
 
Update: it has been a very long day, lol. But I've managed to keep my FC levels above 9.5 (I struggled to get to 12 so maybe my calculations on volume or CYA were off, but I did get it to 11)

I have been busy today! See recap below.

I started the day at sunrise at 3.5 after being at 11 last night. I added a total of 3.39 gallons of 10% bleach and brushed each time.

I tested a total of 7 times between 6a-7:30pm and added chlorine 5 times, ranging between .5 gallon to 1.5 gallons each time. I also added .5 gallon of liquid CYA by diluting it with water and pouring it in front of return jets and doing it in small increments. Probably a total of 6-8 small buckets that equaled the half gallon. Within an hour, my CYA levels are now up, just above 30. Maybe 32ish. The water line was below the 30!

(Yellow line in pic) I also included some pics of the algae spots we still have and the algae smears someone here asked me to do recently. They are all pretty green. Not a single tinge of blue. So idk if it's just plain algae or black algae.

Lather, rinse, repeat.
 

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