Cloudy water and brown/green sediment. Please advise.

Jump to latest Follow Reply
S

SethOK

Member
Jul 7, 2021
7
Tulsa, OK
Pool Size
5000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hey there! I'm hoping you pros can help me out here. Our pool was rockin and rollin just fine for several weeks, then we went on vacation (heard this story before?) and the teenage niece we had housesitting mayyybe didn't add liquid chlorine as I had detailed out for her to do over the 4 days. So we get back and the pool is cloudy and then the next day I see little deposits of whatever on the bottom of the pool. We've vacuumed it, brushed, vacuumed to waste, etc. It's not going anywhere so maybe it's SLAM time. However, please take a look at my numbers and possible guide me to any adjustments that I need to make before beginning a SLAM process.

FC - 2.5
CC - .5
TC - 3
CH - 375
TA - 180? Are we looking for pink or a straight up red color on this test?
pH - 8
CYA - 55

Thanks in advance for any guidance!
 
Welcome to TFP :)

Great to have you, Marty has you going.. Great job on getting a TF100, drop that PH and get to SLAMing.. I tend to check at 2 hours and add liquid chlorine as much as I can.. the more you raise the faster the SLAM goes..
 
Thanks fellas. This is the muriatic acid I've got on hand. I picked it up from Ace a couple months back but haven't used any yet. It def looks pretty old, but I assume it's still plenty potent and good to go?
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20210816_155938266.jpg
    PXL_20210816_155938266.jpg
    356.5 KB · Views: 4
  • Like
Reactions: cowboycasey
After several days of SLAM-ing the pool looks fantastic. I think I likely could have been done with the process a day or two ago, but have been a bit tied up. I've vacuumed some junk out a couple times and each time there seems to be less and less. There's very little in one area of the pool now, I'd assume it is dead algae? The water is crystal clear now tho! I'll vacuum/backwash tonight and do OCLT this evening (anything else I need to do ) and hopefully we can rally back to normal chemical usage. Hoping to get another several weeks out of the pool for the 'season' - we've got about a week of 100+ degrees coming up and we'll want to be in the pool.

Also, for future reference - with the 60 CYA we were running 24FC to SLAM - was that safe to be in the pool with or nah? We hopped in yesterday for the first time when I had let it dip down to 15FC and it didn't seem bad at all.

Thanks for the help/guidance!
 
SethOK said:
with the 60 CYA we were running 24FC to SLAM - was that safe to be in the pool with or nah?
Click to expand...
You can safely swim in a pool as long as the FC is above the minimum and at or below SLAM level based on your CYA. You must also be able to see the bottom of the pool in the deep end of the pool.
 
You can swim as long as the FC is at or below SLAM level for your CYA and you can see the bottom of the pool. We swam in 31 FC water and no one even knew :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: SethOK

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I feel like this has been going on for quite some time, but I again lost about 3 FC last night. I just got this kit recently and am going to run out of R-0871 by the time this is all done at 35-45 drops per test. Haha.

Also, does one ever re-test CYA during the SLAM process? I didn't see that mentioned as a step in the SLAM process, but am curious.
 
Unless you are losing water somehow (not counting evaporation), CYA doesn't change much. It slowly breaks down over time, but not typically within the normal time span of a SLAM. So it's not necessary to retest.

Do you have a ladder that algae could be hiding in? If so, take it out and spray it down with straight bleach. Be sure to get the underside of the steps and inside the legs - anywhere algae could hide.
 
During the slam to conserve reagants you could use 5ml sample and each drop is 1ppm instead of 0.5 for 10ml sample. Go back to 10ml sample for any OCLT or normal testing
 
jeffchap said:
Unless you are losing water somehow (not counting evaporation), CYA doesn't change much. It slowly breaks down over time, but not typically within the normal time span of a SLAM. So it's not necessary to retest.
Click to expand...

This makes sense. I've lost water via backwash obviously, but that hasn't been an incredibly significant amount each time so if it did lower I suspect it is not much. Thanks!

jeffchap said:
Do you have a ladder that algae could be hiding in? If so, take it out and spray it down with straight bleach. Be sure to get the underside of the steps and inside the legs - anywhere algae could hide.
Click to expand...
Brilliant. I had kinda wondered about this some, but thought the chlorine levels would kill it. During the first part of the SLAM I had the ladder removed from the pool and just sitting out in the sun. When we decided it was safe to go ahead and use the pool we put it back in and have left it in since then. I can give it a bleach bath and see how that goes.

CTFocusST said:
During the slam to conserve reagants you could use 5ml sample and each drop is 1ppm instead of 0.5 for 10ml sample. Go back to 10ml sample for any OCLT or normal testing
Click to expand...

Thanks! This is fantastic info. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought to do that. I'll do this going forward. Additionally, is it easy to pick up another bottle of that reagent?
 
SethOK said:
This makes sense. I've lost water via backwash obviously, but that hasn't been an incredibly significant amount each time so if it did lower I suspect it is not much. Thanks!


Brilliant. I had kinda wondered about this some, but thought the chlorine levels would kill it. During the first part of the SLAM I had the ladder removed from the pool and just sitting out in the sun. When we decided it was safe to go ahead and use the pool we put it back in and have left it in since then. I can give it a bleach bath and see how that goes.



Thanks! This is fantastic info. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought to do that. I'll do this going forward. Additionally, is it easy to pick up another bottle of that reagent?
Click to expand...
Yea tftest kits sell either the reagants individually if you just need the 0871 or they also have the FAS-DPD tests with the 3 things you need for the testing FC and CC if you are lower on all those
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply