Test kit in ... let the SLAMing begin!

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If you can only do two time slots I would move the morning one back till later in the day
Theory being that the night FC should hold all night and through the morning
Then have a run say from 10-2, during the heat of the day

I did suggest this a few pages back too. Nice to see you finally warmed to the idea ;)

lmao on the deep clean
 
Haha, swim in the pool + major shower = deep clean.

That's a fair bit of FC but numbers aside, it's all about setting the salt water chlorinator so your range is maintained for your pool, and it seems like you're doing that. I would do all the pump runs while sun is on the pool or swimmers in the pool.

Is it possible to temporarily remove the cover? I'm guessing not, but that would be a way to know if the slats are harbouring algae.
 
Single parenthood with 3????????? OUCH! Y'all don't expect much from him this weekend! LOL

You are really learning your pool. It will take a while to dial in just right then it will rain or a child will leave a "gift" behind and you have to start all over!

Kim:kim:
 
Caco said:
If you can only do two time slots I would move the morning one back till later in the day
Theory being that the night FC should hold all night and through the morning
Then have a run say from 10-2, during the heat of the day

I did suggest this a few pages back too. Nice to see you finally warmed to the idea ;)

lmao on the deep clean
Click to expand...

I have set it to 12 to 3am just get some circulation at night and also 11am to 4pm to cover the peak heat period. I may even go from 10 to 4pm and reduce to 2 hours per night. Will see what happens first.

needsajet said:
Haha, swim in the pool + major shower = deep clean.

That's a fair bit of FC but numbers aside, it's all about setting the salt water chlorinator so your range is maintained for your pool, and it seems like you're doing that. I would do all the pump runs while sun is on the pool or swimmers in the pool.

Is it possible to temporarily remove the cover? I'm guessing not, but that would be a way to know if the slats are harbouring algae.
Click to expand...

No chance of removing the cover. Need to learn how to deal with the current scenario. The pool is exposed to a heap of sun from morning to 3 to 4pm as the pool faces east. It sees the sunrise and I am starting to thing this is a big factor in FC drop.

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kimkats said:
Single parenthood with 3????????? OUCH! Y'all don't expect much from him this weekend! LOL

You are really learning your pool. It will take a while to dial in just right then it will rain or a child will leave a "gift" behind and you have to start all over!

Kim:kim:
Click to expand...

Well actually, when you count my youngest and then me...its really 5 kids. I have to take care of myself too you know :)

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Caco said:
Buba, something to ponder
Seeing as you passed your slam, but have had lots of issues with algae, I wonder if you would benefit with adding some borox to the water for extra algae resistance

Cant remember if we discussed this or not, or you may have thought about it while I was away
Click to expand...

I recall you mentioning it really early in the process and that we should worry about that later...I suppose that is now :). Not sure what borat is to be honest as I have not looked into it. I will go back to pool school and get my head around it. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
The basics for borates are that they inhibit algae growth, improve the feel of the water, buffer PH, increase water clarity/sparkle and reduce chlorine consumption. The reduction in chlorine demand varies from pool to pool.

The reason I recommend them for you is that borates help prevent algae from getting started

I run 50ppm in my pool and really like it

If you do go down this route you need to have your TA where you want it as it is harder to adjust TA with borates
Also when I add to my pool I reduce my ph first to what I expect the borates to add. It is harder to adjust ph when you have borates. However the bonus is that your ph and TA move less once it is in. I normally only have to adjust my ph every 4 weeks, whereas before I was adjusting my ph about every 10 days

Yep, do your own research and see if it is something you want to do


 
needsajet said:
I've had a nagging suspicion in my mind about your SWC, but I ignored it because it's fairly new.

You know those disposable plastic pipettes that come with the CCL kit? Use one to collect a sample for FC testing from the return jet nearest the pump. Squeeze it, then slide it into the return jet, and suck some water. I think you'll get around 3 mls; add to test vial. Keep doing it to get a good-sized sample and dump out the excess to get down to 10 mls. Collect while bubbles are coming out of your return.

Also do a regular pool water sample and let me know your results. My SWC is similar size, and I get a rise of about 4 ppm FC for low speed on my pump. (around 2.5 ppm rise on high speed). If there's a rise then the SWC is working. If there's no rise, the SWC isn't doing its job.
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Got around to doing this test. Normal FC was 5 (from 10 on 22/2). FC from the return was at 6.5. Not much swimming but a bit of rain last few days.

pH is at 7.6 so has been pretty steady.

So I will top up with liquid chlorine. Have also decided to raise my CYA by 20ppm.. Could low CYA be the part of the issue with my FC drop?

Im really over this at the moment. Havent had any stable result in 3 months.

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You could raise your CYA to 80. It would help slow the loss of FC

Yep, I would be frustrated too
Actually I am a little frustrated, this is 99% of the time a simple process

Are we overthinking things?
Are we trying to be too precise, playing with things too much and ending up chasing our tail?
Are we missing something?

Maybe we should all just take a big breath, relax and maybe take a few days to chill
You could just keep your FC at the high end of target for a week
Then come back and post a full set of test results and problems to resolve or what you want to achieve
Might get rid of the :brickwall: feeling
 

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Thanks Caco - I think you need more of a break than me!

I decided whilst I am waiting to test to drop my pumps speed to 1900rpm and run it for 10.5 hours (11pm to 3am and 10am to 4:30pm) to cover the day under heat to see if that helps at all.

I think I have an Eco V setting which allows me to drop the speed of the pump to 1475 rpm but unsure if that would be sufficient for everyday filtering and sucking part of that from my main drain.
 
So I have done the full suite of tests today. Good news is that although FC was low again, CC was 0.5 and water is clear.
Date/time FC CC pH TA CH CYA Salt
26/02/2017 15:00PM5.015-0.36Adding chlorine to get FC to 10. I also measured FC from the in the return jet and it was 6.5 so it is working. Will add 20ppm of CY…Unsure what the target is but want to get a CYA reading to rely on. Only check CYA again after 2/3/2017
5/03/2017 10:512.50.57.640125153400-0.16Put SWG to 100% 12pm on . Before this it was 60%.. CYA was again below 30. I guessed 15 so the added 690mg CYA 26/2 had no impact or water overflowing from rain and cover opening could be replacing CYA water with rain water?

CYA and FC dropped after 9 days. I have placed my SWG to 100% for now and will only play with times. We have had a lot of rain, could that be the reason for my salt drop, CYA drop?

The other thing is pH has been the most consistent through all the testing - everything else is changing dramatically except for that. Does that indicate anything?

I have a 20mm difference in height for my overflow and my preferred water level for my pool...could it be rain and overflow is causing too much water replacement? I can go slightly lower on my water level to widen the gap but not much as there is a minimum water level to keep the pool cover bouyant.

So what to d from here? If I went to the pool shop, apart from the CYA they would say everything is fine....Before I do anything I would really like your opinion as really want to have break from this thing.

I was thinking of:
CYA to 70
Salt to 6000
TA to 80
CH to 200
FC to 8



Cheers
 

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