CYA before SLAM?

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Thank you both.
Two days ago I found the 10% shock at Atwoods in Coweta for 2.99. It had been 4/8.99. Still a good price at 2.99

When I vacuum the bottom I send a lot of water to waste. Then my CYA is too low because I had to add more water.
Last night I added more stabilizer and chlorine, and this morning the CYA was 45 (rounded up to 50 for FC) and the FC was 5. CC was 0.5.

So this morning I added 294 oz of liquid chlorine. That should bring the FC to 20.

1. Since I added water, does that mean I am starting the slam all over again? If I keep having to add water after vacuuming I will never finish the slam.

Water is still cloudy. I can see down below the jets, but can't see the bottom yet.

2. When I brush the steps, I see a light cloud of beige in the water. Is that the dead organic matter?

3. Can I use my Dolphin M500 (micro-fine nylon screens) to vacuum the bottom or does it have to be vacuumed manually to waste?

Thanks.
 
Vacuuming to waste is only useful when the crud is on the bottom. Once you get the SLAM underway, brushing is the more important step, and the crud gets suspended in the water and then filtered out. If you're not seeing things like leaves and huge algae clumps come up when vacuuming, you may already be at this point.

The critical part of SLAM is the Maintain part - Whenever you add bleach to get up to shock level, check it not long afterward. Once you can verify it holds at shock level at 30 minutes post-addition, then check it every hour. Once it holds at an hour, check every two hours, etc. Use 5mL sample size to reduce test reagents.

Yes, when you add water, also add bleach. It's not really like starting over, just keeping levels at SLAM values as much as possible. The calculation is simple - if you lose 3 inches of water while vacuuming, that's around 1kgal. Calculate what it takes to bring FC from 0 to SLAM level on 1k gallons, and just add that much each time. On a pool your size, it probably amounts to about a cup of bleach for each inch of water you add. The more you maintain FC level, the sooner everything dies.

Yes, brushing will kick up lots of stuff, dead and alive. Brushing is also a critical part of SLAM for this reason. Get the dead stuff in suspension so it can be filtered out, and get the alive stuff in suspension so it can contact some of those nice chlorine molecules and get murdered.

You can use a robot or other cleaner, but realize if you can't see the bottom yet you don't know what it could encounter. If you're confident there's nothing that can hurt it (rocks, branches, etc.) then it should be ok, but it also may not make a large dent in what's down there.
 
"Use 5mL sample size to reduce test reagents."
So instead of filling the "chlorine only " tube to 10, fill it to 5 with pool water?
Do I still use one heaping scoop of the powder? Once adding #871 drop by drop, count the number of drops until it turns clear?
Multiply by 0.5? Doesn't this mess up the results of the 5 ml test?
I just tested 10 ml and the FC was 19. Then I immediately tested 5 ml. The FC was 12.

Thanks
 
If you use 5ml of pool water for the FC test you use a less heaped spoon of powder, then the number of drops to clear is your FC. No multiplication.

It is not as accurate, but sufficient if SLAMing at high FC levels.

Take care.
 
Yes, and 5mL sample size works best if you have a narrower test tube where you can be very accurate with a 5 mL sample size. A little off can mean much more error. Make sure the meniscus is right on the 5mL line. Just be aware your error is 1-2 ppm, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
 
Ok thanks.

I am going through 4-6 bottles (128 oz) of 10% shock per day. CYA 40. FC 20. I check it every 2 hours during daylight hours. It never gets below FC 16 and usually stays around 20-22.
2000 rpm pump running 24 hours per day since May 6th.

It is just not showing any improvement. No clear water yet.

I am brushing twice a day. There aren't any leaves in it. I don't know what else to try.
 

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Just keep slamming, slamming, slamming...just like Finding Dory! Well, she says "swimming"!
 
How is your filtration going? I'm assuming your running pump the whole time. Has your PSI gone up or have you needed to backwash out the dead algae? Have you tried adding DE?

Maybe someone with more experience on that area of a SLAM can chime in and offer thoughts and advice on filtration

Have you recently checked your CC or run an OCLT to see if anything is still eating up FC?
 
2000 rpm 24/7. Psi is about 5 or 6. I added DE twice but didn't see much difference.

CC is zero. Keeping FC at 16-20.

We used the robotic cleaner last night and vacuumed up some sand.

We backwashed 2-3 times, but glass is clean.

Will add more DE today.
 
Sorry, I meant the glass on the filter runs clear so I know I have backwashed and rinsed enough.

Starting over with stabilizer today. We were topping off the pool and forgot the water was running. For hours!

Added new stabilizer today to get it back up to 30.


OCLT test had to add 4 cups of bleach this morning, but test is probably not accurate since we added water to the pool.

Will run new OCLT test tonight.
 
Well, it stormed last night so more fresh water was added. However, I ran the OCLT test and I didn't lose anything. It was completely dark when I took the first FC test and the sun was coming up (but wasn't visible yet) on the a.m. test.

Still cloudy though. I can almost see the bottom of the shallow end(3 ft). 2nd step is clear. 3rd step is pretty close to clear.

So slamming will continue. Maybe I will get to swim in it this summer!
 

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