Got cocky and paid the price

[RookiePick]

I guess I'd been in denial for the last week-10 days. The pool looked "off" and lacked sparkle. I knew it but kinda made up excuses in my mind. I had a swim last night with the pool lights on and that snapped me out of it. Floaties and ick were undeniable.

10 hours into SLAM number 1, 13.5L chlorine so far...
Pool has cleared up significantly already but I'll be staying the course and following the process through to conclusion.

Yesterday the cloudiness from the light was so thick and I could even see blobs of stuff


Dragged my son out to have a look tonight at the change in clarity and he said he just thought our pool had finally gotten old enough to go "like everyone else's pool"

 

[Newdude]

The pool looked "off" and lacked sparkle. I knew it but kinda made up excuses in my mind

Chin up. Most of us learned to trust the red flags the hard way, *after* we learned everything in the first place. But there ain't no teacher like a foul up. I believe the helps drive the lessen real far into the brain where it sticks.

If you have a whiff of a concern with clarity or the FC not holding, Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. If you pass, then you have time to fiddle around with whatever else may be going on. If you fail, you ensure you keep the leg up in the fight by slamming before it gets bad.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

No worries … even the “experts” screw up. I have been mostly ignoring my pool for the last few … uhhh … {checks PoolMath logs} … ummmm … MONTHS!!! … … We had a pretty nasty wind and dust storm blow through here and all the floating debris made me go pay attention to the concrete water holder. Well, turns out the suction vacuum canister was completely packed with debris and so the vac probably hadn’t moved in days (or weeks ) and the skimmer basket was packed too. Couple that with the storm and the bottom of the pool was full of leaf liter. I used the brush to push the leaves into a pile and on the first push a massive brown cloud of silt welled up. You could see the very distinct blue of the plaster where I brushed compared to the brown dirt in the rest of the pool.

So I spent the next three hours cleaning and sweeping the pool as well as changing the strainer hair nets, skimming the surface and brushing the walls. That turned the pool into a hazy cloudy mess that took about 24 hrs for my filter to clear up. My pH was a solid 8.0, TA was 110ppm and, surprisingly, my FC was around 3ppm. So I also spent some time doing chemical additions.

My “excuse” is that it’s winter and I don’t have to care. But has this been further into spring (warm weather is only a few short months away) and my pool would be a frog pond.

So, cheer up, we all get lazy.

 

[AUSpool]

So, cheer up, we all get lazy.

It’s not lazy, just busy doing something else.

 

[RookiePick]

Well at least the process is educational. Visually the pool was looking pretty great last night when I made my last Chlorine addition. Nevertheless something chewed ~7ppm of FC out of the pool overnight!

It's easy to see how you could get stuck on a cycle of regularly shocking the pool without the right measurement tools. I reckon most people would have thought everything was under control when it was just suppressed and X days later the issue is back.



Getting nice and glassy again

 

[AUSpool]

Looking good, keep at it, almost there.

Most people will probably take a sample after a chlorine dose, get told it’s all ok but sent home with a one time shock treatment and a bunch of other stuff. Forget to add any of it and wonder why is a green swamp a week later.

 

[Nice_Raspberry]

You’re not alone, my pool faces these frustrating situations too.

 

[Newdude]

I reckon most people would have thought everything was under control when it was just suppressed and X days later the issue is back.

******EXCATLY THIS******

3 weeks from now they'll spend whatever the pool store says, because they 'fixed it great last time'. It appears to be a new problem next time.

 

[RookiePick]

Was probably a bit arrogant to think I'd have it sorted in a couple of days.
Still burning 2-2.5ppm overnight and I spotted a water boatman to really drive the "you done messed up" message home.

Ah well. Stay calm and SLAM on!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

You might try pulling the cartridges out of the filter and giving them a rinse off if you haven’t already done so. Since clarity has been mostly restored, getting rid of any organic loading from the pool water will help to reduce FC demand.

 

[RookiePick]

Victory!
No Algae dead or alive. Water looks crystal to me
OCLT passed (finally)
0 CC

Almost 40L of 12.5% chlorine and essentially a whole FAS-DPD kit later.

Let's try and avoid that again for a while!

 

[AUSpool]

I spotted a water boatman to really drive the "you done messed up" message home.

I’ve seen and dispatched two this year. First time for me, apart from the pool we had when I was a kid. Not a lot you can do to stop them, catch them and squash them. There a beetle, they fly in attracted to light and the water. Two general types, one bites but in my experience the non bitting one is more common. Some areas are more prone to them than others. They will survive for a while in a TFP pool but without a food source they won’t breed and multiply.

Well done on the slam. A least you’ll have nice fresh FAS/DPD reagents now.

 

[kimkats]

My "gotcha" is almost always coming on Spring. I don't notice the water temps creeping up so I don't adjust my chlorine dosage. My water starts to lose it's sparkle. OPPS! Run a full set of test and get going with that SLAM! I vow to not let hit happen each year LOL