Day 9 SLAM but still CLOUDY

[Natnem]

Day 9 of a SLAM. Just CLOUDY
Attached pictures are from today.
I got the TFTestKit yesterday and checked the water last night and got these results.
Mon 3/8 pm
FC .5
CC .5
TC 1
TA. 120
PH 7.5

I added 24 oz which was enough to get my FC to 3. I was thinking this would be my overnight test since my reading last was results from adding my last 1/2 of gallon the chlorine on Saturday. I didn’t add Sunday because Walmart ran out and Home Depot closed earlier than normal. So after 2 sunny days with a cya level of 0 I was glad to see it still had some even though FC was only .5 and seeing the CC was .5 too. However it is still very cloudy!
This mornings test results are
Tue 3/9 AM
FC 3
CC .5
TA 110
PH 7.5
CYA 0

We began this process on 3-1. The pool was a nasty slimy green mess.
My dad got the water tested at the pool store. He was then sold some products to help clean this baby in 3 DAYS!!
So he bought Green to Clean & added 12 oz and a total 3 bags of Leslie’s Power Powder Plus 73 to add every 12hrs. It’s didn’t clean it just lightened it. On 3/3 I called the company that makes mean to green and the guy I spoke to will be reporting our location for improper directions of their product. (Made me so Happy to hear him say that) This is when I went back to the pool store because I wanted to entertain myself with their ignorance and I wanted my dad to get to that point as well. Had them test the water and print me up another Crud sheet of what to do. I asked 1 major question to her solution on maintaining chlorine. Her reply of idk just go to step 2 blew me away. I got home and explained everything to my dad and I think we ordered the test kit the next day.

I was lucky enough to get in touch with Dave from the group and he directed me to use 1/2gal of liquid chlorine daily until the kit arrived!

So now I need some more guidance with what to do to get clear water again and hopefully finalize the SLAM process!
What I’ve been doing
-Brushing almost daily some days more than once
-Vacuuming daily sometimes 2-3 times and then I backwash the filter even though the pressure isn’t really going up.
-Running the pump on high 24/7
-Skimming with fine white net often
I've been brainstorming about the cloudiness and need advice on how to make it go away!
-I’ve been adding a half a gallon to a whole gallon depending on the chlorine results from the six way test I currently have.

Sunday mornings reading after the last 1/2 gallon being put in the night before was
FC 3
PH 6.8
TA 80
I’m not sure if my test kit was giving accurate readings on my PH and TA but that doesn’t matter anymore because I’m tossing it out anyway.
One possible major hiccup is the pump started to make a humming noise and my dad is bringing it to be looked at today. We’re praying that it’ll be something they can fix today like they said.

So I’m thinking I need to bring the cya up but not sure if I need to be using the slam levels since I don’t have clear water. That part is making me question the cya level. Do I go to 30 and add still follow the slam FC /CYA chart level?
So any advice will be great!
Thank you
Natalie

 

[mknauss]

I am sorry, but you have not been doing the SLAM Process process for 9 days. You are starting today as you now have a proper test kit. Fully read the process and follow it.

 

[Natnem]

Ok I was kind of feeling like that when I was writing it. I guess what I was thinking is that I’ve been adding liquid chlorine to the pool after the stuff my dad added green to clean and 3 bags of shock. I guess after reading the slam process and seeing that you pass it when the 3 criterias are met I just wrote it up that way because it held the chlorine overnight and the CC is .5 I just don’t have clear water. So even after reading the slam process daily over and over I am still confused with what to do. I’ve tried to do everything it tells you to do and added 1/2 gal of chlorine when my levels dropped. I’m sorry if I sound silly but I’m just not exactly sure what to do. I’ve never had green water so it’s my first slam.
do I leave the cya alone and just keep the FC level up to 10?

 

[mknauss]

Follow the Steps shown in the article.

Your CYA should be at 30 ppm for the SLAM process. I doubt your CYA is zero as you have added pool store stuff that normally has dichlor in it. So add 20 ppm worth of CYA using the sock process. While that is dissolving, assume your CYA is 30 ppm and follow the SLAM process based on that level of CYA.

 

[Natnem]

Follow the Steps shown in the article.

Your CYA should be at 30 ppm for the SLAM process. I doubt your CYA is zero as you have added pool store stuff that normally has dichlor in it. So add 20 ppm worth of CYA using the sock process. While that is dissolving, assume your CYA is 30 ppm and follow the SLAM process based on that level of CYA.

Ok thank you so much! I watched the video earlier in the process and thought everything was written so I overlooked the CYA min of 30!Sorry about that! I did the cya test last night and the black never visibly disappeared. The pool store says I had a cya of 7 but I’ve backwashed and added water several times plus it rained. So do you think I still should shoot for 20 instead of 30? Just making sure..

 

[mknauss]

Your pool has some CYA in it. By only adding 20 ppm worth, you should not go much above 40 ppm at a maximum. Assume the water has 30 ppm for FC levels. Then after the CYA is fully dissolved from the sock, wait a day or two and test your CYA.

 

[Natnem]

Hey there I’m still working on the clearing of the cloudy water. We had to bring the pump in to get looked at so it was not circulating for 2days. Started back yesterday morning my results were
3/12 9:45am
FC 2
CC .5
Ph 7.2
TA 100
CYA 30
Added 72oz chlorine
3/12 4:30pm
FC 10
Added 14oz chlorine

3/13 9:22am
FC 8
CC .5
PH 7.5
TA 110
Added 29oz of chlorine

I know I need to just keep it up now that everything is back and running. I’m just asking because my dad wants to add clarifier but I told him to wait. Other than vacuuming and brushing is there anything else that I need to do?
Thank you

 

[Bigpaws]

Keep your FC at slam level. Monitor pump pressure which will help you
make sure the filtering is good. No other additives are needed. Time
is your friend. If you follow the above it should clear.

-Bigpaws

 

[Natnem]

Keep your FC at slam level. Monitor pump pressure which will help you
make sure the filtering is good. No other additives are needed. Time
is your friend. If you follow the above it should clear.

-Bigpaws

Thank you!! I was thinking that!! Have a great weekend.

 

[JJ_Tex]

If possible, test and add chlorine 3-4 times a day to ensure you are staying at the SLAM level. Also know that since you have a sand filter, those can take the longest to filter out. When you get to the very end, I have seen people have success adding a little bit of DE to their filter to help clear up the water. You can search for those results in the search bar as here are several threads on it.

 

[Natnem]

If possible, test and add chlorine 3-4 times a day to ensure you are staying at the SLAM level. Also know that since you have a sand filter, those can take the longest to filter out. When you get to the very end, I have seen people have success adding a little bit of DE to their filter to help clear up the water. You can search for those results in the search bar as here are several threads on it.

Thanks I was about to go check it again. My dad actually just went and got some but I’m wanting him to wait another day. He’s killing me! Lol. But I guess I’ll get some adult beverages and chair and go sit next to the filter to watch the pressure gauge if he decides not to wait. I’m

 

[Natnem]

Good morning everyone! So I’m thinking we might be done with the slam, but I wanted to ask y’all for your thoughts before I stop adding the slam amount of chlorine. We had some bad weather so I had to get water out the pool as it was spilling over yesterday. Then added chlorine to bring the chlorine up to the slam amount of 12. I forget to test the water last night and ended up remembering around 12:30am.
12:30 am
FC 7
This morning I have my little one home sick from school and got to test the water @ 10:15am
10:15 am
FC 5
CC 0
TA 80
PH somewhere between 7.5 & 7.8
CYA 30
The water is clear. I need to vacuum and brush I didn’t get to do that for 2 days. I’m having a hard time remembering where I kept my cya level last summer I know it was higher because of us not covering the pool and where we live. I also can’t remember what my set target was for PH & TA last year.
Do I need to adjust the TA or PH level since they have changed since I started the slam process? I am going back to see my stuff from last year and freshen up on the levels since I feel like I’ve forgotten some of the basics and get confused when my dad and I talk about it all!
I look forward to hearing from y’all! Have a great day and weekend!! Thanks for everything!

 

[JJ_Tex]

If it were me, I would bring it up to SLAM levels and maintain that all day today, then tonight/early AM tomorrow do your OCLT to see if you passed.
You are probably borderline, but you did have some decent FC drops yesterday and you have been at it for most of this month, so I would want to be absolutely sure before I ended my SLAM. You do not want to have to start over at this point.

 

[cowboycasey]

FC of 12 last night, FC of 7 at 0030 in the morning and FC 5 at 10:15... That is a drop of 7fc over 12 hours depending on when you added to 12fc yesterday...

You are getting close but not quit done... if it is fc 12 at 8pm it should be fc 11.5 to 12 by 6 am, in 8 to 10 hours...

 

[wireform]

You absolutely need to grab the water before sun up. Keep the pump running at all times. Go it another day even if your OCLT comes good. The extra day for insurance is well worth it. Remember OCLT comes with 3 criteria, only then is it a pass.

 

[geh]

I'm also in New Orleans and want to add, we had two bad storms this week: first one overtopped my pool, and after backwash, water from the deck was draining into the pool for a while. The second storm almost overtopped the pool, water came up to the bottom of the coping. With that much contamination, would he be better served by maintaining SLAM a while longer then doing the OCLT?

 

[Natnem]

If it were me, I would bring it up to SLAM levels and maintain that all day today, then tonight/early AM tomorrow do your OCLT to see if you passed.
You are probably borderline, but you did have some decent FC drops yesterday and you have been at it for most of this month, so I would want to be absolutely sure before I ended my SLAM. You do not want to have to start over at this point.

I don’t want to start over! It started on the 1st with some wacky process my dad thought was going to work because the pool store said so! Then I finally got him on the TFP way and ordered the test kit. The day it arrived I added what it needed after testing and then had to bring the pump in to get checked out. Three days later we were back to starting again so unfortunately we had some time in there where we weren’t 100% able to do the process correctly! I’m just glad that I am hopeful a few hours away from the end! Thank you for your help

 

[Natnem]

FC of 12 last night, FC of 7 at 0030 in the morning and FC 5 at 10:15... That is a drop of 7fc over 12 hours depending on when you added to 12fc yesterday...

You are getting close but not quit done... if it is fc 12 at 8pm it should be fc 11.5 to 12 by 6 am, in 8 to 10 hours...

Thank you for your help! Everyone really helps!!

 

[Natnem]

I'm also in New Orleans and want to add, we had two bad storms this week: first one overtopped my pool, and after backwash, water from the deck was draining into the pool for a while. The second storm almost overtopped the pool, water came up to the bottom of the coping. With that much contamination, would he be better served by maintaining SLAM a while longer then doing the OCLT?

Oh wow I’m glad to know another member is around! I was wondering the other day if there’s a way to search for other locals on here!! Yes the weather was worse than the hurricane in October Over here! Thank you for your help it’s nice to hear everyone’s thoughts!

 

[Natnem]

Thanks everyone for helping me with putting the slam process in perspective and reminding me it’s best to go that extra day!! Today didn’t go as planned with staying on top of the pool with my little one home from school today. I did manage to vacuum and just got back to the water testing and my FC was 4 so I’m glad it didn’t go down any further.
I was so nervous about replying because I don’t want to ask for help and have anyone think I’m not trying to do the work! So I just added enough chlorine to get me up to 12. I’m going to test it again in about an hour so I can have my number for the morning to compare!!
I truly appreciate everyone for taking out a few minutes of their time to guide me through.
Have a great night and I will let y’all know how it goes tomorrow.