First time owner, new to US Northeast - Opening challenges

[crooks4hire]

Been SLAMing this pool for 1-2 weeks now, and Idk if I’m doing something wrong or just hit a wall…

Day 1
Uncovered the pool late April/ Early May after acquiring the home back in Sept. Pool was half full and covered at time of purchase; looked in decent order. I uncover the pool and fill it up assuming the previous owner was taking care of things. It looked like it hadn’t been used in a season or two but covered was a good sign, right?

Wrong… nearly a foot of leaves were in the bottom, and I didn’t realize until it was warm enough to wade in and feel them. This was about 3-4 days into SLAM, so count those days a loss…leafy boys were eating my chlorine by the gallon. I spend 2 days clearing the trash, keeping chlorine high to facilitate SLAM (FC swinging from 15 down to 3 each night). I added a pic of the pool surroundings for context. The trees surround the pool. Pretty but a functional nightmare lol.

Day 4
Bottom feels clean (can’t see past about 8-10in deep), so I keep blindly pouring chlorine to it while waiting on my K2006 test kit to deliver. Target right now is a neon magenta DPD test (cheap DPD maxed out at 5ppm so I figure making the sample glow is safe enough till the titrate arrives).

Day 6
K2006 kit arrives. Run a full panel of tests:
FC - 18
CC - 2.5
PH - 6.8
CYA - 15
TA - 25
CH - 40

Follow TFP pool math, adding baking soda, borax, calhypo and acid to bring those numbers up higher. New numbers after 4-6hrs:

FC - 20
CC - 2.5
PH - 7.4
CYA - 45
TA - 60
CH - 60

Day 7-9 (present)
Numbers seem ok, but I the color still looks like the attached pics. Went from a dark green/brown initially to a lighter green/brown (yellow/gray?). Clarity is still only 8-10in visibility, so I took a sample to Leslie’s to test metals and phosphates. That was yesterday. They pushed noPhos, noMetal, and CULater which all sounded reasonable if not strictly necessary based on their numbers.


I added the CUlater pack this morning, but that’s it for now. Figured I’d reach out to you guys for help before blindly dumping more chemical in!

PS: I used the entirety of the k2006’s iterating agent in like 4 days fighting this stuff lol. Amazon should be delivering a 2oz bottle today (idk why Leslie’s can’t be bothered to stock it).

Am I just at the “Maintain” part of SLAM, or is something else going on here?

 

[PoolStored]

Do not add any of those product, it will make it worse. Only liquid chlorine!

Are you sure you got all the organics off the bottom? I'd keep scooping.

How often are you cleaning the filter? With that soup, it should be very often.

Clean the filters. Note clean pressure, when it rises 25%, clean them again. You will be cleaning filters often.

Clear the debris, follow the SLAM process and it will clear.

What are your water rates? Might be cheaper and easier to drain and refill.

for FC testing, use 10mL sample with FAS-DPD...each drop is .5FC. This will save reagent.

Where are you in NEO?

Go Guardians!

 

[crooks4hire]

Haha I just moved up here, living in Canfield just west of Youngstown right now. I need to get up to the lake and check out a Guardians game!

Initially, I was cleaning the filter 4-6 times a day (especially while netting and vac’ing the initial biomass. Now I’m down to about once a day (getting close to 2 days now). That’s what I don’t understand, it feels like the filter is catching a lot less but the water is very marginally clearer.

So SLAM will clear it with time? I was afraid I’ve poured $100+ chlorine into a bottomless pit lol.

 

[PoolStored]

So SLAM will clear it with time? I was afraid I’ve poured $100+ chlorine into a bottomless pit lol.

It should, but you need to net, scoop, whatever you can to get as much organics out that you can. Filter won't get those. It looks like you have a lot of dirt along with algae.

Do you have a vacuum? When you walk around, is there a lot of stuff on the bottom? Is it big stuff or just dirt?

 

[crooks4hire]

Water here is $21/kgal with water and sewer factored in. I might be able to call the water dept and let them know I’m filling a 14kgal pool to get it down to $11.50/kgal.

 

[crooks4hire]

Walking along the bottom feels like a small amount of sand/grit. There’s not really any slimy feeling or anything like that. 99.5% of the debris is gone. One or two slow vac passes would clear the rest; but it’s really tough to get at the last tiny pile due to visibility.

 

[PoolStored]

For the cost and expense, might be easier to drain and fill. ~160$ right?

The other option is to turn off the pump for an hour, let it settle. Then SLOWLY vacuum the bottom. Might take a few passes, but would speed it along.

 

[crooks4hire]

I tried letting it settle over the last 24hrs while I did the Leslie test and ran some errands yesterday. Checked this morning and not much of a change, certainly not enough settling to see the bottom.

Canfield water dept isn’t great…for estimating purposes I’d say $21/kgal which comes down to about $300 to replace the water.

Edit: You mean vac to waste, right?

 

[PoolStored]

Edit: You mean vac to waste, right?

You can vac to the filter...just watch the pressure. Note clean pressure. When pressure rises 25%, clean again. This should be your normal procedure.

Do you still have your K-2006? Ignore any tests at leslies...and don't buy any of their potions. Did you already buy stuff and put it in on their advice? If so, what did you put in?

 

[crooks4hire]

Only put in the little CuLater pouch in the skimmer. I can pull that if needed (figured pulling out metals wasn’t a bad thing regardless).

The others I haven’t opened. I was gonna keep the phosphate remover and pull that down to about 200 or less. I’m new to pools but I’ve been growing plants for years, and the only thing they like more than phosphate is nitrogen lol. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to punch that down if the ingredients in noPhos are mostly benign otherwise.

I plan to return the noMetal if I can.

I do still have my k2006, and some titrating agent should be here in the next hour or so!

 

[PoolStored]

Take it out. Does nothing and doesn't work.

You don't need phosphate remover. Phosphates don't matter.

Return all of it.

 

[crooks4hire]

Well, I opened the CuLater, but the rest can def go back! I’m all-in TFP (fingers crossed lol).

 

[PoolStored]

Saved me, and many others, $$$$$$

Here is the proof thread. Link-->How Clear is TFP Clear?

 

[crooks4hire]

That’s what I’m looking for! I just had/have no perspective on how bad the current situation is and how long recovery might take.

 

[PoolStored]

Its pretty dirty as dirty pools go. You have lots of dirt, along with algae. It will take a while.

 

[crooks4hire]

New battery of tests after the titrating reagent was delivered.

Still in the SLAM slot. Staying the course for now.

 

[PoolStored]

You only need to test FC at this point. Use 10ml samples. Each drop is .5.

After you pass OCLT, then perform CC on THAT sample.

With CC=2 you killin' stuff!

Oh, and on the CYA, always round up. Your CYA is 50. Slam target is 20.

 

[crooks4hire]

You know how much it’s gonna suck if I’ve been like 2.5ppm below SLAM for the last week?

#bittersweet

 

[PoolStored]

Mom ringing in my ears..."That's the price of an education..."

 

[crooks4hire]

I keep telling myself that this’ll be the steepest climb of owning the pool lol. I’ll recheck CYA just to be sure (plus we got about 3/4” of rain last night). Good to know to round up! Makes sense in hindsight lol. I just jammed my #’s into the TFP calculator and ran…

Wouldn’t hurt to update the app with drop boxes with prescribed denominations/magnitudes instead of text entries (unless rounding is more rule-of-thumb than a hard rule).