I ran out of light last night and decided to deal with this again today. I was a little more patient and got the filter drained and disassembled. WOW. That's one dirty cartridge (well, two cartridges actually). Got them cleaned and everything back together. Back to shocking now.
New Pool Owner Getting Started
- Thread starter snipes
- Start date
Alright then, now we're getting somewhere. The water looks quite a bit better this morning. Less green and somewhat cloudy. I'm still keeping FC at shock level and brushing twice daily. The shallow end seems to look better than the deep end. I feel like I should vacuum to get more water circulation from the depths. That sound good?
good to hear that its clearing! vacuuming definitely won't hurt, and an excellent way to get water from bottom circulating- only way in my AGP!
Maintain the shock levels and filtering, and it will finish clearing!
The reason the deep end looks worse is 2 fold-
1- the "turbidity" is incremental- every inch of water adds to cloudy appearance- think about multiple layers of plexi in front of lights, each layer of plexi lets light through, but dims the light...
2- the deeper end is not circulated as well, so takes a little longer to filter out the algae once its dead!
When your FC levels don't drop overnight, and the water is clear, you can let the Cl return to normal levels and finish balancing the pH; finish adjusting your CYA before you add more acid, unless your pH is really high!
Maintain the shock levels and filtering, and it will finish clearing!
The reason the deep end looks worse is 2 fold-
1- the "turbidity" is incremental- every inch of water adds to cloudy appearance- think about multiple layers of plexi in front of lights, each layer of plexi lets light through, but dims the light...
2- the deeper end is not circulated as well, so takes a little longer to filter out the algae once its dead!
When your FC levels don't drop overnight, and the water is clear, you can let the Cl return to normal levels and finish balancing the pH; finish adjusting your CYA before you add more acid, unless your pH is really high!
Vacuuming is always good, but it won't speed things up significantly. As madwil said, it is just that you are looking though more water in the deep end.
Thanks again everyone. I feel like I'm making progress. I went ahead and vacuumed anyways. Since my main drain doesn't work, I figured it really would be a good thing to do.
Meanwhile my FC has dropped again and I replenished to shock level. Each time I measure FC I also measure for CCs and I either don't have any or at most maybe 1 CC. Is that normal? Is the algae that's being cleared simply being filtered out?
Meanwhile my FC has dropped again and I replenished to shock level. Each time I measure FC I also measure for CCs and I either don't have any or at most maybe 1 CC. Is that normal? Is the algae that's being cleared simply being filtered out?
Chlorine kills the algae, but then the water is full of dead algae bits. It sometimes takes the filter a while to filter out all the left over debris from the algae. While that is happening, the CC level may move around a fair bit, or may stay near zero. In either case CC is constantly being both created and destroyed, as chlorine continues to break down the debris in the water.
The water is looking better than ever this morning. I can see very clearly to the bottom in both the shallow and deep ends of the pool, and my FC didn't drop at all overnight. Measuring the CC this morning it looks like I have a reading of 1. There is still what looks like it might be green algae on parts of the deep end walls, but it also might be some sort of staining. This is an old pool. I also have a few leaves and stuff down in the deepest part that I just can't get with the regular vacuum I have. I'm thinking I might try and pick up a leaf vacuum to get that. I've got a few trees around, so I'm sure I'll have use for it later on.
So my plan for today is: Try and get the rest of the leaves out of the deep end (not too many left, but a few). Brush/rake the pool again. Monitor FC level and keep at shock level. Tonight I'll do another overnight FC test and confirm that there is no dropoff, and also measure the CC in the morning. If I don't lose FC and have no CCs, I'm going to assume I'm ready to stop shocking. At that point, I guess I just have to wait until sunlight burns all the extra FC off? I've been maintaining shock level around 20 (CYA of 45), so I'll need to get down to 3 or 4.
So my plan for today is: Try and get the rest of the leaves out of the deep end (not too many left, but a few). Brush/rake the pool again. Monitor FC level and keep at shock level. Tonight I'll do another overnight FC test and confirm that there is no dropoff, and also measure the CC in the morning. If I don't lose FC and have no CCs, I'm going to assume I'm ready to stop shocking. At that point, I guess I just have to wait until sunlight burns all the extra FC off? I've been maintaining shock level around 20 (CYA of 45), so I'll need to get down to 3 or 4.
your plan sounds perfect- except why wait for FC to drop down? It's safe to swim at 20; maybe a little harsh on swimwear, don't remember where material starts getting significant damage.
Ah, I didn't realize that. I thought it was necessary to wait until FC drops to "maintenance" levels to swim again?
Not everyone agrees, but I'm with madwil, swimming at anything below shock level is alright.
No FC loss last night, 0-0.5 CC (hard to tell). I ended up raking out the remaining deep end leaves and then vacuumed everything else. Pool looks sparkling. We're swimming today! Thanks everyone.
I assume it's safe to stop filtering 24/7 at this point? I planned on backing down to 6-8 hours/day or something.
clear water, no FC loss overnight, <.5 CC...
Yep, you're done!
Check the rest of your balance, as FC returns to normal, make sure not to run out of FC, and you should be set for season!
Yep, you're done!
Check the rest of your balance, as FC returns to normal, make sure not to run out of FC, and you should be set for season!
I'm all set, and confident in my knowledge to maintain a clear pool for the summer. New lifetime TFP supporter here!