first slam

TL;DR: (skip down to numbered questions) This is my first season as a pool owner and my absolute worst fear has just happened - algae. 😭 I have spent all summer trying to get all of my chemicals perfectly balanced at the same time and I FINALLY achieved it about a week and a half ago...and...

Hello everyone! My husband and I are first time pool owners. We just purchased a new house in Dallas, TX. The previous owner invited us over to show us how he maintained the pool. He was using 2-3 chlorine pucks a week and recommended a weekly "shock" in the summer using what I believe is...

What? I started my SLAM at 40 CYA, using liquid chlorine, 8.25% Sodium Hypochlorite. I just finished my slam, checking my levels and they are: FC: 13.5 CC: 0 CYA: 100 Where did this CYA come from???

Hi all- new homeowner & new above ground pool owner here! 👋 My FC was 0 so I decided to SLAM. Based on the CYA chart, my shock FC is 20. Does that mean I should be maintaining a 20 FC throughout the slam? That’d be a TON of bleach. I’ve already gone through 10 (121oz) jugs. I’ve been more or...

First time pool owner. I forgot to add chlorine to pool going away for a long weekend, and came back to a green pool. That Tuesday I followed the advice on the taylor kit booklet table in the back and added 4 gallons of chlorine to add 30 ppm. Killed the algae overnight since the pool was blue...

Hello! TFP newbie. I've treated my pool with tablets and shock for the last 5 years. Last year I was experiencing chlorine lock and spending a ton of money on pool supplies. Google helped me discover this site! I'm so thankful! Fast forward to this year. We uncovered the pool and drained a...

Hi! I was just poking around the site and I stumbled on This Now I’m going to have nightmares I ruined my brand new liner. 😬 I hired a local pool company to open the pool because it’s my first season with the pool actually up and running. The saga of my pool’s rehabilitation can be found if...

I started a SLAM back on 5/06 and it looks like it is about done. Water is clear, OCLT was at 1ppm, and CC is 0.5. Is there any reason why I should continue to SLAM or should I allow the FC to come down to the maintenance level? Any help is greatly appreciated. Looking forward to swimming soon...

Hello all! New the forum here. Purchased a house last year that came with a 24,000 gal above ground pool with a Perma Salt system. I read before opening this year that those are frowned upon, so when we opened the pool, we decided to switch to a straight chlorine! I don't think we have added...

CYA - 40ppm Current FC - 22ppm Current TC - 0PPM Water is clear. Chlorine loss overnight is ~5-6ppm Cartridge Filter System Plaster pool *My pool was in BAD shape. I normally would have drained it, but I decided to do the SLAM to kill everything in the pipes, filter, etc... I am on day 15 at...

First, I want to say that we are first time pool owners of a 10k gallon, vinyl, filter cartridge using, chlorine eating, in ground pool, which came with our home purchase last fall. I've added what I know in the about me portion. If I didn't do something correctly just let me know. Based upon...

Hi TFP! I'm new here - been lurking for a few months but now I need some help! First month of pool ownership was a breeze (May 1-June 1). I used the test strips (LOL) and had no issues. Water was clear and all was good in the world. Then, around June 1, we started seeing some sediment in the...

I’ve begun the slamming process and I just want to make sure I’m not crazy. I know zero CC is the ideal outcome so I ‘think’ I’m still on the right track. I added a bunch of chlorine last night, that brought FC from 0 to 8 this morning. Added more, FC went to 12 (this was at 7:20am ET). Each...

Bought a house that came with a neglected above ground pool (no idea how long). We purchased a new sand filter, cleaned out debris, shocked and got it to cloudy blue over the course of about a week. It has now been cloudy for over a month & 1/2 and we can not get it clear. Since the original...

SLAMed for two days, both nights failed OCLT within 4-6. Pool water has been and continues to be very clear. I am considering pausing the SLAM (after perusing others in forum with similar issues) to take apart the pool light, ladder, and the cartridge filter and see if there's any growth there...

Hello - I am new to pool care and I want to make sure the advice I was given is correct before adding 14 GALLONS of liquid Cl. Last night I followed the SLAM chart and added 3 gal of liquid. Today I took a sample to Leslies because i thought I was using my new Taylor K-2006 kit wrong when I got...

Hey y'all! I've had a pool for a season, but our small town pool supply store just went out of business, so I found TFP and am attempting to maintain it myself this year. I got a Taylor testing kit and got some numbers. My FC was 1, CC was 5.5, PH was 8.4, TA was 130, CH was 180, CYA was 0...

TLDR; I started SLAM last night. ~80 CYA, started at 0.3 ppm Chlorine, 7.5 pH. Dumped 4 gallons of 10% bleach. After it was dark (about an hour after dumping) FC read 34 ppm, CC was 1 ppm. This morning before the sun was up, FC read 22 ppm, CC was 0.5ppm. What is going on here? My novice...

As a first timer I am trying really hard not to screw anything up (really do long term damage) as I figure things out. I need to SLAM the pool (starting today!) and I was curious if I should use a manual vacuum or if I could use my robot vacuum to help with initial clean up to see where I...

Ok so still in my first summer as a pool owner and all was great until a couple weeks ago we had a week of rain and I noticed my chlorine levels dropping. I’ve got them back up but then back off to normalize my chlorine input and down goes FC. ? Here are my current numbers as of 5 min ago. I...

Moved from here. I'd like to piggyback here, as I'm about to start a SLAM myself. I'm trying to get rid of 2 tiny spots of black algae (both less than dime size), one small spot of green algae (less than a quarter), and the remnants of mustard algae (this was kind of bad, and I shocked it...

Short story. The pool has been done for three weeks. The guy responsible for set up and maintenance disappeared and the pool builder is not very helpful. “We build pools, we are not chemists” We have yellow algae already, so I am ready to slam. I have read through the pool school book but have...

Hi. My CYA is off-the-charts high, so I'm about to drain the pool, replace the water, and then start the SLAMing process. I have read the SLAM article. Just to confirm I understand the correct order of re-introducing the chemicals, I need to bring the pH up to 7.2 - 7.5 with the new water...

OK people, I'm about to do my first official SLAM after studying posts on this site. My pool levels are pretty on point for the most part but my phosphate level is at 500 which is why I feel like algae keeps coming back on the walls within 2 days of scrubbing, despite having high FC levels...