Our pool was only open a couple months at the end of last season and we had no wildlife visit our pool. So far this year we've had ducks and a turtle we relocated to a lake and some opossums who weren't so lucky.

Is this only a spring time occurance? Does it continue through the summer? We didn't realize we were opening a wildlife refuge.

Note: For a condensed version of this article, please read the SLAM Process in pool school.

Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis

Did you take the cover off in the spring, or just come back from a vacation, and discover a green swamp where your pool used to be? Getting rid of algae is a chore that even the most experienced of us have to face sometimes. With proper preparation, some concentrated attention for a couple of days, and then a few minutes a day of follow up, you can turn your pool back into the sparkling oasis you remember.

This guide is written for people who have a serious green algae problem, murky green water that has been that way for days or months or years in an outdoor pool. While many of the same principles apply to other kinds of algae, brand new green algae outbreaks, and indoor pools, there are differences in those situations which I won't be going into here.

Background

There are two crucial things to understand about getting rid of algae. First, algae is constantly growing. If you pause before you have gotten rid of it all, it will bounce right back, and any time and chemicals you invested will be wasted. Fighting algae is a race: you need to kill the algae faster than it grows back. If you give algae a few hours without chlorine it will be growing back and you will be losing ground. To get rid of algae reliably on the first attempt, you need to hit it hard and follow up carefully to be sure you got it all.

Second, the free chlorine (FC) level you need to target depends on your stabilizer (CYA) level. The higher the CYA level the more free chlorine it is going to take. If you don't have any idea of your CYA level, you risk either not using enough chlorine (thus failing to get rid of the algae) or using too much chlorine(potentially causing corrosion in all metal parts or shortening the life of your liner).

Be Prepared

There are several things you need to be sure of before you start the SLAM Process.

First, the pump and filter need to be working. You need to have the pump running 24/7 during the entire process to make sure the chlorine gets everywhere, or you might not get all of the algae. Before you start, be sure you know how to clean/backwash the filter, and what the filter's pressure reading is when the filter is clean.

Second, you need to know your CYA level. If you just got back from vacation you should know what the CYA level was before you left. If the pool has been closed over the winter (or longer), the CYA may have vanished over the winter and you will need to test it. If the water is cold you should allow it to warm up to room temperature before testing CYA. In any case, don't depend on a CYA test done while you have algae, it should be verified after the algae is gone.

It is important that the CYA level not be zero during the SLAM process. If CYA is too low, you will lose too much chlorine to sunlight, and the algae will be able to get ahead of you. If your FC and CYA are both zero, especially if CYA was not zero previously, there is a chance that ammonia could be present in the pool. A quick check is to add 10ppm of FC to the pool and retest the FC and CC level after 10 minutes. If FC drops below 7ppm and/or the CC rises to more than 2ppm, ammonia is likely present. Dose the FC back up to 10ppm and repeat until the CC level drops and the FC level is nearly maintained. Once this occurs, you know that there is no ammonia in the water.

If your CYA level is below 30 you should add CYA/stabilizer to around 30 ppm by putting it in a sock in the skimmer or hanging in front of a return jet and massaging often to encourage it to dissolve (or you can use dichlor if you have some on hand and know what you are doing). Once the CYA is out of the sock, it should show up on the test accurately within a day or so. Don't pour CYA directly into the skimmer, since you will be cleaning/backwashing the filter, and any undissolved CYA will be wasted, as it can take CYA up to a week to dissolve when added in this manner. Remember to retest CYA and adjust as needed once the algae is gone.

It is also important that the CYA level not be too high. If CYA is too high cleaning up the pool will take really huge amounts of chlorine and quickly becomes impractical. If a reliable test shows that your CYA level is above 90 you should replace water to bring the CYA level down to 90 or lower before continuing.

Once you know your CYA level, look up the corresponding FC shock level that will be used in the SLAM process. You can use PoolMath to do this. Enter your CYA level in the Now column and then look at the blue Suggested FC Levels section towards the bottom. Or, you can use the FC/CYA Chart in Pool School.

Third, you must have a FAS-DPD chlorine test kit. The FAS-DPD test is able to measure FC and CC up to very high levels. You need that in order to be certain that you got all of the algae. The Recommended Test Kits, (TF Test Kits TF100, Taylor K-2006 kit, and Leslie's Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test Kit) all contain the FAS-DPD chlorine test. TFTestKits, Taylor, and a few others also sell the FAS-DPD test separately. While it is possible to fight algae without this test, it involves a lot of guess work and extra chlorine.

Fourth, you need to have enough chlorine on hand, lest you end up running out to the store to buy more every half hour. I strongly recommend bleach, but cal-hypo, dichlor, and lith-hypo can all be used if you are aware of their down sides. (Remember, you will be using a lot of chlorine, so the negatives of dichlor, cal-hypo, and lith-hypo can be quite significant.) At a minimum, I would suggest having four times the amount needed to bring your pool to shock level. The longer it has been since the pool was clear the more chlorine you may need, so plan accordingly. You can use PoolMath to calculate the amount that corresponds to shock level for your pool.

