Pool opening hand holding...

[JayG]

This is my first pool opening, but this site has given me the courage and just enough knowledge to take this on (or just enough knowledge to be dangerous if one hears my better half )

Our pool temps are still in the high 40's, but our son was off for Spring break and we decided to pull the cover off and see what was brewing underneath. There was a surprising amount of debris despite the tight mesh cover: pine needles, leaves, and coating of silty mud on the bottom. The water was clear, but became cloudier when together, we skimmed the floating debris and got the worst off the bottom. We then unboxed and put to work our Dolphin Triton Plus. We emptied the "Spring" filter about 8 times before the debris load was getting lighter and then switched to the "fine" filters. The pool was cloudy, but didn't look green. We ran the full gamut of TFT test kit and found:

FC 25
CC 0
pH 7.5
CH 100
TA 60
CYA 90

My questions are these:

1. Should I worry about the cloudiness?

2. Do I need to SLAM if I have a CC of 0?

To be clear, I had checked my chemistries about 2 weeks ago and added enough bleach to get to SLAM levels for my CYA (my elevated CYA is another story, for another post). I know I need to deal with my CH and TA once I get my CYA down to 40-50. Anything else I need to worry about?

If I don't need to SLAM, I will let our little robot clean up the silt and when it is not working, use our sump pump to drain off about 50% before refilling. I will then add either hypo-Cal* or CaCl2 and baking soda to get CH and TA in range. Then add boric acid to get to 50 ppm.

*(I have some hypo-Cal that I bought to replace bleach to help get my CH up a bit, but most of the CH correction will come from CaCl2).

Does this sound like a plan?

 

[pooldv]

The best indicator of whether to SLAM or not, besides seeing algae, is to Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

Using cal-hypo to chlorinate and raise CH is fine. Your TA is fine at 60 if your PH is stable.

 

[JayG]

The best indicator of whether to SLAM or not, besides seeing algae, is to Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

Using cal-hypo to chlorinate and raise CH is fine. Your TA is fine at 60 if your PH is stable.

I'll check my FC again tomorrow morning. It seems that my FC has been stable for the 2 weeks since I added the bleach, but now that I've stirred things up with the robot...maybe the bleach has something to be acting on. Thanks for the advice. I was just worried that cloudiness was a concern. The water is still very cold (48.4° F today), so from what I gather, algae won't be going gang-busters until it warms up a bit more.

 

[JayG]

It wasn't a true OCLT, but from one afternoon to the next (24 hr) FC was basically unchanged (25 T1 --> 24.5 T2). Since putting in the fine filter in the Triton plus, the water has been clearing up nicely.

If something changes for the worse, I'll chime back in. In any case, I'm draining about half the pool volume to deal with the elevated CYA, so it doesn't make much sense to dump too many chemicals in the pool until I start refilling, right?

Thanks again DV

 

[jblizzle]

Algae can not really be growing in water that cold, so any chlorine is just going to be acting on the debris at this point.

If you are draining some, I would use a manual vacuum and pump to waste if possible to get the silt out.

I agree there is not much point is adjusting anything prior to replacing water.

 

[JayG]

Thanks. I'll probably start refilling tomorrow. Because I'm in the process of rebuilding my equipment pad (new pump, filter, heat pump) that should be done about the time the pool is full again. The little robot is doing a pretty good job of clearing things up. I just cannot run him while I have the pump in place. I did that yesterday and the poor thing got all tangled up in the hose and cord. ;-)

As an aside, I'm more impressed with these robot cleaners than I expected to be. The Triton plus requires frequent cleaning of the filter when the pool is as filthy as one on opening day, but over a 8 hr period it sucked up most of the junk I couldn't easily get with our net (leaves, pine needles, dead worms, etc)--just needed to clean the filters hourly. Now that most of the junk is gone, the fine filters are picking up an amazing amount of silty mud. Should be a nice adjunct to the filtering on the pad as the season progresses.