HELP - Greenish colored water, semi-clear

[TXPoolmom6]

So Overnight Tuesday (to Wednesday morning) you loss 5ppm. Increased to 16, then after 20 hrs tested again Thursday morning it was only a loss of 3ppm. Based on your comments you did not add LC for nearly 20 hrs i.e. Wednesday late morning to Thursday early morning. I cannot see your PM logs (maybe something with the TFP server) so that appears to be progress if some part of that 20 hrs was in daylight. Post a picture of your pool.
Algae, does’t harm you - it just looks bad. You need to keep up the FC at 16ppm by checking every 2 hrs. That will help clear faster.
As well as vacuuming and clearing your filter.

Yes that would be correct that it was 20hrs-ish because it was 16 by around noontime. And yes there would've been roughly 8hrs of sunlight based on the way my house sits.

Just retested (1:30) it's down to 14.5. Added a partial gallon of LC and will check again in 2 hours. Running the vacuum and I think I'll check the filters today as well between vacuum and adding chems. Here is morning picture today and morning picture yesterday.

 

[HermanTX]

Yes that would be correct that it was 20hrs-ish because it was 16 by around noontime. And yes there would've been roughly 8hrs of sunlight based on the way my house sits.

Just retested (1:30) it's down to 14.5. Added a partial gallon of LC and will check again in 2 hours. Running the vacuum and I think I'll check the filters today as well between vacuum and adding chems. Here is morning picture today and morning picture yesterday.

It is definitely improving. Focus on maintaining the FC up at 16 and you may see good improvement by late Friday.
If you party was related to St Patrick’s Day - you could have said you dyed the water green for the occasion.

 

[JupiterFL]

morning noon and evening

If you can do it more often, that will make the process go faster.

 

[Mdragger88]

You don’t need any magic potions- just liquid chlorine!
Try to squeeze in as many doses each day as you can. The more you remain at slam level the faster things will go. If you’re home set a timer for every couple hours.
Definitely give the filters a clean if you haven’t since you began. If you have any water features be sure to run slam level water them a couple hours each day.
If you have an auto fill clean the line & the pot. Clean any overflow drain if you have one.

 

[TXPoolmom6]

You don’t need any magic potions- just liquid chlorine!
Try to squeeze in as many doses each day as you can. The more you remain at slam level the faster things will go. If you’re home set a timer for every couple hours.
Definitely give the filters a clean if you haven’t since you began. If you have any water features be sure to run slam level water them a couple hours each day.
If you have an auto fill clean the line & the pot. Clean any overflow drain if you have one.

Great! I don't have any of those additional features.

1:30 it was at 14.5, I added the partial gallon (probably 1/3 to 1/2) of LC, checked again when I got home at
4:30 and it was 15. Cleaned the filters, they did have quite a bit of algae on them and gray dirt, but they weren't filthy like when I started the SLAM. Added the rest of the gallon of LC (2/3 to 1/2).
9:30 its at 11.5 - I added two gallons of LC which is probably too much but I'd rather too much than not enough

I'll be back at it again in the morning - UGH (LOL)

I am going to need more powder for checking soon!

 

[HermanTX]

I can see progress with the testing and more interval to top up the FC.
Great work.
Post a picture in the morning. Show the deep end and the shallow end in different photos.

 

[TXPoolmom6]

I can see progress with the testing and more interval to top up the FC.
Great work.
Post a picture in the morning. Show the deep end and the shallow end in different photos.

7:00 am FC 17
Brushed pool and am running vacuum will test in a couple hours

Working hard for the swim time after dinner

Posting pictures - full view, deep end, shallow end

 

[wireform]

The pool is still plenty cloudy and you need to see the deep end floor before its safe for swimming.

 

[HermanTX]

7:00 am FC 17
Brushed pool and am running vacuum will test in a couple hours

Working hard for the swim time after dinner

Posting pictures - full view, deep end, shallow end

Great progress. The 2 gals LC at 9:30pm would raise 8ppm sot Let’s say you were at 19ppm . Overnight you dropped to 17. So that is definitely progress.

 

[Mdragger88]

If that is a light you’re going to want to check/clean it’s niche.
Order more reagents now so you don’t run out. For the dpd powder you just need 1 heaping scoop & use a 10ml sample- each drop counts as .5ppm
You can get them on tftest kits
Or amazon etc
You want the 2oz bottle of r-0871 reagent

 

[TXPoolmom6]

Great progress. The 2 gals LC at 9:30pm would raise 8ppm sot Let’s say you were at 19ppm . Overnight you dropped to 17. So that is definitely progress.

10:30 FC 16

I went ahead and ran the CYA again and it’s so hard to tell with that black dot…I held outside with sun to my back and now it seems like its closer to 30. I don’t want to panic but have I been adding too much chlorine? I know SLAM level is between 12 and 16 at those numbers.

