First Pool Opening - First Time Trying TFP Method - There is all of the algae.

[holmern]

Here's about 60 hours of progress since I turned the pump on.

Tonight my chlorine test actually required more than one drop of R-0871. I was at about 8ppm fc, and .5 cc.

I bought a total of ten more jugs of bleach today. Two went in this morning and one tonight.

After back-washing tonight my filter pressure is at about half of what it has been after adding de. Any theories as to why that might be?

When you clean out the filter by backwashing, it usually lowers the pressure because the water flow is improved because of the cleaner filter.

 

[Rollercoastr]

That's 60 hours?!

Ok, who invited this show-off to our forum?

 

[CSteen]

Ha! It's gotta be beginners luck. But also maybe an effective DE filter, backwashing twice a day, and lots of vacuuming to waste. I'm still working at getting my fc level stable. Not out of the woods yet.

 

[CSteen]

For the past couple of days I've been getting an FC level of about 9ppm in the evening, so I add the amount of bleach suggested to get me back up to the target 12ppm. When I check again in the morning it's back at 9ppm. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm reading my bleach container correctly. Should I be entering the sodium hypochlorite or available chlorine percentage into my calculator? I should also note that I haven't actually confirmed that my FC is getting to 12ppm. Just assuming based on the calculation.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I would, on occasion, do a post-bleach addition test just to know you're hitting your mark. Let it mix around for about 30 min to an hour and retest.

Maddie

 

[CSteen]

Thanks, Maddie. I'll give that a shot in a bit.

 

[court77375]

Gordon, I'm pretty in love with your signature line -- especially the part about the wife. lol.

I won't propose to suggest anything beyond Richard's excellent advice...he's a master.

I just want to jump in and say : Have faith. It WILL work!

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More details if you're curious.

 

[CSteen]

Soooo. Here's where I was yesterday morning. Six days after uncovering the smelly swamp.

It was a pretty tiring week of getting up early every day and staying up a little late every night, but I feel like it has payed off. Thanks to everybody who has given me advice and answered my noob questions. I'm convinced that this definitely the place to go for pool advice, and is the best method of maintaining a pool.

That being said, I have more questions ;-)

I passed the overnight chlorine test last night maintaining about 9ppm and less than .5 combined chlorine. This afternoon I tested a few other things to see where I was. My fc is now at about 5.5, cya is a little under 30, ph is 7.5, and my ta is 80. Dropping from 9 to 5.5 on my free chlorine feels pretty drastic. Is that normal? I'm also not sure to trust my cya level yet since it's only been 3 or 4 days since all of it was dissolved.

And the most important question: am I good to swim now?

 

[drharris]

The higher your FC above normal level, the faster it goes. So at CYA around 30, losing 3.5ppm out of 9 would be about right, and we've had good sun here the past few days. Given you passed OCLT and your water is looking clear, I'd say good swimming is in your very near future!

At this point let the filter run its magic and soon you'll see that TFP sparkle!

 

[CSteen]

Thanks, drharris. Glad to know I'm where I should be. It's always nice to hear from local folks.