You should not fly blind. Just do the FAS-DPD test and follow the SLAM process correctly. The water is not likely that colored in a small sample.
Confused about some of my chemistry levels....
- Thread starter Gooserider
- Start date
- May 22, 2013
- 2,796
- Pool Size
- 12000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
So you start by just tossing in chemicals until your brown starts to get green and then you test and go with TFPC method from there ??
Seems like the hard way to SLAM your pool and a bit of a waste of chemicals since having them balanced even in a brown pool allows them to work more efficiently, quickly and cheaply. Just my two cents.
Photo showing hard way to SLAM your pool included free of charge.
Seems like the hard way to SLAM your pool and a bit of a waste of chemicals since having them balanced even in a brown pool allows them to work more efficiently, quickly and cheaply. Just my two cents.
Photo showing hard way to SLAM your pool included free of charge.
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I do more or less pitch things in, but it's not totally random...
I *KNOW* that I will be low on several areas, simply because I pumped out about 2 feet of water in the fall when I closed the pool - usually replaced by snow/ rain over the course of the winter, with some added town water as needed to top up the pool - so I know that everything that gets lowered by water exchange will be low, and I will have a fairly decent idea of how much just because I've had to do this before....
I also KNOW that I will need to backwash at least 3-4 times in the first week or so, with more water replacement to keep things messed up...
The trouble with the posted SLAM approach is that it requires a LOT of time poolside, which I simply don't have - not to mention interruptions due to typical rainy New England spring weather - I am NOT going to sit in the rain by the pool doing testing / chemistry....
Bottom line is that I may or may not get out to the pool every day, let alone several times a day...
So my first priority is to get the filter and Polaris going 24/7 , then getting the chlorine up - which I know 1-2 gallons of 12% will do. It bumps it more than I "need" but it lets me go longer before needing to add more...
I don't brush or vacuum, but will try to scoop out as much of the dead leaves as I can. I initially use leaf bags on the Polaris, and when it stops filling those, switch to all purpose, and then silt bags.... The Polaris does the triple duty job of picking up the big stuff, keeping the sediments in suspension (so the main filter can get them - which does increase the need for backwashing) and mixing any chemistry that I add....
After the first couple of days I will start adding Salt, so I can get the SWG going, then Calcium, and borates, as they aren't dropped tremendously by backwashing, I don't add CYA until the pool is swimable and I'm done with most of the backwashing, per the notes saying not to do backwashing while adding CYA... But I would like to get the CYA level up some, so it seems like the solid chlorine would help there.
My method may not be the most efficient, but I'm finding that I get from "swamp to swim" in 7-10 days, which isn't much difference from the official SLAM approach, and it doesn't need as much time by the pool....
ex-Gooserider
I *KNOW* that I will be low on several areas, simply because I pumped out about 2 feet of water in the fall when I closed the pool - usually replaced by snow/ rain over the course of the winter, with some added town water as needed to top up the pool - so I know that everything that gets lowered by water exchange will be low, and I will have a fairly decent idea of how much just because I've had to do this before....
I also KNOW that I will need to backwash at least 3-4 times in the first week or so, with more water replacement to keep things messed up...
The trouble with the posted SLAM approach is that it requires a LOT of time poolside, which I simply don't have - not to mention interruptions due to typical rainy New England spring weather - I am NOT going to sit in the rain by the pool doing testing / chemistry....
Bottom line is that I may or may not get out to the pool every day, let alone several times a day...
So my first priority is to get the filter and Polaris going 24/7 , then getting the chlorine up - which I know 1-2 gallons of 12% will do. It bumps it more than I "need" but it lets me go longer before needing to add more...
I don't brush or vacuum, but will try to scoop out as much of the dead leaves as I can. I initially use leaf bags on the Polaris, and when it stops filling those, switch to all purpose, and then silt bags.... The Polaris does the triple duty job of picking up the big stuff, keeping the sediments in suspension (so the main filter can get them - which does increase the need for backwashing) and mixing any chemistry that I add....
After the first couple of days I will start adding Salt, so I can get the SWG going, then Calcium, and borates, as they aren't dropped tremendously by backwashing, I don't add CYA until the pool is swimable and I'm done with most of the backwashing, per the notes saying not to do backwashing while adding CYA... But I would like to get the CYA level up some, so it seems like the solid chlorine would help there.
My method may not be the most efficient, but I'm finding that I get from "swamp to swim" in 7-10 days, which isn't much difference from the official SLAM approach, and it doesn't need as much time by the pool....
ex-Gooserider
Running your pump in the daytime will help considerably in keeping up with your FC demand. My experience has shown that testing at night when the sun goes down gives me a better understanding of where I'm at with my chemistry.
I spent the better part of two months dialing in my new cell. I replaced the old one with the same brand and model. Old cell I always ran at 100% for 8 hours during the night. After finding this site, I now run my cell 8 hours from 5 am to 1 pm as we here in the valley have peak times for electricity (it costs more from 1 pm to 8 pm during summer months). I've finally settled on 8 hours of run time at 60% for the SWG. My CYA hovers around 75 (such a hard test to do exactly) but for sure it's not more than 80. My cell is working so well that I've not supplemented it at all since installing with any bleach/liquid chlorine. My target for FC is 5 and it almost always stays at the minimum of 4.5 and tops out at 6 on some days.
So, what I'm getting at here is try running it during the day as much as you can and for sure get your CYA number up to at least 60 if you've not already done so. Sounds like you've a good grasp on what you're doing and just need some agreement from the peanut gallery here. I, for one, agree with your sound thinking. Go slow and steady and chart your figures in Microsoft Excel or a similar program to keep something to look at further on in the history of your pool. Get your salt up to near maximum, for instance my cell has a max of 3,500 ppm and no lower than 2,800 ppm. I keep mine at 3,400 and find that the cell works most efficiently at near maximum level.
