Am I on the right track?

[jrmacleod]

Hi, we put in a pool last year, 7096 gallons 12x22 x 48in rectangular soft sided Coleman. It has been wonderful.

Upsized my pump to an Intex that puts 40 gal/min through and 16 inch sand pump to go with it. Turns the water over every 4-5 hrs and I run it 24/7. Works great.

I didn't know much last year so went with EZ Pool with excellent results. Crystal clear water all summer long with heavy usage.

Bought more EZ Pool anticipating this season spent $465 CAD on a 20 lb bucket, yikes.

Then discovered these forums as I needed to deal with black and green algae at startup this year, so started with the SLAM process and using the pool math app, following all the advice.

It is working... Pool going from black to green to green tint...but still not crystal clear blue after 5 full days.

Link to photos and video album here of progress:

Pool Opening 2020

6 new items · Album by Justin MacLeod

photos.app.goo.gl

The one thing I'm missing is Taylor K-2006 kit or TF100 which I can't get in Canada. And to order a Taylor will take a few weeks to arrive... So I've been using Aquachek test strips which say...

FC 10 (my SLAM level I'm keeping at)
PH 7.0 but really hard to read strips
ALK 120-140
CYN 20

Before I found out on forums, pool store sold me and advised to up the ALK with 4kg...I see now I should not have done this.

I put in also stabilizer yesterday to increase CYN to 45 but it doesn't register higher in test strips yet. I poured stabilizer in slow rather than the sock method which I read about on here after the fact.

I guess my question is ... Pool is still tinted green, seems to be not going to clear crisp blue yet... Do I just keep doing what I'm doing and need to be patient? Or should I be doing something else?

Thanks!

 

[IceShadow]

It’s hard to say. Without a good test kit you’re kind of flying blind. It’s hard to advise because we could be giving you the wrong advice.

 

[Mdragger88]

Ez pool has copper in it - one of the only ingredients it lists as all the others are “trade secret”. I definitely don’t advise putting anymore of that in your pool. Can u return it? Or exchange it for liquid chlorine? We don’t recommend adding anything to your water when you don’t know what’s in it or without testing first. You really are flying blind while waiting for your test kit as strips are wildly inaccurate & definitely don’t go high enough to test FC levels for a Cya of 40 or 50 during SLAM Process. To avoid wasting chlorine or risking damage to your pool I suggest adding 5 ppm of liquid chlorine daily until your kit arrives. When that comes post your results here & we can give further guidance. While u wait here’s some reading ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry