First season troubles

[srfdmatty]

Hi all,
I took over maintaining my pool this year from the pool company. I have been doing my testing with the TFT100 test kit. All was going well until the last month. I left for vacation for a while and when I got back I got lazy with the testing and now I have issues. Totally my fault for being lazy. I have been having issues all year with maintaining my chlorine level, it getting too low, and my ph level, it being too high. I believe that these are due to me running the water fall feature all day and not having a cover thereby allowing my chlorine to dissipate. Now I have two additional issues, I have a slight algae growth in the pool and I'm getting white flakes at the bottom of the pool and hot tub where the returns are. I assume the white flakes are calcium. Here are my questions:

1. With a minor algae bloom should I slam it? I read the directions for slamming on the site and I am comfortable with doing it but want to make sure that it's the right step versus just getting the chlorine level back in line. Will the chlorine level being correct for a few days rid the pool of the algae or do I have to slam it? I plan on getting the ph and chlorine in range before slamming it. The algae is a slight green bloom on the upper walls and the flat part of the steps but the water still looks relatively clear.
2. Is the only way to lower the calcium level to remove and add new water? Or will adjusting the ph to the right level rid the system of the flakes and lower the CH level over time?
3. Should I clean my filters and SWG before or after I balance the chemical levels and slam the pool if need be?

Thanks everyone for the help. Below are my test results:
Ph 8.2
CL .5
FC 1
CC 0
TC 1
CH 750
TA 120
CYA 60
Salt 3600

 

[timerguy]

1: -your FC is to low. You probably haven't dialed in your swg. How long have you had it? I don't know much about that model, but if the ic20 is rated for a20000 gal pool, it isn't big enough for yours. We recommend your swg be rated for at least 1.5 times your pool volume.
2: -your pH is too high.
3: your cya isn't high enough for a swg it should be between 70-80.
4: you've gotta get some fc in there immediately! Use liquid chlorine-- bleach is good. Until you have it up to your suggested target level -- pool math will tell you what that is, then dial in your swg to keep up with your daily loss.

 

[PAGirl]

If you see green, a slam is in order. The CH seems pretty high, but in am not well versed in that area. The only way to rid that is a partial refill. But if your tap water is high, it may not help. (See you are in CA and I realize there are drought conditions, also making a refill difficult.) you want to lower your PH before the SLAM, too. (Usually see 7.2 recommended.)
In all, the inability to keep your CL level up and the sighting of the green algae, means a SLAM is needed.

 

[duraleigh]

1. Yes, SLAM the pool.\

2. Only way to lower CH is to remove some of the high CH water and replace it with lower CH water. Can you get some downspout rainwater into the pool? If not, partial drain and refill is in order. pH and CH are completely unrelated.

3. filters and SWG should be cleaned as needed. I don't see an real advantage in either before or after SLAM.

 

[srfdmatty]

Thanks everyone for your responses! I'll work on getting the ph down to 7.2 and then slam the pool this weekend using the directions on this website.
Yeah PAGirl the drought here in Northern Cal is putting a damper on the water use but hopefully we'll get rain next week. I'll try as duraleigh said and direct some downspout water into the pool to lower the CH level. If no rain I'll have to use the good old garden hose. Also, I'll work on trying to dial in my SWG. It's at the 50% level right now, I assume that turning it up to say 65% or higher will create more chlorine?
I also had a follow up question:

1. Is it common to have to add muriatic acid and bleach in moderate amounts, about half gallons, each week to maintain the ph and chlorine levels in a pool? I have no cover on my pool/hotub and a water fall feature that runs all day and am constantly adding acid and bleach to keep the levels balanced (that is before I got lazy and let some algae grow). The pool gets a lot of sun exposure all day, at least 9 hours. What else can cause high acid and bleach demand?
Thanks again for the help. This site had been great for a new owner of a pool.

 

[PAGirl]

Waterfalls aerate the water, which in turn raises PH. An SWG also increases PH.

 

[bobby1017]

The white flakes are from calcium being deposited in the swg then being ejected when it self cleans. Lower ph and ch levels will help although my pool is at 420 ch and 7.4 ph and I still get them. I am going to pump the rain water (if it ever does) off the cover into the pool to lower the ch. There was a time in Aug when i had my ic40 set to 85% to keep cl up but now it's at 50%. There are times I will add some cl if the level is lower than ideal, but overall I've only used about 4 gal over the summer. Adding ma is needed more often, especially if you are running the water features.