SLAMing for 5 days - no results?

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AfterTen

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Jun 13, 2010
20
Michigan
Been trying to maintain 14FC for 5 days.
For each OCLT I make sure the FC is 14 or greater.

I've had no change in 5 days.
I lose 5 ppm overnight each time for the last five days.
My CC is 1 each time. (After the first drop for the CC test the water is barely pink)

My CYA is 30
My TA is 120
My PH is 7.5.
The water is crystal clear and has been for the five days.

I started the SLAM because over the 4th of July the pool became super cloudy and I did a SLAM then. It cleared up but I wasn't doing the OCLT.
I just slammed until the water was clear and my FC was .5
But, we were still using a lot of bleach. Then one days I noticed that water got slightly more cloudy after a heavy swim day.
So I read up some more and got super serious about the slam.
I can only test and maintain three times a day except this past Saturday when I was testing and maintaining every two hours.
Been brushing and running the filter 24x7.

This just seems like it is taking too long with no change in the numbers.

Am I missing something?
 
Testing and dosing three times a day is probably not enough in the beginning stages. It allows the algae to regain in strength and multiply. When ever your FC drops below shock level then it can start growing again. You have to hit it hard. If you are losing 5 ppm in 10 hours overnight then the loss would be much greater during daylight hours. You either have add chlorine more frequently or to a higher level that wont drop below shock level before you can add more. Always keep it at shock level and maintain (SLAM)
 
I'm not giving up just wanting to make sure I'm not missing something.
The reason is that I don't seem to get a much bigger FC loss during the day.

Like, yesterday (Sunday). Brought the FC up to 14 for a day of heavy swimming. Swimming started at noon and ended at 5:30 PM.
Hot full sun all day. 10-12 swimmers for the full 5.5 hours.

FC was 6 when I tested after sundown to prepare for the OCLT.

I shot the FC up to 16 last night and this morning it was 11.
 
Pull lights from niches and clean out and expose to SLAM FC levels. Scrub/brush ladders, steps, skimmers, returns, etc.

Do you have any water features, slides, etc.? If yes, then they need to be on during the SLAM process, at least for part of the time.

If you have a cover, leave it off.

Do you have any dead areas where the circulation is poor? Are you brushing the pool at least once daily?

Is at least one return pointed downward in the deep end?

Can you post a pic of the pool?
 
AfterTen said:
Also I can't do more than 3 times a day. I work all day.
I can doing the morning, lunch time and the evening. In the evening I can check and maintain 2 or 3 times before I start the OCLT.
Click to expand...
That is a great schedule for someone who works and cannot babysit the pool :goodjob:
 
Instead of doing the OCLT every night SLAM at night until you suspect you will pass the OCLT. This means wake up every couple of hours (ideally every hour) to test and bring it back up to shock level. If you can't handle the every couple of hours wake up at least once in the middle of the night to test and dose.
 
I vote that you have something behind your light or ladder. Do you have either of these? Have you removed them to see if anything is growing behind/inside of them?

I keep reading about people losing 5FC overnight to find out they have a black algae growing behind the light.
 
Butterfly said:
Pull lights from niches and clean out and expose to SLAM FC levels. Scrub/brush ladders, steps, skimmers, returns, etc.

Do you have any water features, slides, etc.? If yes, then they need to be on during the SLAM process, at least for part of the time.

If you have a cover, leave it off.

Do you have any dead areas where the circulation is poor? Are you brushing the pool at least once daily?

Is at least one return pointed downward in the deep end?

Can you post a pic of the pool?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay. Was out of a few days for travel.
No lights. Will start really scrubbing the ladder and steps and skimmer.
No water features.
We have been leaving the cover off 90% of the time. It is off during the OCLT.
No dead areas that I can tell.
No return is pointed toward the deep end. The two returns are pointed to give a counter-clockwise rotation to the pool water.

[attachment=0:1y1h4bgu]photo.JPG[/attachment:1y1h4bgu]
 

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techguy said:
I vote that you have something behind your light or ladder. Do you have either of these? Have you removed them to see if anything is growing behind/inside of them?

I keep reading about people losing 5FC overnight to find out they have a black algae growing behind the light.
Click to expand...

Just a ladder and we do and have been brushing behind it for every brushing.
But when I get back from my business trip I'll pull the ladder and give it a cleaning.
 

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karmabiker said:
Instead of doing the OCLT every night SLAM at night until you suspect you will pass the OCLT. This means wake up every couple of hours (ideally every hour) to test and bring it back up to shock level. If you can't handle the every couple of hours wake up at least once in the middle of the night to test and dose.
Click to expand...

Wish I could do that but I just can't wake up every hour or two for 4-5 days. That means waking up the wife and possibly kids. That's a no-go. If that is what it will take to fix this then I'll either drain it, scrub the entire thing down with bleach and fill it or just fill it in and put up a basketball court :lol:
 
I lose 5 ppm overnight each time for the last five days.
Click to expand...
The inescapable conclusion is that your chlorine continues to oxidize organics in your pool.

Certainly, it would seem to me your overnight loss should subside but there is no other reason your chlorine is being consumed at night.

It is very common for folks new to this accurate testing and dosing (you are being VERY accurate, right? :lol: ) that there must be some particular mystery reason why their pool water is not behaving. There really isn't.....it's organics.

Two things consume chlorine....sunlight and organics in your pool. For our purposes, nothing else.

PS - at your stage, dosing three times daily is perfectly adequate.
 
duraleigh said:
I lose 5 ppm overnight each time for the last five days.
Click to expand...
The inescapable conclusion is that your chlorine continues to oxidize organics in your pool.

Certainly, it would seem to me your overnight loss should subside but there is no other reason your chlorine is being consumed at night.

It is very common for folks new to this accurate testing and dosing (you are being VERY accurate, right? :lol: ) that there must be some particular mystery reason why their pool water is not behaving. There really isn't.....it's organics.

Two things consume chlorine....sunlight and organics in your pool. For our purposes, nothing else.

PS - at your stage, dosing three times daily is perfectly adequate.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
I am a believer - just doing a little double-check with the forum to make sure I'm not missing anything. Pulling the ladder and cleaning it separately would be one of those things I would not have done without this thread.
 
I would try raising your FC to a very aggressive level based on your CYA tonight. Use the CYA/Chlorine chart in pool school.

When you are SLAMing during daylight, you are fighting the solar losses as well as the organic losses. If you were to SLAM tonight, as opposed to OCLT, you would be attacking ONLY the organics as there are no solar losses. If you really want to be aggressive, bump to shock levels at 7:00pm and check again at 9:00pm. If you have FC loss, bump again and check again at 11:00pm for one last bump of FC before bed.
 
What tech guy said ...

By very aggressive i think he means figure your loss then target a level that is your normal target plus the loss donut never drops under target plus a bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
Ok... assuming your CYA is still 30CYA and accurate, this would indicate that the shock ranges is 12 or 13 depending on poolcalc or the chart and that Mustard algae shock is 19.

So,if you were to aim for 16FC tonight and see how it holds during the evening, you would know if you have active organics. It is safe to swim at anything below 13FC for a 30CYA and based on your previous results, if could be that lw over night. If it holds over night, the sun will drive off the extra 3FC pretty quickly with a low CYA.
 
My CYA is 30 worst case.
On the tube I can definitely see the dot when filled to 40 and definitely cannot when filled to 30.
It's halfway between the two when I think it disappears. So, I'm thinking I'm at 35 but I see the tube markings are not linear.
So, since 30's shock level is 12 and 40's is 16, I've been using 14 as my shock level.
 
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