Cloudy water after rain - should I SLAM or just boost for a bit?

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steveg_nh

steveg_nh

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Oct 7, 2013
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Southern NH
Hi All,

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to my question, but I thought I'd confirm. Anyway, the pool has looked fantastic. Crystal clear. But after some heavy rain last night I'm dealing with some cloudy water. I can still see the drains in the deep end, but it's not right, I know that. i am pretty sure things are a bit off (chemistry) and I've just caught it before things are out of control. I know rain really shouldn't affect the water, so as to why the rain made this happen at this time, who knows.

Anyway, I noticed FC was low this morning so I corrected things...pH was low too, it dropped. The rain? Anyway, here's this morning and just a little while ago.

10am
FC: 1.5
CC: .5
PH: 7.2
TA: 90
CH: 300 (pool is vinyl)
CYA: 70

7pm
FC: 4.0
CC: .5
PH: 7.2
TA: 90
CH: 300 (pool is vinyl)
CYA: didn't retest

So I added about 39 oz of washing soda to get the PH closer to 7.6 (my target) and I figure I'm borderline needing to SLAM to clear up the cloudiness. Would you agree? I only had 2 gallons of bleach on hand, so I added that, which will put my pool around 10 FC. My SLAM level is around 26-28 though. Should I bump it all the way up that high or just keep it higher than normal, but under SLAM, maybe 10-14? I have less than 1 CCs and I'm pretty sure I would hold on an OCLT but I will find out in the morning...

Thoughts?

Thanks
 
It's a shame you already added that washing soda because your low pH of 7.2 was perfect for the SLAM. So if you haven't added it yet, I wouldn't. Just kick-up the FC to the SLAM level of 28. Don't forget to turn-off your SWG tonight when doing the OCLT. :)
 

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Well, I didn't pass the OCLT. :( but that's why you do it!

I lost 2.5 of FC overnight, so no good. Water is crystal clear and CCs 0.5, so another day or so. Keeping the FC at SLAM level another day I guess.
 
Drats. Failed again. My nighttime vs morning reading was off by 1.5 after averaging 4 tests.

But, I think I'm actually passing, but wasn't careful with being consistent on drop sizes. I'm pretty sure last night I likely had the bottle of reagent at an angle, not straight up and down like I did this morning, so this morning, drops were bigger. I was able to reproduce a higher FC reading with the bottle at an angle. But I'll be safe vs sorry and will go one more day, being careful tonight.

I just want to lower the FC as soon as I can. I know we say that even at SLAM levels vinyl liners won't be impacted by the higher chlorine levels, but I'll feel better when it's back down around 4-5. :D
 
:brickwall: So close! Also Steve, when you adjust FC tonight before bed tonight, make sure to not go too high. By that I mean don't exceed your SLAM FC level based on your CYA. I did that once and could never hold FC until I let the FC fall just a little. Good luck!
 
:salut::party: All done.

I did 3 tests this morning, and averaged them all out, since they were all within a drop of each other. Precision can be tough with the drop tests, so I like averages. :)

Anyway, FC loss of 1.0, CC at 0.5, and clear as a cloudless blue sky.

Poolpostslam.jpg
 
Just as a follow-up...your FC level was low for your CYA at 10 am originally, even for a SWG, which was probably the initiating factor. Is anything inclined to run into your pool off of your deck during hard rains? Sometimes it pays to get "onsite" in the middle of an extended downpour to see exactly what is happening to all the water. I actually have a small section of my deck that drains into my pool, but it's no worry because no ground/grass area runoff is included.

The other thing that I thought about, but it probably wasn't the case since you had an FC user (early algae outbreak), was when the pH spiked perhaps due to the heavy rain, is that that is when calcium is more likely to precipitate and cause cloudiness. That cloudiness goes away in a day or less when pH levels are dropped to normal. And your CH isn't very high anyway. Just some musings.

Great job getting your clear water back!
 

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