Opening Pool - chemicals look good but still cloudy and greenish

[Bec2854]

Hello. We opened our pool 3 days ago. Trying to slam with fc at 12 and cya 30. Last night before going to bed, fc was at 12. This morning it was at 10.5 so we only lost 1.5ppm (I realize it needs to be 1 or less). However - by those numbers I would think our pool should look pretty good? Since we are getting close? But it still looks pretty green and very cloudy. Do we just need to continue to slam? I just added 1 jug of bleach to try and get back up to 12 fc.

Also- in a lot of forum posts I have seen people advised to get their ph to 7.2 before slamming. Is this for all pools? For vinyl with bleach, I have written down from last year it needs to be between 7.5 and 7.8? (We started at 8.0 and added enough muriatic acid to get it down to 7.5 but now after adding chlorine or cya (maybe one of those lowered ph more?) we are down to 7.2. Should I be adding borax to get it back up to 7.5 again?

Thanks.

 

[Texas Splash]

Good morning. Yes, for all pool types, the pH is supposed to be adjust to 7.2-7.5 before increasing the FC because the increased FC temporality increases the pH. If you are really concerned, you could allow the FC to drop to about 8-9 just long enough to validate pH and crank the FC back up. No biggie. As for the OCLT, if you still see green or cloudiness, it's not worth trying the OCLT yet. The amount of FC loss can vary during a SLAM, that's why we typically leave the OCLT for last. Hang in there!

 

[Bec2854]

Thanks so much for your response! So we should just keep fc at 12 and pool running until color and clarity look good then do the oclt? How many days does that typically take? Thanks again!

 

[Texas Splash]

Correct. Just maintain the FC of 12 until you all 3 SLAM criteria are complete. The OCLT should be your final report card. The duration of a SLAM varies by the water condition and diligence of the pool owner to follow the SLAM page. I don't like to pin a timeframe on a SLAM, but many can expect about a week or so before they achieve the expectation they were hoping for. Really green pools can take longer.

You might want to add your filter type to your signature at your next opportunity. And while you're in there, check the block that says something like "show signature in post". That way we can see all of your pool info with each post.