SLAM question… where do I go from here.

[domshort]

Hi all! Been slamming for about 10 days now. First few days were tough with 30mph+ Winds. Past OCLT 2 nights in a row now and water is crystal clear. First time with no major cloudiness at the lights at night. However, I’m still showing a brown sediment in areas such as creases, a bit in the skimmer boxes (this amount has decreased) and intermittently at the bottom of the pool floor. When swept it puffs up but just seems to resettle later. I’ve read through numerous TFP articles about people fighting this, some stating it’s dead algae and that live algae is still being killed, some say it could be pollen and others dust which we do get a lot of. Personally, from what I’ve seen during the slam, I feel it’s dead algae that isn’t being filtered out well. It has decreased substantially over the course of the slam but seems to have stopped decreasing. I’m scared to stop my slam and raise CYA levels as if I do still have live algae and have to SLAM again, my SLAM level will be a lot higher and require more chlorine. But how much longer should I keep my level at 16? I do feel confident of my current CYA level at 40 if not a bit less but I rounded up. It’s definitely not more. I do have a clarifier (super blue) but I’m nervous to use and don’t want to add copper as we are a household of very light fine hair blondes that get green hair easily and no matter what we use, won’t come out. I have added DE to the filter once. It didn’t raise my psi much but caused my flow light to come on within after a couple hours. So I backwashed stop that time..not sure if that was the right thing to do…and flow light came back on.

I have also (numerous times) scrubbed my ladder, inside returns, weir doors and my lights are built in. I haven’t scrubbed the bottom drains as I don’t really want to get into 50 degree water. I’m hesitant to use clarifier based on all I’ve read, but I do have some I bought before doing TFP method. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Jennifer

 

[Texas Splash]

You've passed the OCLT (twice) so it's safe to take algae out of the equation. Dead algae would be more of an off-white/gray color. My bet is with seasonal dust and organics blowing through the air and settling.

 

[domshort]

Thanks for your reply! I think I’m gonna let the FC drift down then and maybe do one last OCLT tonight at lower FC to once again confirm. I’m assuming this is just something I have to live with and best to just brush toward the filter when it accumulates?

 

[MITBeta]

Have you tried vacuuming?

 

[domshort]

I’ve vacuumed about 3x and then put the robot in 3x as well. It always gets the stuff but it ends up coming back. I haven’t vacuumed to waste though as I really don’t want to waste a bunch of water. And I haven’t put the robot in for a couple days as the water temp dropped.

 

[V___25]

When you run the robot, have you checked his basket? Is it sand from your filter?

 

[domshort]

I have checked the basket as I rinse after each cleaning. It doesn’t appear like sand as there are no tiny rocks that I can see. Just a light brown dirt like substance. We are up on a hill though and the backyard faces south. Because of the constant excavation, dirt must get blown in as I can sweep off a layer on our upper deck and it also dirties our siding.