No Available Chlorine

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Thanks Bob, I have no lights in the pool just LED's surrounding the top which is for swimming at night. I'll post a photo of how I installed those once I get past all these problems.

I should have mentioned, I spent hours Saturday removing all the cartridges and completely cleaning the filter. The pressure dropped and those cartridges are totally clean now.
I don't have backwash capabilities with this system like I did with my old sand filter.

I think most of that tint is partly due to the really bad staining on the liner but for now I will keep the 28 FC level. I bought every bottle of bleach that my local WalMart had (cleared the entire shelf) and I'm still adding so I need to go find even more. I'd estimate I've added at least 20 or 30 jugs of bleach by this point.

Thanks very much
 
I wasn't really looking at the tint. Can you take a pic of a ladder or even your vacuum hose. Looking straight down towards it, please. Just a point of note, my water is BLUE. I don't mean blue like the ocean I mean BLUE like if you take out a glass of it it's got a blue tint. I would fix it but my wife kinda likes it so what ya gonna do? But, having said that, it's still clear enough to see a baby scorpion on the bottom.
 
20-30 jugs is not out of the ordinary and, in fact, is on the low side for SLAMing a pool your size. Don't be surprised if you hit a 100 jugs.

Have you called around to any pool stores or farm supply stores to see if they have liquid chlorine in higher concentrations, larger container sizes (like 2.5 gallon carboys) or refillable gallon jugs? My local shop sells 4x1gal refillable jugs of 12.5% LC for less money than the disposable jugs. They just require a one time refundable $6 deposit for the jugs and carrier. I use them for muriatic acid and it saves me a lot of money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Clear is when you can see a speck of dirt on the floor clearly... While you won't have to get yours to that level of clearness to end the SLAM, there won't be a tint or any signs of cloudiness. Before you know it, you will be super proud of your sparkly, TFP water!

 
I sure hope I get there at some point.
My FC level dropped to 15 again this morning so I re-added.

One of my biggest issues is literally finding enough bleach. I bought everything my local WalMart had, and I have empty containers overflowing my garage. As many having pointed out here it starts being extremely expensive so I'm looking for other sources.

This may seem like a dumb question but why can't I just turn on my Aquarite SWG even during the SLAM procedure? Set it to superchlorinate? It seems that would 'help' at least with all the chlorine loss and be able to supplement the massive amounts of bleach I'm dumping into the pool.
Or just buy pool shock? I thought the chlorine in pool shock was super concentrated thus would require far less expense and hundreds of empty bleach jugs all over my yard.

Experts please...thank you

- - - Updated - - -

Matt, I've tried my local pool store and they don't sell any liquid chlorine at all.
 
Unfortunately this is the downside of not having a good source of liquid chlorine in your area, you're stuck raiding local supermarkets and big box stores for bleach. Any Costco's or Sam's Club nearby?

Shocking products from Pools Stores are either dichlor powder or calcium hypochlorite. Dichlor powder adds 9ppm CYA for every 10ppm FC which will only exacerbate your algae problem (as CYA rises, active chlorine levels decrease). As well, calcium hypochlorite will add calcium to your water causing it to temporarily become milky white and then, eventually, lead to calcium scaling if your CH gets too high.

One thing that will help is not allowing your FC to drop so much. If you can maintain your FC at a more constant level during the SLAM, it will help with not having to run out a buy huge quantities of bleach. Are there any farm supply stores in your area (sorry, I don't know much about Grapevine Texas)? Farm supply stores sometimes carry larger quantity of chemicals like bleach for the purposes of disinfection and cleaning.
 
Matt I'll keep checking.
I don't have Costco or Sam's membership anymore (funny enough I wasn't using it).
Thanks for the explanation on the shock composition. I am having to add water to the pool anyways, it does evaporate quite quickly here around Dallas and I've put off adding as long as possible because I know it will just complicate the SLAM procedure.
For now, I'm stuck with scouring Wal Marts.

