This is my first pool opening, but this site has given me the courage and just enough knowledge to take this on (or just enough knowledge to be dangerous if one hears my better half )
Our pool temps are still in the high 40's, but our son was off for Spring break and we decided to pull the cover off and see what was brewing underneath. There was a surprising amount of debris despite the tight mesh cover: pine needles, leaves, and coating of silty mud on the bottom. The water was clear, but became cloudier when together, we skimmed the floating debris and got the worst off the bottom. We then unboxed and put to work our Dolphin Triton Plus. We emptied the "Spring" filter about 8 times before the debris load was getting lighter and then switched to the "fine" filters. The pool was cloudy, but didn't look green. We ran the full gamut of TFT test kit and found:
FC 25
CC 0
pH 7.5
CH 100
TA 60
CYA 90
My questions are these:
1. Should I worry about the cloudiness?
2. Do I need to SLAM if I have a CC of 0?
To be clear, I had checked my chemistries about 2 weeks ago and added enough bleach to get to SLAM levels for my CYA (my elevated CYA is another story, for another post). I know I need to deal with my CH and TA once I get my CYA down to 40-50. Anything else I need to worry about?
If I don't need to SLAM, I will let our little robot clean up the silt and when it is not working, use our sump pump to drain off about 50% before refilling. I will then add either hypo-Cal* or CaCl2 and baking soda to get CH and TA in range. Then add boric acid to get to 50 ppm.
*(I have some hypo-Cal that I bought to replace bleach to help get my CH up a bit, but most of the CH correction will come from CaCl2).
Does this sound like a plan?
Our pool temps are still in the high 40's, but our son was off for Spring break and we decided to pull the cover off and see what was brewing underneath. There was a surprising amount of debris despite the tight mesh cover: pine needles, leaves, and coating of silty mud on the bottom. The water was clear, but became cloudier when together, we skimmed the floating debris and got the worst off the bottom. We then unboxed and put to work our Dolphin Triton Plus. We emptied the "Spring" filter about 8 times before the debris load was getting lighter and then switched to the "fine" filters. The pool was cloudy, but didn't look green. We ran the full gamut of TFT test kit and found:
FC 25
CC 0
pH 7.5
CH 100
TA 60
CYA 90
My questions are these:
1. Should I worry about the cloudiness?
2. Do I need to SLAM if I have a CC of 0?
To be clear, I had checked my chemistries about 2 weeks ago and added enough bleach to get to SLAM levels for my CYA (my elevated CYA is another story, for another post). I know I need to deal with my CH and TA once I get my CYA down to 40-50. Anything else I need to worry about?
If I don't need to SLAM, I will let our little robot clean up the silt and when it is not working, use our sump pump to drain off about 50% before refilling. I will then add either hypo-Cal* or CaCl2 and baking soda to get CH and TA in range. Then add boric acid to get to 50 ppm.
*(I have some hypo-Cal that I bought to replace bleach to help get my CH up a bit, but most of the CH correction will come from CaCl2).
Does this sound like a plan?