Help!!! Yikes!

Quick update with progress pics:
From the beginning to now...
didn’t get to SLAM with fidelity yesterday because of storms, but check out the change in color!

The opening ammonia tank:
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30 minutes into breaking the ammonia Wednesday
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Ick.
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Thursday—ammonia nearly at 0
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End of Friday, interrupted SLAM, but can see gross stuff on the bottom of the shallow end
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This morning, before restarting SLAM—just for info, yesterday morning FC started at 2. I used my FC dosing to 10 that I used throughout the ammonia break, which was 4 gallons. An hour later, I was at 15! That was surprising—longest “hold” we’ve had... that was the only dosing yesterday (salt cells are turned off). This morning FC was at 0.5, CC at 2. AND we can see the bottom at the mid-depths! I added 4 gallons. Out of the 65 gallons of bleach that we started with, I have 4 gallons left.
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@kimkats SO GROSS... ?but not with large debris... just with LOTS of bio yuck... I don’t know WHAT exactly that was/is, but typically breaks apart/dissolves on contact... my final post to this thread will be when we complete the SLAM... hoping that’s soon!!!
 
@kimkats SO GROSS... ?but not with large debris... just with LOTS of bio yuck... I don’t know WHAT exactly that was/is, but typically breaks apart/dissolves on contact... my final post to this thread will be when we complete the SLAM... hoping that’s soon!!!

Algae mats and bacterial biofilms.
 
Thanks for answering that!!!! SLAM will handle them, correct?

Biofilms are problematic because they are a form of carbohydrate/triglyceride slime that is resistant to chlorine penetration. So mechanical breakdown is important to dislodge the films and allow chlorine to penetrate better. Anything solid and larger than a quarter should be netted out and removed. After your water begins to clear, you may need to breakdown your sand filter and deep clean it. Backwashing is not sufficient to remove deeply embedded organic matter. The sand must be broken up by hand and thoroughly rinsed.
 
At some point you will also want to pull your lights out of their niches and inspect the niche for algae/bacterial deposits. This is most easily done when you can safely enter the water and remove the retaining ring. You might need a wet suit or a very warm shower afterwards to restore body temperature. Sometimes people can access the light niche screw from their deck if they have above-average length arms but it will usually result in your face getting into the water as if you’re playing a game of Bobbing for Apple’s.
 

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Biofilms are problematic because they are a form of carbohydrate/triglyceride slime that is resistant to chlorine penetration. So mechanical breakdown is important to dislodge the films and allow chlorine to penetrate better. Anything solid and larger than a quarter should be netted out and removed. After your water begins to clear, you may need to breakdown your sand filter and deep clean it. Backwashing is not sufficient to remove deeply embedded organic matter. The sand must be broken up by hand and thoroughly rinsed.
So glad we hand skimmed much of that out, then!!!! Gross.
 
At some point you will also want to pull your lights out of their niches and inspect the niche for algae/bacterial deposits. This is most easily done when you can safely enter the water and remove the retaining ring. You might need a wet suit or a very warm shower afterwards to restore body temperature. Sometimes people can access the light niche screw from their deck if they have above-average length arms but it will usually result in your face getting into the water as if you’re playing a game of Bobbing for Apple’s.

Thank you so much for all of this guidance!!!!
 
So I know you’re not focused on this at the moment but could you provide a few closer up shots of that ledge, especially near the accent tile?

Are there missing tiles there or are they just covered over?

Even down that first step looks really bad. I’m curious to see the plaster.
 
Great thread and nice progress! I buy Puri Tech CYA on Amazon by the 25 pound box. It is usually delivered to my house in Oklahoma in 2-3 days. It has held better than any brand I've bought at local pool stores and is much more cost effective. It also comes in smaller size boxes if you don't need quite so much.
 
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Progress continues, all... and so do the lessons....
1. today we can clearly see the drain ?
2. Our SWG is producing more Chlorine than EVER before, which makes me think we’ve had ammonia for a LONG time... those of you who helped us our first and second year may remember we had a tough time with chlorine demand. We started with one Jandy cell—and that first year it never kept up... the presumption was that it wasn’t enough given our size pool, and the fact that it gets full sun all day... so last year, we added a second cell as a booster... we ran the pump 24/7, had the Jandy SWG running at 100% and the Pentair running at 20-30%... sometimes higher... this was better, but we still had a couple of rounds with algae... today—for the first time EVER, I’m seeing the Jandy REALLY produce... we started this morning at 10 FC. I turned the Jandy on to see if I could get some booster help maintaining during this SLAM (remember, our CYA is still at 0), and within two hours my FC INCREASED by 6!!!!! That has NEVER happened... I would read about people saying they could run their cells only a few hours a day and wonder HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??? Now I know it is!!!
3. Backwashing... I stumbled across a conversation in the forum while seeking more info about deep cleaning a sand filter... one thing I came across was a piece of advice to first make sure you’re backwashing for the length of time directed by your filter... I’ve always been doing so for about 90 seconds... so I located the directions for our filter and read them—recommendation is for 3-5 minutes!!!! So, I’ve NEVER backwashed long enough... today after a 4minute backwash I saw a significant (20%) lowering of my filter pressure... AND, I did it just because I had read that—not b/c my pressure was high...

As much as I hate that we’re going through this, the experience with guidance from all of you in the thread and from the forum has been invaluable... time for another TFP donation!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
 
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Great thread and nice progress! I buy Puri Tech CYA on Amazon by the 25 pound box. It is usually delivered to my house in Oklahoma in 2-3 days. It has held better than any brand I've bought at local pool stores and is much more cost effective. It also comes in smaller size boxes if you don't need quite so much.

Oh man, [edit] Crystal ?! I literally just bought some Natural Chemistry liquid CYA from Amazon that’s coming Wednesday.
 
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I'm sure that will work well. I've heard the liquid is really good, but maybe pricey? Looks like you are well on your way to a swim ready pool! Keep the photos coming :)

It's Crystal...by the way....Paul just watches me master The Beast.
Ha! Nice to meet you! When the server decides to allow me to do so, I will post more ?.

*the diamond chips in the shallow end are sparkling...
 
How did you take your pics? If on a phone with HDR, turn HDR setting off. HDR creates pic files too large for TFP.
 

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