*Added pictures after SLAM complete* New member of TFP

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alohasnackbar

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Jun 3, 2015
19
Ione, CA
Hello all! I've been doing a lot of reading around here and it's helped me learn enough to take over maintenance of my pool myself. I bought my first house (and pool) last fall and up until last week, I have had a pool service maintaining my pool and spa. I ordered a basic Poolmaster test kit last week just to have something to get an idea of what's going on in the pool. It confirmed the horrible test strips of the pool having 0 chlorine. I raised it up with a bunch of liquid chlorine bleach trying to keep it up to at least 2.0 following dosage instructions from "The Pool Calculator," while brushing it several times a day. The pH was also a little low, but still within range. pH has been sitting at 7.6 now though after raising it a bit with soda ash. Total alkalinity was also on the lower side, but is now right in range after raising it with baking soda. The pool became cloudy for a couple of days, but cleared up. I had to backwash the filter twice as well. I've been able to keep FC at a minimum of 2ppm, with the exception of the Monday. I tested it later at night (had been testing it in the mornings) and it was about 0.6-1, so I added more bleach and ran the filter system for an hour afterwards. Been 2ppm+ since though.

I've got some black algae issues, though it has slowly been disappearing in certain spots since bleaching the pool. My pool water is now blue and clear instead of mostly clear with a green tint. Based on what I've been reading, it seems like I still need to SLAM my pool since I am still getting algae growth. I'm probably going to wait to do it until next week as it's supposed to rain at some point this weekend, and, my TF-100 test kit and Speed Stir won't be here until tomorrow anyways. I've also got a floater with 3" chlorine tabs in it. Seems like I should remove that from the pool, based on my readings?

Thanks for the help thus far, and appreciate what help I'm sure is to come. I'm actually excited about doing all of this testing and making the pool look great! :D

2cdik47.jpg
 
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Re: New member of TFP

Thanks! I'm holding off on a SLAM (or anything else really) because the kit I have doesn't test CYA, so I don't actually know where I'm at on the FC/CYA scale. I've got this kit and can basically test chlorine, pH and TA. I will post TF-100 results tomorrow after I get the kit.
 
Re: New member of TFP

I got my TF-100 and Speed Stir today (what a sweet little toy, I'm glad I bought it if for no other reason other than how cool it is!), and ran the tests. Here are the results:

FC= 4.5 (I added a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine last night to try and raise it from 2 to a target of 6)
CC= 1
CH= 225
TA= 90
CYA= 60 (I do have a floater with those chlorine pucks/tabs...)

ETA: Just remembered what was missing. Will test pH and add the result.
ETA2: Seems pH went up from 7.6 to 7.8.
 
Re: New member of TFP

alohasnackbar said:
I'll have to go get some pH down. I had a bottle of it in the cart last night and then put it back (doh!). Should I remove the floater/chlorine tabs?
Click to expand...

don't buy pH down, just go buy some muriatic acid at one of the big box stores like Lowes or Home Depot. use the pool math tab to calculate how much you need to add. just put in your current pH and then a target of 7.2 it will tell you how many ounces to add. check in 1/2 and hour and it should be good to go.

remove the chlorine tabs permanently.

how much bleach you got?
 
Re: New member of TFP

Good call on Lowe's. Didn't know you could buy it by the jug like that. I will remove the tabs. Right now, I've got 9 gallons of 10% and 1 gallon of 8.25 ("regular" Clorox bleach). I bought the stronger 10% in anticipation of needing to SLAM the pool. That, and the stronger stuff is ~$.25 more per gallon, but is almost 2% stronger so I figured why not.
 

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Re: New member of TFP

Thanks for the welcome! Just got back from Lowes with a jug of muriatic acid and four more gallons of chlorine (14 gallons total) to SLAM the pool. Just want to make sure I'll have enough on hand for the process since I'm going to need to add something like 6.5-7 gallons right off the bat.

Once the sun is off the pool, I will add the acid to lower my pH to 7.2, wait 30 minutes to double check the level, and then SLAM the pool and start brushing.
 
Re: New member of TFP

Quick question: at what point during the SLAM would it be safe to enter the pool? It would probably be a great idea to remove the few lights and scrub everything since 1. they don't work and 2. I've got algae growing around the trim rings of them, if not also underneath the housings.

Waiting another 15 minutes to check the pH level. Added 52 ounces of muriatic acid to bring pH down to ~7.2.
 
Re: New member of TFP

Awesome, thanks! pH was perfectly 7.2 after adding the acid, so I then added 5 gallons of liquid chlorinator to bring FC up to 24. Just scrubbed the heck out of it so now to wait and I'll recheck FC in a while and see where it's at. I never thought I'd be excited about cleaning a pool, but hey, it's kind of fun especially due to the reward for the hard work!
 
Re: New member of TFP

Tested FC twice now, and just did CC. FC as first tested was 28 and is now 27.5. CC tested as 1, possibly even 0.5. It was actually difficult to tell as it first looked like 0.5, but another drop a couple of seconds later seemed​ like it made it clearer.
 

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