Backwash every half hour or lose flow... HELP!!!

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Yes you do have a nice pool. If you do decide to give it run, you have come to the right place. There are many people here with super advice who are willing to help you out. Many have been in the place you are today...many in worse conditions.

You mention SWG as possibility. The recommended range is 60-80 CYA. So you could live with a no drain. HOWEVER, the reason a drain is recommended is that you will need ALOT of liquid chlorine/bleach to perform a SLAM.


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Ok... sorry... I had a "I'm filling this pool in" breakdown.

So here's what happened. I had about 8 drinks and shut of the pool Friday night... the pool sat all day Saturday and Sunday. I did notice it looked a little better yesterday as I was assembling the 200 foot drain line and decided to give it another day. This morning I came down and it was clean enough for me to see the screw heads on the drain caps at the deep end of the pool. Not perfect, but not very far from it. There was a heavy coating of ... white stuff on the bottom of the entire pool.

I decided to try to clean it with the roller mop thing that hooks into the skimmer. Every 10 minutes or so I had to do a backwash (and had to add more water to the pool) but after about 6 times i had it fairly decent... problem is, that during all of that the pool got mixed up, and the water was cloudy. Not nearly as bad, but enough to dim my hopes. I backwashed one last time and ran the filter for 4 hours while I was out... before I left I checked the pressure, it had remained at 22 since I started the filter... which is also about where it ran previously.

Come home, pressure is at 32 psi. I ran a backwash and a ton of white flaky junk stuff (DE I am assuming - I added it before I ran the filter before i left). I Added more DE and it's been running for about a half hour now and it's still at 22 psi.

I did some tests - and hopefully I didn't screw it up - but I am a numbers person, not a colors interpretation person so if this doesn't make sense, let me know:

Chlorine and FC = 0 - did not even register.
PH - took 15 drops to make it come up from a 6.8-ish color to 7.5-ish color.
TA - it + drops it changed from a real pale green to a real weak pink... at 8 drops it was red. So... does that mean 60ppm or 80ppm?
CH - 300ppm.
CYA ~ 70 ppm... might have been little closer to 65ppm, but I'm not how sure how absolutely opaque it's supposed to be.
 
So I backwashed the filter for about 2 minutes, added back DE, filled the pool back up and dumped in two 128oz bottle of pool chlorinating bleach, about 4 pounds of baking soda and maybe 16 ounces (by volume) of pH+ (couldn't find Borax at the store). Also put four 3" chlorine tabs in both filters.

Pool is crystal clear this morning. Have pic, will post when I get to work.

FC = 6
TC ~ 6 (Not much change from FC, if any at all)
PH - 7.0
TA - 80ppm
CH - 270ppm.
CYA ~ 60 ppm.

Since I don't seem to have any free chlorine, does that mean I need to drain the pool still? Or am I close enough to mess around with it to get it correct?


 
Earlsfat said:
So I backwashed the filter for about 2 minutes, added back DE, filled the pool back up and dumped in two 128oz bottle of pool chlorinating bleach, about 4 pounds of baking soda and maybe 16 ounces (by volume) of pH+ (couldn't find Borax at the store). Also put four 3" chlorine tabs in both filters.

Pool is crystal clear this morning. Have pic, will post when I get to work.

FC = 6
TC ~ 6 (Not much change from FC, if any at all)
PH - 7.0
TA - 80ppm
CH - 270ppm.
CYA ~ 60 ppm.

Since I don't seem to have any free chlorine, does that mean I need to drain the pool still? Or am I close enough to mess around with it to get it correct?
Click to expand...
I think we need to slow down a bit here..... You posted a FC of 6ppm, then stated you have no FC?? Do you mean CC? A CC of 0.0ppm is great, and CC <0.5ppm is one of the 3 conditions needed to be met to complete a SLAM.

Also, your CYA is already in the 60ppm range, why are you adding more by using tablets?

It's good to see you are using the DE filter as designed (with DE), and you should stay the course and follow the SLAM procedure:
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

If your CYA is 60ppm, you should be maintaining a FC of 24ppm for the duration of the SLAM, and your target FC after completing the SLAM is 7ppm with a minimum of 5ppm.

Have you passed an OCLT?


