First water test - CYA off charts

[99sh]

My CC levels creeped a bit above 0.5ppm and have started to shock the pool. My deep end is also not crystal clear, which I cant seem to alleviate.

I'm on day #2 of my shock, keeping FC levels around 16-20 and repeated brushing. I also changed the grids in my DE filter this afternoon, so that's a plus. My last reading two hours ago showed 0 CC (water still cloudy). Let's see if it holds.

One interesting thing I noted is that my flow rate substantially increased after replacing the grids. I was getting about 12 GPM at 2100RPM before, it's now 43 gpm! I'm impressed how much the restriction I had before. Hopefully with the new DE & grids, things will clear up.

 

[Patrick_B]

Try to maintain your SLAM level no lower than 20 to be sure. It ought to come around without too much difficulty given a little time.

 

[Butterfly]

Nice work

My deep end is also not crystal clear, which I cant seem to alleviate.

You are close. Be sure to brush the deep end often. Also, I suggest that you verify your returns are all turned right (or all left) and slightly downward - to create the circular round and round flow. You may want to turn/angle the deep end returns more downward - at least for a while. Just making sure the circulation is good.

 

[99sh]

I'll keep my FC at 20 going forward. Unfortunately tomorrow is a work day, hope things don't go reverse on me. I'll check it in the morning and after I return from work. Would it be OK to have my FC at say 22-24 during work days, to keep account for any loss while I'm away?

My CC was back up to 1 PPM this morning as of 8:17AM (it was 0 last night). It almost seems to oscillate between 0 to 1. FC was 22.5 last night and 20 ppm this morning, but the sun has already come up (although not glaring directly at the pool).

Water does seem to be a bit more clear today; but that could be all in my head

edit: I'm testing FC/CC using a 10mL sample vs 25mL. I don't think that makes a difference, but thought I'd throw that in there.

 

[Smykowski]

Keeping it a little high is fine, and 10mL for testing is fine as well.

 

[99sh]

Cloudy water has now cleared up. My overnight FC consumption is about 2-3 PPM. CC is hovering around 0.5-1PPM. I'm going to backwash this weekend and recharge DE.

With the pump running 24/7 and the expense purchasing cases of chlorine, this is getting to rack up quite a bill. Shocking is quite the effort. The repeated brushing has built up some muscle

 

[jblizzle]

Remember this so you are more likely to prevent problems from starting in the first place

 

[Patrick_B]

Cloudy water has now cleared up. My overnight FC consumption is about 2-3 PPM. CC is hovering around 0.5-1PPM. I'm going to backwash this weekend and recharge DE.

With the pump running 24/7 and the expense purchasing cases of chlorine, this is getting to rack up quite a bill. Shocking is quite the effort. The repeated brushing has built up some muscle

Maybe a little, but not nearly the cost of going to a Pool Supply and continuing the vicious circle I promise. Good Job on this, and as Jason said, lesson learned.

I assure you, it will be easy from here, with minimal but consistent effort on your part to maintain the basics. Excellent!

 

[bridgman]

Just curious... I was looking back through the thread and at the start you said your water was clear. Did the cloudiness in the deep end develop recently, or was it always there ?

 

[99sh]

The cloudiness developed when I was last brushing the walls. The pool was clear at the time and floor/walls appeared to be clean. Post brushing, the entire pool was cloudy and eventually cleared up on the shallow end first. It had also been ~2 weeks between when I stopped my pool service to when I ordered/received the brush to start scrubbing myself. I'm not entirely sure if my pool guy did a decent job brushing (of if he did it at all).

My DE grids were also a mess. DE was caked on there in lumps and heavily restricted my flow and did nothing for filtration.

 

[duraleigh]

Your Pool Guy left you a neglected, mismanaged pool. Prolonged mismanagement like that takes a big effort and some time to clear up.

You got great advice from everyone above and you did well following their guidance.

You're not quite finished. read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School again and maybe even again. get familiar with your ranges your parameters should be in and test them often to keep them there. Keep an eye that your CC's are just fine at .5ppm but not good at 1.0 ppm.

Very nice work

 

[99sh]

Thanks for all the great advice, hats off to you guys

I went ahead and removed my light fixture and found some particles behind it. Almost looked like DE just sitting on the bottom of the fixture. You can kinda see it on the right of the drain here. Lets see what happens next...

 

[99sh]

I brushed so much, my King Fin spring broke! The CC is now < 0.5 (almost no pink), water crystal clear and the FC drop is <1 PPM. Today was the 1st day where the FC did not drop as much overnight. I'm going to continue the shock process until Sunday to make sure whatever was in there is dead. I also ordered a Liquidator and excited to use it - didnt even know such a thing existed until a few days back.

And thanks to everyone's advice here. Another BBB user/believer!

 

[pwrstrk]

Pool looks great thanks to your hard work. ?