Starting a Slam and Wondering What Happened

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Alright, OCLT showed a 1.5 loss, so we’re still going. Added a bit more bleach and will keep the SWG off all day today to see consumption.

This is exactly how it went last time though, everything cleared and was great, then it took a few days to pass OCLT, then within a week whatever it was was back though.
 
Pool had no use today at all, and SWG was off all day. Lost approximately 1.5 FC in 13 hours with cover on all day. Will do OCLT tonight again, I expect to fail at least 1-2 more nights if the pattern follows the last time I did this again.
 
As I suspected, still not passing OCLT, lost 2 last night. I will stop spamming this thread and will check back in once I pass the OCLT to hopefully get some advice on what to do at that point.
 
I have to say this is a kind of strange set of circumstances. The FC consumption tells us something is definitely trying to grow in there, but my concern is it's in one of those tricky hiding spots that I'm not thinking of that needs an extra brushing.

Let's see if we can get @Texas Splash back in here as another set of eyes. And maybe @Newdude @Mdragger88 or @PoolStored are around.

Summary:
OP is seeing high end of daily expected FC loss and that's with the cover on much of the day but with zero visible signs of algae, and is continually failing OCLT.

He recently completed a SLAM with similar characteristics and post SLAM appears to have kept FC at appropriate levels.

My speculation is that algae was (is) hiding in one of those tricky places we see periodically (ladder, light niche, wier door, etc.) so the usual suspects have been checked and scrubbed, including the cover.

This latest SLAM was started Friday evening so still early in the process, though with no visible algae I would have expected a little more progress.

The answer is still SLAM on, but anything else I may not be thinking of?

One thing I'd try is leaving cover off for the full day. You'll lose more to UV so will need to replenish more often but keeping the cover closed is what is likely leading to the persistent CC you are seeing.
 
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Pauls234 said:
One thing I'd try is leaving cover off for the full day. You'll lose more to UV so will need to replenish more often but keeping the cover closed is what is likely leading to the persistent CC you are seeing.
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I could definitely attempt this. My wife is pretty anxious about leaving it open with all of our kids, so I'll have to get her buy-in. Luckily I work from home, so maybe I can convince her that I will babysit the pool all day. Honestly I'm not terribly concerned about the persistent CC at this point. Much more concerned about how to avoid having to slam once every other week. I don't disagree with you that I'm missing something, but I have no clue what or where it may be...

Can algae be hiding in the cover vault? I'm not really sure how that would affect anything...Maybe trace spores get transferred onto the cover when closed then back into the pool when open? As mentioned I have never seen any trace of algae anywhere in the pool at all, including on either side of the cover. But I have not inspected or done anything with the cover vault...I'm grasping at anything that could be. If this is a possible problem I'll for sure need some advice for how to manage the vault going forward, because removing all of the coping to clean the vault is going to be a royal pain.
 
Sounds like you still have algae hiding somewhere. Not only due to consistent FC loss, but finally passing the OCLT only to fail it again shortly afterwards would indicate a hiding place not yet found. As for the cover - yes. They can be a home to mold/algae and anything related to the cover or equipment with stagnant water. Ideally I would pull the cover back and flip it over to inspect if possible. Might also need a good cleaning. The pool water needs the sun's UV to help process residual CC levels.
 
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Yeah, the cover is typically off 3-4 hours a day, just not ALL DAY.

I don't know how to disconnect the cover to pull it out, but I did crawl under it with a brush and an air hose and scrubbed it, but it was 100% clean and clear and scrubbing it seemed completely unnecessary. I guess my question is more of if I need to remove the coping and actually get in the vault to do something in there?
 
I'm not at home now, but here's a photo from my security camera. It's a Pool Safe cover (Automatic Safety Pool Covers | Poolsafe). There is coping sitting on top of brackets over top of the vault. I *believe* that they're just held in place by gravity and friction, I can try to removing some of them when I'm back home. Honestly though the coping pieces probably weigh 50-80 lbs each and it's going to be a real pain if that needs to be done regularly...
There is a drain in the vault I know that for sure, but I'm also certain that it's damp most of the time due to splashing and lack of sunlight in there.Backyard - 7-24-2023, 10.35.05am.jpg
 

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treyrich said:
I'm not at home now, but here's a photo from my security camera. It's a Pool Safe cover (Automatic Safety Pool Covers | Poolsafe). There is coping sitting on top of brackets over top of the vault. I *believe* that they're just held in place by gravity and friction, I can try to removing some of them when I'm back home. Honestly though the coping pieces probably weigh 50-80 lbs each and it's going to be a real pain if that needs to be done regularly...
There is a drain in the vault I know that for sure, but I'm also certain that it's damp most of the time due to splashing and lack of sunlight in there.View attachment 516599
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A drain is good 👍🏻
Cleaning it Like once or twice a year/ maybe the beginning & end of each season is likely reasonable enough.
 
treyrich said:
Here's a couple more photos of the vault with 1 piece of coping removed when they were working on it I could find in the security footage.

View attachment 516607View attachment 516608
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Perhaps you can just carefully remove a piece here & there to get access to spray it out & see what’s going on in there. I think with the cover closed you should be able to see in there & spray/blow it out without making a mess in the pool
 
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Yeah, ok. I'll get a look in there this evening and post some pictures. I really don't mind doing it once if it's going to solve my problems. I'm happy to put in any amount of work that will get me to an actual trouble free pool, but if I've got to be pulling that coping up once a week or something I just might go crazy.

I really don't mind doing the slam for any indeterminate amount of time either. Overall I'm happy to do things right and get them done the proper way, my real problem is that I thought that's what I did on the last SLAM and clearly I missed something because even running my FC super hot something started brewing days after I finished slamming so that's why we're all here.

Thanks for everyone's advice so far, I will check back in this evening when I'm at the house and can pull up that coping
 
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Duraleigh recommends leaving the cover open during the slam. He has said it more than once recently.

Dont waste reagents checking FC loss during the day, as it is all speculation.

Leave the cover open, clean your test vials and spinner bar with bleach, then alcohol. Then do a proper oclt. it will take the cover out of the equation.

I have a cover pools automatic cover, with a concrete vault. Once the cover is on the reel, there is not really any way for the vault to contaminate the cover.
 
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RLP said:
Leave the cover open, clean your test vials and spinner bar with bleach, then alcohol. Then do a proper oclt. it will take the cover out of the equation.
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Haha, it sounds so simple! Just am going to have to convince my wife that this is the path forward, she hates the idea of the pool open while we're sleeping.
 
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treyrich said:
Haha, it sounds so simple! Just am going to have to convince my wife that this is the path forward, she hates the idea of the pool open while we're sleeping.
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Is it your only safety device? Edit- I see you have a fence. Do you have alarms?
 
The yard itself is fenced and enclosed, but from the interior of the house it's the only safety device. We had door alarms installed initially, but they were extremely inconvenient (Couldn't leave the door open for longer than 10s without them going off) so we removed them in favor of relying on the cover. I could probably get them rigged back up temporarily to do this testing though if that's what she wants, will just have to discuss it with my wife to see what she's comfortable with.
 
I have these on all my windows & doors-
IMG_6973.jpeg
They are cheap & loud! The batteries last forever. Some of mine are over 10yrs old.
They can be on alarm, chime, or off.
The chime is loud enough for me to hear in the back of the house. They aren’t code approved for most municipalities generally but they do work extremely well. You hear the chime & count the kids!
 
That's a good thought. We do have an alarm on the whole house (i.e. not a pool-specific alarm). Perhaps I could just arm the alarm when the pool is open. But yeah, those ones that are up to code were brutal to live with, but effective.
 
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