Help me with my swamp!

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charcharkitty

charcharkitty

0
Jun 10, 2014
10
Stilwell, ks
Hello, I am in need of some help with my above ground pool. My fiancé and I bought a foreclosure home with an above ground swamp. There was a tarp that barely covered the top. When we took it off, it looked like there is about 2 years’ worth of leaves at the bottom. We have done our very best to clean out as much leaves as possible, without being able to see the bottom of the pool. It seems to be a never ending process. I bought a leaf eater to help. We have replaced the filter and have had the pump running with no problems for a few weeks. I bought a Taylor k2006 testing kit. My results as of today at 4:00pm are …
FC 0
CC 0
PH 8.0
TA 60
CYA 50
I need your help with what step I should take next. I think I am close to slamming it but I believe I need to get my PH down first? To do this PoolMath is telling me to add 90oz of backing soda and 9.9oz of muriatic acid. Does this sound correct? I am open to any advice. I am very new to the pool world and any help would be greatly appreciated. I have read pool school over and over and ordered my kit. I’m ready to do this!!
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:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

You are off to a good start :goodjob:

You are right you need to follow the ShockLevelAndMAINTAIN Process and first you should lower the pH. There is no need to adjust the TA at this point. Just set it in the NOW column and forget about the target.

You should order refills for the CYA (R-0013) and FAS-DPD (R-0870 and R-0871) tests NOW, because you will certainly run out before you finish the SLAM.
 
Exactly what jblizzle said. Get more regents before you start. If you run out before your pool is clean, it wil not be a good situation at all.

Your CYA of 50 is ok for maintenance. What I am going ot mention is not required, but may help the process time line.
If your water is not very expensive, you might consider drainig half the pool and refill. It will remove half the junk that needs cleaned to start with. It will also cut your CYA to 25 and save a lot on the amount of bleach required to get you in good shape.

If you dont want to or cant drain half and refill, thats ok. It will just take longer and will use quite a bit more chlorine to fix you up.

The baking soda is for TA. You wont need to fool with that until much later after the slam.
 
Are you using PoolMath? With a volume set to 12800 gallons and the pH NOW at 8 and the TARGET at 7.2 with the TA NOW at 60 ... it says you need 68 oz of 31% muriatic acid. No idea where you got only 18 oz.

So, go put about 1/2 gallon in the pool, circulate for 30 minutes and retest. If you need to adjust more, use PoolMath to calculate how much to use.

Once that is set, get to SLAMing!!!! No need to wait a day between all the adjustments.
 
I was having a hard time getting my PH down using poolmath so I decided to measure my pool again. Turns out I was off by 4,000 gallons! A little embarrassing to say. Now that I figured that out, my ph is in balance. I finally started to SLAM last night. I've been checking my FC and CC every hour. My target FC is 16 but I still haven't hit it yet. My last test results are...
FC 7
CC 1.5
PH 7.4
TA 60
CYA 40
 
My target FC is 16 but I still haven't hit it yet.
Click to expand...
That FC of 16 is not some "hope for" goal but rather a hard number that you need to get to....now.

You are not SLAMing your pool until you make the decision to put enough chlorine to get to that target and then hold it there. Use Pool math and it will tell you how much you need.

I am going to sound very abrupt but I will bet you you will be unable to maintain your FC of 16. You are being tentative instead of following the very precise directions on how to SLAM a pool found in pool school. Here they are again....http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl

Once you make the commitment to follow these directions, you will get your pool clear. If you play pattycake with the algae, you will have a green summer.
 
Well shoot, I though I was being tentative by checking every hour and using poolmath. Im not sure what else I can do but read the SLAM article again and try to find where I am making errors. My last results were
FC 13.5
CC 1.5
CYA 40
PH 7.4
Thanks for the help guys. Im really trying my hardest. I'll put up some update pictures soon.
 

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You can do it! You are on the right track with the good test kit!

Now get that FC up to 16 and do your best to keep it there. That is the only thing that is going to eat all of the green.

It can be done and you are on your way!

Kim
 
Hi Charkitty,

you arent making errors. What's happeing is that the FC is being killed while fighting the algae. WIth as much algae as is in your pool, that is happening very very very quickly. Thats why your fC measurements are lower. than you expect. You have to hit it and hit it hard and strong and often with chlorine and dont let up!! As time goes on and the more algae that gets killed off, it will be easier to keep the FC at SLAM. The first couple of days are tough.

charcharkitty said:
Well shoot, I though I was being tentative by checking every hour and using poolmath. Im not sure what else I can do but read the SLAM article again and try to find where I am making errors. My last results were
FC 13.5
CC 1.5
CYA 40
PH 7.4
Thanks for the help guys. Im really trying my hardest. I'll put up some update pictures soon.
Click to expand...
 
Keep SLAM'ing the pool. MAINTAIN. MAINTAIN. MAINTAIN. :goodjob:
 
Hey all! I'm still seeing big improvements and loosing less FC everyday. I'm trying to upload update pictures but it keeps failing? Anyways, I had to add someone water after backwashing and vacuuming. My CYA is super low -40. Should I add stabilizer during the SLAM?
 

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