0 CYA and 0 FC. Need advise

[LovinPoolLife]

Borates in pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

In a basic sense Borates will buffer ph rise and increase ph a little. As @mgtfp and @Mdragger88 noted amount of borax you’ve added will have neglible effect on your borate level. Read up on the wiki I linked to above, it provides great detail. As for the ducks, as you get your pool cleared they’ll go away on their own. I wouldn’t worry too much about them at the this time.

Thank you, I’ll read up on that borate info, thanks . And as for these ducks. They have been a nightmare for me for the past 6 yrs and hang around til end of June. They will sit on my solar cover as if they’re lounging on a waterbed

 

[LovinPoolLife]

I have two duck couples that picked my pool for nesting at different times. The overlap period was quite dramatic... One of them came back for a second clutch.

I made my peace with them and enjoy them while they're there. Usually gone by the time the swim season really kicks in. But they can make a bit of a mess that needs staying on top on.

If you don't want them to nest next to your pool then you need to be vigilant in shooing them away as soon as they land. They can be very stubborn once they've chosen a nesting spot.

But seeing the ducklings was very rewarding. Needed some planning to make sure they were able to get out of the pool. Once hatched, they hung around for a couple of hours (one time over night), then left not to be seen again. Until the next clutch...



View attachment 566186

The ducklings are adorable in your pic. For us the ducks don’t nest in our yard. They’ve found a safe haven in our neighbors thick “weed patch” and walk/fly about 400’ to our pool. The people behind us have a pool but the ducks don’t seem to like theirs lol. I’ve once put every floaty we own in the pool, including an alligator one. Didn’t stop them

 

[mgtfp]

The ducklings are adorable in your pic. For us the ducks don’t nest in our yard. They’ve found a safe haven in our neighbors thick “weed patch” and walk/fly about 400’ to our pool. The people behind us have a pool but the ducks don’t seem to like theirs lol. I’ve once put every floaty we own in the pool, including an alligator one. Didn’t stop them

Yeah, that can be a bit annoying. At least you can shoo them away with good conscience when they're not actually nesting in your backyard.

Once "my" ones had picked our pool to build a nest and actually started laying an egg a day, I didn't have the heart to mess around with them.

One of my temporary residents is a single mum, and she hardly makes a mess. She first came two years ago (established herself while we were on holidays) at the end of winter. Came back for a second clutch in spring, ducklings hatched two days after Christmas. We were at home and enjoyed watching them swimming in the pool and learning how to use the ramp I installed for them. Christmas is when summer really starts here, so that wasn't too bad.

She returned last year at about the same time. Towards the end of her brooding another couple moved in. Took me a while to realise that this was not just dad finally showing up and doing laps with mum, but a whole new couple. I couldn't really shoo them away without risking to mess with mum #1, so they eventually got comfortable.

Mum #1 wasn't happy to have intruders when her kids were about to hatch. Fighting ducks are an impressive sight. We were on holidays again when they hatched. We saw them jumping into the pool early in the morning on the security camera, they hung around for a few hours, then disappeared.

By the time we got back from holidays, mum #2 had already started laying eggs. And her hubby was a stay at home dad. It was very cute to watch how he hung around in and next to the pool, waiting for mum to come out twice a day for a couple of laps and a short flight. But boy, did he leave a mess in the pool. My suction cleaner ran pretty much full time, vacuuming through a skimmer sock. According to my security camera, the ducklings jumped into the pool one morning, about half an hour after I left for work, and were gone by the time I was back home.

A few weeks later, mum #1 returned, she must have lost all of her ducklings to go that soon for a second clutch. This time they appeared one afternoon still before Christmas, stayed over night and then left for good later the next morning.

Then we had the pool for ourselves for the rest of summer. Late summer, another couple landed in the pool (different breed). Heard them twice early in the morning landing on the roof and flying into the pool from there. Wasn't interested in new tenants and shooed them away, and they didn't return after the second "discouragement".

I assume that mums #1 and #2 will return this year...

 

[LovinPoolLife]

Yeah, that can be a bit annoying. At least you can shoo them away with good conscience when they're not actually nesting in your backyard.

Once "my" ones had picked our pool to build a nest and actually started laying an egg a day, I didn't have the heart to mess around with them.

One of my temporary residents is a single mum, and she hardly makes a mess. She first came two years ago (established herself while we were on holidays) at the end of winter. Came back for a second clutch in spring, ducklings hatched two days after Christmas. We were at home and enjoyed watching them swimming in the pool and learning how to use the ramp I installed for them. Christmas is when summer really starts here, so that wasn't too bad.