Fifth, adjust the pH to between 7.2 and 7.4 before you start. The pH test is not reliable at high FC levels (when FC > 10ppm), and the pH often goes up, so start it off a little on the low side. The FC level is going to be high for several days, so you need to get the pH right before you start.

If the pool has been sitting unattended for longer than one winter you should also spend some time in advance pulling everything solid you can get hold of out of the water. Using a skimmer net on a pole you should be able to fish out most of what is in the water, even if you can't see what you are doing.

If you regularly have issues with metals, or have recently used a copper based algaecide, or regularly use a ionizer/mineral system you need to take additional precautions to avoid metal stains. While SLAMing the pool, the pH will temporarily go up more than it might usually, which can cause any metals in the water to deposit as stain the pool surface. If you suspect there may be problems with metals, you should lower the pH down very close to 7.0 before starting and add some sequestrant to prevent metal staining.

If you have a SWG, chlorine tablet dispenser, or Liquidator, you will still need to use another chlorine source for killing off the algae. All of those devices are designed to add chlorine slowly and steadily over many hours. To kill algae, you need to put lots and lots of chlorine in all at once. The SWG, tablet dispenser, or Liquidator can be helpful in the follow up stages to maintain shock level, but for the initial couple of chlorine applications you need to use another chlorine source. Generally, we recommend turning these systems off so that you have a feel for the chlorine consumption and the progress of the SLAM process.

Hit Hard

Begin your efforts when you have as much time as possible, preferably several hours in a row, to work on the pool. You will also need time to follow up at least twice a day for the next several days. The more concentrated time you can spend, the quicker the entire process will go. Set the pump timer/pool automation system to run the pump continuously, and leave it running 24/7 until the water is completely clear. Now you are ready to start killing the algae.

The general process is: Add enough chlorine to bring the pool up to shock level. Wait half an hour. Then test the FC level, and add enough chlorine to bring the FC back up to shock level. Repeat this cycle: test, add chlorine, wait, as many times as you have time for, or until the FC level remains nearly at shock level after a one hour wait.

You always test the FC level and only add as much chlorine as needed to bring it back up to shock level. PoolMath is very handy for this since you can enter your pool size, the test result in the Now column, and shock level in the Goal column, and it will tell you how much bleach to add. The first few times the FC level is likely to be either zero or quite low. Once the FC level is still a substantial fraction of shock level after half an hour, you can switch to waiting one hour between tests.

During the first half hour wait, get a skimmer net and remove everything solid that you can from the pool. If the algae has only been growing for a couple of days that might not be very much, but if the pool has been closed for a while there may be lots of leaves and other debris in there. Be as thorough as you can, given that you probably won't be able to see what you are doing.

Once the green starts to fade you should brush the entire pool. It is important to brush everywhere while the FC level is high. That means ladders and steps as well as the entire pool surface. Algae can survive high chlorine levels if it has formed a biofilm on a surface. By brushing, you disrupt the biofilm and expose the algae to the chlorine. Continue brushing once a day until the algae is all dead.

After several cycles, possibly quite a few cycles if the pool has had algae for a very long time, the FC level will be falling only slightly after an hour's wait. At that point, you can bring the pool back up to shock level one last time, and then move on to the follow up stage. If you are doing all this in the morning, and the CYA level is below 60, you should check the FC level one more time in the mid afternoon and bring it back up to shock level if needed.

Follow Up

To make sure you got all of the algae, it is important to maintain the pool at shock level until testing shows that all the algae is gone. Continue testing the water at least twice a day (morning and evening) and bringing it back up to shock level if needed. Algae can be hiding in obscure places, like lighting niches or under a ladder or in the plumbing. Continued high FC levels will kill all of the algae eventually. It is also important to brush the entire pool once a day until the algae is completely gone.

To see if you got all of the algae, measure the FC level after sunset and then measure it again very early in the morning, this is called the Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (OCLT). If the FC remained stable (within 1.0ppm of the same reading) overnight, and the CC level is 0.5 or lower then all of the algae is gone.

Once most of the algae is dead, the water will turn milky or gray instead of green. It can still take the filter up to a week to clear the water from this point. A sand filter is the slowest to clear up the pool, while a DE filter can often do it in a couple of days.

While that is happening, you should keep an eye on the filter pressure and backwash/clean the filter any time the pressure goes up by 20-25% over your clean pressure. DE filters will often need to be backwashed a couple of times a day for the first day or two. Sand and cartridge filters will usually last a couple of days between cleanings. If in doubt, clean/backwash the filter extra times rather than risk letting it get clogged up. If your filter pressure is rising quickly and you are not able to backwash as needed, switching to the Recirculate mode, if available, on your filter's multi-port valve can keep the water moving until you able to properly monitor your filter. Do not run through a solar panel system on Recirculate or you could clog the tubes. If you have a SWG, check that the cell also does not clog up with debris when running on Recirculate, remove the cell if possible.

If you have a sand filter and are not seeing daily improvement in the water clarity, it may be a good idea to inspect your sand and Deep Clean your Sand Filter to ensure it is operating correctly. You can also Add DE to a Sand Filter to help it more quickly clear up the pool.

