So frustrated...what am I not doing??

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A

Awoodwaring

0
Feb 23, 2013
30
Started June 6. Slammed until vacation (left with clear pool, returned to clear pool) June 14...resumed June 21st.

Yesterday, brought to Mustard Algae shock level (for my cya of 55, that meant going from FC 22 to 32). Last night it looked like I may have had it...no CC. This morning showed a 21% loss in FC and a CC of 1.5

Before vacation, we cleaned behind the lights and in the waterfall area.

I have left the cover off for 2 days to 1) allow sunlight and 2) to make sure it is not contributing to the problem.

Everything is running and has been 24/7 (waterfall and solar). I am dreading my electric bill. The water has been crystal clear for weeks.

I raised the FC to the highest level on the PoolMath calculator.

Am I expecting too much too quickly? What is going on???
 
First, you should really keep,everything in one post rather than starting a new one so folks can see what has happened. The moderators will probably merge them.

My gut feeling is that your CYA is a little higher than you think. You started at 100 and did a 25% water change but then reported 60 CYA. Are you sure of that number? If it is higher you might be too low on your shock level. Your week vacation in the middle also gave the stuff in the water time to recover, so you were really starting a new SLAM after vacation.
 
tim5055 said:
First, you should really keep,everything in one post rather than starting a new one so folks can see what has happened. The moderators will probably merge them.

My gut feeling is that your CYA is a little higher than you think. You started at 100 and did a 25% water change but then reported 60 CYA. Are you sure of that number? If it is higher you might be too low on your shock level. Your week vacation in the middle also,gave the stuff in the water time to recover, so,you were really starting a new SLAM after vacation.
Click to expand...

I wasn't sure, so I retested and then made my husband retest...we both came up with 55, so I have been using that number. I didn't know about the coffee filter the first time, so maybe that influenced my first reading? I also suspect we are just shy of 30k gallons.

My husband just rechecked everything again and we have:

Cya 50 (independently checked by husband and I, we did vacuum when cleaning lights and waterfall)
Ph 7.7
Alkalinity 100
Calcium 290
 
The water needs to be really really swampy for the coffee filter to make any difference for the CYA test.

If you the water directly in the tube and it looks clear, then the test is fine without pre filtering.
 
timerguy said:
Coffee filter??? What am I missing???
Click to expand...

Apparently, dirty water can cloud the results (literally) when testing for your cya.

- - - Updated - - -

jblizzle said:
The water needs to be really really swampy for the coffee filter to make any difference for the CYA test.

If you the water directly in the tube and it looks clear, then the test is fine without pre filtering.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it was the cloudy water that gave a high cya reading the first time, or maybe we just drained more than I planned.
 

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When you test for CYA do you hold the test tube at your waistline? You are not suppose to bring it up to your face to try and see the black dot. A CC greater than could only mean 1 thing...SLAM.

You mentioned you slammed while you were on vacation. How can you check your levels if you are gone? I hope you did not use pucks to SLAM.
 
consoleman said:
When you test for CYA do you hold the test tube at your waistline? You are not suppose to bring it up to your face to try and see the black dot. A CC greater than could only mean 1 thing...SLAM.

You mentioned you slammed while you were on vacation. How can you check your levels if you are gone? I hope you did not use pucks to SLAM.
Click to expand...


I slammed before and after vacation, not during (just had house sitter add 2 c chlorine every day).

Redid test at waistline....I came up with a cya of 60 and husband came up with 55 (he has much better vision than I do!). I would trust his 55 over my 60.
 
Awoodwaring said:
Redid test at waistline....I came up with a cya of 60 and husband came up with 55 (he has much better vision than I do!). I would trust his 55 over my 60.
Click to expand...
Boy don't I understand the vision thing!

There really is no 55, CYA is read to the closest number. If you look at the scale it's not linear, the distances change as you get higher, so half way between 50 & 60 is probably not 55. For a SLAM using the higher number means using a little more bleach, but it won't hurt anything and may help.

Only three things cause the FC reading to go down:
* Sunlight/UV
* Organics being oxidized
* Testing error

You have a good grasp on the testing, so we can discount the testing error. The FC loss seems way to high to be a UV loss only, so that leaves us with organics. The CC reading supports this.

The only solution is continuing the SLAM.

Test FC and adjust to your shock level as often as possible. Don't let it drop. Twice a day is minimum, but 48 times a day is the absolute best. Somewhere between those two numbers is one that you can keep up with. The more often the better.

Others have reported SLAMs taking as long or longer. Just keep up the fight.
 
tim5055 said:
Boy don't I understand the vision thing!

There really is no 55, CYA is read to the closest number. If you look at the scale it's not linear, the distances change as you get higher, so half way between 50 & 60 is probably not 55. For a SLAM using the higher number means using a little more bleach, but it won't hurt anything and may help.

Only three things cause the FC reading to go down:
* Sunlight/UV
* Organics being oxidized
* Testing error

You have a good grasp on the testing, so we can discount the testing error. The FC loss seems way to high to be a UV loss only, so that leaves us with organics. The CC reading supports this.

The only solution is continuing the SLAM.

Test FC and adjust to your shock level as often as possible. Don't let it drop. Twice a day is minimum, but 48 times a day is the absolute best. Somewhere between those two numbers is one that you can keep up with. The more often the better.

Others have reported SLAMs taking as long or longer. Just keep up the fight.
Click to expand...

Sounds good...I will keep slamming. Just needed to know if I was doing everything correctly. Geez this takes a long time (and, yes, I am impatient)!
 
consoleman said:
What you using to add chlorine?
Click to expand...

Mostly, I pour straight from the container (I am pretty good at eyeballing). This last week since being back from vacation, I started using a hard, plastic measuring cup from the kitchen for the partial measurements. I pour around the pool, mostly in front of the returns. Then, I brush. I rinse the measuring cup in the pool, and let dry upside down on the chlorine container.
 
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