She returned last year at about the same time. Towards the end of her brooding another couple moved in. Took me a while to realise that this was not just dad finally showing up and doing laps with mum, but a whole new couple. I couldn't really shoo them away without risking to mess with mum #1, so they eventually got comfortable.

Mum #1 wasn't happy to have intruders when her kids were about to hatch. Fighting ducks are an impressive sight. We were on holidays again when they hatched. We saw them jumping into the pool early in the morning on the security camera, they hung around for a few hours, then disappeared.

By the time we got back from holidays, mum #2 had already started laying eggs. And her hubby was a stay at home dad. It was very cute to watch how he hung around in and next to the pool, waiting for mum to come out twice a day for a couple of laps and a short flight. But boy, did he leave a mess in the pool. My suction cleaner ran pretty much full time, vacuuming through a skimmer sock. According to my security camera, the ducklings jumped into the pool one morning, about half an hour after I left for work, and were gone by the time I was back home.

A few weeks later, mum #1 returned, she must have lost all of her ducklings to go that soon for a second clutch. This time they appeared one afternoon still before Christmas, stayed over night and then left for good later the next morning.

Then we had the pool for ourselves for the rest of summer. Late summer, another couple landed in the pool (different breed). Heard them twice early in the morning landing on the roof and flying into the pool from there. Wasn't interested in new tenants and shooed them away, and they didn't return after the second "discouragement".

I assume that mums #1 and #2 will return this year...

I don’t know how you do it LOL. I would go nuts if I had 2 pairs of ducks nesting near and using my pool. Duck droppings are so bad for pool water, as I’m sure you know. As cute as they are- they can go to my neighbors pool or the nearby river lol. I’ve heard the babies remember where they were born and will go back to that spot when they mate and have babies. Pretty soon, you may have the entire family taking over your pool - well like they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

 

[LovinPoolLife]

Ok, so I know you all won’t be too happy with me, but with ducks invading my pool and expelling waste into it and me working full time M-F. I have decided to start ridding my pool of ammonia. I’m very proud to say that after 3 hrs and 7 gallons of shock it is GONE!!! (It’s been a very early morning so far). But this will give me all day to work on fighting the algae now. My water after 1. Hr of testing only dropped to around 5 or 6 FC. I know, the test strips are not as accurate as the test kit, but I just can’t wait until Wed or Thurs of this week to get it. I will have a super green swamp by then or super high ammonia levels from these ducks.

My husband ran to the store to get me a cheaper test kit that I can at least test my PH, Alk and CYA for now until my better one comes. ( I am looking forward to getting my TC100!!!!)
I just checked PH it’s at 7.2 and Alk is 90. Should I add Stabilizer now so my pool will hold chlorine while doing the SLAM? It’s full sun here today.

Again, I know I’m flying a little blind with relying on test strips, but honestly they seem more accurate then the 3 diff pool stores I’ve gone to.

Please don’t come down on me too hard. I really am taking all of your advice and ditching these expensive chemicals and killing this stuff in my pool the slow safe way rather than the pool store way of overdosing my pool all at once. And it’s working your way. I just really need to tackle this while I have the free time to devote to it.

 

[Mdragger88]

Just go with the 5ppm fc per day (1 gal of 10%) until your kit comes.
Your swamp won’t get worse & you can really start slam when it gets there. It’s the safest route. We don’t want you to od the pool based on the strips which can bleach out easily.
Until then scoop & vac every day & keep the filter running 24/7.
Backwash when pressure rises 25% over clean pressure.
If you wanna do something else while you wait take that nature 2 cartridge out & empty it out

How to Remove Metal Balls from Nature 2 Fusion

I was asked before how I removed the metal from my Nature 2 Fusion mineral cartridge and I found an old one thought I would take some photos so that it might help others in a similar situation. The Nature 2 Fusion mineral pack adds copper and silver to your pool. Copper can stain your pool and...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[LovinPoolLife]

Just go with the 5ppm fc per day (1 gal of 10%) until your kit comes.
Your swamp won’t get worse & you can really start slam when it gets there. It’s the safest route. We don’t want you to od the pool based on the strips which can bleach out easily.
Until then scoop & vac every day & keep the filter running 24/7.
Backwash when pressure rises 25% over clean pressure.
If you wanna do something else while you wait take that nature 2 cartridge out & empty it out

How to Remove Metal Balls from Nature 2 Fusion

I was asked before how I removed the metal from my Nature 2 Fusion mineral cartridge and I found an old one thought I would take some photos so that it might help others in a similar situation. The Nature 2 Fusion mineral pack adds copper and silver to your pool. Copper can stain your pool and...

www.troublefreepool.com

Thank you and I never really knew what that nautre2 cartridge was they sold us on. But I do know and will have my husband take the metal balls out. Also, should I add any stabilizer just to hold chlorine in pool. It’s going to be sunny all week

 

[Newdude]

Also, should I add any stabilizer just to hold chlorine in pool. It’s going to be sunny all week

If the FC holds at 30 mins, yes.

If you still have ammonia (no), the CYA will be turned to more ammonia.


This is really serious and needs to be done proper. I get the having the time. I get the being impatient. I do. Believe me on all things holy that I do.

But it's not worth the risk to do it improperly. Add 5ppm a day. It'll keep it at bay and/or help some. Plan on having a project next weekend.

 

[Mdragger88]

Thank you and I never really knew what that nautre2 cartridge was they sold us on. But I do know and will have my husband take the metal balls out. Also, should I add any stabilizer just to hold chlorine in pool. It’s going to be sunny all week

If you trust your strips (that you’ve held fc & are out of the ammonia woods) & verified with your ammonia test then you need 30ppm cya.
If you’re wrong you will just be feeding the ammonia and will find out soon enough.
The little kit you purchased showed 0 cya on a turbidity test (never got cloudy) correct?

 

[Mdragger88]

 

[LovinPoolLife]

If the FC holds at 30 mins, yes.

If you still have ammonia (no), the CYA will be turned to more ammonia.


This is really serious and needs to be done proper. I get the having the time. I get the being impatient. I do. Believe me on all things holy that I do.

But it's not worth the risk to do it improperly. Add 5ppm a day. It'll keep it at bay and/or help some. Plan on having a project next weekend.

I did the ammonia test and it’s showing 0. I’m so happy it’s potentially all gone. Everyone’s advice of just adding enough chlorine to get to 10 ppm each half hour was wonderful and so much better than the horrid advice from the pool stores.

 

[LovinPoolLife]

If you trust your strips (that you’ve held fc & are out of the ammonia woods) & verified with your ammonia test then you need 30ppm cya.
If you’re wrong you will just be feeding the ammonia and will find out soon enough.
The little kit you purchased showed 0 cya on a turbidity test (never got cloudy) correct?

I just did another ammonia test and it’s negative again. I just checked chlorine level after about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs and it’s at 6 (on test strip). Pool is in direct sunlight so I’m sure that’s burning my chlorine off. Just did PH test it’s at 7.1 and alkalinity is at 100. I have about 2 1/2 lbs of stabilizer left from last week. I will add that with sock method. I have a water feature that I can attach to a return to add PH to pool without raising Alkalinity- and water no longer has a green tint to it. It’s very cloudy but looks blue now and not teal color.

 

[LovinPoolLife]

If you trust your strips (that you’ve held fc & are out of the ammonia woods) & verified with your ammonia test then you need 30ppm cya.
If you’re wrong you will just be feeding the ammonia and will find out soon enough.
The little kit you purchased showed 0 cya on a turbidity test (never got cloudy) correct?

3 pool store tests showed 3 CYA my test strips have all showed 0. My chlorine has been holding for several hrs. It drops a little but it’s in full sun today with 0 CYA. Is this normal for the water to foam with having my water feature on.

 

[Newdude]

Is this normal for the water to foam with having my water feature on.

It's normal when killing lots of crud with chlorine, yes. Many SLAMs start with similar.

 

[dBsooner]

Pool is in direct sunlight so I’m sure that’s burning my chlorine off.

You’d be surprised. That far north and in the shoulder months, you’ll probably only be losing 1-1.5ppm of FC a day from sunlight. The rest you’re losing is probably from killing crud. Which is why that FAS/DPD test will be so helpful. It will give you your Combine Chlorine. High amounts of CC (over .5ppm) mean your chlorine is being used up by doing its job of killing the bad. Other tests can give you Total Chlorine, which is just Free Chlorine + Combine Chlorine. So CC would = TC - FC in that scenario. Anything over .5 is bad and a SLAM is in order. Though you’re going to need to SLAM regardless. But I suspect you have a high amount of CC which means your FC is going to register lower.