If you are in a huge hurry, and have a sand or DE filter, it is possible to do a floc treatment to clean up the dead algae after the FC level holds steady overnight. Flock treatments can often clean up the water overnight, but TFP does not recommend them. They are an additional effort and expense, they don't always work completely, and they increase the risk that the algae will come back.

Getting algae is a pain but sometimes unavoidable. Every pool and every situation is a little different. If there is something I didn't cover, or you have questions, or things don't go exactly the way I described, feel free to start a new topic in the Algae - Prevention and Treatment section and get advice tailored to your specific situation. If you are properly prepared, hit hard, and follow up thoroughly, you can have the pool cleaned up in under a week and be back to enjoying your sparkling oasis!

Major update on 10 June 2016 by jblizzle

I bought two 10 ft lengths of 1" sch 40 PVC, ten 1" end caps, ten 1" 90° corner elbows, and a handy pack of Oatey primer & glue for about $30.00.

I cut ten 12" pieces and five 14" pieces.



I primed & glued them all together. The 12" pieces are the vertical pieces of pipe between the end cap and corner elbows. The 14" pieces are the horizontal pieces of pipe between the two corner elbows.

Hello!
I'm touching base here to make sure I'm still on the right path with our Baquacil CDX conversion.
I started the conversion on 5/22 and am attaching a photo from 5/23 (gross!) and a photo from today (yay!). Our pump died shortly after we started the process, so I had to improvise with a sump pump recirculating water from one end to the other. The pump was replaced last Saturday and the water was crystal clear 2 days later.
I feel like I should be close to the OCLT, but I'm still losing 6ppm overnight, CC seems to be holding steady at 0.5. I'm using 4-5 gallons of 10% chlorine each day, which is getting spendy! I'm at 55 gallons so far. The process was slowed by the lack of filtration when the pump was out and I've been traveling for work, so I have to rely on someone to add chlorine each night (nothing during the day). Does all of this sound like I'm still on track? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! The water looks so nice, I'm dying to jump in!!
Forgot to mention pH was 7.2 when I started and now it's around 6.8. When would I start to bring that back up?

So easy! Post ONE pic related to the theme title above. I bet you have a good pic saved somewhere.

See the contest rules below to enter.

TFP Pool of the Month Rules​

Monthly themed photo contests are announced on the first, with a 10-day submission phase. Days 11-15 are for voting, with the winner announced on the 16th, eligible for a $50 prize.
www.troublefreepool.com

Here are examples of previous winners. It's easy! What have you got to lose? You might receive a $50 discount code from TFtestkits.net.

TFP Monthly Contest Winners​

Captured paradise: Celebrating the best in TFP Pool-themed Photo Contests.
www.troublefreepool.com

It's been (almost) a year since I put this product on the deck and my COVID-19 isolation project of the weekend was to move all of the furniture, plants, etc... off the deck and give the area a good clean and put down some more sealant for the summer. Just thought I'd give a quick review of the results so far.

No big surprises. There was some mildew/dirt that didn't want to just hose off, but it neither did it seem to be tenacious enough to get out a pressure washer. So I made up a weak solution of bleach and laundry detergent and gave it a light scrub to get the funk out of the nooks and crannies, which worked fine. In a few places I had some iron stains (plant stands that will NOT be put there for the winter again) which I had to get after with more aggressive methods, but they mostly came out. I had about a gallon of the mixed product left after finishing up last year, so I transferred it to a paint can and sealed it up with the hopes that I could use it to touch up. Opened the can up and gave it a good mix and it seemed to be fine; I touched up my spots and it dried normally and still matched the original color. The website says it will last for 3 weeks in a sealed container- I went a good bit beyond that! I then re-sealed it with the same sealant. I don't know that I really NEEDED to do this, but since I had done some touch-ups (and I'm climbing the walls with boredom), and it didn't seem to be as hydrophobic as it was in the first months, I went ahead with it.

I think that if I were more diligent about hosing off the surfaces regularly, I wouldn't have needed to do that scrub. And I'll be getting some small tiles or pavers to put under the feet of anything iron that sits on the deck.

In summary, it held up really well. The cracks in the deck that it filled are still invisible- the only place where there are cracks are at the seams where the caulking shrunk a little bit, and that was kind of expected. The color I used was very light, but it doesn't appear to have faded much or at all over the year. So far, I'm still pleased with it; Here's to another year (albeit, a year that is promising to be challenging).

I keep my cars where they belong, but not everyone does..

Pics from one of my rent houses after our recent hail storm..

Took out three cars.. And a window in a bathroom...

But my pool still looks good...

Jim R.

Discovered this morning. I'll probably get one and post a review, but our pool won't be opened until early June.

Smonet web site

Video: Smonet SR5 Solar Pool Skimmer

Demo complete. This was probably overdue by a few years but thankfully no serious structural issues so far. Fingers crossed.

Is DE powder all the same or does quality vary by vendor / brand? Curious to know if any thoughts or advice on this one before I buy some DE powder for my filter change (Pentair quad de).

Thanks

4th year on Baqaucil and I'm done. Appears that I have white mold and have spent the better part or 2 weeks trying everything to remove it. Found this site and have decided to go chlorine.

