Hello all, it's been quite some time since I posted here, and I attribute that to the excellent education and pool chemistry practices that I learned here some years ago. But now I have what I hope is a small problem.
Like many other posters, I have spots of algae here and there around the pool. They tend to be in the deep end, either on the walls or the hopper, though sometimes they occur on the walls across from the returns, on the shallow end. The pool water is crystal clear, and I've not had any CCs. I have played with the positioning of the returns a bit but that doesn't seem to make a difference
(maddeningly, they are on the same side of the pool as the skimmer. They return across the short width of the pool, north to south, and the prevailing wind is west to east. At least they are west of the skimmer!).
I decided to start a SLAM yesterday (guests coming this weekend). Prior to the SLAM, I vac'ed, and brushed. I was in the pool and also brushed along the water line up to the beading under the coping, the ladder rails and treads on the deep end, the underside of those treads, the wall behind the ladder, all around the underwater light housing, around the skimmer intake, and the "frame" around the entry steps into the pool.
CYA at the time was 40, TA 70, pH 7.5. I added bleach to reach SLAM level according to pool math, but testing an hour later, FC was 28! Well I can't do anything about that, so... this morning FC was 18. And there was a bit of a chlorine smell, which puzzled me because other articles here say that is due to chloramines, and my CC reading is consistenly 0. And I didn't detect this odor prior to the start of the SLAM.
Around noon, FC was 13, so I added bleach to get to 18. Around 5:30 PM, FC was 11, so again, I added bleach based on pool math. There was again, a slight whiff of chlorine. I am vac'ing and brushing and will test again in a bit. During the day today, some of the algae did return. Pressure on filter doesn't indicate it's time for a backwash (I did that a couple weeks ago), though it might not be a bad idea to do it again.
I will check again in a bit and top off if needed and of course check tomorrow AM. Just curious about these slight anomalies.
Also, I have a variable speed pump, and I'm wondering if I should be running it on a higher speed (currently on 2 of 4). I am running it half skimmer/half drain.
Any comments or adjustments are welcome!
Like many other posters, I have spots of algae here and there around the pool. They tend to be in the deep end, either on the walls or the hopper, though sometimes they occur on the walls across from the returns, on the shallow end. The pool water is crystal clear, and I've not had any CCs. I have played with the positioning of the returns a bit but that doesn't seem to make a difference
(maddeningly, they are on the same side of the pool as the skimmer. They return across the short width of the pool, north to south, and the prevailing wind is west to east. At least they are west of the skimmer!).
I decided to start a SLAM yesterday (guests coming this weekend). Prior to the SLAM, I vac'ed, and brushed. I was in the pool and also brushed along the water line up to the beading under the coping, the ladder rails and treads on the deep end, the underside of those treads, the wall behind the ladder, all around the underwater light housing, around the skimmer intake, and the "frame" around the entry steps into the pool.
CYA at the time was 40, TA 70, pH 7.5. I added bleach to reach SLAM level according to pool math, but testing an hour later, FC was 28! Well I can't do anything about that, so... this morning FC was 18. And there was a bit of a chlorine smell, which puzzled me because other articles here say that is due to chloramines, and my CC reading is consistenly 0. And I didn't detect this odor prior to the start of the SLAM.
Around noon, FC was 13, so I added bleach to get to 18. Around 5:30 PM, FC was 11, so again, I added bleach based on pool math. There was again, a slight whiff of chlorine. I am vac'ing and brushing and will test again in a bit. During the day today, some of the algae did return. Pressure on filter doesn't indicate it's time for a backwash (I did that a couple weeks ago), though it might not be a bad idea to do it again.
I will check again in a bit and top off if needed and of course check tomorrow AM. Just curious about these slight anomalies.
Also, I have a variable speed pump, and I'm wondering if I should be running it on a higher speed (currently on 2 of 4). I am running it half skimmer/half drain.
Any comments or adjustments are welcome!
