Algae Help!

+1 on a higher than “target” target. I was maintaining FC of 5ppm and had an algae outbreak that took quite awhile to get under control. After guidance from this forum, I now manage FC in a range of 7-9ppm. We had heavy rains last week and quite a bit of organic debris was dropped into the pool. Even after cleaning up the pool, my FC dropped from 8 to 6 to 5 over 3 days, so I knew I had a problem. Sure enough, I was dropping 3ppm based on the overnight chlorine loss test. I was able to get through the SLAM in 2 days with an OCLT of .5 after day 2. Water is back to crystal clear! Had I still been maintaining FC of 5ppm, I suspect the situation would have been worse and the SLAM would have taken much longer.
Ok. We do have dirt and leaves that fall in to pool everyday. Even mild winds will get the leaves in pool which I try to skim right away. Also, we have weekly Gardening service and he happens to blow a lot of debri and dirt in to pool. No matter how careful he is around the pool area things get in there. Plus lots of bugs as well. So with that being said 8FC should be okay on my situation? As you can see from the pic I attached the pool is surrounded with bushes, dirt, rocks and palm trees.
 

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So with that being said 8FC should be okay on my situation?
Try to target the SWG to maintain 8. As the season winds down it will overproduce as the UV from the sun drops also. Lower the unit at back to 8 when it hits 10

*disclaimer.
Overproduction of chlorine will waste some. Maybe 1/3 of the extra. It will equate to a shorter SWG lifespan, but not one you will ever notice. If it fails 3 months early, 4+ years from now (7 for the northern folks), you will never know. What you will also not know is HOW you ever lived NOT having the safety net. When something happens like a storm, or a dance recital making you skip today's test, or whatever. You have the wiggle room to spare.

If I told *anyone* they could have absolute easy, worry free, never even
*think* about it pool care for $50 (?) season in extra bleach or SWG lifespan, they would have it pulled out of their pocket by the time I finished my sentence. TFP is easy. Running hot is stupid easy.
 
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Info on pump
The manual is too big to upload but this link should get you to the right area to download the manual.

Your pump has 4 buttons for different speeds but I think you mentioned earlier that they are not all programed. So if you press each one and read the speed in rpm and it also should state the watts of energy being used. You can use that to determine that it could be less costly to run longer at a lower speed then to run partial times at low then high.

For instance, a pump may be at 1000rpm and use x watts. At 2000 rpm you may think it will use 2x watts (double the rpm and double the watts) but in reality it may be 3x watts at the higher rpm - it is not a linear relationship of rpms vs watts in a variable speed pump. Hope this can be used to discuss with your spouse that it could be more cost effective to run at a lower speed for longer pump run times. This also has the added benefit that your SWCG does not have to be set at100% so you can actually extend the life of that as well.
Good Luck.
 
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Ok. We do have dirt and leaves that fall in to pool everyday. Even mild winds will get the leaves in pool which I try to skim right away. Also, we have weekly Gardening service and he happens to blow a lot of debri and dirt in to pool. No matter how careful he is around the pool area things get in there. Plus lots of bugs as well. So with that being said 8FC should be okay on my situation? As you can see from the pic I attached the pool is surrounded with bushes, dirt, rocks and palm trees.
8-10 ppm FC will work great.
 
:party::party::party:


Normally we advise creeping up on the target as it’s hard to undo if you overshoot. But you don’t have that far to go. You can either add 10 ppm twice, or maybe add 15 and go from there.

7.5 is fine for now. Don’t worry about the ‘ideal range’. The PH will probably come up on its own soon enough.

Plug your model into the ‘effects of adding section’ of pool math to see what the production is with your unit. You can get both the runtime and % in the same menu to see what you need to maintain X FC a day. Or hang tight for someone to do the math that’s familiar with your model.

It adds slowly so you won’t see any big change if you turn it on before testing. But definitely circulate the pool so that’s good and mixed first.

For now test morning and evening to get a good baseline. It’s a bit of a chore but an ounce of prevention whoops a pound of cure here, as you’ve seen. :) Go from there once you are comfortable with how your pool is behaving at this point in the season. If your FC is a little off, adjust the SWG accordingly up or down. If the FC is low and anywhere below target range, dose with liquid for a now boost and then adjust the SWG up. Try again tomorrow to see if it worked. Watch it like a Hawk until you prove to yourself that it’s doing what you need.
I added 1 gallon of liquid stabilizer yesterday which should have brought up the CYA to 65. I did a CYA test right now and I’m getting a 60 reading…so do I add maybe half a gallon to see if that brings me to 70ish CYA ? Pool math is telling me to add another full gallon…advice? The CYA test is tricky…not 100% comfortably that is why I don’t know if I should add small amounts or the full amount.
 
The liquid stabilizer is use the entire jug. It does not work to add part of a jug.
+1. The clumpy stuffs that settles on the bottom no matter how much you shake the bottle is most of the CYA. The only way to get the proper dose is to use the whole bottle (when applicable, of course !!) and rinse it out real good.
 

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Ok. Will do. I’m glad I asked before adding another gallon. Will test this weekend and go from there. Also, I turned off the SWCG an hour ago since my FC increased from 12 this morning to 14.5. I want it around 8. I will check in 4-5 hours to see where the FC is at to make adjustments for tomorrow.
 
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Remember, the 4 ppm per day FC created by the swcg was a start point. If your FC rises, reduce to 3.5 or 3 ppm FC per day.
 
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+ 1. Once it’s dialed in (and your now beautiful water :party:) you will only be looking out for the next time it keeps producing the same but the UV from the sun decreases. If you miss it for a few days you’ll have extra FC and it’s a GREAT screw up. (If you have to make one).

your daily tests will go like this :
8
8
8
8
8
8
8.5
9
Meh. Still ok
9
9
9
9
9
10
Whoa buddy slow down !!!
 
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*and it could take 4-6 weeks to need to dial it down. Once they are dialed in the magic of the SWG is how boring they are. It’s just good everyday. On week 3 you start to feel guilty and brush the pool for no reason to appease the pool gods. Ok. I did something. Please accept my sacrifice. :ROFLMAO:
 
Remember, the 4 ppm per day FC created by the swcg was a start point. If your FC rises, reduce to 3.5 or 3 ppm FC per day.
Yes, I’m just trying to have it decrease to around 8. The target FC is 5 but aiming at 8. I had it at 100% for several hours then fc increased brought it down to 70% and still didn’t go down. This morning it was running at 60 % and FC increased. But, I’m keeping an eye on it for sure. My kids think I’m addicted to checking the pool lol.
 
*and it could take 4-6 weeks to need to dial it down. Once they are dialed in the magic of the SWG is how boring they are. It’s just good everyday. On week 3 you start to feel guilty and brush the pool for no reason to appease the pool gods. Ok. I did something. Please accept my sacrifice. :ROFLMAO:
I already have a scrubbing issue. My husband “ are you scrubbing the pool again? The water is clear and pool is clean ” lol and I tell him I’m just scrubbing anything that can be clinging to the walls etc.
 
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