I spent the better part of two months dialing in my new cell. I replaced the old one with the same brand and model. Old cell I always ran at 100% for 8 hours during the night. After finding this site, I now run my cell 8 hours from 5 am to 1 pm as we here in the valley have peak times for electricity (it costs more from 1 pm to 8 pm during summer months). I've finally settled on 8 hours of run time at 60% for the SWG. My CYA hovers around 75 (such a hard test to do exactly) but for sure it's not more than 80. My cell is working so well that I've not supplemented it at all since installing with any bleach/liquid chlorine. My target for FC is 5 and it almost always stays at the minimum of 4.5 and tops out at 6 on some days.
So, what I'm getting at here is try running it during the day as much as you can and for sure get your CYA number up to at least 60 if you've not already done so. Sounds like you've a good grasp on what you're doing and just need some agreement from the peanut gallery here. I, for one, agree with your sound thinking. Go slow and steady and chart your figures in Microsoft Excel or a similar program to keep something to look at further on in the history of your pool. Get your salt up to near maximum, for instance my cell has a max of 3,500 ppm and no lower than 2,800 ppm. I keep mine at 3,400 and find that the cell works most efficiently at near maximum level.
I don't have any faith in my CYA number, as the test seems so hard to get a reading on, and my number is way off what the pool-store testers get - while my numbers for other tests are usually pretty close....
That said, I'm now up around 40 by my testing. I have the pump running 10 hours / day, (in two 5 hour sessions) which seems to be my minimum for keeping the surface reasonably free of floating tree junk... I've turned the SWG down to 10% - which is as low as it goes short of turning it off, and my FC is STILL around 6, which is considerably more than recommended...
My salt level is OK per the SWG readout, and contrary to the discussion here, I am definitely tasting salt in the waer - nothing like seawater, but quite definitely salty tasting.
Right now my feeling is that aside from possibly adding more muriatic acid to keep the pH in range, I probably won't be adding anything else this season, as I don't have that much time left before I'll be closing again...
ex-Gooserider
That said, I'm now up around 40 by my testing. I have the pump running 10 hours / day, (in two 5 hour sessions) which seems to be my minimum for keeping the surface reasonably free of floating tree junk... I've turned the SWG down to 10% - which is as low as it goes short of turning it off, and my FC is STILL around 6, which is considerably more than recommended...
My salt level is OK per the SWG readout, and contrary to the discussion here, I am definitely tasting salt in the waer - nothing like seawater, but quite definitely salty tasting.
Right now my feeling is that aside from possibly adding more muriatic acid to keep the pH in range, I probably won't be adding anything else this season, as I don't have that much time left before I'll be closing again...
ex-Gooserider
I would try turning down the pump time at least an hour if not more. I've found a page from google in the past that lists gallons per hour for almost every pump made. You could try that to find out how much your pump is in gph and figure out how long it takes to turn your water in your pool. Since my post above yours, I turned down my SWG to 50% output and will run that for a week as my FC is also hovering around 6 quite often. If that doesn't work, I will most certainly turn down the runtime another 1/2 hour. It's a delicate balance that takes some fine tuning with a whole lot of patience.
Since you're tasting the salt easily, maybe you should really look into turning down the runtime of the pumps and increase the cell time to get the cell to convert that salt to chlorine. Chances are you may not even have to run your pumps more than 5 hours or so depending on your weather. Here, it's hot and hotter. My overnight lows are mostly in the low 80's. We've been over 100 degrees for more than 6 weeks in a row now. Try turning down your pump time and increasing your cell %.
Since you're tasting the salt easily, maybe you should really look into turning down the runtime of the pumps and increase the cell time to get the cell to convert that salt to chlorine. Chances are you may not even have to run your pumps more than 5 hours or so depending on your weather. Here, it's hot and hotter. My overnight lows are mostly in the low 80's. We've been over 100 degrees for more than 6 weeks in a row now. Try turning down your pump time and increasing your cell %.
There is no one number of gpm for each pump. The amount of water moved is a function of head loss which is different for every pool.
I may need to modify the programming on my box, but right now if I want to run split cycles (2 shorter cycles / day rather than one longer one) two hours / day is my smallest change increment - I can set each short cycle in one hour increments, or if I go to one long cycle / day I can set it in one hour units up to 12 / hours on...
However I get a LOT of tree droppings due to the surroundings of the pool (I like the trees, but even if I didn't many are actually on the neighbour’s land) and I find that shortening the pump time doesn't get the debris from the pool surface into the skimmer before it sinks... So right now my runtime isn't so much a question of turnovers, but of surface clearing... (and I figure the split cycle approach does a better job of this....)
ex-Gooserider
However I get a LOT of tree droppings due to the surroundings of the pool (I like the trees, but even if I didn't many are actually on the neighbour’s land) and I find that shortening the pump time doesn't get the debris from the pool surface into the skimmer before it sinks... So right now my runtime isn't so much a question of turnovers, but of surface clearing... (and I figure the split cycle approach does a better job of this....)
ex-Gooserider
I turned my output down to 50% and kept my runtime at 8 hours. I'm testing FC at a tick above 5. I will wait until the weekend to run a full set of tests including a chlorine powder test to more accurately test for FC. I'm very happy with the fact that I can even have this much patience to wait a week for each change I make. Knee jerk reactions in the past have plagued me to no end.