Greenish cloudy water

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Living proof you should do the full 10ml test? *This gal* FC is up to 24 to 25 which is on target based on my earlier add of bleach. I seriously need to get up before the sun tomorrow.

2 related questions (this is how much time I spend thinking about this). The directions for adding the powder mention a heaping scoop. I add as much of a heaping scoop as I can, but it appears that that doesn't matter as long as there is too much versus not enough. Am I understanding that correctly? It's okay if there are some granules in the bottom?

Also, where should the return jets be pointing (if I'm saying that right - where the water comes back into the pool and gets swirled around)? One is on the shallow end on the left side of the pool and one is on the deep end on the right side pool of the pool. Right now we have them pointing (if you are looking at them) right around 2 oclock to keep leaves, pollen etc from collecting in the corners. Should I maybe point the deep end one closer to 6 oclock?

Thanks for all the help today everyone. Truly appreciated!!!
 
I find that if there's one or two grains of powder undissolved before you start adding R-0871 drops, you have just the right amount. So you're testing perfectly.

Aiming the return jets can only be done by experimentation. If the wind comes from one direction, you'll need to fight that current. If you don't have a main drain, you might need one pointing down. It's just trial-and-error. I keep trying to move the drifts of dust I get closer to the main drain, but after 4 years, it still hasn't happened.
 
I've performed the FC test with a 5ml sample size many times without issue. Because you lose some precision I only recommend doing so for monitoring very high FC levels but NOT for the OCLT.
 
I lost 7 last night :(

Went to bed at a 24 and woke up to a 17. I must have some type of nuclear algae. That is invisible and doesn't show up anywhere :(

I'm shocking to a 24 all day today. Any other radical experiments I can go with other than the uppage of the FC levels? I also just redid my CYA test for affirmation of the 40 number I'm using and that still seems legit. (I had added two liquid stabilizers to kickstart in the beginning and then had a floating sock for days. My last CYA test was two days ago so I really just wanted to confirm the results were still consistent.

- - - Updated - - -

JesseWV said:
I've performed the FC test with a 5ml sample size many times without issue. Because you lose some precision I only recommend doing so for monitoring very high FC levels but NOT for the OCLT.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jesse. I'll do that for the next day or so - waiting for my refills to get here so I dont want to get caught short in the middle of this!

- - - Updated - - -

Richard320 said:
If you don't have a main drain, you might need one pointing down.
Click to expand...

Richard - thanks I'll have the nozzle repointed down today in the deep end. Maybe it's just a water flow issue. Although the water is crystal clear, have I mentioned that yet today? ;)
 
It sounds like you have someone or some thing having a party in your pool over night! Do you have a webcam? :) Seriously though, if the CC's are 0.5 or less and the water is clear, you can't be far from success.

I have one question though, is the pump running over night? Perhaps there's some really nasty stuff in the sand that's eating your FC. You could do the OCLT with the pump off to rule it out, but I think you should Deep Clean the Sand Filter like others have recommended.

While you are cleaning the sand with a hose as described in the link above, if you see anything green or smell anything funky, you could take it one step further:

Add two ounces of bleach to the water filled sand chamber, stir up the sand real good, and let sit for 15-30 minutes. If you can smell chlorine when you come back you know you at least killed something!
Then put the filter back together, backwash for a minute or two, rinse for 30 seconds and then go back to filter mode.
 
Interesting Jesse! We've had it all on nonstop since we opened, since we can't keep it on the level. Maybe today I SLAM to the 24 and then shut the power off when I do my OCLT tonight. This way if there's anything in the water, I'll have done as much damage to it that I can while it's running during the day. I'll do my last bleach add around 8:30 or so and then kill it at 930ish. Does that sound appropriate?

Then if it passes, I'll know it's something living in the filter. Ew.
 
We had a wicked storm come through late afternoon which dumped a bunch of debris in the pool. 45 minutes later and it's been cleaned up :)

I did a FC test and it said a 20 - told me to add about 161 oz of 8.25% bleach to get to a 24. I rolled the dice and said the heck with it and added 242 oz. Should be a nice boost during the nighttime hours to stave off the algae and if the weather drenches us again during the night, it should help me hold about 24.
 
PoolMath said to add 311 oz of chlorine to the pool to bring it up to a 24. I added 363 oz (three containers of Clorox). Can someone let me know if there is an acceptable ratio to go over by? If this is mustard algae, I'm trying to use the FC level of 24 for my CYA of 40. Since I'm running low on my test kit right now, can I add say another gallon around noon (high sun still) and another gallon this evening and kind of consider that to be enough?

Pool has high sun from now through 1pm. Then the sun ducks behind a tree and starts to shade the shallow end. The sun peeks back out onto the shallow end around 5 oclock for an hour or so when it goes through the other side of the big tree.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
At this point you should have a pretty good grasp on how "hungry" your beast of a pool is for chlorine. Look back over how much you've added and how often and keep on that track until the new reagents get there.

I wouldn't go any higher that Mustard Shock level or else you could risk bleaching your liner.
 
I think if you have a light niche you should clean it and perhaps clean the filter to see if you have a build up in there. If you have a ladder in the deep end, take it out and clean the rungs! At this point, I would clean anything that is movable or removable that is in the water until you find the Chlorine eating machine!
 
Thanks Casey - I haven't put the ladders in yet and there are no lights so the only thing I have are the two return jets and the one skimmer.

I just need an OCLT and naturally I didnt pass it. Today, I woke up to a 15 FC which is worse than it's been the last two days. My last test last night was at 10:30 PM (clearly dark enough). HOWEVER, my test this morning was at 6 AM and the sun was already out although not directly on the pool. I know to pass the OCLT you really need to do that test in the dark - that's understood. My only question is with daylight breaking but no direct sun on the sun, is there a chance it would have been high enough to pass it at a 24 if I made it out earlier? Or is the daylight too much of a variable? Seems to me that's an awful lot of FC loss in 30 minutes!

My pool is basically spotless when I wake up in the morning. There are small black 'dirt' specs along the seems of one or two of the liners this morning versus yesterday where it seemed to be noticeable on all of them. Those dirt specs are algae, correct? Im guessing natural dirt that gets in a pool dont do that :) If that's the case, I have a lot less then I did the last two days so that's a good sign but figured it would be worth asking!
 
Went to bed at a 24 and woke up to a 19. (With some sun mind you as I only got up at 6am.)

So I'm closer again then I was a few days ago. So to wake up early tomorrow and see if I pass this thing.

At one point do I need to be concerned about long term damage to the equipment? I read in one of the older threads that higher than normal FC like encountered when SLAMing can do some extra wear and tear on the equipment. Since this has dragged on for this amount of time are there any other considerations I need to be worried about?

I also am teetering on the option of deep cleaning the sand filter. Scares me a little since it is not our filter and we are responsible for any equipment to be replaced. If a sand filter just had it's sand replaced last year, would it be worth it to attempt the deep clean? IE thta effects other parts of the filter correct?

Thanks as always!

Lorraine
 
Although this is much more basic then the one posted yesterday which I'm trying to work with, I have a quick cheat sheet of the last 24 hours.

Testing results in red and bleach added in green for readability.

Date Time Level Bleach Added Comments
6-Jun 6:30 AM 15 363
6-Jun 9:00 AM 24 0 Direct sunlight - half
6-Jun 12:00pm 21 121 Direct sunlight - full
6-Jun 2:20pm 23.5 40+ 75% shade
6-Jun 5:00pm 24 Full shade
6-Jun 7:00 PM 18.5 242 Direct sunlight - shallow end only
6-Jun 10:00 PM 24 0 Dark :)
7-Jun 6:30 AM 19 242 No direct sunlight yet



That's a total of around 1000 oz of bleach in one 24 hour period including the first morning dose this morning.

Just wow.

*On edit - should I consider adding any additional CYA to the pool? I do have some hockey puck chlorine tabs floating around in the garage still. My CYA is currently 40 but my pool gets a lot of sun during the day. Is it okay to use the tabs to bump the CYA a little to help me through this?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply