Fired Leslie's this week - now I need help ?

[Jamestren]

Put in 16k gallon pool with SWG three summers ago. Been fine until this year. Opened to lots of algae. Balanced and shocked the heck out of it. Thought I had it. Pool will NOT HOLD chlorine. After paying Leslie's $$$ every week, I'm done. I bought the kit everyone recommends and I can test myself. Here are my levels:

FC - nada. Nothing. Have added 12 pounds of Leslie's super shock in past three days.

PH - 7.6

Alk - 110

CYA - 40-50

Calcium - 410 (Leslie's made me keep adding)

Salt - 3100


Anyway, I've tried 10 gallons of liquid chlorine, shock, everything. Nothing holds. Recently I finally got yellow out from Leslie's hoping maybe algae was the issue. Pool looks better now,
But still won't hold chlorine.

I know this topic has been covered in detail, and I've tried to read as much as possible, but I can only father that maybe I need to raise my CYA a bit, and then just keep slamming until it holds it? Is that it?

TIA for any assistance!

 

[tim5055]

Welcome to TFP!

First, what you seem to be calling a SLAM is not what we call a SLAM. You can see the directions here: SLAM Process

But, to follow our methods you need an accurate test kit.

I recomend you start here with reading about our methods ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

 

[ddigz]

What's your CC? Also, what is it 10 minutes after you add chlorine? Sounds like my issue. I have a thread detailing my issue just below this one.

If you have high CC you've got something eating the FC up. I am just getting over that issue.

 

[tim5055]

I forgot to mention, the yellow out will create a high chlorine demand on its own, so now your additions of chlorine not only need to oxidize whatever was in your water in the first place it also needs to neutralize the yellow out.

You are probably going to need a lot of liquid chlorine.

 

[MarianParoo]

Which test kit did you purchase?

 

[Jamestren]

TAYLOR TECHNOLOGIES INC K-2006 TEST KIT COMP CHLORINE FAS-DPD

(Sorry for caps. Copied and pasted from Amazon)

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For the chlorine test, there was no amount of DPD powder that would turn my water pink. When I get home I'll see how to test CC. Seems like I couldn't do anything since water wouldn't turn pink.

 

[tim5055]

Unfortunately, Taylor kits come in sizes, the K-2006 is the smallest. If you can change,it to the k-2006-C that would be better or order more of the FAS-DPD powder and reagent.

 

[Jamestren]

Yeah, I was shocked how light some of the supplies were. I'll order the bigger one next time.


I added one bag of Leslie's shock (last pound) about 3 hours ago and now free chlorine is reading higher. CC remains low to none.

Can someone educate me on what it means when it says "for 1 drop=.2ppm use 25ml sample and for 1 drop=.5ppm use 10ml sample"??? Is that the actual droplet size out of the bottle? Hth can I tell?

 

[Jamestren]

Actually. After reading 0 earlier, I added 1 pound of shock. My pool is now reading FC at 8?!?!

One suble change. Earlier I cleaned some crud off the whisk like filter just before the SWG. And i rinsed it off? Is it possible that my SWG wasn't working this whole time and that was my problem?

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I turned boost on. Will check again in morning. My salt level hasn't changed in a month. In hindsite I bet my SWG was the problem all
Along?

 

[MarianParoo]

The drop is what comes naturally from holding the bottle vertically.

As for the 10ml/25ml, that is your water sample size. The comparator has several fill lines. The lowest is the 10ml and you add pool water to that mark, measuring by the low part of the meniscus. Use the 10ml sample for FC/CC. Use 1 heaping scoop of powder. Then count your 0871 drops (see above) and divide that count by 2. That's your FC. Easy-peasy.

Also, there is no need to buy a new kit. Just buy more reagents.

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You WANT your CC to be 0 or no more than 0.5. That is a good thing!

 

[Jezza]

The 10ml sample means that every drop is worth 0.5 rather than 0.2 with the 25ml sample. The 10ml sample is accurate enough for TFP purposes and will save a lot of your FAS DPD reagents.

You need to start reading up on the SLAM link above and stock up on bleach or liquid chlorine. Throwing shock into your pool is only going to create possible problems later on.

 

[Jamestren]

Okay. I have my head wrapped around the 10 Vs 25. Thanks for that.

As for slamming, I had already studied it and just confused.


First, do I need to raise my CYA to 70-80? There is a chart that shows for SWG, what level to raise chlorine to in order to slam it. That chart starts at 60 cya for SWG. My pool is 45. Should I raise before I begin?

Also, there is no guide for how much chlorine I need. Just that an overnight test should show less then loss of 1. Do I need like 10 gallons, or 50? It takes a while for the FC to disperse, so I have to idea how much to add to get it to 25 for slamming.

Also, the would love recommendation for most affordable good chlorine/bleach option.


Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Jezza]

Ok- so you want to have a relatively low CYA level- if there is an ideal level it would be around 30. Yours is 50 (rounded from 45) so your SLAM level is 20 FC which isn't so bad. Then you need to hold that level for as long as you can adding chlorine regularly to maintain that level.

Have a look at the Poolmath tab at the top- that will tell you how much to add based on the volume of your pool. It would help us if added your pool type etc to your signature which will appear at the bottom of each of your posts Read this Before You Post and that can help us check your numbers if you want some help with that.

Being from Australia not much help on best place to buy chlorine/bleach

 

[pooldv]

No, don't raise CYA. SLAM at CYA of 45, round up and call it 50. Use Poolmath, link up there ^^^, to calculate how much chems to add to go from NOW to TARGET. Enter all your test results in NOW and where you want to get in TARGET amd it will tell you how much to add.

Also, this is handy, Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

 

[jagger2005]

Not trying to overwhelm you with advice, but it will probably be a good idea to turn off your SWG while SLAMming. Since you will be adding liquid chlorine, it will be easier to monitor results without that variable. The discussion about whether or not it is actually working can be done later.

I do not use bleach, but if I did I would either get it from the laundry aisle at Walmart or a busy grocery store. Great Value brand or comparable - plain. Definitely skip the stuff in the outside garden centers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jamestren]

Okay. I'm a day and a half into my slam, and my CYA has dropped from 40 to 25. Should I continue my slam, or do I need to pause to get the CYA level back up?

 

[MarianParoo]

Continue the slam! However if you are confident of the new CYA reading, call it 30 and slam at 12FC.

 

[tim5055]

Okay. I'm a day and a half into my slam, and my CYA has dropped from 40 to 25. Should I continue my slam, or do I need to pause to get the CYA level back up?

Have you replaced a significant amount of water? If not then your CYA could not have dropped by 15.

 

[Jamestren]

We have not replaced any water, but i don't have the most confidence in our first CYA test. I'm a little confused whether the cya test is until you kinda can't see the dot, or to where you can't see it even if squinting and focusing.


Either way, I suspect it's closer to 30 than 45.

I will drop slam to 12 as advised. When slam is complete, I will raise cya to 60-70.

Thanks!

 

[MarianParoo]

If it's above 30, call it 40 and slam at 16.