Bought an older house last Fall with a large IG pool. Pump sort of broke early winter and I let it turn into a swamp since I didn't really know what I was doing. Now I've raked most of the crud out of it, and added lots of chlorine having no clue what I was doing. Its bluish green... maybe mostly blue, but still very cloudy (I can see about 2-3 feet deep depending on the day).
Anyway, fast forward a few weeks and many hours on the internet, and I now have a decent idea of what I need to do. Got my test kit in this week and found out that my test strips I had been using were complete garbage. Due to the strips reading 0 stabilizer, I had been adding CYA. I finally stopped adding it when I figured the test strip wasnt measuring it. Test kits shows around 80-90 range on the CYA. So I was pretty much borderline on SLAM even being practical. That said, I went and bought 23 jugs of 121 oz 8.25% bleach.
I figured my cloudiness had to do with combined chlorine. I could smell the chloromides as well. Test strip showed maxed out 10 on combined so I really didn't know. Luckily, the test kit was giving me about 1 ppm combined. At 90 CYA, and having to raise FC from 3 to 31, I was looking at 12 jugs of 8.25% to start off (based on pool math calculator). So far today, the FC is holding pretty good, but the CC is still around 1 ppm (hard to tell if it was completely clear after one drop, but it definitely was after the 2nd drop).
My concern is that each time I test FC I end up using over 60 drops of the R-0871. I'm worried I will run out before I finish the SLAM process. Even with Amazon 2-day shipping, I wonder if I would have enough time for more to arrive. I didn't think about having such a high CYA causing me to need a extra testing chemicals.
Is this normal to burn through so much of this stuff, if you are slamming with a high CYA? Any guesses as to how many days the SLAM may take from where I'm at now?
Also, at what point should I add salt and turn the chlorinator back on? After SLAM, do I wait until the FC is at the target, then add salt? Or do I wait for it to get a little lower then add salt?
Thanks in advance for any tips and info.
Anyway, fast forward a few weeks and many hours on the internet, and I now have a decent idea of what I need to do. Got my test kit in this week and found out that my test strips I had been using were complete garbage. Due to the strips reading 0 stabilizer, I had been adding CYA. I finally stopped adding it when I figured the test strip wasnt measuring it. Test kits shows around 80-90 range on the CYA. So I was pretty much borderline on SLAM even being practical. That said, I went and bought 23 jugs of 121 oz 8.25% bleach.
I figured my cloudiness had to do with combined chlorine. I could smell the chloromides as well. Test strip showed maxed out 10 on combined so I really didn't know. Luckily, the test kit was giving me about 1 ppm combined. At 90 CYA, and having to raise FC from 3 to 31, I was looking at 12 jugs of 8.25% to start off (based on pool math calculator). So far today, the FC is holding pretty good, but the CC is still around 1 ppm (hard to tell if it was completely clear after one drop, but it definitely was after the 2nd drop).
My concern is that each time I test FC I end up using over 60 drops of the R-0871. I'm worried I will run out before I finish the SLAM process. Even with Amazon 2-day shipping, I wonder if I would have enough time for more to arrive. I didn't think about having such a high CYA causing me to need a extra testing chemicals.
Is this normal to burn through so much of this stuff, if you are slamming with a high CYA? Any guesses as to how many days the SLAM may take from where I'm at now?
Also, at what point should I add salt and turn the chlorinator back on? After SLAM, do I wait until the FC is at the target, then add salt? Or do I wait for it to get a little lower then add salt?
Thanks in advance for any tips and info.