Bout done with this saltwater thing

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OK-I CONCEDE OH GREAT GODS OF POOL CARE!:bowdown:

Got a test kit. Not a TF 100 but a real oto based kit.

To start with the Ph as off the high end. SO I started adding the dry minus stuff 2lbs at a time, After 7lbs I was down to 7.8. Still high buut I ran out.

Then The FC was @ 1.0 and acording to the pool math I needed 3 gal and some change of 8.25% bleach to get me to 24ppm. I added 4 gal and wa-la. NOTHING.
Disgusted I headed off to work deciding to drain it out again and start over or just quit. About 3 hrs later I get a text from my Beautiful bride with a pic of a blue haze and a message saying the pool is no longer green.
Much to my surprise when I got home it was still a beautiful shade of blue and the filter is working feverishly to remove it.

This Morning my readings were Ph still@ 7.8 (Needs to still come down a bit)
And Fc was 1.0 on the far end and 4.0 in front of the return jet so I know the swg is working ( NOTE TO SELF) Supp with bleach when it pours rain and get a real test kit to keep track of everything else.
:hammer:
 
The OTO kit will not test to 24....

Failure to follow the directions on SLAMing your pool completely to the end is a recipe for an algae bloom down the road.

You are trying to pick and choose methods to care for your pool, and when it comes down to it that is your choice. The folks here are just trying to clean up your pool.

That your FC dropped so much overnight say there is a lot of stuff growing in that water and the SWG is NOT going to be able to keep up. A SWG creates sufficient chlorine to prevent an algae bloom under normal conditions. It does not create enough to knock down a bloom after it has occurred.
 
Yes.
I Totally agree.
The oto kit only tests to 4.0, According to the pool math thats what I needed to get me to 24. However the fact remains that what happened to me as not what I thought happened to me and that I need to stick to a method once I get this cleaned up.
 
Yes I understand.
The 4 and the 24 are both ppm.
I don't have a way to test that high.
And I need to be able to to do this process correctly.
Yes I understand.
I also understand that In my original post I was convinced it wasn't an alge problem and You all proved me wrong and proved also in order to do this right I Need to follow the process completly.

I'm Convinced
 
Hi Joelin,

I also have an SWG and iris great. I have also had some algae outbreaks, due to my own misunderstanding of pool chemistry.

You won't regret going TFP and you won't regret getting a good quality test kit. The key to keeping your SWG is also Maintaining your CYA level.


[emoji176] Lisa P.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Agreed.
Thing is we have had pools for a long time, and we had found a prosess that worked for us for a long time, 8-9 yrs or so without any problems at all. True had some in the beginning but had figured out how to keep things good for us.
Then we moved to a new place about 8 miles from where we was and installed this pool. So we assumed the same thing would work here, and it did-for about 2 yrs.
UNTIL- I had a pool full of cal scaling, (BAD). Managed to clean most of it out and started over thinkin it was just a fluke. Well about 2 yrs later repeat.
Found out that just moving 8 miles away the water here is SO hard and me using cal hypo shock I was shootin myself in the foot. Started asking around and everyone here with pools has had the same issue, And went to swg, and one guy I talked to claims he has not done anything to his pool in over 3 yrs at all. " IDK IT JUST WORKS " he says.
SO me not thinkin and falling for it switched and MAN. Perfect for about a month and then we got ALOT of rain and it was over. So I refilled it and a week later same story.
I Have learned my lesson.
 
I say your friend is lucky and may not really know hat is lurking in his water - teehee!

I have the complete opposite problem as you. I have a hard time keeping my CH high enough. Luckily my brother in law sells pool chemicals and I can get it fairly inexpensively, but still a problem most people don't have to deal with.

Good luck! You can do it!


[emoji176] Lisa P.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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Well after doing a little homework on the local water supplys and pool chem I found out that were we used to live they had almost perfect water that came from a deep well with a very LOW ph. so it would be almost acidic. I would add 2lbs of cal-hypo shock about once a week and all would be well with the world. It was acidic enough to jeep it somewhat neutral. You would think I would have known when I had to put in a water softner here because of the hardness. The water here tests with a ph of over 8 strait out of the tap. And a hardness level of 16 according to the utility folks (Whatever that means)
Anyway me adding all that cal-hypo just kept raising the calcuim level in the pool to the point it couldn't handle anymore. I guess I could do the same process with just bleach but what I have learned here and elsewhere is that water can become very unstable very fast. And I Learned that a whole lot of rain can put a whole lot of alge into already unstable water resulting in a mess.
Just proves that it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
 
Joelin, I think it's hard for us old dogs to learn is cause our hearing goes ;).

