OK, second year pool owner here. Although using the pucks last year, I followed guidelines here for everything else and never needed to shock it. Loaded it up good with bleach for the winter and crystal clear when I opened this spring. Anyway, I was hoping to switch over to straight bleach this year, but we've been out of town several times and the cartridge chlorinator just was much more convenient. Besides, we have a lot of pucks to use up, that are already paid for.
So what's going on now. About a month ago, the water began to get cloudy and there was some "stuff" on the bottom. Looked like little patches of mud. Kind of a brownish gold, almost like clay soil. I thought it was just pollen, dirt, etc. Our chlorine level had dropped as low as 1-2 a couple times, but otherwise it remained above 3 or 4 according to the basic chlorine tester in my TF 100. We had lots of spring rain which may have contributed. I went ahead and started the shock process. Took the FC level up to 25 and kept it above 17 or so for the duration. I wasn't around all the time, so the level fluctuated some. (I did notice, after I went to shock level, I saw a bit of green show up in the bottom). After a few days, things cleared up, I did the overnight test and had less than 1 FC loss and CC was less than .5. I shocked for 1 more day and went back to normal operation with the pucks.
The cloudiness never seemed to completely go away, but I may have been too critical.
Well, I am getting a bit of cloudiness again, and the same stuff in the bottom. I went down with goggles and it looks like mud, but I am assuming algae. No green anywhere. My numbers look good to me. Since that first shock routine, FC has remained above 3 and mostly 5 or above according to the daily test.
I have found that my daily test reads a bit higher than the more accurate drop test. According to the drop test today, I have FC of 4. According to the daily tester I have 5. I went ahead and tried some old litmus type that are old and it showed 1, but they are no good.
Here are my numbers for the last few weeks.
--------7/5----------7/15-------- 7/30
FC------5.5-----------4------------4
CC-------0------------0------------0
TC------5.5-----------4------------4
PH------7.8----------7.8----------7.5
T/A-----200---------160----------190
CH------300---------220----------260
CYA-----55-----------40----------58/70
Temp----86-----------88-----------89
It's been very hot for a few weeks, my water temp has been as high as 91 degrees. My pool is in direct nearly all day and we do have quite a few leaves blow in through the day. MT the skimmer several times a day.
As for the CYA level, when I read it, I generally have a lower number than my wife. On 7/5 are her numbers, 7/15 are my readings, on 7/30 that's mine listed first, with hers listed second.
Is it time to shock again? What did I do wrong?
So what's going on now. About a month ago, the water began to get cloudy and there was some "stuff" on the bottom. Looked like little patches of mud. Kind of a brownish gold, almost like clay soil. I thought it was just pollen, dirt, etc. Our chlorine level had dropped as low as 1-2 a couple times, but otherwise it remained above 3 or 4 according to the basic chlorine tester in my TF 100. We had lots of spring rain which may have contributed. I went ahead and started the shock process. Took the FC level up to 25 and kept it above 17 or so for the duration. I wasn't around all the time, so the level fluctuated some. (I did notice, after I went to shock level, I saw a bit of green show up in the bottom). After a few days, things cleared up, I did the overnight test and had less than 1 FC loss and CC was less than .5. I shocked for 1 more day and went back to normal operation with the pucks.
The cloudiness never seemed to completely go away, but I may have been too critical.
Well, I am getting a bit of cloudiness again, and the same stuff in the bottom. I went down with goggles and it looks like mud, but I am assuming algae. No green anywhere. My numbers look good to me. Since that first shock routine, FC has remained above 3 and mostly 5 or above according to the daily test.
I have found that my daily test reads a bit higher than the more accurate drop test. According to the drop test today, I have FC of 4. According to the daily tester I have 5. I went ahead and tried some old litmus type that are old and it showed 1, but they are no good.
Here are my numbers for the last few weeks.
--------7/5----------7/15-------- 7/30
FC------5.5-----------4------------4
CC-------0------------0------------0
TC------5.5-----------4------------4
PH------7.8----------7.8----------7.5
T/A-----200---------160----------190
CH------300---------220----------260
CYA-----55-----------40----------58/70
Temp----86-----------88-----------89
It's been very hot for a few weeks, my water temp has been as high as 91 degrees. My pool is in direct nearly all day and we do have quite a few leaves blow in through the day. MT the skimmer several times a day.
As for the CYA level, when I read it, I generally have a lower number than my wife. On 7/5 are her numbers, 7/15 are my readings, on 7/30 that's mine listed first, with hers listed second.
Is it time to shock again? What did I do wrong?