Dom
 
domct203 said:
I think we need to slow down a bit here..... You posted a FC of 6ppm, then stated you have no FC?? Do you mean CC? A CC of 0.0ppm is great, and CC <0.5ppm is one of the 3 conditions needed to be met to complete a SLAM.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know what I have. I thought FC and CC and TC were supposed to be different? If FC = TC doesn't that mean FC = 0?

Are you saying what I have now is acceptable?

domct203 said:
Also, your CYA is already in the 60ppm range, why are you adding more by using tablets?
Click to expand...

Uhh... because? (Not being a smart-Alec.) Without them the chlorine goes away.... or am I supposed to keep dumping in chlorine out of the bottles? And I have no idea what CYA does, how it increases or decreases or stays.

domct203 said:
It's good to see you are using the DE filter as designed (with DE), and you should stay the course and follow the SLAM procedure:
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

If your CYA is 60ppm, you should be maintaining a FC of 24ppm for the duration of the SLAM, and your target FC after completing the SLAM is 7ppm with a minimum of 5ppm.
Click to expand...

How do I test for FC of 24ppm, the marks on the vial I have only goes to 5? I might need a new test kit.


domct203 said:
Have you passed an OCLT?
Dom
Click to expand...

Haven't heard of this until now... will try tonight and report back.
 
CYA is the stabilizer, and the pucks have it. Stabilizer doesn't go away unless you drain water, so constantly raising your level means you need to constantly raise your chlorine level- you're chasing one chemical with another. If all you need is some chlorine, don't add other things with it- especially things like stabilizer that make you add even more chlorine.

Pouring from the jugs is the best way, unless you so the salt water route. Once you get things on track it's going to be easier to maintain than you can even dream of right now.
 
Earlsfat said:
I honestly don't know what I have. I thought FC and CC and TC were supposed to be different? If FC = TC doesn't that mean FC = 0?

Are you saying what I have now is acceptable?



Uhh... because? (Not being a smart-Alec.) Without them the chlorine goes away.... or am I supposed to keep dumping in chlorine out of the bottles? And I have no idea what CYA does, how it increases or decreases or stays.



How do I test for FC of 24ppm, the marks on the vial I have only goes to 5? I might need a new test kit.




Haven't heard of this until now... will try tonight and report back.
Click to expand...
Not to be a smart-alec either, but I've skimmed back through this thread and many of the questions/concerns you just posted have already been addressed with either explanations or links to the Pool School information, including the explanations of pool chemistry, OCLT, Test Kits, CYA and the SLAM procedure.

As far as chlorine, TC (Total Chlorine) is the sum of FC (Free Chlorine) + CC (Combined Chlorine) = TC (Total Chlorine)

So inversely, CC = TC - FC

If your test kit only goes to 5ppm then yes, you bought the wrong kit. You can add on just the FAS/DPD chlorine test and you will be good up to 50ppm
TFTestkits.net

Dom
 

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domct203 said:
Not to be a smart-alec either, but I've skimmed back through this thread and many of the questions/concerns you just posted have already been addressed with either explanations or links to the Pool School information, including the explanations of pool chemistry, OCLT, Test Kits, CYA and the SLAM procedure.
Dom
Click to expand...


Sorry... I've read the Pool School twice and my eyes glaze over about halfway through... and to be honest, I missed a response (I updated the thread notifications and am getting emails with each response now). I'm having a disconnect someplace between the information here and when I'm stand there and the tests yield results that don't look like they're supposed (at least as I read it). That and so much bad advice --- from the guys who built the pool --- the guys that were taking care of the pool (that I fired right when I started this thread) --- the idiots at the pool store.... there's a lot to this, but I'm trying... please don't think I'm not.
 
but I'm trying... please don't think I'm not.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you are still trying to use pool store advice. That simply won't work. You must shed yourself of that advice and start to learn here.

Rather than reading the whole Pool School (Impossible to do) please read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry". From that you should learn why we test for each parameter and how we adjust it. Those are the basics you must comprehend if you are to be successful with what we teach.
 
:goodpost: What he said !!

Did you get the taylor K-2006 test kit ??

At the beginning it seems you can't hold onto anything but as you ask more questions, read and practice the advice it will slowly make sense and become much more user friendly.
In the long run this will prove to be a better system that's cheaper in operating expenses and better water quality than following pool store advise or having someone else dumping who knows what into your pool weekly.
It's a matter of deep breathing and a couple drinks now and then to relax. :calm: After all it's only water.
 
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