For real, what's going on with my chlorine level?

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hawkmoon7 said:
Measurement just now: Fc 20, Cc 1.5 I had increase by 3ppm this afternoon, but that's not too bad considering the sun intensity today.

Will check OCLT tomorrow morning, but I don't feel good about it, Considering Cc is still at 1.5
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Anymore possible algae hiding spots? Running all water features at least an hour every day w/ slam level fc water?
Also - try cleaning your beaker with alcohol or diluted bleach & rinsing it well.
 
Mdragger88 said:
Anymore possible algae hiding spots? Running all water features at least an hour every day w/ slam level fc water?
Also - try cleaning your beaker with alcohol or diluted bleach & rinsing it well.
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Fc at 18 this morning, Cc at 1. So the SLAM continues. Such a long SLAM for water that has always looked great/perfect. But I've also always needed a ton of chlorine supplementation, so there is a reason for this madness. I'm going to top it off to 20. CYA close to 50.

I'll definitely clean the beaker. It's gotten a lot of use. Hidden spots... I mean, I have 7 globrites with niches. I know there is water behind them in the electrical tube, but they should be sealed. Right? My only other unused line is a suction-side line for a vacuum hose. I don't use that anymore since getting a robot. But that has a door flap on it. I checked and it has no holes or anything, and the flap is closed. I should really just completely plug it I guess. But that shouldn't be an issue here, right? My only other algea source is that I'm like 15 feet away from a pond. But nothing in the pool.
 
Run some slam water through the vac line for a while & u may have your answer… maybe just prop the flap open if u have an adapter & there’s not going to be any swimmers that could be entrapped. Or just manually vac.
I don’t know that i would permanently plug it because being able to manually vac incase of robot failure or onslaught of debris is important.
The globrites should be good to go as they are supposed to be sealed.
U got any main drain covers?
 
That's a grotto. Part of the pool and on the same set of returns. There's a waterfall in front of it that gets flushed everyday with the others.

No main drain covers.

I ran water through the suction line. The door is just a screw-in terminal. Adding a screw plug isn't permanant. Alteratively I could get a grated screen for it and keep that line always on... But if the main drain and skimmer ever gets turned off, it would be they only suction on and that could get dangerous. Of course, why would both of those ever get turned off?

I opened up the port and am letting it run now. Let's see if it helps. Maybe the flapper door isn't very well sealed.
 
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U can try to Run some diluted fc through there too.
The grotto looks dark & scary lol 😂
At the very least I would try to open the flap once a week & let the water run through there after this.
 
Mdragger88 said:
U can try to Run some diluted fc through there too.
The grotto looks dark & scary lol 😂
At the very least I would try to open the flap once a week & let the water run through there after this.
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It can get a little cave-like in there! But it's much bigger inside than the photo makes it seem.

I like that idea about the Fc.... I ran the next chlorine addition through it to give it a good cleaning. I can either change the flapper (it's just a screw in port) to one of those screens (like a mini main drain). So long as it isn't the only intake valve open, it shouldn't be a hazard, but theoretically, the valves could be switched that way. Alternatively, I could plug it with those screw cap plugs that have a gasket, and remove it if ever needed.

I thought I was done with the SLAM... Lost only .5 overnight. However, Cc last night was .5 but this morning, was 1.5. So I guess this SLAM continues. Going to buy more shock today. I have to be close to 18 gallons of 11.5% shock at this point. My family thinks I'm crazy/obsessed because all they see is a clean pool. Pool water temps running close to 90 with this weather and the sun is strong, so the chlorine isn't lasting long, and my CYA is still falling, so it's only getting harder to keep the right Fc at SLAM levels.
 
I mean the test tube always looked "clean", but I let some diluted shock sit in there (with the magnetic stirrer) for a bit, and afterwards it shined like glass. So that's a win. Definitely removed some residue.

The pool only lost 1ppm Fc today with intense sun and heat. (Although the SWG is still on at max). Cc tested at a big fat zero! CYA less than 50 and moving towards the 40 line.

Will check OCLT tomorrow. I feel pretty good about it, for some reason.
 
