Ok! I did brushing between my 12 and 2 pm test and when I started brushing I could see the brush moving on the floor but I can't see that now. Hopefully I see some results in the am!
First time pool owner
- Thread starter hewing_05
- Start date
Woke up this morning and this is what see. I can see the long brush a very tiny bit sitting in the bottom!
Fc 16.5
Cc .5
I will be gone for about 4 hours this morning so I'm going to add maybe half a jug. Don't want it to fall low.
Fc 16.5
Cc .5
I will be gone for about 4 hours this morning so I'm going to add maybe half a jug. Don't want it to fall low.
Wow. a 7.5 ppm FC overnight drop? That Chlorine is certainly attacking something...
FYI, going that high on FC (25) with so little CYA may discolor your liner. Try keeping the count to <=15, at the most.
FYI, going that high on FC (25) with so little CYA may discolor your liner. Try keeping the count to <=15, at the most.
Curious: You must have a lot of organic material in your pool. Leaves, sticks, the neighbors cat, the neighbors grandmother?Woke up this morning and this is what see. I can see the long brush a very tiny bit sitting in the bottom!
Fc 16.5
Cc .5
I will be gone for about 4 hours this morning so I'm going to add maybe half a jug. Don't want it to fall low.
It's really important to get as much of the organics out before expecting great results.
Is there a source of organic material falling in the pool? Is it pollen season where you are at?
I had a huge pollen issue this year for two months at least. The only thing I could do was to splice into the return line a section of 1-1/2" pvc with elbows and couplers to shape it over the edge of the pool. From there I have a short piece of 1-1/2 pvc and a coupler. I use a filter sock by holding the open end of the sock over the edge of the coupler then jamming it on to the short piece. The filter sock can be used in the skimmer basket in a situation where there's not a lot of fine particles, however in my situation there was a ton of pollen. By adding the sock to the modified return pipe it allows the sock to be used more efficiently by allowing more of the sock surface area to be used. If the sock was just over the skimmer basket there's only a small portion of area to capture fines and still allow water to pass.
At the height of pollen season I could only run the pump for 10 minutes with the sock in the basket before it clogged and bogged down the flow of water.
My option with the diverted return pipe isn't super attractive but it's all I could do to capture the pollen.
My pool is functionally the same as yours and only one year old.
Our pollen was high but it is starting to get lower.
No dead cat or grandma in pool I promise! But we do have some tiny leaf particles still in there. Not much at all its very hard to figure out where they are. At what levels can I get in the pool and do another sweep? Can't visually see the leaf particles unless I'm in the pool stepping on one.
Current test at 6:45
Fc 12.5
Cc .5
Cya 25 (half way between 20 and 30)
Today's readings before this last one:
630 am
Fc 16.5
CC .5
nothing added
12PM
FC 10
CC.5
Added 147oz and brushed walls/floor
2PM
FC 15
CC .5
Nothing added
4PM
FC 15
CC .5
Nothing added
7pm
Fc 12.5
Cc .5
Not sure if I should add or not? Maybe enough to get to 15? I will test again at 9pm.
No dead cat or grandma in pool I promise! But we do have some tiny leaf particles still in there. Not much at all its very hard to figure out where they are. At what levels can I get in the pool and do another sweep? Can't visually see the leaf particles unless I'm in the pool stepping on one.
Current test at 6:45
Fc 12.5
Cc .5
Cya 25 (half way between 20 and 30)
Today's readings before this last one:
630 am
Fc 16.5
CC .5
nothing added
12PM
FC 10
CC.5
Added 147oz and brushed walls/floor
2PM
FC 15
CC .5
Nothing added
4PM
FC 15
CC .5
Nothing added
7pm
Fc 12.5
Cc .5
Not sure if I should add or not? Maybe enough to get to 15? I will test again at 9pm.
Well I don't want to lead you down another path that you may be following from another poster here. I think they all intend to offer solid advice.
Have you done any vacuuming to waste yet? Maybe you don't know what that means at that point so I'll make a quick as possible explanation.
I don't recall you mentioning what style of sand filter you have. Mine has a multi-port valve on top which you move only when the pump is off. There's settings like filter, waste, recirculate, bypass, backwash. See pictures below. Disregard the random junk. In the photo of the sand filter disregard the orange cord and motor sitting next to it, it's just sitting there and has nothing to do with the pool.
Anyway when you have it set to waste it will send everything pumped out the waste port. So you need to have a waste hose that can reach to wherever you want it to go. You can buy that lay flat blue piece of garbage for $20 and have it blow out after four uses or you can buy some sump pump hoses at Lowe's or Home Depot which are much more durable.
I think you need to do a bunch of vacuuming to waste, I feel like you must have a bunch of organic material at the bottom. I don't think your sand filter is going to handle what's there already.
Opinion Alert: Anything the pool store sold you or gave you is working against you. I swore to not use anything but Clorox bleach, muriatic acid, arm and hammer baking soda, and stabilizer from Clorox. Unfortunately I had a moment and decided I would just use up the two bags of shock the pool place gave me. What a mistake, everything went downhill from there. (my store will give me lots of freebies to get me hooked, then they'll start charging)
Maybe you should post a picture of the chlorine / bleach you are using, the acid you used, the baking soda you used, the stabilizer you used.
If it is an option it seems like a major drain and refill would help you get where you want to be much faster, however that's probably about $140. Of water or more and then you'll have to add in everything else again
We drained it at the end of last summer. I have a 200 galloon sand filter (new sand a month ago) with the multi port valve with a 1hp hayward pump and we have vaccummed to waste many times! I will wait and see how tonight's number go and where it sits at in the am. I haven't added anything except bleach from rural king and the bleach from Wal-Mart and the stabilizer (which was recommended to bring my CYA from 0 to 30) since my original post. Should I remove the ladder? Also, stupid me, never thought to brush the pool EVER this year till 2 days ago. So I've been brushing a lot. I just assumed since the walls looked clean they were. So maybe me brushing has been gettimg stuff off walls and the bleach is attacking that?Well I don't want to lead you down another path that you may be following from another poster here. I think they all intend to offer solid advice.