But I still don't see why I can't turn on my Aquarite during this process and set it to superchlorinate to help with the load?
 
Hang in there Scott. You started your SLAM on the 25th, and while it may seem like it's been forever, it's only been about 5 days. You're making progress. The tail-end of the SLAM is always the most difficult because you want to be over it already. As for bleach, I have all the Wal-Marts and HEBs on speed dial. :) Not so sure about your town though. Stay with it, and good luck!
 
I don't know the amount off the top of my head but your SWG probably doesn't produce much more than 1.5-2lbs of chlorine gas per day. That amount is insignificant compared to the SLAM FC levels you need. So it's useless to run it. "Boost Mode" and "Superchlorination" is just useless marketing phrases. No SWG can achieve shock levels of chlorine under normal circumstances.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Good Day All,
Here is the latest update on my SLAM and what I've been measuring/seeing.
At night I shut off my SWG and measure my FC. In the morning, I measure the FC, add whatever is required to get me back to the SLAM FC level of 28, then turn my SWG back on at 100%.

Last night, my FC Level was 26.
This morning it had dropped to 17.5.

PoolMath called for another 3 128 oz. 10% solution. (I have been using the Lowes but made another WalMart run and got another 10 containers of their bleach. Price was $2.97 BUT I did notice they have another brand of bleach for $1.00 per container slightly lower size. I didn't buy those because they looked to be really really old dated on the shelf)

Will keep everyone posted, and once again many thanks. 5 days in I'd probably be expecting slightly better improvement than this however....
 
Scott,

SHOCK is a process, not a product (that's a common saying around here). Unfortunately, Pool Stores have trained us all to believe that there is a "magic" product out there whereby one throws a bag of powder in the pool and, viola!, the water is perfect again. This is simply not realistic. So the hard part of TFP is un-learning all of the nonsense the Pool Stores spew and following the science.

You're doing great! The water will get better everyday. Vigilance with cleaning helps too. Be sure to brush a lot and keep an eye on your filter as you will likely have to tear it down again soon and deep clean it. That helps a lot with clearing algae and organics.

I know going on bleach runs is a real PITA, but another saying is used around here a lot - your pool didn't go bad in a day and it's going to take more than a day to clean it up. Keep at it, you're doing great!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
JoyfulNoise said:
I know going on bleach runs is a real PITA, but another saying is used around here a lot - your pool didn't go bad in a day and it's going to take more than a day to clean it up. Keep at it, you're doing great!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Very interesting to read the experts walking a member through the SLAM process. The "diagnosis" and "treatment" are clearly explicated.

Is it off topic or hijacking to ask how something like algae gets started? Seems the OP had decent chemistries and a functioning SWG before the problems began. Just wondering what led to this algae outbreak? Or is this something that just happens?
 
Here are a few ways it can happen: If the SWG is set to only provide the minimum, there are times when the FC will fall too low. If the bather load or debris level are higher then normal and no extra chlorine is added, the FC will get too low. If there are areas of poor circulation and the FC is kept near the minimum, algae can get a foot hold.
 
fauxQ said:
Very interesting to read the experts walking a member through the SLAM process. The "diagnosis" and "treatment" are clearly explicated.

Is it off topic or hijacking to ask how something like algae gets started? Seems the OP had decent chemistries and a functioning SWG before the problems began. Just wondering what led to this algae outbreak? Or is this something that just happens?
Click to expand...

To keep it on topic, both the first pool store results and TF-100 results in this case showed inadequate FC levels for the CYA level as well as CC levels above 0.5. When you have low FC levels and CC levels, that indicates that the FC is actively being consumed by something, which is usually algae. Any time you have inadequate FC levels (or poor circulation or not brushing/vacuuming or not enough auto pool cleaner/robot use) algae can get started. Once it starts, it's difficult for an SWG to keep up with demand even if functioning properly. So no, chemistries were not decent at the start of this process, hence the need to SLAM.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply