Aqua color

[Mickey383]

Chances are, you didn't undershoot by 6 ppm. We like confirmation and all, but that's a huge drop.

Cloudy water is a fail and a one way ticket to SLAM anyway. We don't need multiple fails such as cloudy water and a properly executed and failed OCLT.

Stay the course. Keep us posted.

Just tested the water at 9 am
Everything was the same however TC and FC dropped to 6ppm.

Added sodium bisulfate to lower alkalinity around 915. I'll check it at 930/945 then go from there

 

[wireform]

Forget your TC. All you need to do now is FC. Slam wait 10 minutes check again and if it dropped bring it back to slam level per poolmath. Rinse and repeat until it holds once to the slam level then you can wait 2 hours and check again. If it drops then as per poolmath bring back the FC to the slam level. Overshooting is not necessary.

 

[Newdude]

Forget TC in general. Lol. Tell us 1+5 or 5+1. Telling us 6 means nothing.

Added sodium bisulfate

Once it's used up, switch to muriatic acid going forward. The sulfates in the dry acid are no bueno.

 

[Mickey383]

July 4th 845 pm

Cya 40, fc 19,cc 0.5 ( fc was to be 16, it was higher)
July 5th 720 am
Cya 40, fc 19, cc 0.5

Pool appears light tint of green and cloudy.
Also after putting in liquid chlorine steps always show presence of brownish flakes next morning. They brush off easily.
So the missing item from SLAM is clear water. Been here before. I just keep my levels above 16, and keep going?

 

[Newdude]

I just keep my levels above 16, and keep going?

Yup. No need to overshoot. The SLAM target was calculated for efficiency and going over doesn't help to the extent everyone thinks it does.

Brush and vac daily, at least once.

Scour and clean every inch that algae could be hiding in plain sight like the skimmer and the inside of the stairs.

 

[Mickey383]

Yup. No need to overshoot. The SLAM target was calculated for efficiency and going over doesn't help to the extent everyone thinks it does.

Brush and vac daily, at least once.

Scour and clean every inch that algae could be hiding in plain sight like the skimmer and the inside of the stairs.

Thank you. I did a large scouring yesterday though the skimmer could always use more help. I'll check it every 2 hours today to see where the FC is at and add more if it drops below 16.

 

[wireform]

Incase your also doing the CYA test it's not necessary but I'm assuming your only mentioning it to show correlation between the two. Keep an eye on filter psi and backwash with a rise of 25% rise in pressure from your known clean psi reading. If you can babysit the filter you may want to try adding de to your sand filter but you need to watch the pressure as it will rise rapidly as it catches the smaller stuff.

 

[Mickey383]

Incase your also doing the CYA test it's not necessary but I'm assuming your only mentioning it to show correlation between the two. Keep an eye on filter psi and backwash with a rise of 25% rise in pressure from your known clean psi reading. If you can babysit the filter you may want to try adding de to your sand filter but you need to watch the pressure as it will rise rapidly as it catches the smaller stuff.

I only have a test strip to measure Cya. Will do on the filter. Not sure I can get my hands on the DE but I'll look into it

 

[wireform]

I suspect you may have a CYA higher then you think as test strips are unreliable at best.

 

[Mickey383]

Well.. that will not be good. That said the strip measures 30 to 50 , I'm using 40 for the computation. I've never seen it higher on the strip but have seen it at 0.

 

[wireform]

You I need a real kit as guessing strips will get you what you have.

 

[Mickey383]

I have a real kit for the chlorine

 

[Newdude]

The whole shebang relies on a reliable CYA reading. If the CYA is particularly higher than the test strip, you'll be gifted a swamp. If the CYA is particularly lower than the test strip, you risk bleaching the liner.

0 / 20 to 50 / 100 / 200 / 300+ doesn't tell you squat.

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) Test Kit

tftestkits.net

 

[Mickey383]

The whole shebang relies on a reliable CYA reading. If the CYA is particularly higher than the test strip, you'll be gifted a swamp. If the CYA is particularly lower than the test strip, you risk bleaching the liner.

0 / 20 to 50 / 100 / 200 / 300+ doesn't tell you squat.

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) Test Kit

tftestkits.net

So if every test strip says it's 30 to 40, why is that not reliable. I understand if it's 30 vs 60 but it's not. It's an allowable difference of 10. Believe me I understand the reagents are better but I dint have one. I'll get one but time is a factor too. If test strips are Crud then it's amazing that they're used so often. I understand they won't tell you 30 vs 35 but they're not going to say 30 vs 100. I get that more accurate results are better but to act like the strip and tons of readings on them being the same are Crud is a bit much.

 

[Newdude]

If test strips are Crud.

They start degrading the minute you break the seal on the new bottle and many keep the bottle for 2 seasons.

The colors change over the first minute. Which one was it ?

*if* the right color even narrowed it down.

So if every test strip says it's 30 to 40, why is that not reliable.

Because scroll down to the bottom of the page and see 358k members over 17 years. Members have shown thousands and thousands of times that test strips are wrong more often then they're not.

It's up to you if you choose to listen to the conventional wisdom.

. I understand they won't tell you 30 vs 35 but they're not going to say 30 vs 100.

Oh yes they will. Not everytime, for every member, but plenty often enough that none of them are trustable. Not with the most important test value you have.

Read up. Search and find as many real world members stories as you need to see. It's literally here thousands of times.

I get that more accurate results are better but to act like the strip and tons of readings on them being the same are Crud is a bit much.

We can damage your pool with bad data. That would be on us because we've seen your exact story play out thousands of times. But again. Up to you if you choose to listen to all those who came before you.

I'll get one but time is a factor too

Order it up. If it takes 4 days, you'll be no worse off than you would have been anyway for the next 4 days.

 

[Donldson]

So if every test strip says it's 30 to 40, why is that not reliable.

Well we just had someone who pointed out that all their test strips said their CYA was low, but when they finally got their test kit it showed their CYA was over 70.

Or the other one today that showed their CYA was over 150 despite only having had their pool a couple weeks. Very unlikely for that to happen.

Of course there's the many examples where they have shown 50+ CYA in a fresh fill, which always has zero CYA.

I'd say that's pretty indicative that they are junk. They're dirt cheap and you get what you pay for.

 

[wireform]

I had a new customer telling me his guess strip showed 7.8 PH but then on my very first test with his pool he had 6.6 because he was treating himself for high PH.