Confused with keeping Fc at the right levels

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OK, a few things. The liquid stabilizer does not require 24/7 pump running to mix - an hour is fine.

Do you now have two packets of dichlor left?

Yes, the chlorine is too low in the mornings, so we do need to be concerned. You mentioned that you added 4 lbs of dichlor today which will bring the FC up quite a bit. If that was 4 packets of 12 ounces each, let me know and I can adjust my numbers.
 
It was four packs of 16 oz( 4 lbs according to pool math to raise fc by 11) . I put it in to counter act my dirt issue . I will go test it now to see where I am at. I am about to vacuum it since I see the dirt has settled on the bottom. It's cloudy right now. It was clear until the dirt and then I guess we shocked it pretty good. I was so close until the dirt!! I have four packs of the dichlor left. Im going to take the cya number too because the dichlor should have raised it a bit. I have a gallon of the stabilizer.

Lol my kids keep asking to swim... but it's cloudy. I guess with higher chlorine it all be ok but I need to vacuum first
 
I had it noted as 12 ounce bags from post #33, but I've changed that to 16 ounce bags in my record for your pool.

Based on what you've told me, you've added 11 PPM FC from the 4 x 16 ounce bags of dichlor, and that's a good thing. With the pool being cloudy, that's telling us that you have algae growing which has arisen due to the low FC levels you've been seeing each morning. That's also telling us that we need to SLAM the pool. It's a method to knock out the algae, and then you'll be able to maintain a clean sparkly pool with the lowest possible ongoing maintenance.

Your stabilizer is probably right around 30 PPM CYA, which is a good level for the SLAM. Don't add any more until you decide if you're going to SLAM. I strongly recommend you do, and doing it right away will make it take less time.

Swimming is safe in terms of chlorine, but you need to be able to see the bottom of the pool for swimming safety.

You will likely smell a bit of pool smell on your skin when you get out. That's the free chlorine combining with sweat on the skin. Good idea to shower off after swimming.

- - - Updated - - -

As long as you can see the bottom of the pool, you can go ahead and enjoy it for swimming today. We could start the SLAM tonight.
 
I noticed some comments about your husband wanting to be thrifty, so in case it's helpful, my personal goal that brought me here to TFP is because we're retired and I love to keep our costs to a minimum, and TFPC is amazing on that front. That's in addition to keeping our pool safe for the grandies, and never having it turn green the day before a birthday party.

The other thing worth mentioning is that one of the things that makes TFP a great forum, is that experts will jump in and correct anything I say that is either incorrect or misleading. It's like having an amazing pool consultant, which is actually 100s of people who have been through exactly what you're going through.

Just thought I'd mention this, because if I were you, I'd be wondering why I should trust some guy on the internet in Sydney, Australia!?!
 
You think I have algae? I haven't had an issue with the (that I know of) . I thought my pool was cloudy because of all the dirt that went in? Im not really questioning, I just want to make sure I gave you all the info . I was hoping not to have to slam...It was cloudy before i shocked it but perfectly clear before the dirt went in the pool? Im confused because I thought my low fc was due to my low cya? It is up because of the dichlor. I only have four bags of dichlor left and no liquid chlorine yet. Can I still slam?


I just vacuumed and thought it looked clearer. I can see the bottom but definitely cloudy. We have been running the swg at 75% since all the dirt went in also. I did add 11 but my fc only went up to 8.5? Someone had mentioned in another thread that my pool might be around 25000 gallons because they thought 27000 was too high?
 
Yes I do think you need to SLAM, but we can check to be sure if you like, by doing an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (OCLT). Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

With your chlorine up a bit, it's helpful for doing this tonight. Be careful to follow the procedure to the letter, or the information is not reliable. It requires testing FC after sunset and before sunrise.
 
needsajet said:
Yes I do think you need to SLAM, but we can check to be sure if you like, by doing an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (OCLT). Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

With your chlorine up a bit, it's helpful for doing this tonight. Be careful to follow the procedure to the letter, or the information is not reliable. It requires testing FC after sunset and before sunrise.
Click to expand...
I should do that tonight? I was leaving the filter on to make sure to get out my dirt... it should be fine then?

is it OK if it rains tonight, will that skew my results?

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Rain could affect it, yes, but likely not enough to matter. I looked up your weather and it says "40% chance of a thunderstorm" for southern New Jersey. If that sounds right, I don't think it's an issue. And yep, the pump can run all night to continue filtering out the contaminants.
 

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The main thing is to do the OCLT correctly. Follow the TFP procedure carefully. The common mistakes people make can be easily avoided with a few tips:
1. If you add any chems in the evening, test FC again about an hour later, and definitely after sunset. This is your baseline.
2. Test in the morning before sunrise, but after at least 30 minutes of pump run time (no issue if pump ran overnight).
3. Salt water chlorinator must be turned off for the night. (or any other source of chlorine, such as floaters, pucks in skimmer, etc., must be removed)
 
ok.. we had turned off pump because we had it running most of the day after the dirt water was put into the pool. I turned off swg. So I guess I gotta get up early to run lump before the sun comes up. zi just tested it.. the sun went down. I used 19 drops so 9.5. It's higher than it was.. Maybe from swg running?

I don't have any other source of chlorine and haven't added any except the for bags of dichlor which was around noon or so.

Out of curiosity, if it was clear until the dirt water went in... sounding that be the cloudy cause... Although we do know I'm Having the fc issue. But again I thought that was cya and my pH problem?

I'm trying to learn the best I can

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ok.. turned on pump late last night. Swg was off. Got up at 5:30 this morning. No sun. Sunrise is 5:33. I tested my water and used 19 drops so it's still 9.5. It still looks a little cloudy. I still see some dirt on my liner so will have to vacuum again.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
So with no granular stabilizer in town, you can add the gallon jug of liquid stabilizer. That will take your pool to 45 PPM CYA.

Each bag of dichlor will add 2.7 PPM FC and 2.4 PPM CYA. So you could add those one each per day for 4 days. They will also hold the pH down. That will get the pool to about 55 PPM CYA, which we can call 60 PPM until the next time you test CYA.
 

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