Annual early-May SLAM... I want to fill this thing in with sand.

[wgipe]

I always float pucks when I leave incase of power failure. I leave swcg on normal settings and raise fc somewhere between 1/2 and full slam depending upon how long I will be gone.

Thanks. We have an auto cover and a backup generator, so I think we are good to go.

 

[wgipe]

Great news! SLAM is definitely over. We ran it through last night and passed with flying colors - no FC loss and 0CC. My belief after all of this is that I definitely had an issue, as FC was being eaten way too fast. I think the SLAM was over, however, far earlier than indicated, as the CCs were what was holding me from passing the OCLT. Switching tubes made that problem disappear, and I've replaced my Chlorine Only tube with a new one. I tried cleaning the old one with the methods suggested, and no matter what, it tested between .5-1.5CC when the other were testing 0. Bizarre.

We are leaving the country for two weeks. We have some friends who will be coming by to test the pool for us every day until I get the SWCG dialed in. They will be swimming every other day or so as a family also, so win-win. When they are not here swimming, the pool will be covered by the auto cover. I ran a full panel just now, and have a couple additional questions:

1) My TA is now 100, which is not surprising given that I've dumped 50+ gallons of LC in the thing in a couple of weeks. pH tests at 7.6, so I put enough MA in to drop it to 7.2. Is TA of 100 anything I should be concerned about?

2) When I opened the pool, I added enough CYA to raise the level to 70 where it's always been. Interestingly enough, the CYA now tests at 50, which shows outside of the ideal range in PoolMath. Should I leave it at 50 or add to bump it back up to 60 or 70? Is there an explanation as to why it would not have raised as expected with the addition at the beginning of April?

Thanks again, guys. You are a real lifeline.

Wes

 

[Newdude]

TA of 100 anything I should be concerned about?

Not for 2 weeks, no. It will pull the Ph up a little faster, but it'll probably be in range the first week if not both of them. Its a long term thing anyway even if it was the full two weeks.

Should I leave it at 50 or add to bump it back up to 60 or 70?

The cover removes most of the concern. You wouldn't lose enough FC with an hour swim mid day to care either way. You only need the 70 when the pool is open for the whole day mid season.

And its still early season so daily demand won't be ugly for the next two weeks.

Is there an explanation as to why it would not have raised as expected with the addition at the beginning of April?

This test is too subjective to nail down sometimes IMO. It should be pretty stable a month apart unless the lighting at test time was slightly different, as it is for most people.

 

[dereksanders]

I tried cleaning the old one with the methods suggested, and no matter what, it tested between .5-1.5CC when the other were testing 0. Bizarre.

Not really. Unless it’s chemistry grade glass it will eventually get contaminated.

 

[wgipe]

Not for 2 weeks, no. It will pull the Ph up a little faster, but it'll probably be in range the first week if not both of them. Its a long term thing anyway even if it was the full two weeks.

The cover removes most of the concern. You wouldn't lose enough FC with an hour swim mid day to care either way. You only need the 70 when the pool is open for the whole day mid season.

And its still early season so daily demand won't be ugly for the next two weeks.

This test is too subjective to nail down sometimes IMO. It should be pretty stable a month apart unless the lighting at test time was slightly different, as it is for most people.

Sounds like a plan! I'm good to go. So thankful for you and the others here for your help!