Hey Texas Splash Sorry about that!
thanks for moving my post and creating a new board for me.
Hey everyone. I’m pretty new here. A little background leading up to my problem. My pool is a 26' AG pool, about 10 years old. I've got a 150lb Hayward sand filter mated to a Hayward SP1510-Z pump. It's a 1HP 13.8A single speed pump. Water depth is 44". I'm not sure what else you might need to know about it. I'll get you any information you need. For some reason, I can't update my signature line at the moment, I'll try tomorrow on a different computer.
When I opened my pool my CH and Alkalinity were low. 150 and 100 respectively. These have been bumped up to 250 and 120. That was about 3 weeks ago.
My water is clear. Very clear. It’s only 4’ deep, but I can drop a quarter into the pool and read if it’s head or tails, while standing on the desk around the pool. But I have clumps of Crud settling in the pool. Mostly in the center while the pump runs. Some smaller clumps randomly around. Been lurking around for a while. I finally decided to join after spending close to $400 at a local pool store and still getting the run around what do to next. not they are telling me to replace the pump because it's not "circulating enough water". I got a tad frustrated and said okay, if I spend $700 and replace the pump, if that doesn't fix the problem, can I return it? They told me no. So I bought a test kit, and started learning on this site. Thanks for that!
I’m on day 6 of my SLAM and the Algea I’m fighting has gotten worse. The first 12 hours, it changed from greenish/black to a lighter tan color, but ever since it’s been getting worse, in the quantity amount. (My pool store is still adamant it’s nothing organic and it’s foreign). What I mean, if there used to be small spots around the pool and a concentration in the center. Now there’s slightly less in the center, but much much more all around the pool. I was originally vacuuming it up to waste, for the first couple days, but it’s gotten so much, that I can’t vacuum it all out to waste. I’ve got to vacuum it slow because is dissipates into the water like little waterborne dust bunnies if you go over it too quickly. So I’ve switched to brushing and vacuuming through the filter, otherwise I would have to replace 100’s of gallons of water a day. It literally takes 30 minutes to vacuum the pool otherwise you can see it not vacuum up but shoot up into the water. I’ve been doing this twice a day as needed. The algea only forms on the bottom of the pool. The sides are clean (I scrub them anyway), but the algea is only visable on the bottom.
Just for information I took a sample of the “growth” out of the pool and I put it into a small container with a small amount of straight pool shock (12.5%). The blob turned into what looks like dirty water with lots of little freckles/specs floating. I took another sample and put it in a container with tap water, shock it up, after an hour)it settled back down into what it was looking like in the pool. If you want photos let me know.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. I’m on day 6 of SLAM.
When I started this, 6 days ago my test results were.
Ph 7.5
FC 3.5 / Maybe 4. I added the extra drop, and I swear it got a little clearer. But I don’t know.
CC 0
TA 120
CYA 50
This mornings test results were:
pH 8.2 ( I know this was a waste at such high chlorine levels, but I wanted to check and see if something is way off )
FC 20
CC 1
CYA 60 on the dot
This confused me. I haven’t been checking CYA every day, and when I checked it, I took a sample to the pool store as well for a sanity check, and their results were 59. This seemed very strange, because the liquid shock shouldn’t be adding CYA(please correct me if this is wrong) So I began looking at the pool, and I did find there was a small pool toy from my niece/nephew under the pool stairs, and what looked like 3 or maybe even 4 shock tabs. I’m guessing they fell in either right before I started the slam or right after, because they were pretty well dissolved. But there were clearly 3 of them, maybe a 4th that had dissolved more than the others; I don’t know how I didn’t see them. It’s an above ground pool and there are holes and weighted steps on the stairs and they were inside. Like floating at the top of the underside of the hollow 4 step ladder. I’m thinking this explains most of the 10 point jump in CYA.
Anyway, I used pool math to bump the chlorine up after dark to 26/27 (checked) for the night. I will check again in the morning before the sun rises. I’ve been a little low given the CYA so I’m hoping a little extra helps. Running the pump and all the chlorine is getting expensive; I’m hoping something changes soon!
After 6 days of maintaining a minimum of 20 FC, should I be seeing better results? Is there something else I need to do? I was going to backwash the sand filter tomorrow after I do a morning test. Maybe I’ll even cap it off and try a deep clean. I’ve been vacuuming the accumulation into the filter for 3 or 4 days, and I'm wondering if there junk in there that's preventing filtering. I can take a couple of photo’s of the algea tomorrow and share if that would help?
If FC was attacking the algea, shouldn’t my CC level be higher? I have only gotten 0, 1, or maybe a .5 reading since this started. I’ve used a couple of the Poolife Algea treatment bags from the pool store previously, back before the SLAM. Should I go and get a couple more and add those too, during the SLAM? I’m betting the answer will be no, but I wanted to put it out there.
I'm just not understanding how the amount of Algea has increased. It's been cloudy and it's rained a lot in the past 3 days, I don't know if that matters, but the pool hasn't been getting a lot of sun.
Please help a newbie! I've tried to provide as much information as I have. I know this is a long post, and I thank anyone who makes it through this!
While your situation may appear to be similar to the other poster's issues, it's best we separate them as typically pools do vary either mechanically or chemically. So when you get a moment, update your signature with all of your pool and equipment info (test kit too), then post a full set of water test results. We'll be happy to assist.
