New to TFP, and a bad pool owner..

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Update: I have adjusted my ph to a more reasonable 7 and TA to about 70 with baking soda... and begun my SLAM, with only the oto to guide me , I know this isnt recommended but the plan is to run the filter 24/7 and keep my OTO tests a bright yellow light orange color adding a little bleach at a time


Photos of Progress - http://s88.photobucket.com/user/juanquapha/library/Pool SLAM

at the moment there is only the before and 2 hours in photos

I misjudged the gallons on my pool and added too much bleach first time around luckily I was aiming a little lower for the first batch being a little timid. pictures will be posted as regularly as I can, taking them at about 1hr intervals..

Thank you to all of you here at TFP your community is friendly, has excellent guides and will come with high recommendations from me anytime i see someone floundering in the pool aisle at wally world!
 
If you have to do your slam with the OTO, what you should be looking for is medium to dark orange color, but not into the red orange. Play with it in a bucket of water, until you can recognize at a glance the color you want. It won't stay that color for very long.
 
The color i am getting is a bright yellow at the moment, per the pool clac I am shooting for around 10FC for shock level I have noticed that the color does not change much from the first drop to the last , so I am pretty sure the cc isnt too high, I am trying to add bleach every hour or so at the moment with fairly good success my FC is consistently the bright yellow except for my first read which was an orange color I would say medium , I misjudged the pool size as i said , but when i added the baking soda and the results were off a little from the pool calc I caught the error , thank goodness or I would be adding more than i need for bleach.

are you saying that this medium orange is where I should be with a 3.2k gal pool with a CYA of about 12 -20 estimated? I have plenty of bleach and can push it higher if you think it needs it or is worth it, I am playing babysitter till about 5pm when i have to go out for a few hours but I can play with the levels till then if need be, please advise.

Also improvements are subtle but consistent I will continue to upload photos to that stream as i take them, any further suggestions welcome :)

at the start of hour 4 my levels are still consistent , I changed and cleaned the filter, which I will have to do again before 4 hours pass it wasn't filthy but it wasn't white either... water is still as clouded as it was an hour ago but I assume that was due to poor filtration I also pushed another 2 cups bleach which should take me back to about 10-12 FC...
 
been holding at a nice light orange all day, swapping and cleaning the filter every 2 hours or so, when the sun went down I stopped losing chlorine almost entirely the color is changing from orange to yellow very very slowly now. I will be changing the filter one more time before I go to bed and doing one more boost of chlorine... I will keep the filter running all night and hopefully will see some improvement in the AM and continue SLAMing the pool. is there a time frame where I should stop if its not clearing up? there still seems to be progress, but slow it was a full sun day and temps peaked over 100F here for a few hours consistently so I am sure that didnt help matters...

Guess at this point I am Vigilant and Hopeful :)

Thanks for the Tips Charlie, I did a little research here on the forums about OTO color above 5ppm, I was wondering if anyone knows how it is that the regent reacts with the water, I tried, for example to double the water i was testing to see if it would produce a lighter color but in fact it came out darker orange. would this mean perhaps that if I used half as much water to test that I should be able to match the color and double the result, seeing as how doubling the sample amount (not the drops) appeared to double my result... in my searching I did not find anyone talking about changing sample sizes, I might play around with it more tomorrow and post results if any.
 
You can dilute the pool water before doing the OTO test, but the precision (bad to start with on the OTO) gets worse. For example you can use 1 part pool water and two parts chlorine free water (like distilled water from grocery store...not city tap water) then multiply the result by 3. Some people have used that method with some success for approximate FC SLAM levels, but not for things like OCLTs.
 
Thanks for that Linen, I knew there must be a way to get more out of the test considering that I wont be swimming in it doing a test or two with a diluted sample might better help me gauge the orange colors so I can stay at 10-12FC for the duration of the day...

I know the OCLT is where I am going to have the most trouble my goal at the moment is to get the water clear and then by the end of the day try to end with as close to 5ppm and see where i am in the morning... hoping to catch the chlorine only dropping a tiny bit... at this point it is my only hope. my pH is probably still a little low and I now have some borax should i try to increase the pH while SLAMing, I know the tests will be out of whack but knowing that I started with about pH at 7 I could push a little bit on the blind side if a higher pH will help the cleaning process... same goes for the TA I am about 70 as i mentioned but I have seen posts saying 100 is more on par... back to reading pool school again :)
 
Cordova said:
...

Thanks for the Tips Charlie, I did a little research here on the forums about OTO color above 5ppm, I was wondering if anyone knows how it is that the regent reacts with the water, I tried, for example to double the water i was testing to see if it would produce a lighter color but in fact it came out darker orange. would this mean perhaps that if I used half as much water to test that I should be able to match the color and double the result, seeing as how doubling the sample amount (not the drops) appeared to double my result... in my searching I did not find anyone talking about changing sample sizes, I might play around with it more tomorrow and post results if any.
Click to expand...

The reagent doesn't react with the water, it reacts with the chlorine that is suspended in the water and changes color when it binds with chlorine. So increasing the amount of water also increases the amount of chlorine that the reagent will bind to, and (unless you increased the amount of reagent) it will be more dilute with increased sample size.

In other words, the test is calibrated to a certain sample size, the reason it caps out at 5ppm is there is only enough color changing dye to react with up to 5 ppm of Cl in the given sample size and still produce a noticable color change. Increasing the reagent may help nail down a shade if you are within the range of the test, but above or below the range are impossible to be accurate.

The only way to do it is to dilute your sample as stated above, if you do a 1 to 1 dilution with bottled water (which contains no Cl) you can multiply your result by 2,with a 1 to 4 dilution, multiply your result by 5.
 
Just a quick comment on diluting the OTO test. At correct strength, the accuracy of the OTO test is pretty imprecise. It's troublesome for most people to tell the difference between say 3-7 ppm.

Even at a 1:1 dilution, the test loses even more precision and becomes virtually worthless at anything above that.

Using the OTO test for anything above 5 ppm really is very, very close to just guesswork and is completely worthless for correctly performing the SLAM process.

If you plan to manage your pool with the knowledge of BBB, don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish......spend the 20 bucks or so and get the FAS/DPD chlorine test and take control of your pool.

Stabbing in the dark with the OTO simply leads to frustration and, often, an algae bloom.
 

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so far the pool is improving everyday and I dont seem to be having much trouble with the OTO readings but I understand what you're saying penny-wise pound foolish and I agree but I cannot afford any additional expenses this season (i dont believe) but fully intend to get a better kit for next season or perhaps next week depending , more pics to be posted in little while. I will edit when I get them up.

EDIT: More pictures of the progress, sort of slow going (with only a 1000gph pump I expected it to)

have not re-tested but as I mentioned before I have more baking soda and borax finally on hand should I raise the pH during the SLAMing? I know i cant get an accurate pH reading with the chlorine so high but would it help with breaking down the crud or is it something that can wait until the slam is over I am at about a 7 pH.

Thanks again for the amazing site and all of its helpful caring members!!
 
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