pH over 45? Is that even possible?

[smhill]

I can't take credit for catching on. This forum is a great resource, and smallpooldad held virtually held my hand last summer!

I just checked the chlorine level. It is 10.5, so I dropped a little during the day. I am tempted to raise it back to 13. Would that be a bad idea?

 

[Smykowski]

That would definitely be a good idea. The purpose of the SLAM is to "maintain" the FC level. So if it drops, dose to bring it back.

 

[smhill]

Thank you for getting back with me so quickly. I just added the bleach. I will post numbers and photos in the am.

 

[smhill]

Chlorine is 14.5 this morning. The color doesn't appear to be any better. Here are this morning's photos.

I feel like I am getting nowhere. I have rubbed my hand on the walls. Fortunately, nothing comes off. I think I have the vast majority of the junk (grass, leaves, branches) out. I will clean the cartridges again shortly. Should I vac today? I don't appear to be getting anything out when I do. It seems like I would be better off just cleaning the cartridges more than once a day than to vac on waste, add water, add bleach, and vac on waste again the next day. Am I wrong?

 

[duraleigh]

The psi increase of 25% on you filter should tell you the best time to clean cartridges. Are you watching it? Is it climbing?

From the original picture, your pool was a nasty, yucky mess. It didn't get that way overnight so it will take some time to clean it up. Have you brought your chlorine back up? Do you still have zero CYA in the pool?

 

[Richard320]

Chlorine is 14.5 this morning. The color doesn't appear to be any better. Here are this morning's photos.

I feel like I am getting nowhere. I have rubbed my hand on the walls. Fortunately, nothing comes off. I think I have the vast majority of the junk (grass, leaves, branches) out. I will clean the cartridges again shortly. Should I vac today? I don't appear to be getting anything out when I do. It seems like I would be better off just cleaning the cartridges more than once a day than to vac on waste, add water, add bleach, and vac on waste again the next day. Am I wrong?

It's only been a couple days. With a murky mess like you had, I wouldn't expect too much visible change for a few days. You're looking at the cloudiness. Think of your CYA test, also cloudiness. The difference between 100 parts of junk and 90 parts of junk is hardly anything. But to get from 40 to 30 is a huge improvement. So it is with your pool. You might have already removed half the junk from the water, but it's just not visible to the naked eye.

As far as filter cleaning, there's no real advantage to cleaning it before the pressure goes up 25% or you notice a reduction in the return flow. And if there's nothing on the bottom to vacuum up, don't vacuum. But do keep brushing, so the stuff stays in suspension so the filter can grab it.

 

[smhill]

Ok. That makes sense. No, I haven't had a 25% increase, and my returns are still moving water well. I have not checked the CYA again. I am sure it is at or near zero because of the rain and vac to waste and subsequent water addition.

I will keep brushing and keeping the chlorine levels up. Thank you for the advice!

 

[duraleigh]

Trying to SLAM a pool with zero CYA is difficult because the sun depletes your FC so quickly.

If that was my pool and my SLAM, I would bring the CYA up to 30 ppm immediately and then start dosing FC immediately to 12-14 ppm.

 

[smhill]

We are forecasted to get 5" of rain in the next few days. My pool will spill over. With all that water coming, should I still start the CYA additions?

 

[JasonLion]

Losing a little overflow water will take some of the chemicals you add along with. Still, 5" really isn't all that much water compared to all the water in the pool. You won't lose more than perhaps 1/8th of what you add now, and probably less than half that much.

 

[smhill]

Ok. CYA will start going in then. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Casey]

You need the CYA to protect your chlorine from the sun.

 

[smhill]

Update:
I appeared to be getting nowhere during the shock process. I had my FC over 20, my CYA was 80, and I was cleaning my cartridges when my pressure went up 25%. The pool was dipped until there was nothing left. I had no visible algae growth, but I just didn't seem to be going anywhere very fast. I did have a nonstop flow of cottonwood seeds and cotton dropping into the pool. It was so thick that the seeds were bursting open and sprouting in the water!

All this time, I never turned the pump off unless it was to clean the cartridges. I kept my chlorine at shock level. Finally, once the cotton stopped dropping and I had the seeds and cotton out of the pool, I started to get that greenish/aqua color. I was still really cloudy though.

A friend reminded me that I probably had phosphates in my pool from my neighbors' yards washing down the hill and into my pool. I even had oil wash in there this spring from someone's yard up the hill! I finally hit the pool with the Revive. I turned the pump off and let it drop for 5 days. I vac'd to waste yesterday. I finally saw the deep end this morning. I have very little in the way of organic junk left in the pool.

I checked my FC and CYA this morning. My FC was 6 and My CYA was 60. I added water, turned the pump back on, and added 2 gallons of 8.25% bleach to bring it back up to shock level. Then I brushed it just to be quite thorough about this whole thing. I have added new pictures, taken today, to my Photobucket album. I'm still a little cloudy. I plan to vac again this evening, test my FC, adjust if necessary and check again. Then I'll check it in the morning to see what kind of loss I have.

As you can see in one of the pictures, I have a lot of staining. It ranges from rust colored to a purplish color all over the pool. So disheartening to see. Smallpooldad walked me through a process that he used with iron staining in his pool. The stains were removed and I had a brand new looking pool. Unfortunately, I forgot that I was supposed to keep the sequestrant in the pool and the stains reappeared. UGH!

I sure would appreciate any feedback on what I have done and what I need to do to get this pool straightened out so we can swim. Thanks for your continued help!

 

[smhill]

No chlorine loss overnight! I have a bit of cloudiness, but I am assuming that is a result of the low CH. I will start to balance chemicals now. Is there a particular order that I should follow on my chemical additions?

Here are this morning's results:
FC 16.5
pH 7.2
TA 80
CH 90
CYA 55

 

[Richard320]

No chlorine loss overnight! I have a bit of cloudiness, but I am assuming that is a result of the low CH. I will start to balance chemicals now. Is there a particular order that I should follow on my chemical additions?

Here are this morning's results:
FC 16.5
pH 7.2
TA 80
CH 90
CYA 55

Your pH reading is probably wrong with the FC so high. Don't fiddle with it.

No overnight loss is but one of the three tests to stop the SLAM. The other two are clear water and no CC. You don;t have clear water yet. What about the CC level?

 

[smhill]

Dangit! I forgot about that. CC 1

Couldn't my slight cloudiness be from the low CH though?

 

[Richard320]

Dangit! I forgot about that. CC 1

Couldn't my slight cloudiness be from the low CH though?

No. High CH will cause cloudiness with the right (or should I say wrong) levels of TA and pH.

Cloudiness at the end of a SLAM is almost certainly dead bleached algae carcasses.

 

[smhill]

What do you recommend I do now?

 

[smhill]

What do I do to get rid of the dead algae carcasses? If my CC 1 one and I'm still cloudy, but I had no overnight FC loss, I am unsure what I need to do now. I sure don't want to make a mistake.

 

[dschlic1]

You might try adding some polyquat 60 algaecide. The polymer base in this algaecide will help clean up suspended particles.