Year 2: Avoiding the Sophomore Slump

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Scout101

Scout101

Well-known member
Aug 18, 2015
245
North Kingstown, RI
I'm back! After an amazing and trouble free year, I now start year 2 of pool ownership. With the help of some amazing folks here, I took a pool that had been closed almost 4 years, dredged a few inches of dead worms out of black water, and had it sparkling in 3 weeks give or take. Pool and SWG behaved spectacularly all season, and put it to bed once it got nice and cold.

Opened the pool on Monday, and it looked like I had just been away a week and needed to vac. There's a little algae and whatnot, so I know the drill, but just looking at it, i could make out every detail of the main drain on day 1; took me 2.5 weeks to realize there were two main drain covers last year!

So, you guys made this so easy last year, I'm fighting the urge to be lazy and backslide. Went right into a vac and then SLAM, going well so far. Bleach top-offs and scrubbing 2x a day, so far so good. I lose about 5 FC overnight, 8 during the day, but it randomly went from 65 to low 90s this week, so it got more than its fair amount of sun and heat. Pool temp went up 20 degrees this week; it was 56 when I opened, it was 72 today. So just keeping at it, but will admit that it's both good and annoying that it's this clean already. Looks great, but know I've gotta keep at it for another week to two weeks before I can turn it over to the SWG autopilot to get me going.

I still stink at the CYA test, but it looked to be in the 25-30 range. Can never tell 100% anyway (that's the worst test in the kit, way too objective and random compared to the others!) I added about 1lb, give or take, in a sock to make sure I was in the 30-35 range so I didn't just waste the effort. It's normal for CYA to fade like this over time, yes? Want to make sure I didn't screw it up too bad and jump up high right at the start. Pretty sure I'm good, just running out of things to be nervous about, so this is the best I've got! Anyway, shooting for FC of 16, and running the cycle.

Anyway, should hopefully be less needy than last year, but love the advice and support as always. I do nothing but sing your praises to everyone that has or is considering a pool. I sound like the TFP arm of Scientology or something, but they at least nod politely before they say they have the pool store test, at which I cringe and suggest they check out this forum just for ideas. My pool was super easy, went from disaster to perfect in short order, and no trouble since. Everyone that gets in also comments it's the nicest they've ever been in, no chlorine feel or smell, nice and clean, water feels soft, etc. Some of that is the SWG for sure, but having the perfectly balanced chemicals is definitely an improvement over most people's pool experiences. I'll whip up a pic of Opening Day 2016 vs. 2017 shortly, it's pretty impressive.

Thanks again, and will keep the entertaining (hopefully) journal/advice seeking log going until she's good to go for the summer!
 
Scout101 said:
I do nothing but sing your praises to everyone that has or is considering a pool. I sound like the TFP arm of Scientology or something, but they at least nod politely before they say they have the pool store test, at which I cringe and suggest they check out this forum just for ideas.
Click to expand...

[emoji2] [emoji13] [emoji14] I do the same thing...I talk about this website often but I like your description so much better!!! [emoji2] [emoji13] [emoji14]
 
So far, so good, I suppose. Will admit it's really frustrating to not be able to see the results this year. Although infinitely better than seeing results because i'm going from black to green to blue.

How long should an opening SLAM take, really? I'm 5.5 days in, roughly, and everything looks perfect. The numbers don't back that up, though. Still losing about 5-6 FC overnight, and around 8 during the day (I tend to do a 6am and a 530pm check, bleach, and scrub cycle due to work and such). Water is perfectly clear, sparkly, all that good stuff, but I was hoping to see the FC destruction start to slow down, and so far it's basically level. Nothing to do but keep at it, just wondering if I should be seeing things progress more by now?

Retook the CYA test, and still looks like about 30 (hate that test!). I put another cap full into the pool just to see if slowing down the sun a bit may help my case. Suspect not a ton, as I'm still losing overnight too, but meh. Other than the dead algae (only a few spot on the corners of the downslope lately), not much for the filter to work on, so haven't played with DE or anything yet (although have some to finish up with). Pressure isn't really rising due to lack of material to get stuck, so only backwashed a couple times so far. Plus 3 cycles with the robot, which helped grab more junk.

Like I said in the opener, keeping with it, it's just more frustrating when you can't see any results visibly. Huge motivation last year when the work was obvious; this year it's just trusting the process...

Not like I'm in a hurry to swim or anything, I just want to turn this beast over to the SWG and stop my two-a-days :)
 
Still coming along, just slower than i expected given what it looks like (perfect). Lowing 3-4 FC overnight, about 5 during the day. I know I'm only a 8-9 days into this, just with how perfectly clear the water looks, thought it might go faster...

Still a couple weeks ahead of last year, though!
 
Think I got it all. Bought a small toilet brush sorta thing and got all the parts of the skimmers, have been hitting the walls, floors, around the lights, short of the inside of the pipes, not much else for hiding spots. Would appear to be something still there, but will just keep the bleach high and 2x a day scrubbing, and assume it'll work out shortly. It's dropped from what it was consuming upfront, and seeing less die off material, just not sure where it comes from as the water is crystal clear
 
I'm in my second year too. Opened the cover to greenish water, and dirt at the bottom (so much dirt, did it come through the mesh cover I suppose?). I vacuumed and am SLAMing (day 4). Water is much clearer, and I only lost .5 overnight, but the sun seems to be burning off the chlorine. My CYA is around 25-30 so I have to pull out the sock and stabilizer. Not going to lie - I'm considering throwing in dichlor to shock since I want CYA up, but can't find any locally.

I'm happy with BBB, but here's my question: My daughter says two of her friends in the neighborhood just "took off their cover and swam immediately in clear water". How can this be? Is that normal - or maybe they put a cover on but never really closed their pool? Maybe and elf (aka a parent) was adding chemicals over the winter? Did I do something wrong in closing (disconnected everything, shocked, and put on safety. We had lots of snow (for Portland, OR) this winter and freezing temps so I don't regret it - but I feel slightly like a loser cuz our pool isn't ready yet.
 
I don't know if you ever tried a product called ahh-some it works great along with SWG's I use it for a lot of my customers. Their water is sparkling clear. I've used this on troubled pools and as a regular once a month treatment for my weekly service accounts
 

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Larry,

I think you will find that TFP is a little different than most pool sites. Our principles are based on science and not “magic”.

I read thorough the Ahh-Some advertising and in my opinion, it is just too good to be true.. It is impossible for it to do all the things that it claims.
Besides, pool owners that follow our principles and guidelines already have the cleanest and clearest and best sanitized pools possible.

We tend to stay out of the pool store as much as we can, and use liquid chlorine or plain bleach to sanitize our pools. No fancy and costly chemicals are required.

I notice that the Ahh-Some documentation says that your FC should be maintained at 1.5 ppm. This is well below the minimum that TFP suggests for our users.

One of the great things about the TFP process is that we don’t have to “shock” our pools on a weekly basis, but it appears that adding a weekly dose of shock is part of the Ahh-Some process.

I noticed that the ad says it improves the smell of your pool. But, pools maintained by the TFP process don’t have any smell, so you can’t improve on that.

I am by far not a chemistry expert, but I can spot “magic” a mile away..

We would appreciate it if you would please refrain from recommending a product on our site that contradicts our basic pool care principles. It will just lead to confusion, which we have enough of already... :p

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
LOL, yeah, all set with the magic pills! Only have to shock it once a week to keep it working? I ran my pool until October last year and shocked it zero times after I finished the initial start-up SLAM. And wouldn't say my pool is troubled... ;)

Anywho, FC consumption still getting better, just can't quite close the gap. Only dropped 2.5 FC today, although it was rainy all day. Going to pass soon, hopefully. Ready to turn it over to the SWG for sure. Been putting some bleach right in the skimmers the last day or two, just in case the problem was in the pipes, figured it can't hurt to blast them a little? Not much, don't want to cause other issues, but running out of places it can hide. Got some dead algae in the morning again after that, so maybe shook it free.

Pool looks great, just waiting for the overnight test to get there. Gotta be close...
 
Just can't figure out where else I'm losing FC. Ladder wasn't in over winter, so nothing on it (plus bleached it before I put it away for winter). Short of pulling the lights, out of ideas. It's sparkling clean, just not passing the OCLT yet. Been that way for about a week or so.

Any trick to pulling the lights without swimming? Still pretty brisk up this way, and it seems like it's too deep to reach to. I've been brushing around the lights when cleaning, and pouring bleach right in front of them on occasion to let that area go high. Any other thoughts?
 
Thought I was almost done (Wednesday night MAY have passed OCLT, but wanted to verify again), but didn't work tonight. Had a heavy pollen load, hopefully I can blame that for the consumption overnight? I also measured CC this morning (1.5-2), haven't had that register in a week...
 
Weird that I hadn't had any CC register in a week, and then so much this morning, though. Really wondering if the heavy pollen load had something to do with it? Was pretty thick on top of the water last night, and not overly scoopable. Also been pouring a cloud of bleach right in front of the lights and skimmers so it hits hard there.

But yeah, planning to see about the lights (plural, unfortunately) this weekend. A little shocked that they could be part of it, considering how last year went. Pool was closed 3.5 years, total swamp. Cleared up without touching the lights, never had a problem last year. And went clear pretty much in a day or two this year, just can't get the FC to hold overnight (was close for a while). I'd have thought if I was going to have a problem back there, it would have been while opening last year.

Never touched them before, but will take a look. Looks like one screw at the top of the fixture, and then do I twist it free or something? Has to be a mechanism of some sort, or the one screw wouldn't hold it, right? I don't see a corresponding one on the bottom; there's the obvious outer ring, and then the one screw on the top of the inner ring closer to the light. Assume that's the frame and then the fixture itself?
 
Turn the power off at the breaker box please! Then take the one screw out and put it somewhere or in something so it does not get lost. Use a soft turn and pull and see what happens. There should be enough cord for you to lay the light on the decking.

Kim:kim:
 

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