Slam, doing something wrong?

[Texgal]

Hello,

I feel like I must be doing something wrong I have added bottles and bottles and more bottles of bleach to my pool and still can't get the overnight test to drop by just 1. Broke down and also bought some pool shock.

My pool had a little algae in two corners and I had what looked like a little sand in one area of the bottom of the pool. My CYA was zero, I must have done something wrong when I tested it; there must be an easier way I added CYA and it brought my pool to 50. Since we are having to add water daily, I wasn't too concerned about it being higher than 30 (which was my goal). Maybe that is my problem???

Cleaned the filter and brushed the pool sides daily. Below are my overnight figures.

Saturday evening-started slam; did the first test 3 hours later
Sunday a.m. - dropped 16 (checked every hour)
Monday a.m. - dropped 12 (checked every hour with the exception of three hours)
Tues a.m. - dropped 6 - checked 6 times….frustrated, I added more than recommended shock (DH on on my back because he can't swim)
Wed a.m. - dropped 5

If my whole pool was green, this wouldn't surprise me. But is this normal??? I've literally lost count of the number of bottles of bleach I've poured into the pool. Please, Please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Thank you for all that you do to help the pool community!

 

[pabeader]

Algae is a sneaky bugger, it can hide in the weirdest of places. Anything in your pool is suspect. Inside of light niches, under ladder rungs, in ladder tubes, I've even read of it hiding in an automatic cleaner. Any place where algae can hide will contribute to your FC use.
And you are making progress. It is dropping less each time. eventually it will hold.

It is safe to swim any time the FC is below SLAM level. Even one ppm below is considered okay. So let him swim. Just don't use the hot new suit, just in case...

 

[domct203]

Hello,

I feel like I must be doing something wrong I have added bottles and bottles and more bottles of bleach to my pool and still can't get the overnight test to drop by just 1. Broke down and also bought some pool shock.

My pool had a little algae in two corners and I had what looked like a little sand in one area of the bottom of the pool. My CYA was zero, I must have done something wrong when I tested it; there must be an easier way I added CYA and it brought my pool to 50. Since we are having to add water daily, I wasn't too concerned about it being higher than 30 (which was my goal). Maybe that is my problem???

Cleaned the filter and brushed the pool sides daily. Below are my overnight figures.

Saturday evening-started slam; did the first test 3 hours later
Sunday a.m. - dropped 16 (checked every hour)
Monday a.m. - dropped 12 (checked every hour with the exception of three hours)
Tues a.m. - dropped 6 - checked 6 times….frustrated, I added more than recommended shock (DH on on my back because he can't swim)
Wed a.m. - dropped 5

If my whole pool was green, this wouldn't surprise me. But is this normal??? I've literally lost count of the number of bottles of bleach I've poured into the pool. Please, Please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Thank you for all that you do to help the pool community!

It look like you FC loss is getting less and less, which is a good sign. It should continue this way as long as you are maintaining a FC shock level of 20ppm for your CYA of 50ppm.

Looking at your test results, Monday for instance- you say it dropped 12 and you checked every hour. Does that mean you brought your FC to 20ppm & an hour later it dropped by 12ppm so you brought it back up to 20ppm and within another hour it dropped by 12ppm again?

Or were you checking/adding hourly and 12 was your net loss for the day?

Dom

 

[duraleigh]

Well, your results are just a bit confusing but the trend seems downward. There IS NO EASIER WAY or we wouldn't suggest this SLAM procedure. Whether you can see them or not, your pool has living organisms in it and you are using chlorine to kill them.

Keep your FC at SLAM value. By now, you should be checking about two-three times daily and adding what you need. Keep brushing and keep your filter clean. This process is designed to give you back a clear, sanitized pool and it simply takes some time.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Just askin... are you sure of the strength of your bleach? It is *at least* 8.25% and fresh, right?? Are you brushing at least daily?

WHen your pool didn't have CYA in it your FC would have been eaten up quickly from the sun first and foremost and allowed algae to take hold. It can hide in strange places like the light fixture, underside of stairs and behind steps, or in areas of poor circulation.

How's the water look??

 

[lefty51]

I am also confused, Do you mean it dropped to 16ppm Sunday or dropped 16ppm from where it was ? Either way as Dom said it looks like your FC loss is less each time.

CYA testing is a pain at first, but will get better with time If it was 0 that could account for FC loss in the sun. Getting it up will help "hold" some chlorine.

Your pool doesn't have to be a green swamp to have algae. It can hide in pool lights and ladders (if you have them have you checked them ?)

As you are aware if SLAMing your pool you need to stay at your slam level ALL through the process or algae will gain a foothold. Also what is your CC levels

Remember your FC is fighting algae AND eliminating CC as well as losing some to sunlight. The upside is, once you completely destroy the algae AND your pool is crystal clear, you will only have to add the minimum amount to maintain your FC level and DH can swim till his skin wrinkles

 

[lefty51]

Remember that pool shock you bought will raise your CYA, so keep that in mind

 

[Texgal]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I'm sorry for confusing you; need to work on my pool lingo…. I know just enough to be confusing.

Hopefully this will help clarify. Whenever, I test the pool hourly and the chlorine level is under 20, I add enough chlorine to bring it back up to 20, , (didn't write down those numbers, they vary).

The "dropped" numbers I was referring too was for the overnight FC loss test: Hopefully that makes more sense!

YippieSkippee My water is crystal clear, the "sandy" looking stuff is gone, no visible algae. The bleach is fresh as far as I know, our store is big and turns over product quickly. Now that's for the 8.25%, the pool shock of 10%, I don't really know. The 8.25% has been used more than the pool shock.

pabeader - At our age there is no such thing as "hot" new suit, LOL!

I will keep trudging along! Thanks again everyone

- - - Updated - - -

lefty51- Thanks for the reminder, I did use liquid pool shock.

 

[lefty51]

Good, I think your ok with liquid shock, I think it is sodium hypochlorite same as bleach, probably just different concentration. (if I'm wrong they will let us know )

I'm curious if your checking your CC after testing the FC, if so could you post that number also, as we can tell how much algae destroying is going on.

Stay with it and you will win out

 

[JVTrain]

Liquid pool shock is the same as bleach, just different hypochlorite concentrations. Liquid chlorine, liquid pool shock, bleach are all the same thing but liquid pool shock is typically 10-15% hypochlorite while bleach is sold at anywhere from 3% to 8.25% in retail stores.

 

[lefty51]

Liquid pool shock is the same as bleach, just different hypochlorite concentrations. Liquid chlorine, liquid pool shock, bleach are all the same thing but liquid pool shock is typically 10-15% hypochlorite while bleach is sold at anywhere from 3% to 8.25% in retail stores.

TA DA, it's nice to have backup