I've read the how to, however, some the links are dead. Anyone have updated links scratched out in the how to?

Also, I've downloaded the Pool Math App, bought the recommended test kit and have a bunch of basket socks coming to. I am also pumping about 2/3 of my pool out and refilling with tap water. My plan is to start the conversion Friday so I can closely monitor the FC levels through the weekend. I also have new sand for when it's time to change it out. What am I missing. I've learned a lot today reading through others posts, just want to ma,e sure I'm not missing something. Thanks for the help.

Doughboy oval pool.
11,000 gallons
150Lb sand filter

May 25 2024 8AM Central time...

I am unable to save logs. Noticed there was an updated, updated the app, it's unable to sync.

Tried on my wifi and on cellular.

Wondering if it's a me issue... or something else is going on.

Hello all I am logging in now for the first time since last season. I want to say hello to all and thank you for all the help all of you have been to me in the past season. You have taught me a lot. So again Thank you. Now I am about to open my pool again but have a lot of work ahead of me. I have to remove the cover and clean it thoroughly and then let it dry and then attach all the necessary items to get the pool up and running. But I am getting ahead of myself a bit here. I hope you can guide me through this as easily as possible. My pool definitely needs about 12 inches or so of water to fill it up so I will be doing that today, into tomorrow. But what I need to know is depending on how the water looks - how many gallons of liquid chlorine bleach do you recommend I put in the pool to "so-called" shock the pool at the beginning of this season? I know I have to do the testing and the pool math calculations BUT this is my first season opening the pool without using the chlorine tablets since you guys have made me go on a diet from them since my CYA was so high last year. So all season I used ONLY liquid bleach and it was great. But I did not start that way at the beginning of the year. So can you recommend a general idea of what or how many gallons I should start with to open my pool before I do any calculations? Thank you guys so much again.

p.s. I forgot how to post so I started a few minutes ago by posting this same question to the admin(Leebo) sorry about that- so if anyone here can help me get started on the right foot I would appreciate that. And thank you all again for a great season of help last year.

Initially, I was leaning toward installation of a SWCG. It turns out I just don't have enough clearance between the heater and return line. Major manifold changes are required according to a pool store. Now I am leaning towards a 220 volt Stenner system with 15 gal tank. I will install it myself. A couple of questions.
1. I am not clear as to how the injection point connects to the return line. I have a schematic from Stenner but it's not clear. I have attached it to the post. I would appreciate an exploded view of the injection point to see exactly what fittings are required to connect the Stenner system to a 2" pvc return.
2. We are also planning re-plaster and replacing tiles. Is there a reason to wait to install Stenner before the renovation?

I am hoping the TFP community can get some amusement out of my recent pain. I have included my story and pictures just to give you a full background of what is going on. Hopefully this is amusing enough for you to try and help me out.

I purchased a home with a pool last fall. Like all first time pool owners I got advice from the pool store. I told them the pool looked like a lake and I can only see an 6” into the pool before my hand disappears. Advice was to put the cover on and deal with it in the spring.

Spring rolls around and I pull the cover off to get started. Boy was I in for more than I bargained for. Found three dead turtles, two alive, two bull frogs, and various insects. Found what I now know to be turtle eggs as well. Some alive images of the aquarium pictured below. I will spare you the picture of disintegrated reptiles.


Once I caught the animals and fished the carcasses out, I began by removing leaves and algae in the bottom. Along with various other items that had fallen in. I did this every day I got home from work for two weeks until it was time for bed. I had four piles around the pool as pictured below. These piles of leaves are much larger than they appear because everything compacts onto itself. I broke two poles and a skimmer net in the process.



After all of the leaves were removed I started working on the equipment. The old SWG was not working and was manufactured in 2013 so I replaced it with a Hayward aquarite and t15 cell along with adding a timer. Pump was also seized so I spun it a few times then replaced all the seals on it. After all of this and fixing all the wiring gremlins the equipment was running.


So now with large debris removed and working equipment I was ready to “shock” the pool. Added 11lb of 65% cal hypo. Test strips (I know they are not the best) went from Barney purple to paper white within two hours. Same thing happened again with 9lbs the next day.

This is where I made my first major mistake and surrendered all of my thoughts to the pool store. They sold me two bottles of 90 day Algaecide, some phosphate remover, ph balance, 65% cal hypo, yellow trine for mustard algae, and something else that “guarantees a chlorine residual”. Followed their instructions as suggested and it got a little better and turned greenish gray. Went through multiple flock treatments with them and multiple vacuums as well.

I am about a month in, $3500 poorer, and all my family asking when it’s going to be open, and the conversations of “just hire a professional”.

Super frustrated by this point I began to dive into researching everything and find TFP. See everyone talks about the SLAM method constantly and swear by it so I was gonna give that a shot.

I gear up by buying a boat load of 10% chlorine from rural king ($17 for 4gal!) as I know this is suggested and a 55lb bucket of 65% cal hypo to keep it going after I got it high. Cal hypo was even cheaper from Amazon for $130.

SLAM method significantly helped along with the pool math calculator for dosing. I was jumping for joy when I first saw the bottom. I could hardly contain myself.

