10 years into it, and just now trying TFP Method to fix the swamp

[Luclin999]

Day Two:

Last Pre-SLAM picture.

Note the handle on my leaf rake. It broke under the strain of lifting out all of the nasty leaf/sludge/goo from the deep end when I was getting that stuff out last week.

 

[timerguy]

Guess you'll need a more substantial pole!

 

[Luclin999]

Guess you'll need a more substantial pole!

Hopefully, I won't have that kind of mess to pull out of there again..


About an hour and a half after the first borax addition and I am not seeing any real change in the PH, so I am adding the next batch.

That 20 mule team has got its work cut out for it today..

 

[Butterfly]

Be sure to give TA # in PoolMath for correct calc of dose for pH.

 

[Luclin999]

Be sure to give TA # in PoolMath for correct calc of dose for pH.

I did. It gave me a result of adding 8.5 pounds of Borax to the pool. I have just been adding them in one box at a time.

 

[Beens]

Welcome to TFP!

I am going to lurk on this thread because I love these! I can't wait to see the end result and you finally getting to enjoy that pool instead of having nightmares about it!

So glad you found us.

 

[Luclin999]

Took an "early" reading for PH just now and it came back 7.3 which is a good sign but will wait another 45 minutes for the last batch of Borax to thoroughly mix and read it again before I consider it accurate.

 

[Luclin999]

Tested again and PH is now at 7.5.

Time to add some bleach!

 

[Luclin999]

Added three jugs of bleach to the pool a little over half an hour ago and the rising of the undead leaves has already begun...

They are slowly floating up from the murk to the surface about as fast as I can nab them with my leaf skimmer... Heck as fast as they are appearing I may need the leaf rake!

Looks like I am going to have a busy afternoon.

 

[lynzizzle]

Wait so when you add the bleach, it makes the gunk rise????

- - - Updated - - -

I can't wait to get my test kit so I can get started on my cesspool!

 

[Luclin999]

Wait so when you add the bleach, it makes the gunk rise????

As I understand it, the chlorine hits the organic matter (leaves, Grass, etc.) and begins immediately breaking the matter down through oxidation. A side effect of this process is that a thin (almost microscopic) film of oxygen bubbles can form on the surface of the leaves and that is what pushes them to the surface.

As a side note, if you knock the leaf around but fail to catch it in your net it will almost always start to sink back down to the bottom due to having had that film of oxygen disrupted from the impact with the leaf skimmer. Good news is that it will probably float back up to the surface once another coating of oxygen forms on it.

 

[lynzizzle]

Hrmmmm ... I'm still waiting on my test kit so that I can start the SLAM. So why didn't this happen when the pool company dumped a bunch of shock/chlorine in my pool? Also, are you home all day doing the SLAM or do you work full time. I know it's ideal to be home for 3 days straight to get the SLAM going in full force but I work FT so it will be almost impossible for me to be home 3 days straight.

 

[Luclin999]

I work from home so I can generally take 10-15 minutes each hour or so to go out and dabble with the chemistry and leaf skimming.

If you have a bunch of debris still in the pool, the only reason why I can think of that the pool company's shock didn't effect it like this would be if the CYA level is so high that they didn't add enough chlorine to the pool to be able to initiate a vigorous enough chemical reaction to the organic matter to cause this degree of oxidation.

It takes a fast reaction to cause the leaves to be coated thoroughly with enough of an oxygen film to be able to float. Too little and the organics will just slowly "smoulder" in the pool bottom until they have burnt out all of the free chlorine.

Latest results:

FC: 19
CC: 6

 

[karmabiker]

High likelihood on the cya and lynzizzle's pool

 

[Beens]

Luclin, I'm impressed with your knowledge! I had the creepy floating leaves when I started but I never knew about the bubbles!

 

[Luclin999]

Been chasing the undead leaves all day and cleaning out the slime from the nylon lined skimmer basket (yuck).

FC: 16
CC: 6+

Adding another jug of bleach now to push the FC back up.

 

[Luclin999]

Brushed the pool, spent about another 30 minutes chasing down random leaves and dirt that came floating up and backwashed the filter. Added another bottle of bleach and the FC is now at 28.

Going to bed.

 

[karmabiker]

Pictures?

 

[Luclin999]

Start of day three:

It may not look like it from the picture above but there has actually been some improvement over the past 40 hours or so..

This is just before the SLAM began:

And this is this morning:

Not only is the first step clearer but the faint outline of the 2nd can now be seen as well.

And here is what it has taken to get to where we are now:

I've only had to backwash twice so far (probably due to all the crud being caught in the nylon I have over the skimmer basket) but will probably have to again in a few hours.

FC: 5 (huge overnight drop) so time to add more bleach!

 

[northrn]

awesome documentation! thank you!