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Finally passed the OCLT. 0ppm Fc loss and 0ppm Cc. CYA at 50 if I'm rounding up. Fc currently at 20ppm. I'm going to set the SWG to say 50% maybe? Let Fc drift down to 10 for now. Then I'll get my pH in order, and reassess the CYA and SWG %. Sound like a plan?

The whole point of this was that my very large SWG couldn't keep up with chlorine demand. I have to hope that now it will be able.
 
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Here’s what your swg should roughly net u running 24hrs @ 50%
58099B8E-5E98-4E0F-BCF3-0AFFDFDB8F55.png
Your daily loss will be quite high with such a low cya in sunny summer Florida weather. Bumping that to at least 70ppm is a good idea so the swg can keep up easily.
Before doing so though, u may want to do an overnight chlorine gain test to ensure your swg is functioning properly because if it’s not you will need to keep manually chlorinating.
It’s just like the oclt but backwards.
You test at dark to get your baseline then let your swg run @ 100% all night & test again in the morning. Then u take the gain & compare it to PoolMath effects of adding based on your percentage & run time & see if its in line.
You’re in the home stretch!!
 
Neat, I didn't realize pool match had that built in... I created an unnecessarily complex spreadsheet to do that math! I did test it in my spa about a week ago. With only 1,000 gallons, an hour at 100% created obviously detectable and measurable increase that corresponded to the right amount. But I like the idea of doing a full test. I'll run that tonight.
 
SWG at 5% for 2 days now. Going to bump up to 50%.

Fc 12ppm, Cc .5ppm, pH 7.8 (going to add about half as much acid as I normally would given my chlorine is still a bit high), CYA down to 40 (I'm rounding up to get there, it's definitely below the 40 line).
 
hawkmoon7 said:
SWG at 5% for 2 days now. Going to bump up to 50%.

Fc 12ppm, Cc .5ppm, pH 7.8 (going to add about half as much acid as I normally would given my chlorine is still a bit high), CYA down to 40 (I'm rounding up to get there, it's definitely below the 40 line).
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The pH test will read high when the FC is above 10ppm. Best not to touch the acid until it’s lower. And a pH of 7.8 is perfectly fine.
 
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Upping the cya to 70’s will go a long way in reducing your swg run time/% & therefore extending it’s life. As the cell only has so many hrs of life to live at 100% - about 10k hrs is average. In sunny florida with a longer generating season u want as long of a cell life expectancy as possible.
The “effects of adding” calculation is based on everything being in recommended range including cya.
Don’t forget to maintain the proper target FC/CYA Levels
 
Thank you, will do. This whole process was because I have had repeated problems with the SWG (even at 100%) and both my CYA and Fc plummeting (like over 30 pounds of CYA this year!). I'm hoping this most recent SLAM did the trick.

Now that the Fc is closer to 10-12, I've added 3 more pounds of Stabilizer. That should bump it up to 60 for now. The SWG should be able to maintain it. If it can't, I need to look into the SLAM again, so I'm not ready to jump to 70, just yet. But what you say is a good goal so that I can eventually lower the SWG %.
 
hawkmoon7 said:
Thank you, will do. This whole process was because I have had repeated problems with the SWG (even at 100%) and both my CYA and Fc plummeting (like over 30 pounds of CYA this year!). I'm hoping this most recent SLAM did the trick.

Now that the Fc is closer to 10-12, I've added 3 more pounds of Stabilizer. That should bump it up to 60 for now. The SWG should be able to maintain it. If it can't, I need to look into the SLAM again, so I'm not ready to jump to 70, just yet. But what you say is a good goal so that I can eventually lower the SWG %.
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If you have lost that much CYA, you either have (or had) an ammonia or a water leak.
 
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Bperry said:
If you have lost that much CYA, you either have (or had) an ammonia or a water leak.
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He has already tested for ammonia with a test kit for aquariums. So either he did that test with the chlorine sky high as it uses a color block like PH, something is wrong with his CYA test, I suppose something could be wrong with his chlorine test or he has a leak. I hope his CYA isn’t really sky high though.
 
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