Pool is now blue but cloudy. Pool cleared up fast for a day or two and no improvement over the next 4 visually. I can see the shallow end (3.5’) but only about half way down to the deep end (8 or 9’).



My question now is, what is my source of the cloudiness? Does the floc play a part, could my sand be bad, just keep doing the slam? How long could this take?!?

Everything has gotten so convoluted at this point that I just want to make sure I am continuing down the right road. I am tired of spending money on chemicals and want to make sure there isn’t something else I should do as I feel like I might be on the outside of a normal “green” pool.

I have been using a hach dr300 with free chlorine and total chlorine pillow powders for testing. This unit is extremely accurate but only up to 10ppm. I have a Taylor k2006c kit on the way. Below are my current levels. I let the chlorine levels get down because I’m swimming in this thing come heck or high water for Memorial Day. I will pick back up with treatment after.

I have been using the pool math app for recommended slam levels vs CYA and it recommends 19ppm. I have maintained it between 20 and 8 for a week now. Most of the time between 15 and 20ish.

FC 5.3
CC 1.2
PH 7.3
CYA 48
TA 127
CH 227
Salt 2900

Estimate pool to be 30-35k gal
Sand filter
Performing OCLT currently because I know someone will ask.

Thank you for reading my sob story and I appreciate any input!

Just wanted to take a second and thank the TFP community for your help. I have only been taking care of my pool for a month. While I know that I still need to learn more - this community had really helped. I can honestly say that my pool looks better after a month of me doing it compared to any point in the last three years where the "pros" took care of things. Too many individuals have helped so hard to say thank you to each person. Therefore I wanted to say thanks to the group!

Hi all, thanks for letting me joint this site of knoledgeable people in the pool and spa world. This is my third spa in 30 years and I have never had any water chemistry issues that werent easily solvable. I have a 2.5 year old Sundance Altamar spa at 390 gallons with UV light. I will say my problem might be related to the fact we have had about 40 inches of rainfall in the last 5 months that may have changed my well water chemistry. My tap water in the past has tested at 5.9 PH and <10 ppm Alk and <10 ppm CH . Tap water tested last week showed 6.3 Ph , 16ppm Alk ,16ppm CH , .10ppm total iron, .20 ppm copper. My house tap water is corrected using Neutra 7 chemical injection that makes my Ph 7.0 . I dont use the corrected tap water to fill the spa. I fill the spa through my irrigation (untreated) high volume fill. My problem started about 4 months ago and I was using Pristine Blue that had always worked well for me. I worked with their chemist to find out why my water kept turning blue at the water line and filter. Chemist said copper was trying to jump out of solution ? They thought PH might have been out of whack but using test strips and local spa place water test did not show that . After 2 water changes and a lot of tub cleaning to get rid of the blue staining I gave up and decided to switch to Chlorine which I have never used before. Now after 9 weeks and 7 water changes and a very thorough cleaning each time I cannot get water to balance out. My latest water test before adding any chems are PH 6.3,Alk 16ppm,CH 16ppm, .10 ppmiron and .20 copper. Before I had problems I would need to add about 20 TBSP of Alk increaser and a small amout of PH increaser and my water was great and stayed stable. Now if I add 3 TBSP of Alk increaser that gets my Alk to about 32 ppm and my PH goes over 8.0 . My most recent fill was 4 days ago and I have added 10 Tsp of PH lower (dry acid) and Ph just seems to be going higher. After about 4 days of this high PH my water is still clear but the tub walls,and plumbing turn a light tan color that requires a spa flush to clean out plumbing and extensive cleaning of the shell and filter (about 4 hours worth) . I read online that light tan scum might be either excess calcium or gypsum coming out of the solution because of high PH. I fill my spa with and inline filter. I have read on this site about borates and with the previous 2 months of reading my head is spinning with so much information and some being conflicting. Also the tub seems to consume chlorine, but im not sure as I havent used it before. I can put in 1 Tsp and the next day levels seem low. Is it normal to have to put in chlorine 3 times a week? I use test strips and I know they arent great but my last water test and the test strips were pretty well in agreement. Im about to drain this a put it away for this summer as im tired of cleaning and draining all the time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated . If I need to add any info let me know. Thanks again ,Bret

Hi all,

First off, thank you for any help here as this is becoming more complex and expensive.

The goal is to add a Circupool RJ60+ SWG to the existing setup. Unfortunately the mechanical timers and pad are about 15 ft apart as the prior owner ran conduit underground to the pad. So, I am now going to put some posts near the pad and some plywood to mount the SWG control panel so its near the cell.

To turn off/on the SWG, we have the flow switch. And then a pool tech plans on hooking up the SWG to the gang electrical box on the pad that sends power to the Pentair pump. Right now the pump is scheduled on its own and the mechanical timer is perpetually in the ON position. With this new setup, the mechanical timer will need to work again and also provide a schedule matching closely to the pump's programmed schedule. I noticed that when I manually turn OFF the mechanical timer providing power to the pump that the pump says "ALARM Power Failure" for a few seconds and then powers off. Upon turning the mechanical timer back ON, the pump's screen comes back to life but the set time becomes 1:00AM. And apparently once the memory goes, the pump might as well be shot. This is going to present a problem every day if I am cutting power to the pump and SWG via this mechanical timer.

Feeling like I am at the point of either A) Buy a new pump as well or B) Rely solely on the SWG flow switch or C) double up and add a second flow switch and get a splitter for jack or D) attempt to get an electrician to use a circuit relay to communicate certain amp level from pump to SWG indicating when its on. But do I need to build a cover over the pad at this point?

Also, has a brand created a pump that has the ability to be connected to an SWG and communicate scheduling so this problem is less of an issue?

For those who use testing strips(Accu-Chek) for Blood Sugar(DM) you can use your leftover bottles to store your DPD powder.
Just a tip that works for me.

Hi all,

The home I just moved into has a ~17,000 gal pool. The pump is a single-speed Sta-Rite Dura-Glas P2RA5E-124L with Century HSQ125 motor (I think it is 230V 1-phase). I'm guessing the pump is around 2 ft above the pool water surface, and the pump is located around 6 ft from the corner of the pool. There is a Hayward C9002 cartridge filter, 1.5" plumbing with three suction lines (L to R in photo): pool drain, skimmer, and vacuum. And no, the pump and piping are not level or plumb. The pump is tilted as much as 5 degrees from horizontal. The suction pipes are not vertical, so I'm guessing the whole mess just settled over the years and it is what it is unless I can fix it with 11-degree fittings or something. The vacuum is a Hayward Navigator Pro W3925ADC. The previous owner had a solar pool heater on the roof, but removed it when they changed shingles. Water is piped from the pump outlet to the filter, then from the filter it goes through the old heater pipes to the left, up to the diverter valve, then back to the right and into the chlorinator before I assume it goes underground and on to the pool returns. There are 5 outlets around the perimeter of the pool. The previous owner was running the pump 3 hours a day, which I suspect is not even close to sufficient and was probably done to save money with the single-speed pump. I would like to replace the pump with a VS model, and was thinking about buying one of the Calimar options since they are supposed to be the same as the B&D (and others) but for much lower cost. I'd still consider the B&D if better or if 2hp is the "right" size for me to use. I was going to just go for the 3hp VS pump, but I read some things about 1.5" pipes that worried me a bit. I would have thought I could just run the pump at lower speeds and then schedule it to run for 2 hours at whatever max speed is needed to equal the current flow rate, then 10 hours at a mid speed and 12 hours at low to keep water circulating 24 hours a day.

I plan to do the work myself, and am also planning to install a salt chlorine generator, possibly a CircuPool Core-35 or Core-45. I'm also planning to remove all of the 2" plumbing that used to go to the solar heaters since it's just creating unnecessary headloss at the moment and gives me more potential locations for leaks in the future. I will also remove the pin timer for the existing pool pump since the VS pumps have their own control panels with 4 speed settings that I can program.

I would really appreciate any recommendations/explanations. Thanks!

At the end of last year, when we would shock our pool (powder shock), black patches would appear on the pool floor almost immediately. They’d fade and look a bit yellow the next day, could be brushed, but never really went away. Of course the pool stores were no help and we closed the pool without having this solved.

Found this site, bought the kit, the CYA was 100, emptied half the pool, refilled, almost have the water in balance (still working on raising calcium hardness), but am ready to take on this algae. Here’s the pictures. It looks really subtle but I can see it better in person. Do I just start the SLAM process? How do I know when I’m done?

I just set up our Intex 15'x42" ag pool over the weekend. I went over the ground almost with a fine tooth comb but we got in for a dip today and there are 2 rocks about the size of a nickel under the liner

I would really hate to drain the pool as we are on a well and it took 3 days to fill....can a patch we applied to reinforce the liner right above the rocks? I think there is a patch that can be applied underwater, correct??

And for next year...what can be used as a pad under the pool to prevent this from happening?

I am really happy with the pool so far...if we can get one seasons use out of it I will be happy. This is my intro to pool care, so the Intex is my practice for taking care of an in ground in the next year or two I think the BBB method is great!

TIA! Charlene

I have a brand new SW pool- unfortunately the SWG initially installed was a dud and pool builder will not be able to install a new one until Monday. In the meantime he seems to have shocked it last week when it was fileld, and stuck a couple of chlorine pucks in the baskets that are there now but it's not going to bring the pool to the correct levels obviously.

Here are my current Taylor kit results:

FC- .5
CC- .5
TA- 90
Calcium- 200ppm
CYA- 0
PH- looked to be 7.6 on color test

My plan is
remove pucks from filter baskets
add HDX bleach - TFP app says 1qt, 3cups, 3oz
add CYA with stocking in filter baskets- app says 11 pounds to target level of 70



I'm most worried about the CYA- I see the preferred method is a sock in the basket or in front of the returns, but it seems like once this level is changed it's a no going back sort of thing so I want to make sure I'm on the right track

The pool will be heated starting Monday and I'm unclear on how much temperature will affect what I'm doing and if the addition of the CYA and bleach will throw the TA and PH out of whack and I'll need to plan for that if it's a wait and retest later situation?

After adding CYA how long do I wait to retest levels? How long do I need to wait before using the pool robot after adding chemicals?