What next? Check FC in a couple hours? what ppm should I be going for? This is DEFINITELY my pool color finally! However true it is still a bit cloudy. I can see the vacuum in the deep end but I would not call it “crystal clear”

 

[JJ_Tex]

By "closer to 30" do you mean that you can still see the dot with a quick glance when it is at 30? If so, call it 40.

We are all rooting for you and hopefully you can swim this evening. If it were my pool, I would:
- Keep it at 16 FC this afternoon (or whatever your SLAM level is)
- Evaluate the safety of swimming. The main thing would be if someone hit their head and ended up at the bottom of the deep end, would you be able to see and help them?
- If the above is good, go swimming
- As soon as everyone is done swimming, test and continue the SLAM tonight

 

[JJ_Tex]

Also, if you do swim tonight I would discourage opening eyes under water. Chlorine being consumed by algae will likely produce CC which can irritate the eyes (not the chlorine itself).

 

[HermanTX]

What next? Check FC in a couple hours? what ppm should I be going for? This is DEFINITELY my pool color finally! However true it is still a bit cloudy. I can see the vacuum in the deep end but I would not call it “crystal clear”

What @JJ_Tex says plus test every 2 hrs if you can and keep topping off with LC to maintain 16ppm. Stick with 40 CYA. Don’t try to split hairs. Keep your process going as is.
It is great that you can see the cleaner in the deep end. It means significant improvement.

 

[Mdragger88]

Keep going! You’re doing great
don’t let up until it’s crystal clear with no recurring algae (dead or alive)
How Clear is TFP Clear?

 

[TXPoolmom6]

Wow this is SO much work, but I just looked at the How Clear is TFP Clear and I am truly amazed! Okay I can do this....here are today's numbers and we are hot and exhausted and swimming. I can see my daughter diving in the deep end, but know I still have a long way to go.

I'll recap

10:30 16ppm
got in pool cleaned around light and underneath the rocks where there is a sort of ledge where it attaches to plaster part of pool, seems like a lot of white dust came off, dead algae? or was I scrubbing the plaster off LOL. I checked ALL the crevices of the rock and got what I could that were super super small amounts of algae in the crevices. I may need a toothbrush next time for those nooks and crannies

1:00 13ppm added 1 gallon of LC

3:00 12ppm added 1 gallon of LC

5:00pm I did not test as I knew we were all going to take a break as a family and swim

8:30pm 17ppm

I would've thought that it would've gone down some but maybe not. Am I done for tonight? Whew!

I'll be back at it tomorrow. I have ordered more powder so that I don't run out and I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Thank you so much for all of your advice AND encouragement. The temptation is real to buy stuff to clear it quickly but I am SO happy at the progress.

 

[Mdragger88]

About the light- unless it’s nicheless you need to turn the power off, remove it & clean the niche that is in the wall.
Post a pic of the light & we can help you with how to remove it.

 

[TXPoolmom6]

7:30 FC 13 added 1 gallon LC

I only have enough powder left for one more test today. I ordered more and it will be in by 10pm. When is best time to test considering or should I yesterdays routine as my baseline. Today it looks about the same maybe only a tiny bit better.

Did all the things brushing and currently running vacuum.

As for the light I’ll try to get better pictures but I’m fairly certain it’s a niche light (pool was put in in the early 80’s).

@Mdragger88 I am super nervous about undoing the light if it’s a niche but I did see some tutorials. Just afraid of what could go wrong if I mess up. I was pretty sure my previous pool guy said there was a special way that it had to be done underwater. It’s been a LONG time. It hasn’t worked the whole time we’ve had pool

 

[TXPoolmom6]

Edit for additional info….my water level is low andnInkeep forgetting to ask when it’s okay to start adding water. As I know that will disrupt some of my numbers

 

[Mdragger88]

7:30 FC 13 added 1 gallon LC

I only have enough powder left for one more test today. I ordered more and it will be in by 10pm. When is best time to test considering or should I yesterdays routine as my baseline. Today it looks about the same maybe only a tiny bit better.

Did all the things brushing and currently running vacuum.

As for the light I’ll try to get better pictures but I’m fairly certain it’s a niche light (pool was put in in the early 80’s).

@Mdragger88 I am super nervous about undoing the light if it’s a niche but I did see some tutorials. Just afraid of what could go wrong if I mess up. I was pretty sure my previous pool guy said there was a special way that it had to be done underwater. It’s been a LONG time. It hasn’t worked the whole time we’ve had pool

Since the water is clearing up see if you can get a good picture of the light & we can go from there.
Most are really not very complicated. Usually just a screw or two.
As for fc you can try to use just a level scoop & 5ml sample to get u through today until your powder comes- each drop= 1ppm.
You can also attempt to dilute the oto test sample & multiply the result but this greatly reduces it’s already lowered accuracy. *both of these options are not recommended for normal use*