Cloudy.... already

[Aaronbr]

Hi, it's me again.

It's only been a few weeks since my month long SLAM and my pool is cloudy. I noticed it a bit cloudy a few days ago so brought my FC to 10. Today it's much more cloudy so I figure I'm back to having to SLAM again. I really don't know why this keeps happening. I know pool maintenance is supposed to be easy after doing a SLAM, but not for my pool. Not until I figure out what I'm missing. I kept my water balanced, you can check my logs through the poolmath app. I ran the robot periodically, brushed the pool a few times. Made sure to keep the auto cover vault clean. Maybe I didn't vacuum the debris from the vault enough. Could dirty grout above the waterline be the issue? Could it be that my auto cover is closed most of the time except when swimming or testing water? I want to see if I can unbolt the leading rail if the auto cover so I can clean the grout under there as it looks dirty. I'm going to begin the pool disassemble and scrub down today before bringing mt FC levels up.

I haven't tried an OCLT, but I doubt it'd pass. I dropped .5 FC over night with my SWG set at 30%. Is go out of town for the week on Monday and won't be able to look after the pool while gone.

 

[mknauss]

When you test your FC (normally), what time of day do you do it? First thing before the SWCG runs?

 

[Aaronbr]

When you test your FC (normally), what time of day do you do it? First thing before the SWCG runs?

Testing time varies between 11am and 6pm. If I come home for lunch I test it then, if not I test it after work. As far as if it's after when my SWG runs, that's hard to say. My SWG is usually set at 20% to maintain the proper FC, but I run my pump 24 hours a day. It's a slow speed just enough to meet flow requirements for the SWG, I have it set at 27gpm. When I open the pool to swim, and between the hours of midnight till 4am my pump runs at 45gpm.

 

[mknauss]

OK --- if you run the pump/SWCG 24 hours a day, you might try testing at the end of the day, 6 pm or so. That would be the low point of your FC level in the pool -- this is after you deal with the algae.

 

[Mdragger88]

I looked through your logs - the only things I noticed was one instance of fc being @4ppm which was still above minimum for your cya of 60 at the time.
The only other thing I noticed was that cya dropped a couple times which you then replenished.
Have you been exchanging water?

 

[Aaronbr]

I looked through your logs - the only things I noticed was one instance of fc being @4ppm which was still above minimum for your cya of 60 at the time.
The only other thing I noticed was that cya dropped a couple times which you then replenished.
Have you been exchanging water?

Just a little bit. My CYA was low after not doing anything about it through winter. I kept it low expecting to have to do a SLAM. I did have some tiles replaced a feew weeks back where they drained some water to get it below the tile line. After that I raised it back up. If I remember correctly there was a point where CYA was testing just below a line on the cylinder and I didn't have sunny days to test the CYA and then did have sunny days to test the CYA which makes viewing the dot harder/easier. I raised it over two different days. The CYA testing at 40 a few days ago was me seeing it just below the 50 line and calling it 40, but I think I did that wrong. Anything over the 40 line should be called 50 I suspect.

 

[Mdragger88]

Just a little bit. My CYA was low after not doing anything about it through winter. I kept it low expecting to have to do a SLAM. I did have some tiles replaced a feew weeks back where they drained some water to get it below the tile line. After that I raised it back up. If I remember correctly there was a point where CYA was testing just below a line on the cylinder and I didn't have sunny days to test the CYA and then did have sunny days to test the CYA which makes viewing the dot harder/easier. I raised it over two different days. The CYA testing at 40 a few days ago was me seeing it just below the 50 line and calling it 40, but I think I did that wrong. Anything over the 40 line should be called 50 I suspect.

That makes sense
Yes, anything over 40 counts as 50 -No inbetweens.
After this slam try to brush weekly & clean that cover regularly.
There have been a few folks with issues recently that leave their cover on for extended periods of time & don’t brush regularly.
I suspect at some point, somewhere the fc dropped too low & it just wasn’t caught when testing.
Definitely do as @mknauss instructed with the testing to ensure you always have adequate fc after this slam is completed.
Hopefully this one won’t take too long