Day 5 of Slam and still green with no change in color, please help

[cruiser310]

As the title says I am on my 5th day of my slam and have seen no noticeable change in color to my green pool. I have been brushing daily, filtering continuously, backwashing sand filter daily and vacuuming periodically as per pool school instructions. I am at a loss as to what I am doing wrong but pool is not improving. I am checking and dosing chlorine to shock level of approx. 14 ppm at least 3 and sometimes 4 times a day as my schedule allows it. Sometimes when I check chlorine after 4 hours it is still above shock level and only uses 1 ppm of chlorine. My current numbers this morning were the following;

FC 14.5
CC 0.5
CYA 30
PH 7.2
TA 70
CH 70

The only thing I can think is that my CYA level is possibly inaccurate because I am using reagents leftover from last pool season. I do have new reagents I could use, but I was going to use the last years first to get rid of it. I may try that tonight when I get home just to verify my CYA numbers.

Pool was a little green last year upon opening but I slammed it and had it cleared up withing 4 or 5 days. Unfortunately that has not been the case this year. This year when opening pool it was more green than last year due to a tear in the winter cover and I have not seen any difference in color in 4 days of slamming.

The only thing I can think of to do different is to raise my chlorine level up to 16 or 20 for a few days and see if that makes a difference in the color to account for the older reagents that I am using. I have already went through approximately 12 gallons of 12.5% chlorine during this slam. I am trying to have patience, but I is hard to do when not seeing any change at all after 4 days.

Please advise my of anything anyone sees that I am doing wrong or that I should be doing different. Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated. Please Help, I'm getting frustrated with the pool.

Thanks,
cruiser310

 

[jblizzle]

Can you post a picture?
Have you tried the Overnight Chlorine Loss Test just to see where you stand as far as organics in the pool?

Have you Deep Cleaned your Sand Filter?
If so, you could try to Add DE to your Sand Filter

 

[kellyfair]

When you backwash, are you seeing a lot of yuck come out?

Good idea to test your CYA again with new reagent.

 

[jblizzle]

Kelly brings up a good point. I would not backwash until you see a 20-25% increase in the filter pressure. Sand filters do a little better as they get dirtier.

 

[cruiser310]

I am typically losing 2-3 ppm's overnight of FC.

When I backwash the filter, the water runs fairly green for a couple of minutes before it clears up. I did a deep cleaning of filter the middle of last summer but not this year yet.

My pressure gauge doesn't seem to change very much, maybe 10-15%, but I can usually tell a decrease in the return water pressure coming back into the pool before I backwash.

I have never tried DE in the filter, but I thought I might try it once I started see less green algea and more gray in the water once the algea started to be killed and when I was trying to clear up the cloudiness.

I will retest for CYA tonight with the fresh reagent.

I will try to post pictures when I figure it out, but the pool is still really green.

Thanks

 

[kellyfair]

Yep, let’s make sure we are correct on your pool’s volume and your actual CYA.

 

[cruiser310]

Well I checked my cya with the new reagents and it still came out with the same result, still right around 30, possibly a smidge higher.
I think I am just going to dose to 16-18 just to see if it makes any difference.
I'm running out if ideas of things to try, I might try and pick up some DE powder next and try that in the filter. I just gave it a good thorough brushing just to make sure there were no spots that had been missed, although I really can't see the bottom. I did find some algea behind the weir door on the foam float.

 

[kellyfair]

When you test CYA, are you doing so out in the sun, with sun behind you? Water is at least 70 degrees or warmer?

Fill the tube to first line, glance, if dot still visible at a glance, fill to next line, glance, and so on. Your CYA is the first line that you can’t see the dot at a glance.

 

[cruiser310]

That is the procedure that I am using when testing. I did it that way and I also did it by slowly filled it while periodically checking.

The only thing is that my water temperature is only 65 degrees, I wasn't aware that that was one if the criteria of the test. What is the effect of a lower temperature on the results?

 

[kellyfair]

I’ve seen some posters say that their CYA number increased when they tested with room temp water.

 

[RobertScalchi]

Couldn't hurt to bump the FC to 18 once and measure the OCLT fall if the CYA really is 30ppm. Maybe the higher levels will turn your water to turquoise as it sanitizes. As Jason and others mentioned especially with sand, allow the sand to get dirtier, and backwash less frequently. General rule of thumb, 10 psi above clean operating pressure or TFP suggestions 25% above clean operating pressure.

 

[cfherrman]

Bump your FC at night and retest, then in the morning so you don't lose FC to the sun. Raising the FC should be unnecessary, but only hurts a few dollars as long as you don't go too high.

Make sure you are brushing properly.

Post a picture

Do you have iron in your water

 

[cruiser310]

I didn't have a chance to retest the CYA with the warmer water last night, but I will try tonight. I did bump the FC up to 17 last night and there was no change in the water color this morning, although when I tested FC this morning it was still at 17, so it either didn't lose any FC overnight or the chlorine was a little stronger than stated on the bottle. So this morning I added another gallon of chlorine so that should put it at 22 FC and I will see what it looks like later today.

As far as I know I'm brushing correctly, I'm not sure what else to brush because I'm brushing every area of the pool, although I can't really see the bottom right now.

As far as I know I don't have iron, I'm filling off of public water supply, but at this point I'm not discounting anything. How do I determine whether there is iron in the water? Do I need to have it tested at a pool store?

Whatever is going on with my pool it seems as though the chlorine is not having any affect at all because it doesn't seem to have changed color at all after 6 days so far an approximately 15 gallons of chlorine. I'm totally stumped and becoming very discouraged, but I appreciate everyone's help with the issue and looking forward to finding a resolution. Last year I was able to clear the pool up with about 6 gallons of chlorine in 4 or 5 days.

Also what is the best method to add pictures? I'll give it a try.



Thanks,
a very frustrated cruiser310

 

[splashpad]

Are you running the pump 24/7?
Are you testing FC as frequently (hourly if possible) as you can and bumping it back to shock level when it falls?
It looks like a super healthy algae bloom =)

 

[cfherrman]

The only other thing is if your doing the cya test wrong or bad chems.

Short review

Room temp sample
Bright sun at your back, not shading the tube
Pour one line at a time and glance at the dot, quick look

 

[cruiser310]

Yes, pump is running 24/7, and I'm checking in morning(7:00am), early evening and before I go to bed around 11:00pm during the work week because that's all I can do during the week but I will be able to check it more often this weekend when I'm home, but the thing is that it doesn't seem to be using all that much chlorine, it only loses may 3-4 ppm's during the day when I'm at work and last night it lost very little or none overnight.

I'm not ruling out anything at this point, even metals possibly, although I topped off from public water supply last weekend and I don't know how to test for iron or copper. I'm going to try and raise the FC a little higher today and see if anything different happens. Also may try to pick up some DE powder as suggested earlier.

Thanks,

 

[splashpad]

Yes, pump is running 24/7, and I'm checking in morning(7:00am), early evening and before I go to bed around 11:00pm during the work week because that's all I can do during the week but I will be able to check it more often this weekend when I'm home, but the thing is that it doesn't seem to be using all that much chlorine, it only loses may 3-4 ppm's during the day when I'm at work and last night it lost very little or none overnight.

2 things stand out to me =)
1) Based on other SLAM Process threads, your FC may not be high enough for your CYA level
2) It will take longer to "fully" SLAM Process if the FC isn't being bumped up ever hour or so

Hang in there!

 

[Casey]

If you have leaf debris on the bottom of the pool, the chlorine will work on destroying it. Have you blindly vacced to waste yet? If not, I'd highly suggest it. Brush one day, let it all settle by not disturbing it and do a vac to waste the next day.

 

[cruiser310]

I think I've gotten most of the leaf debris from the bottom, I only had a small hole, probably 2'x2' in the winter cover and I don't think that many leaves or debris got in. I have vacuumed and used the leaf net blindly and I am not coming up with anything from the bottom. I have not vacuumed to waste I can try that tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions, I'm willing to try about anything at this point.

Thanks

 

[cruiser310]

I Just wanted to give an update on my slam progress, Sorry for not being as diligent about posting updates, but I’ve been very busy.

Well Saturday morning I decided to increase my FC level up to 20, or at least what I thought was 20, because of questions concerning my cya level being off possibly because of old cya reagent and cooler water temperature possibly making my results lower. By Saturday afternoon/evening I was very excited to be seeing some improvements in water color to a slightly lighter color of green. With finally seeing some change in color, unlike the first 5 days, I kept my FC at 20. Well some time Sunday I had used the last of my DPD reagent drops from last year and began using my fresh DPD reagent and I had a significant drop in FC level compared to the usual FC drops I had been seeing between my FC tests.

So my theory is that my DPD reagent was weak and was therefore taking more drops to clear the pink from my test and therefore giving me a higher FC value than it actually was. So last week during my initial slam when I thought I was shocking in the 12-14 FC range I was probably only shocking in the 8-10 range and therefore I was not above my shock level of 12. So for some reason even though my reagent was less than a year old it I believe it had lost some of it’s strength. So now I’m happy to report that my pool is looking pretty good and I think I’m on the home stretch of my slam. Here is a picture of what it looked like this morning after 4 days of slamming.

I would just like to thank everyone for their input to help me out during this slam. It was nice to know that there were people here that were willing to help me out with ideas. Hopefully I can be there to help others in the future going through a slam if needed.