Algae keeps coming back after SLAM

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djdonte said:
Could be the case. I wish I could test and add more often but unfortunately I must work all day to pay for things like this pool.
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I understand. In the future, which hopefully you never have to SLAM again, don't go so high over SLAM FC. A couple ppm FC, OK. But it really does no good to go so high. The majority of it is burned off by the sun very quickly. As long as your FC is above minimum, it is killing algae, just not as fast as if it was at SLAM level.
 
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Cleaned my vial out with alcohol. Ran all my tests and got 23.5 FC 0.5 CC with the old CC reagent. Did the whole test again with the newer reagent and got 1.5 so yeah doesn’t make much sense. Think everything is out of whack with the massive amount of chlorine I’ve been dosing.

I put two gallons in before I went to work and it was cloudy all day so started the day with over 40 FC. I did find a tiny bit of algae on my light gasket when I went to install it. I cleaned it out of the pool with a strong bleach solution and toothbrush before reinstalling it. Running the pool for a few more hours to circulate anything I stirred up with the light niche, before going back to 8 hours a day. I noticed the filter pressure went up slightly for the first time in the slam so I’ll clean them tomorrow.

But otherwise I hope I’m done. Going to let everything drift back down to 8-10 FC and retest everything, and put my MX8 back in. After that I’ll see what my consumption is during the day before possibly running a few pucks thru for CYA if needed.

Thanks for your continued help guys. The spool is absolutely sparking.. so clear you can now see how bad my plaster is haha but no worries.
 
djdonte said:
Cleaned my vial out with alcohol. Ran all my tests and got 23.5 FC 0.5 CC with the old CC reagent. Did the whole test again with the newer reagent and got 1.5 so yeah doesn’t make much sense. Think everything is out of whack with the massive amount of chlorine I’ve been dosing.
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To me... I think your CYA might be higher then estimated?
  • Is the old reagent:
    • expired?
    • stored in warm temps/outside?
    • staining the bottle?
djdonte said:
I put two gallons in before I went to work and it was cloudy all day so started the day with over 40 FC. I did find a tiny bit of algae on my light gasket when I went to install it. I cleaned it out of the pool with a strong bleach solution and toothbrush before reinstalling it. Running the pool for a few more hours to circulate anything I stirred up with the light niche, before going back to 8 hours a day. I noticed the filter pressure went up slightly for the first time in the slam so I’ll clean them tomorrow.
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Have you not run the pump/filter 24/7 during the SLAM Process? If it went up, then you are finally starting to "beat" what might be in the water

djdonte said:
But otherwise I hope I’m done. Going to let everything drift back down to 8-10 FC and retest everything, and put my MX8 back in. After that I’ll see what my consumption is during the day before possibly running a few pucks thru for CYA if needed.
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My suggestion would be, not to up the CYA.

djdonte said:
Thanks for your continued help guys. The spool is absolutely sparking.. so clear you can now see how bad my plaster is haha but no worries.
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Can you post a picture with sunlight on the pool? For inspiration
https://imgur.com/a/5GTVT
(compare out: clear pool with .5CC vs buddies 'clear' pool)
 
My CYA reagent refill is new and I store my test kit indoors. Maybe you misunderstood me but I ran the pump 24/7 for over a week straight during the slam. I will post a picture when the weather is better. Not much sunlight forecasted for today.
 
djdonte said:
My CYA reagent refill is new and I store my test kit indoors. Maybe you misunderstood me but I ran the pump 24/7 for over a week straight during the slam. I will post a picture when the weather is better. Not much sunlight forecasted for today.
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I meant the FAS-DPD reagents :) Sorry! If the R-0870 is chunky and either is over 2yrs old, they might be "bad".

:D I did misunderstand on the pump run time. Glad to hear it! I also thought the cloudy reference was the pool water *doh* I wasn't thinking of the weather/clouds (looks out window)....

Looking forward to a pic, ugh we have no sun here either :(
 
Yes the powder reagent was getting towards the bottom so it was big crystals I was having trouble dissolving. I did replace that, as well as the titrating agent since I was running low. Lastly I replaced the r0003 just to rule anything out but results didn’t really change. I keep everything in the house near the kitchen sink, I have one good light over the sink I turn on that helps me with testing. I want to get a speed stir soon too. The sun is peaking out so we’ll see!!
 
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djdonte said:
Yes the powder reagent was getting towards the bottom so it was big crystals I was having trouble dissolving. I did replace that, as well as the titrating agent since I was running low. Lastly I replaced the r0003 just to rule anything out but results didn’t really change. I keep everything in the house near the kitchen sink, I have one good light over the sink I turn on that helps me with testing. I want to get a speed stir soon too. The sun is peaking out so we’ll see!!
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A SpeedStir is awesome! The best price is hard to find right now!
 

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Just an update. After all the sun I am down to 11FC and 0.5 CC... not sure if the CC doesn’t read right at high FC levels or what?
 
mknauss said:
When you do the CYA test, try this next time.

Once you have your solution ready, back to the sun, etc. Fill the vial to a line, say 80, lower the vial to your waist level and glance for the dot, you see it, add solution to the 70 line, glance, see it, repeat until you no longer see it with a glance. Then use the CYA value one step above the line you read. So if you stopped at 50, use 60 ppm CYA.

The vial is in logarithmic scale. So it is not viable to interpolate between the lines. Just use the whole numbers, such as 50, 40, 30, ....

Try 40 ppm CYA. If your FC consumption is greater than 3 ppm per day, bump that to 50 ppm CYA.
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Marty's method is the only way that works for me and I find it's very repeatable.
 
Yes I agree. I wasted money and reagent on that blue devil test kit but Marty had it right on the money with his method. My CYA was way lower than I thought.

An update to my original post: We recently had historic rainfall and flooding here so my pool got all out of whack. My area got as much rain as Hurricane Harvey but in 4 hours instead of 4 days! When the weather passed, I had to drain some water out of my nearly overflowed pool, drained too much, then filled back up. After all was said and done, I had 2.5 FC and pretty much no measurable CYA. Got the FC back up quick but the sun is eating it now, so I am back to using pucks until my CYA is back where I need it. No algae or CC to speak of though... I think I got it all with that last slam! With my 320 full of 5 trichlor pucks and the highest setting of 5, I am able to hold 5-6 FC. Cheers!
 
Good for you glad to hear you're OK! Those pucks also come in handy for vacation. Just make sure you leave a little room for the CYA to rise while you are away. pH is also Maintained better so you don't need somebody to check.

Good look!

Chris
 
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