Fired Pool Company - Getting Started the TFP Way.

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franklinkj

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Jun 15, 2016
3
Biloxi, MS
About two weeks ago my pool started turning green. I was told that the chlorine was't working due the high acid concentration. Once I found out it needed do be drained halfway to control the acid levels, I did some googling and found this site. A day or so of reading and I fired my pool company. That left me with a green pool and $200/mo back in my pocket! I've been reading here for about 2 weeks and got started using your methods about a week ago. First of all, thank you to everyone for all of the great information! I am sure I screwed some things up in that first week, but confident I can recover.

I finally received my test kit yesterday. I was shocked by the numbers based on what my Clorox brand strips were telling me. I am afraid I am doing it wrong, but hopefully I will get more comfortable over time. For the week leading up to yesterday I have been trying to maintain chlorine levels using bleach and ignoring everything else the strips told me. I figured as long as I could keep the pool from turning green again I was better off not polluting the water with Clorox chemicals. Turns out I was right. Here are my numbers as of last night before adding more chlorine:

CYA 75 (explains the return of algae I noticed)
FC 11
CC 0
PH 7.5
TA 380 (with 25ml test) & 575 (with (10ml test) - I don't trust this one.
CH 175

After using the pool calculator I added chlorine to get to proper SLAM levels. Unfortunately, I failed to set the concentration to 10% and left it at the default of 6%. This means I added almost twice the chlorine it called for and shot my FC up to 50. I expect that will naturally dissipate? Oops.

Here is where I started a week ago:
image1.JPG

And what looks like this morning:
image2.JPG

I am just looking for any thoughts, opinions, or advice. Thanks again for the great resource.
 
First, the PH test is unreliable when the FC is above 10 and it is very important to adjust your PH before you start a SLAM. For a SLAM, you want your PH to be set to 7.2.

The CYA results should be rounded up to the nearest 10.. so a result of 75 is really 80. This means your SLAM FC is 31.

After the SLAM, if you keep your CYA at 80, your target FC is 9 which is near the borderline of being too high to accurately test your PH.

So, I suggest that you replace some water so you can get your CYA down to 50 or 60. This will leave you in a better spot to complete the SLAM at lower FC levels and easier to maintain the rest of the parameters.

Once you finish your SLAM, we can work on getting the other parameters dialed in.
 
Hi, welcome to TFP! Yes, the FC will go down on its own, but it may take a few days. Leave the pool uncovered and the sun will burn off the FC. If you want to lower the FC quicker, you can use sodium thiosulfate or hydrogen peroxide. Once the pool is below slam level it is safe to swim in.

You can manage the water with high CYA as long as you make sure the FC does not drop below the minimum recommended level for your pool.
 
Thanks, guys. I am replacing water as we speak. What really blows my mind is that the Clorox test strips showed my stabilizer at 50. Stabilizer is really CYA, right?

Ok, so just so I am clear, I need to:
Continue with the water replacement to bring down CYA
Afterwards get my PH to 7.2 (current reading is invalid?)
Restart SLAM

Is that right? Thanks for the help!
 
franklinkj said:
Thanks, guys. I am replacing water as we speak. What really blows my mind is that the Clorox test strips showed my stabilizer at 50. Stabilizer is really CYA, right?
Click to expand...

Test strips are called guess-strips. Do yourself a favor and throw them away. The TF-100 is the most accurate way of testing your water. If you are unsure of using any of the testing procedures, just ask.

franklinkj said:
Ok, so just so I am clear, I need to:
Continue with the water replacement to bring down CYA
Afterwards get my PH to 7.2 (current reading is invalid?)
Restart SLAM

Is that right? Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Yes, this would be my recommendation. It will save you in chems, testing reagents and will be easier to manage once you finish the SLAM and enter maintenance mode.
 
kcindc said:
Test strips are called guess-strips. Do yourself a favor and throw them away. The TF-100 is the most accurate way of testing your water. If you are unsure of using any of the testing procedures, just ask.
Click to expand...

Scary about the test strips. I am following the instructions to the letter. Given how far off my two TA tests were (380 & 575), I just feel like I must be screwing something up. My speed stir will be in today, so hopefully that will help. It's really the CYA test that bugs me the most because it seems subjective and is critical to get right.


kcindc said:
Yes, this would be my recommendation. It will save you in chems, testing reagents and will be easier to manage once you finish the SLAM and enter maintenance mode.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I will follow up once I complete the above and restart SLAM.
 
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