They have told you straight, I have an swg and love it. Having said that, it's only for maintaining your suggested FC level on a daily basis. If you have all your numbers set to what are the recommened levels for SWG, you can set your generator to keep you at the high end of your FC level and may never have to bump it up with bleach. SWGs' have a super chlorinate feature but it only bumps the level a little and not immediately. We have had very heavy rains this year, and all I've had to do is turn my SWG to a higher percentage and still leave the pump on 4 hour a day mode. If that won't keep up, I'll bump up the pump runtime. Hang in there, it will all work out:thumleft:
 
The one I have only allows me to adjust the run time. Before all that rain I was checking it with strips and the FC was running about 1.5 according to the strips fairly consistantly running about 5 hrs a day. I was running the pump about 12 hrs a day. What I think got me was I didn't have all the other numbers in check (1) and that day this rain hit from tropical Bill, we got ALOT. I normally keep the level about half way in the skimmer and it overflowed my pool.(2) After the first go round refilling it there was still some alge left over in there (3) and lastly I didn't have all the other factors in check to begin with. I was convinced it wasn't alge because my Fc reading was still consistant after it went green. I was sure it was metal from the swg's copper bars.
 
1.5 is a very low FC count for having enough chlorine to fight off organics. I try to keep my CYA close to 80 and let my FC drop below 5. If I ever test and it's below 4, I add bleach. This has happened twice since to me. Once due to a dead critter in the skimmer and once due to lots of swimmers. I have tested at various times of day to be sure my SWG is keeping up. Currently, I'm running it 2 hours in the morning. 4 hours in the afternoon and 2 hours in the evening. My pool gets full sun almost all day and it's got here in central Texas (although this year has been rainy and not quite as hot).


[emoji176] Lisa P.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great thread.. its like a story of redemption...

One thing I noticed is nothing in my pool happens immediately. When I make change I check the results usually overnight. That's a lot of water for a chemical reaction to happen in, its not like a 1000ml beaker. So when you got a text three hours later that the green was gone.. that sounds about right.

Also from chatting with my neighbors, all our pools act differently. I have large trees that surround my pool, so it never gets a lot of direct sun and our pool is a much cooler average temp than anyone else on the block. During the middle of summer all the neighborhood kids end up in our pool, because their pools are too hot. It helps with evaporation, and since I don't add a lot of water I imagine the effect of added water is less. By the same token, the trees have another effect. I find I have to keep an eye on my phosphate levels more than anyone else. Dust and pollen blown out the trees is a constant addition. When I keep the phosphates in check, the rest of the pool chemistry is pretty standard.

Moral of the thread story.. "Test kits are you friends"
Mark
 
jblizzle said:
And yet I have not seen where a FAS-DPD chlorine test has been ordered so that you can follow the SLAM process completely to ensure the algae is eradicated.
Click to expand...
Not meaning to harp, but jblizzle is right.

You NEED the drop test to know you've reached that high of an FC level and to know how high the CC is. It's the only way to know you are winning the battle against algae, and to know when the war is over.

Off my soap box now :rolleyes:
 
Hey neighbor, I used to live in Shiloh. The guys here know what they are talking about and will bend over backwards to help you if you let them. Get a proper test kit (TF100 is best) or they can't help you. It's not a sales pitch it's the laws of chemistry. Start reading at the top of the page in Pool School. Between now and the kit arriving head over to Walmart in the metropolis of Waterloo and get some generic bleach with no additives to keep the problem for getting any worse. Grab a pizza at Papa Vitos too! In 60 days this will be so easy you'll wonder how you ever did it any other way.

Your SWCG is one part of keeping a healthy pool healthy. But yours is not healthy right now. A SWCG can't fix that. Neither can the folks here without a proper diagnosis from a reliable test kit.
 
Joelin said:
OK-I I added 4 gal and wa-la. NOTHING.
Disgusted I headed off to work deciding to drain it out again and start over or just quit.

About 3 hrs later I get a text from my Beautiful bride with a pic of a blue haze and a message saying the pool is no longer green.
Much to my surprise when I got home it was still a beautiful shade of blue and the filter is working feverishly to remove it.

This Morning my readings were Ph still@ 7.8 (Needs to still come down a bit)
And Fc was 1.0 on the far end and 4.0 in front of the return jet so I know the swg is working ( NOTE TO SELF) Supp with bleach when it pours rain and get a real test kit to keep track of everything else.
:hammer:
Click to expand...

As has been mentioned here before, you will not see instant results when you add chlorine to your water - it's not like getting laundry bleach on a black t-shirt which turns white rapidly. In your very first post you said you added chlorine, nothing happened so you assumed it 'wasn't organic' and drained your pool and refilled. If you had done the SLAM, you probably could have saved yourself time and money on the replacement water. A few things I've learned from this site - get good test kit, follow the advice given (not the pool store) and patience, patience, patience.

Also, now that the pool is clearing up, you STILL need to maintain the SLAM, or the algae will return. It's like when the doctor gives you antibiotics and says take 3 pills a day for 10 days, EVEN if the infection appears to be gone, finish the full 10 days. The doctor wants to make sure the infection is completely cleared up, not sort of half killed and just waiting to spring back to life.
 

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