Hi folks,

I’ve got a newly built pool in North Central FL that we cut the ribbon on in April 2023. Details in the signature. I had my pool builder start off doing the maintenance and it seemed haphazard so, being an engineer, I did some research and found TFP. I’ve read all the ABCs and even done some deep dives on further details and read some pertinent forum threads. I’ve since taken over my own maintenance for the last 9 months and have my TF-100 test kit. This is a long post but I’ve learned a lot reading from you guys and I’m trying to cut down on important missing information.

I’ve had to slam my pool probably 3 or 4 times in total since we first put water in it up until Now which is a little over a year later. I feel like I’m getting better at keeping it clear and the chemicals balanced. Im pretty strict when I say clear. It’s a 7ft deep pool and if I can’t see the Phillips head screw pattern on my drain when standing over the coping in the deep end, then it isn’t clear in my book.

In the winter it isn’t cold enough to “close” the pool but definitely too cold to swim. So with no bather load I find keeping the chemicals balanced and the water crystal clear was a snap. I keep CYA around 75 and FC I let fluctuate between 12-24 which is shy of SLAM level and I have no issues.

But now that the season has started back up I’ve got kids and their friends in the water, as well as a young Australian shepherd who LOVES to swim and be in the pool.

I’m writing this thread for a few reasons. First to introduce myself, second to give some data on what I notice about my slam experience and my dog in the pool, and third to see if anyone has any insight into whether I’m on the right track or not.

For background, I only use CYA powder, never tabs. Baking soda for alkalinity, muriatic to lower the PH, and liquid Cl as needed for a boost or a slam. I haven’t put anything else in the pool. I run my pump at 45% (43Gpm) 7am-7pm and drop it to 20% in the evenings. I never turn it off. I’ve got dogs and dog hair that require constant skimming.

Currently finishing a slam because we had a pool party about 2 weeks ago and the water got a tad cloudy on me and I noticed my SWG could not keep up even when set to 75%. This is unusual especially with the SWG being set that high. My FC balance each day of testing continued to fall. I prefer to have my FC on the high side of about 11 with CYA around 75. My FC never fell Below 4ppm but something was clearly consuming the FC faster than the SWG could put it out. (I acid washed the SWG and made sure the FC at the return was 1ppm higher than at the skimmer to ensure it’s working). I cleaned the filter several times because I was hoping maybe it was sunscreen residue but as my FC continued to drop I decided to just slam it to be safe. The water got back to my threshold of clear within 2 days but I was not passing the OCLT for FC loss and my CC’s were between 1.5 and 2.5 for several days. My FC and CC numbers were actually a bit erratic in that the FC would get consumed at an expected rate of ~2-4 ppm
But I’d hit these strange bursts of losing 6+ppm in a short time period, including overnight.

During a slam, when the water is clear I notice that I typically lose about 3ppm of FC on average from the sun plus whatever is being oxidized.

My CYA is currently 55. I had a couple late evenings where I topped my pool off around 630pm to get my FC to about 26 (I know slam is 24 but I go a touch higher to allow for fluctuation). I test again around 830pm and that’s my benchmark for the OCLT when I test before sunrise the next day. Well, I noticed things getting funky when I added 0.8 gal of chlorine to the pool at 630pm and at an 830pm retest the FC didn’t move. I should’ve seen a 5ppm or 6ppm jump from that dose but it didn’t move and there is no sun on my pool from 6pm onwards. This is very out of the ordinary to happen.

I’ve always suspected my dog has an impact but I didn’t pay much attention to it as the TFP forums I read on dogs seemed to indicate they don’t have too much of an effect. Well this slam is taking a lot longer than usual but I kept at the slam and 2 days later passed the OCLT for FC but not CC.
The following day I did not pass the OCLT but CC dropped to 1.5 from 2.5.

I began observing the dog’s behavior as part of the test and slam process and I now believe my dog has a major effect based on my test values.

Ive got a 8foot long 9” deep
Sun shelf in the pool where he likes to hang out. He does this thing where he puts his bottom legs on the next step down from the sun shelf and rests his upper body on the sun shelf. He will lounge like that off and on throughout the day, swim a few laps, and return to his lounge spot. I noticed he was chilling in my pool after I added the 0.8 gal of chlorine as mentioned above and I’m convinced now he’s sometimes peeing in the pool, or his marinating in the water like that is bringing enough organic material into the water to mess up my readings (or both). I can’t otherwise explain why my FC didn’t move up the 5-6ppm 2 hours after I added the Cl so late in the day and why my CC’s are bouncing between 1.5 and 2.5. I suspect this is also why my SWG was not keeping up after the party was done. The dog was so happy that the water was warm again he was back in the pool constantly.

I put him in the house the following night and this time passed my OCLT for FC but the CC had only dropped to 1.5.

It’s not practical to keep him out of the pool, But I’m also not sure I need to slam anymore. I’m planning to finish it out over the weekend and then get my CYA back up and put the SWG on and just watch it closely. I don’t think I’ll ever get my CC down to 0.5 or 0 as long as he’s in the water.

Just wanted to share that experience and see if anyone had any thoughts on fundamental flaws in my logic or if I’m on the right track.