 

[LovinPoolLife]

You’d be surprised. That far north and in the shoulder months, you’ll probably only be losing 1-1.5ppm of FC a day from sunlight. The rest you’re losing is probably from killing crud. Which is why that FAS/DPD test will be so helpful. It will give you your Combine Chlorine. High amounts of CC (over .5ppm) mean your chlorine is being used up by doing its job of killing the bad. Other tests can give you Total Chlorine, which is just Free Chlorine + Combine Chlorine. So CC would = TC - FC in that scenario. Anything over .5 is bad and a SLAM is in order. Though you’re going to need to SLAM regardless. But I suspect you have a high amount of CC which means your FC is going to register lower.

I’ve been adding Stabilizer via sock in front of return method. I’ve done 2 lbs so far and only have 1 more 1lb to go then I’ll test it. I just checked my PH. Kind of hard to tell the color but it looks like 6.9 or 7.0. Alkalinity is 100. Chlorine has been holding around 5 - 6 on the test strips all day. Water is clearing up a bit. I can start to see the third step now. I had the water feature on all day to try and up the PH but just shut it off because it’s creating a lot of foam and I can see the air bubbles in the pump. Should I go get soda ash to raise PH more? I do have maybe 2 lbs of borax left. Should I add that instead? And can I even add that stuff with the stabilizer still going in the water via sock method?

 

[dBsooner]

I’ve been adding Stabilizer via sock in front of return method. I’ve done 2 lbs so far and only have 1 more 1lb to go then I’ll test it. I just checked my PH. Kind of hard to tell the color but it looks like 6.9 or 7.0. Alkalinity is 100. Chlorine has been holding around 5 - 6 on the test strips all day. Water is clearing up a bit. I can start to see the third step now. I had the water feature on all day to try and up the PH but just shut it off because it’s creating a lot of foam and I can see the air bubbles in the pump. Should I go get soda ash to raise PH more? I do have maybe 2 lbs of borax left. Should I add that instead? And can I even add that stuff with the stabilizer still going in the water via sock method?

I know you want to start cleaning up the pool. Let’s just hope your ammonia is truly gone and you don’t end up starting over at square 1 by the addition of CYA that would feed ammonia. I would have waited until you can run a full SLAM (need your TF100) before adding CYA. But it’s your pool.

I’m praying it’s truly gone.

That said, in order to run a good SLAM, it’s recommended to have your pH between 7.2 and 7.5. Because once you start SLAM, you can’t check pH until you are done with the SLAM. pH results are inaccurate during SLAM.

 

[LovinPoolLife]

I know you want to start cleaning up the pool. Let’s just hope your ammonia is truly gone and you don’t end up starting over at square 1 by the addition of CYA that would feed ammonia. I would have waited until you can run a full SLAM (need your TF100) before adding CYA. But it’s your pool.

I’m praying it’s truly gone.

From earlier posts this week, I thought everyone said once it holds chlorine at 5 ppm or more for more than 30 min, the ammonia is gone. I waited all day before adding it and I keeping my chlorine at 10 per test strips (I know not super accurate) and after 3 hrs of not adding any the chlorine was at 7-8. I’ve tested the ammonia 3 times today. All said zero

 

[LovinPoolLife]

From earlier posts this week, I thought everyone said once it holds chlorine at 5 ppm or more for more than 30 min, the ammonia is gone. I waited all day before adding it and I keeping my chlorine at 10 per test strips (I know not super accurate) and after 3 hrs of not adding any the chlorine was at 7-8. I’ve tested the ammonia 3 times today. All said zero

I’ve been praying all day that me moving forward without the test kit works!!!! Each day without doing anything, my water was turning more green. And now with the duck issue and working full time, I just had to get a jump on it today. I’ve been taking water samples every hr from 18” down so I don’t get the top water. Just so I can keep testing all of my levels. My arm has a rash now lol. Probably from the higher than normal chlorine levels as well as the cya going into the pool. The ONLY good thing to come from this ammonia issue is, it cleared up my 150 CYA issue .

Should I raise my PH tonight or leave that for tomorrow

 

[Mdragger88]

From earlier posts this week, I thought everyone said once it holds chlorine at 5 ppm or more for more than 30 min, the ammonia is gone. I waited all day before adding it and I keeping my chlorine at 10 per test strips (I know not super accurate) and after 3 hrs of not adding any the chlorine was at 7-8. I’ve tested the ammonia 3 times today. All said zero

We did say that but we also don’t trust the strips. Most strips don’t differentiate between fc & cc very well.
I would not add anymore cya than the 3 lbs.
you need to wait 24 hours for it to register on the test.
The bubbles are ok. Keep the fountain going.
The blue is fantastic btw
It will get done - just not today.