Battling algae

[Swampthing2829]

Came back from a two day vacation to a lovely shade of light green pool.

I’m struggling with my FC levels during the day. I’d bump my FC up to the max recommendation level, only for it to dip below the minimum threshold by evening. I had no one to add chlorine for me for the 24 hours I was gone, so I bumped by FC up to 20 before I left (aug 12). Pool turned green between the 12th around 10 pm when I left and the 14th at dinner time when I returned.

I’m currently on day 2.5 of SLAM (started the evening of the 14th). Haven’t let FC get below 15.5, keeping it at 20 and testing at least 3-4x a day.

Pool is barely getting better. Water is clear but teal. Husband is getting impatient with me and wants to use dichlor shock and I’m telling him absolutely not with our CYA at 50.

Am I on the right track?

 

[mknauss]

Am I on the right track?

Yes you are.

Be sure you brush really well a couple times per day if possible.

Any steps or hiding spots for algae?

Also, you are not saving your test results to your Poolmath app. What was the pH prior to starting the SLAM?

 

[Swampthing2829]

Yes you are.

Be sure you brush really well a couple times per day if possible.

Any steps or hiding spots for algae?

Also, you are not saving your test results to your Poolmath app. What was the pH prior to starting the SLAM?

7.4 ph
There are steps, I’ve removed them so I can spray with bleach solution and sun dry to (hopefully) kill anything lurking there.
We are vacuuming and brushing each day so far. The dolphin is coming up clean minus some sand

 

[mknauss]

Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test soon. ABG pool systems can be slow to clear.

You can swim as long as you can see the bottom.

 

[Mdragger88]

There won’t be any difference fc wise in using Dichlor to maintain slam level fc vs using liquid chlorine- there will however be unwanted effects on your ph, cya, & your wallet.
You’re on the right track, stay the course with liquid chlorine & show him this to clear up the confusion

SLAM ON

 

[Swampthing2829]

Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test soon. ABG pool systems can be slow to clear.

You can swim as long as you can see the bottom.

Even with a teal pool? I can see the bottom perfectly fine it’s just not clear water. It’s definitely green/teal tinged. Not cloudy at all

 

[Swampthing2829]

Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test soon. ABG pool systems can be slow to clear.

You can swim as long as you can see the bottom.

I’ll do this tonight. Should I re test before dinner, add LC to bump to 20 FC, wait an hour or so then retest at sun down… test again before the sun hits tomorrow?

 

[mknauss]

I’ll do this tonight. Should I re test before dinner, add LC to bump to 20 FC, wait an hour or so then retest at sun down… test again before the sun hits tomorrow?

Yes.
Just trying to get a baseline.

 

[Swampthing2829]

Yes.
Just trying to get a baseline.

Ok. FC at 10 pm was 18, cc .5
FC at 6:45 am was 12, cc .5

I just added 87 oz of bleach to get back up to 20 ppm

 

[Swampthing2829]

Today the water looks the same as yesterday to me. Still clear but definitely teal

 

[mknauss]

Stay at it. With that overnight FC loss you are defeating some algae.

 

[Swampthing2829]

Stay at it. With that overnight FC loss you are defeating some algae.

Awesome. Still good if kids want to use the pool since I can see the bottom?

 

[mknauss]

Yes.

 

[Swampthing2829]

re tested at 930 am. FC went from 20 to 14.5 in about three hours with cloudy gray skies and low temps today.

This is good right? Means the chlorine is working?

 

[mknauss]

It is eradicating something.

 

[Swampthing2829]

Looking MUCH better today!! But still lost about 6 ppm chlorine overnight last night. 20 at 11 pm, 14 at 9 am. Photo 1 was yesterday morning and you can see my stairs green looking in the water yesterday but much better looking this morning in photo 2!!

 

[mknauss]

Stay at it. Progress.

 

[Swampthing2829]

I’m knee deep in SLAM and have passed all the tests except the OCLT. My question is why is my overnight loss getting worse by the day instead of better? It was 6 ppm loss when my pool was teal a few days ago. Last night, with a crystal clear pool, I lost 8 ppm.
Obviously I’m still fighting something but I’m not sure how typical it is for the OCLT to get worse before resolving or how long it can possibly take to pass this test after all the other benchmarks have been hit?

 

[mknauss]

No real pattern. When the organics are gone, you will not have any FC loss overnight.

 

[Texas Splash]

why is my overnight loss getting worse by the day instead of better? It was 6 ppm loss when my pool was teal a few days ago. Last night, with a crystal clear pool, I lost 8 ppm.

Interesting that you seeing such a large FC loss with clear water. Are you using liquid chlorine to maintain the required SLAM FC level? Any problems with the filter, reading PSI increase, or backwashing process? Any concerns with items noted in the SLAM Process page?