Pic of the little %#^* in his lounge pose attached.

Many thanks for all the info I s learned on this site.

I hate to be a “Karen”, but the new PoolMath update is driving me nuts and wanted to give you all some (unsolicited) feedback lol. First, I cannot tell you how many things I’ve deleted by accident due to the “Delete Log” button when I click on an existing entry to update and/or correct something. WHYYYYY?! It was already easy to delete a log entry. Example:

This was when I realized (23 hours later lol!) that I put the wrong temperature. I accidentally put 83 when I meant to put 73. I almost deleted the entire test log bc I’m not used to the big ole DELETE button being there. Yes, I need to pay attention and I’ll get used to it, but it’s still buggin me lol!

SECOND…..why why why did you take away how many gallons of each chemical when you go to the “Summary” section?! You already had it where it showed the ppm +/- total, which was cool. But it’s also nice to know how many gallons of Liquid Chlorine (or whatever) that I have used. I clicked on the little circle with the plus sign to see if it would appear there, but it didn’t. This would be a nice feature to add. Example:




I really hate to sound petty, but I do pay for the app yearly so I just wanted to give you guys my opinion on the update and whether or not there are still some things that are being worked on? Or do I need to just get over it? lol! Thank you TFP for all that you do! I really hope my constructive criticism isn’t offensive. I know you all work very hard and it’s so appreciated! Thank you for reading my little rant lol

Hi

Total newbie who inherited a pool with my home purchase. My pool was opened Thursday and attached is a report of what was added.
The pool company insisted I shock my pool weekly as did the prior owner which is contrary to what I have read here.

Thoughts on what they added to the water?

FYI I ordered a TF-100 pro salt test kit which should arrive Monday May 13th

Thaks

New to posting on the forum, but have been browsing extensively over the past month. Apologies if I'm in the wrong spot! This will likely be a long post, but I want it to serve as a testimonial and also motivation for new pool owners especially - and to trust in the TFP process.

We purchased our new home in November of 2023, due to the time of year a pool inspection was out of the question so we opted for a home warranty instead. We are first time pool owners. Our in-ground pool had the mesh winter cover over it, so we had no idea what the pool/water looked like. The house was on the market since April of 2023, so the pool definitely wasn't opened in 2023 and likely not the year before either (divorce situation).

I pulled the cover off on April 16th and was shocked (but not surprised) to see what the water looked like:



We own a hot tub as well so going into this I had a basic understanding of water chemistry but have never had to deal with even light green water. The previous owners left behind some bags of granular shock which I dumped in (before reading here - don't kill me) I started looking to forums online for extra guidance and found TFP - immediately went and bought a bunch of 12% liquid chlorine.

After adding a bunch of liquid chlorine and keeping the pump running 24/7 on filter, here is what it looked like 3 days later on April 19th:



Continuing to brush every day and with pump running continuously and maintaining SLAM levels, here is a progress picture on April 22nd:



Keeping up with the SLAM process, here it is on April 26th:



April 29th, first time getting enough clarity on the shallow end to faintly see the bottom of the pool!



Gaining more clarity and a slightly bluer color, here it is on May 1st:



Here we are on May 4th, still at SLAM level:



And here we arrive at May 5th, really nice blue color and finally decided to floc and vacuum to waste since all the algae was dead:




May 6th, more vacuuming and skimming to clean out all the junk. We now have our beautiful blue oasis!



I'll attach a couple more pictures below to show clarity, can only share 10 in this post. This was by far one of the most rewarding things I have done as a homeowner, and took an extreme amount of patience. There were several days that showed no progress, but believing in the process and keeping the pool at shock level the whole time finally paid off.

All in all, ended up using close to 100 gallons of 12% liquid chlorine and half a bottle of Clorox floc. April 16th - May 6th, took about 3 weeks to clear up. Don't give up!

Just curious if poured sodium hypochlorite is protected by existing pool cyanuric acid or if that only the chlorine from the tabs it comes from is conditioned?

I am going to start keeping a log of my CYA here to determine what if anything is up. I have gone and bought the expensive CYA from Doheny.

CYA is 70. I am going to bump it up to 80 today and then measure over the next several weeks.

This year I had a wonderful idea that maybe I would swap out the hoses for PVC. Looks good, no? I mostly one of the shut off valves and the new skimmer replacing all the hoses added benefit.

I did this while my ag pool had no water in it. Once I got everything watertight now everything else situated with the pool, I started to put water in it. It seemed like a totally valid next step, right? Except, I failed to think about one factor

As you fill this pool, the side walls expand. It’s not easy to tell right here but the two pipes on the right, they are pushing on the pool. Here’s an inside view. But first, please ignore the gross mess of my pool. It is a work in progress. First up, will be figuring out how I am going to get the PVC contraption off the pool.

Oh and, good morning I got up early to start filling more water (from well) and that’s currently on hold. I think I’ll be asking Spouse if they have any god ideas on how I can get this out with letting out any water

Edit: The pipes are off. Spouse was a big help. After trying a few things, they push the pool in with there foot and then pulled the pipes. I hadn’t even thought to try that. Anyway, problem solved and progress shall continue.