1st pool - few install issues led to frustration - this place saved me!

[fleming23]

Just wanted to say thank you to this group. I am a 1st time pool owner, we just built an 18k gallon gunite, filled on 7/6. Well, 2 of our return lines had issues, one fitting failed and another line was actually (unknowingly) cracked by the gas guy who dug a little too close. Long story short, when the pump turned on it fired a whole load of trash and dirt into to freshly filled, previously crystal clear water. Filtering alone didn't seem to be making any progress, although maybe given enough time it would have. I found this forum, read as many posts as I could about the SLAM procedure, and went to work by purchasing 5 gallons of 10% liquid bleach from Walmart (funny now looking back and thinking 5 gallons would be even remotely close to enough....)

I did have a weak moment where I took my sample to the local pool store, and got suckered/guilted? into buying their Pak 100 and "super shock" But those bags never entered my pool. I continued course with liquid bleach 2 or 3 times a day, testing with my Taylor 2006 kit and adjusting accordingly...

This morning I am happy to report that I can see the main drains through crystal clear water, my FC held overnight (OCLT pass), my CC is 0-.5 (1 drop clears test sample).... Our pool is clear and happy! Now to let FC drift back down to normal levels, get past the 30 day mark and get the SWG fired up (and drop the newly acquired Dolphin M600 in!)

Edit - I tried to update my signature but get some SPAM error

 

[fleming23]

This is what the water looked like last Monday. Not brown, or swamp green like some pictures I see on here, but not clear either... The main drains were completely invisible, even up close. You can also see I had a chlorine floater....after reading up here, that is now gone.



And this is right now... The sun is not up yet, so not exactly apples to apples, but you can see the main 2 main drains in the deep end and the water is nice and clear.
Started the SLAM process Friday evening 7/14 when filtering on high 24/7 was not making a dent on the clarity.



These were my numbers as of this morning. As mentioned FC held overnight, so I only added Muriatic to bring PH back down

 

[Newdude]

Hey Fleming and Welcome !!!

Keep at it until the water is clear, then
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test.