Help! New To Pool Care and My Pool is Cloudy

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atttech-2, you are probably right on the estimated gallons of the pool. It actually came out to 19,900 and I rounded to 20,000 but I'm not sure how to account for the bench area between the spillways and the steps/benches from the shelf into the pool area.
So I didn't have much change this morning because my dear-dear husband said the pump was on. Unfortunately, he forgot to remove the stop thingy and the pump went off during the night. :hammer:
The FC was still at 30 this morning but 2 hours later, and after getting the pump running, it dropped to 27. I'm checking it every couple of hours so not to lose anymore time on the SLAM. Remind me again how I know how much bleach to add when my FC falls below 24? Do I re-do the PoolMath and use the recommended amount? It's also supposed to rain today so I hope that won't slow me down. Might just need to check levels more often?

Thanks
 
I don't think it will speed up the process, what you vacumn will get trapped in your filter and the chlorine will kill it there. I would be vacumning just to get it cleaned up. Any large stuff should get trapped in skimmer basket so you can remove that from the pool water.
 
I would leave the bubblers off for now they will raise the pH a little and since you can't test for that right now best not to worry about it. The brushing and pump will give you all the circulation you need. when the FC falls below 24. Put whatever the test result is in the now column and put 24 in the target column and add what it tells you to. Once you do the addition don't retest for at least a coupe hours, just trust the addition brings the FC level up to where you expect it to as we talked about if your pool is a bit smaller than you expect the overshoot is not a problem if anything it will help a smidge.
 
Good Morning! I was excited to see the pool is looking very blue today. I tried to post pics but kept getting a message that they were too big. I sized them way down and still not attaching. I also tried photo bucket but not sure I know how to do it right, those were rejected as well. Anyway, for an update and possibly another question or two.

Last night around 10:00 the FC was 25 so I left it alone. This morning at 10:00 it was 24, which is my Shock Target so I left it alone again. The water is still a bit cloudy but the green is gone. I was surprised the FC didn't drop more over that long of a period. My plan is to continue checking it today and once the water looks clear I'll do the overnight test and test the CC. Hopefully all will work out perfectly and my first lesson in taking care of my pool will be complete.
 
You are totally on top of this whole process.

Once the algae is dead its the filters job to get it out of the water. Check the filter pressure if its 25% higher, (25% not 25 PSI) than normal backwash it. If you don't know what the normal PSI level is then I would just backwash it and take note of the clean pressure for future reference.
 

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harleysilo said:
You are really close, just keep at it like you wrote.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the encouragement, harley. Didn't need to add anything at 10am. Tested at 1pm and had FC level of 20, added 104 oz bleach. Tested again at 3pm and the FC was 24 (my target). Tested again at 5:30 and it was back down to 20 so I added another 104 oz. I'll check one or two more times tonight and hope to finish up tomorrow. It does seem to be so close but since I've never done this before, I don't really know how long it should take. Maybe tomorrow will be a stretch.

Question: Once I'm finished with the SLAM how long will it take for the FC to return to a normal level?

Terri
 
atttech-2 said:
You are totally on top of this whole process.

Once the algae is dead its the filters job to get it out of the water. Check the filter pressure if its 25% higher, (25% not 25 PSI) than normal backwash it. If you don't know what the normal PSI level is then I would just backwash it and take note of the clean pressure for future reference.
Click to expand...

Funny you mentioned the backwashing. I just backwashed the filter this afternoon but I DO NOT know my normal pressure. I was hoping it wouldn't hurt to do so since it seems the filter is doing most of the work now.
Something else I read about here is the cleaning algae out from around the lights. Is that an important step, do I need to worry about that? I don't have a clue how to do it and we have 3 lights.

Appreciate you cheering me on, keeps me motivated knowing I'm on the right path. :kim:
 
Behind Lights can be a hiding place but that usually that comes up for someone who keeps relapsing and can't figure out why. Good to scrub around them best you can with a brush but for most that is all that is needed. I would not be looking to remove them from the niche unless you are dealing with a pool that has been green for months or are having continual problems.
 
Today the pool is still a nice blue color but still cloudy. This morning the FC was 23 and I added 30oz of bleach. About 3 hours later the FC was down to 21 so I added 89oz of bleach. Now, about 4 hours after the last added bleach I'm back down to 18.5 FC so I added 163oz. I backwashed the filter again today but I'm not sure it needed it. According to the markings on the gauge, it should "START" at 20 and "CLEAN" when it goes over 30. The gauge is reading about 17 but I'm not sure if it's working properly. It has had water inside the glass and the PB is going to replace it, although he hasn't yet.

Is it normal to have the FC drop so much in such a short time when the pool is no longer green?
How long should I expect it to take for the water to be clear again?

Thanks,
Terri
 
You could be getting extra FC usage because the pool is becoming clearer, now the FC is exposed to more sunlight and still having to eat algae. Just keep the FC up you are doing great. It is not unusual to take a week or slightly more to become clear a little DE in the filter can speed things up a bit.

No matter how long it takes to get clear just think of it as negative reinforcement. The truma will make sure you never want to do this again, there are several members that have gone years without having to SLAM with minimal effort. Starting your TFP learning with a SLAM is a little like boot camp when you are done the basics of testing and adding bleach will be ingrained in your DNA.
 
The pool is looking much clearer this morning. It's overcast outside so it's a little hard to tell if it's "crystal" clear. I'm going to be away from home for several hours today, leaving in an hour, and the reading this morning was 25, which is 1 over my target. My last check last night was 26. From my past testing, I usually lose a lot during the day, especially yesterday and I'm worried it will be below shock level while I'm gone. Possibly with all the clouds it will not fall so quickly today. Since I'm already 1 over target I think I'll just let the filter continue doing its thing and I'll check it again this afternoon.
Hope this doesn't take me a step backwards. (insert emoji doing the moonwalk) Love to use emojis :hug:

Terri
 
Check for CC in the AM when you are checking if you pass OCLT.

It can happen if you try to check for CC during the day you won't detect any even though the FC is still producing some. This is because CC burns off fast in sunlight so for that reason its best to check in the AM before the Sun has a chance to burn it off.
 

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