Have you done any vacuuming to waste yet? Maybe you don't know what that means at that point so I'll make a quick as possible explanation.
I don't recall you mentioning what style of sand filter you have. Mine has a multi-port valve on top which you move only when the pump is off. There's settings like filter, waste, recirculate, bypass, backwash. See pictures below. Disregard the random junk. In the photo of the sand filter disregard the orange cord and motor sitting next to it, it's just sitting there and has nothing to do with the pool.
Anyway when you have it set to waste it will send everything pumped out the waste port. So you need to have a waste hose that can reach to wherever you want it to go. You can buy that lay flat blue piece of garbage for $20 and have it blow out after four uses or you can buy some sump pump hoses at Lowe's or Home Depot which are much more durable.
I think you need to do a bunch of vacuuming to waste, I feel like you must have a bunch of organic material at the bottom. I don't think your sand filter is going to handle what's there already.
Opinion Alert: Anything the pool store sold you or gave you is working against you. I swore to not use anything but Clorox bleach, muriatic acid, arm and hammer baking soda, and stabilizer from Clorox. Unfortunately I had a moment and decided I would just use up the two bags of shock the pool place gave me. What a mistake, everything went downhill from there. (my store will give me lots of freebies to get me hooked, then they'll start charging)
Maybe you should post a picture of the chlorine / bleach you are using, the acid you used, the baking soda you used, the stabilizer you used.
If it is an option it seems like a major drain and refill would help you get where you want to be much faster, however that's probably about $140. Of water or more and then you'll have to add in everything else again
Well I was suggesting pictures of the products you used because sometimes people think they have the right item when they don't.
I was speculating that maybe you have used splash less bleach or scented. You want just pure chlorine bleach which is sodium hypochlorite. The example pictures shows that 6% of what is in the bottle is sodium hypochlorite and the other 94% is water.
Just trying to rule things out.
Keep on keeping on.
To answer your question about the ladder, I would say no, unless there is organic material in it.
Maybe you meant a 200 pound sand filter? Otherwise that thing is gargantuan.
Good luck to you.
Sorry this is in three responses but I just tried to look up information on Rural King bleach. On their website there are reviews that say the label doesn't give any information other than 3% sodium hypochlorite. A few said it lacked any smell of chlorine. Im concerned that bleach has something else in it that's not good for your pool.
Clorox regular bleach is a known solid product.
I meant to mention the filter sock again. I think you should try using one in the skimmer basket and see what it catches. One night of the filter sock on my rigged return pipe proved the sand filter could not handle the pollen. Theres a really good price on Amazon for a ten pack.
I used 6 jugs of the 1st image at first and 4 of the 2nd image. Don't currently have the jugs as trash man picked up last night! And yes I meant 200 pound sand filter. I have gallons on my mind. Lol
cfherrman
TFP Guide
You could try putting some other fabric similar to or a womans nylon stocking over the skimmer basket and see what you catch. Just keep an eye on it as it can clog quick.
Have you checked the basket at the pump as well? Just occurred to me that there could be a bird, mouse, or anything in there. I don't think you mentioned anything about the pump basket so far.
I agree with the other poster, use a known good bleach. That shock from rural King worries me that it's in a clear container. The sun will destroy the chlorine quick according to articles I've read.
Are you 100% certain your testing the water correctly? I have the Taylor k2006c kit and it took quite a while to really understand what I was doing.
I'm almost certain I'm testing them right. I'm using the tf 100 kit and instructions are pretty clear to me. The pump basket is clean. We had maintance done on the pump a couple weeks ago and we also just cleaned it and replaced the oring when we put new sand in it. I will stick to walmart bleach from now on!
Am I reading that ad right? Is that 4 gallons of 10% bleach for $8?I used 6 jugs of the 1st image at first and 4 of the 2nd image. Don't currently have the jugs as trash man picked up last night! And yes I meant 200 pound sand filter. I have gallons on my mind. Lol
Now that you can see the bottom, you should be able to brush and see if you're stirring up anything. If you're pool is getting clearer daily, then keep doing what you're doing. If it stalls for a couple days, then you have to look at something else being a problem.
Yes, i see improvement every couple hours honestly. But when I sweep it seems to get a little cloudy for a bit.
At 11pm tonight my fc was 11.5. I decided not to add anything to that. I did have to add a little more water tonight as it was a tad low.
Hi there! I'm just lurking around and reading here. It looks to me like you're doing an excellent job now that you have your kit.
It hasn't been that long since you started your SLAM. Your readings from yesterday look to me like you're doing just what you're supposed to do. Test frequently and add as needed. If you keep that up I think you'll be seeing some decent results soon.
Keep up the good fight!
Taking a picture of the pool in the same area every day (something like the steps or ladder) will help to give you a day by day comparison. Sometimes it's hard to see the difference but with a picture you can see color changes or that exciting moment when another ladder step becomes visible. I remember how excited I was to finally see the pattern on the bottom of my pool.
It hasn't been that long since you started your SLAM. Your readings from yesterday look to me like you're doing just what you're supposed to do. Test frequently and add as needed. If you keep that up I think you'll be seeing some decent results soon.
Keep up the good fight!
Taking a picture of the pool in the same area every day (something like the steps or ladder) will help to give you a day by day comparison. Sometimes it's hard to see the difference but with a picture you can see color changes or that exciting moment when another ladder step becomes visible. I remember how excited I was to finally see the pattern on the bottom of my pool.