Help....cleared the shelves of bleach and still slamming!

[skirts]

HELLO,

New to forum and would appreciate any info. Will try to get to the point. I have a 10 year old above ground pool, vinyl lining 22,000gal. with sand filter. Relatively no problems over the years. End of last year had a late season algae bloom, thought I got it taken care of. Closed pool as usual, opened 3 weeks ago, water was clear with usual few leaves. Balanced water, vacuumed slightly cloudy. Added clarifier and water was good and has continued to be clear the entire time. BUT, cc would register 0. Finally dawned on me something was eating it. Sooooooo, started SLAM on Saturday. Readings as follows:

CYA 40
PH 7.5
TA 100
CH 260

This is what I have been doing and I guess I just thought it would have passed OCLT by now since water has been clear ENTIRE time.

Target shock level 16. Started Saturday noonish. Vacuumed, brushed, brought to slam level. checked every 30mins and readjusted to slam level. Hit 16 at dark that evening. Next morning large loss so repeated this process Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, and today checked 3times day and readjusted slam level to 16.

I have scrubbed all surfaces, skimmer, outlet and ladder. Is this an expected time frame if water was clear to begin with????? I have used about 25gallons of bleach so far. Should I just keep at it or am I missing something? Leaving on vacation in a week or so and don't want to back slide on progress.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

What test kit are you using?
You want the CC to be zero ... perhaps a review of ABCs of Water Chemistry is in order.

The SLAM can take days or weeks, just depends on what is in the water.

Do you have records of your FC and CC test results?

Please add your location (City, State or City, Country) to your profile and pool details to your signature as described HERE as it will help us help you.

 

[skirts]

Whoops! The level that was coming up 0 was the chlorine in the DPD kit. So I purchased the FAS-DPD to slam with and I am using it to test slam levels. So confusing to me.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Which kit are you using?

Please run a complete new set of tests and tell us like this:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

We'll go from there....

 

[skirts]

Will do this evening. Thanks so much. ��

 

[skirts]

New readings:
PH 7.5
CYA 50
TA 120
FC 6
CC 6

Noticed that CYA went up by 10. Had added stabilizer 4 days prior to starting SLAM. Wonder if it hadn't dissolved completely on Saturday because had Cya reading of 40 then and had been dosing chlorine off of that reading. Using Taylor FAS/DPD to test chlorine. HTH basic 5 way for other. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Your FC is 6, yet your CCs are *also* 6?? Both those tests were done with the powder/drop test, right?

 

[skirts]

Yes. The Taylor kit. Unless I misunderstand how to use it???? It took one drop of reagent when checking for CC to turn and it said to multiply that by 6. Maybe I need to reread instructions.

 

[MarianParoo]

When using a 10ml sample (advised sample size), you multiply drops by 0.5. When using a 25ml sample, multiply by 0.2.

 

[skirts]

Reread directions with my readers on.�� Looks like CC reading is actually 0.5. Used a 10ml sample and required only 1 drop of reagent. Used pool math and refigured required bleach for cya 50. Dosed and after sundown FC 20.5. Will see how much loss I get at 6:00am.

 

[MarianParoo]

Great! Keep those specs on!!!

 

[skirts]

New reading as of 0600,

FC 15.5
CC 0.5

retreated to bring level back up to 20. So is it possible that the the CYA reading would have been the culprit that was keeping this going without be able to obtain the OCLT results that I covet so much or does it sound like there is more going on???Water is actually sparkling clear. Will rebrush everything today.Thanks.

 

[MarianParoo]

When doing the OCLT, are you waiting until after sunSET, at least 30 minutes after your any chemical addition, and testing in the morning within an hour of sunRISE?

 

[skirts]

Yes. 9:15 pm last night and about 5:45 am this morning. �� Been gone today so will do an afternoon test here in a bit.

 

[skirts]

9:15 last night FC 23, 6:00am this morning FC 13. Been through 30 gallon of bleach and 1 bottle of FAS-DPD reagent, scrubbing daily and getting nowhere.�� One thing I did mean to ask was when I took sample to pool store they said I have phosphates and I purchased Phosfree but have not added yet. Bottle says algae must be treated before using so held off. Would phosphates affect this any??? If I understand corrected it can allow growth. Thanks.

 

[jblizzle]

Return it of you can and but more bleach

 

[MarianParoo]

Agreed. Can you babysit the FC every couple of hours today and never let it drop below 20?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, have you checked under ladders, behind lights, inside weirs, etc. for any hidden algae? Something used up all that chlorine overnight...!

 

[skirts]

Scrubbed inside water outlet, skimmer took ladder out and scrubbed inside. So frustrating! Will check everything again. Ran out of reagents and local pool store is out so gotta go to the city and see if I can track some down. We gotta go out of town Monday-Friday. Any advice what to do while gone. Semi adult son will be here but not long enough to do full SLAM. Thanks everyone for advice. I really do appreciate it. ��

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Instead of searching out reagents locally (and they're not always easy to find locally darn it) just go ahead and order them from TFTestkits.net today and let them come to the house. You'll probably have them waiting for you when you return.

 

[MarianParoo]

Have you kept logs of your chlorine additions? He could dose daily at those levels if there's some consistency. OR, better yet, when you get your reagent, teach him to test, once a day may hold you until you get back.