I've bitten off more than....

[Toekneejo]

This is our first pool. Set it up last year and upon coming home found this site to get it up and running again. We were rockin along until I had to leave and again it went green!! Recently I had to leave again and upon returning home started working 12 hour shifts at work and was unable to even SLAM it back until this weekend. Which of course I am doing. Lots of family to play in the pool minimal help to maintain so here are my questions....

1. Does all this rain we've gotten this year make it harder to maintain a crystal clear pool?

2. I have been running my pump from noon until 10pm. With the weather getting hotter I think maybe my T cell is shutting off because I test in the evening and it is down to around 2. Should I run my pump in the late evening and overnight?

Obviously my cya and salt was decreased from from the rain so I went ahead and added my salt before slamming this time but left my cya low currently it is at 45
For slamming I am maintaining FC of 18 several times a day.
I have went through 2 bottles of the chlorine test and am needing to buy more. I haven't bothered with the PH and TA because I know they are out of whack and I am just trying to keep the algae out.
I try to do the TFP method as close as I can but with us either on the road or long hours gets a bit hectic any suggestions....I've never heard of a pool service for an above ground pool???

 

[kimkats]

OH they will be glad to "service" it for you as long as you are willing to pay BUT they only come out once a week. When they come out they spend maybe 10 mins. a visit. What I have heard they do is........look at water, put more pucks in puck holder, leave.

IF they do test I do not know what they test with or for.

What I think will help you the most is an automatic chlorine method. I am posting a link to get you started. If you do a search on TFP you will find all kinds of threads. You know what will work best for your set up.

Google

Kim

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome back! Some answers to your questions:
1 -Not as much as you would think - minimal really unless you did a LOT of water exchange
2 - I personally don't have a SWG, other will reply. Either way, you would need to find that balance between "feeding" your pool FC, and having enough FC to maintain throughout the entire day. But remember ... for a SWG your ideal CYA should be between 70-80, so being as low as it is now (45) is probably why your system cannot keep-up with the TX sunshine and FC demand.

As you probably expect, your FC dropped (as noted above) below the minimum level - probably while you were away. We have many TFP'ers who travel or go on vacation, so it can get tricky to find a way to may sure your pool is fed accordingly. For now, to get the SLAM done, continue to maintain your FC level until you pass all 3 SLAM criteria.

Get the CYA to at least 70 and see if your SWG responds accordingly. You should see a few more replies to this thread as well. Have a nice day.

 

[Toekneejo]

thank you for the replies and yes I will continue to try but it is difficult not being able to maintain it on a day to day basis. Any other suggestions gladly accepted! I have the cyanuric ready to put in I am just wanting to get the slam out of the way first so I am not using as much chlorine to SLAM. As far as the water exchange yeah we have had a lot of it do to the pool overflowing so many times this year. This will be my third time adding cyanuric this year.

 

[pooldv]

All the rain in May was a little crazy and didn't help with pool maintenance at all. Normal rain doesn't have that much impact. I think you only need to do a couple of things to make your pool maintenance a lot easier.

Keep your CYA at 70ish
Lower your PH to 7.2 regularly and before you leave
Turn up the SWG a bit to keep FC at 8 or 9

 

[Toekneejo]

ok thank you not sure that my SWG will generate that high but will try, I am thinking it said it would kick off at 5??? Checking my book now.