I am hoping the TFP community can get some amusement out of my recent pain. I have included my story and pictures just to give you a full background of what is going on. Hopefully this is amusing enough for you to try and help me out.
I purchased a home with a pool last fall. Like all first time pool owners I got advice from the pool store. I told them the pool looked like a lake and I can only see an 6” into the pool before my hand disappears. Advice was to put the cover on and deal with it in the spring.
Spring rolls around and I pull the cover off to get started. Boy was I in for more than I bargained for. Found three dead turtles, two alive, two bull frogs, and various insects. Found what I now know to be turtle eggs as well. Some alive images of the aquarium pictured below. I will spare you the picture of disintegrated reptiles.
Once I caught the animals and fished the carcasses out, I began by removing leaves and algae in the bottom. Along with various other items that had fallen in. I did this every day I got home from work for two weeks until it was time for bed. I had four piles around the pool as pictured below. These piles of leaves are much larger than they appear because everything compacts onto itself. I broke two poles and a skimmer net in the process.
After all of the leaves were removed I started working on the equipment. The old SWG was not working and was manufactured in 2013 so I replaced it with a Hayward aquarite and t15 cell along with adding a timer. Pump was also seized so I spun it a few times then replaced all the seals on it. After all of this and fixing all the wiring gremlins the equipment was running.
So now with large debris removed and working equipment I was ready to “shock” the pool. Added 11lb of 65% cal hypo. Test strips (I know they are not the best) went from Barney purple to paper white within two hours. Same thing happened again with 9lbs the next day.
This is where I made my first major mistake and surrendered all of my thoughts to the pool store. They sold me two bottles of 90 day Algaecide, some phosphate remover, ph balance, 65% cal hypo, yellow trine for mustard algae, and something else that “guarantees a chlorine residual”. Followed their instructions as suggested and it got a little better and turned greenish gray. Went through multiple flock treatments with them and multiple vacuums as well.
I am about a month in, $3500 poorer, and all my family asking when it’s going to be open, and the conversations of “just hire a professional”.
Super frustrated by this point I began to dive into researching everything and find TFP. See everyone talks about the SLAM method constantly and swear by it so I was gonna give that a shot.
I gear up by buying a boat load of 10% chlorine from rural king ($17 for 4gal!) as I know this is suggested and a 55lb bucket of 65% cal hypo to keep it going after I got it high. Cal hypo was even cheaper from Amazon for $130.
SLAM method significantly helped along with the pool math calculator for dosing. I was jumping for joy when I first saw the bottom. I could hardly contain myself.
Pool is now blue but cloudy. Pool cleared up fast for a day or two and no improvement over the next 4 visually. I can see the shallow end (3.5’) but only about half way down to the deep end (8 or 9’).
My question now is, what is my source of the cloudiness? Does the floc play a part, could my sand be bad, just keep doing the slam? How long could this take?!?
Everything has gotten so convoluted at this point that I just want to make sure I am continuing down the right road. I am tired of spending money on chemicals and want to make sure there isn’t something else I should do as I feel like I might be on the outside of a normal “green” pool.
I have been using a hach dr300 with free chlorine and total chlorine pillow powders for testing. This unit is extremely accurate but only up to 10ppm. I have a Taylor k2006c kit on the way. Below are my current levels. I let the chlorine levels get down because I’m swimming in this thing come heck or high water for Memorial Day. I will pick back up with treatment after.
I have been using the pool math app for recommended slam levels vs CYA and it recommends 19ppm. I have maintained it between 20 and 8 for a week now. Most of the time between 15 and 20ish.
FC 5.3
CC 1.2
PH 7.3
CYA 48
TA 127
CH 227
Salt 2900
Estimate pool to be 30-35k gal
Sand filter
Performing OCLT currently because I know someone will ask.
Thank you for reading my sob story and I appreciate any input!
I purchased a home with a pool last fall. Like all first time pool owners I got advice from the pool store. I told them the pool looked like a lake and I can only see an 6” into the pool before my hand disappears. Advice was to put the cover on and deal with it in the spring.
Spring rolls around and I pull the cover off to get started. Boy was I in for more than I bargained for. Found three dead turtles, two alive, two bull frogs, and various insects. Found what I now know to be turtle eggs as well. Some alive images of the aquarium pictured below. I will spare you the picture of disintegrated reptiles.
Once I caught the animals and fished the carcasses out, I began by removing leaves and algae in the bottom. Along with various other items that had fallen in. I did this every day I got home from work for two weeks until it was time for bed. I had four piles around the pool as pictured below. These piles of leaves are much larger than they appear because everything compacts onto itself. I broke two poles and a skimmer net in the process.
After all of the leaves were removed I started working on the equipment. The old SWG was not working and was manufactured in 2013 so I replaced it with a Hayward aquarite and t15 cell along with adding a timer. Pump was also seized so I spun it a few times then replaced all the seals on it. After all of this and fixing all the wiring gremlins the equipment was running.
So now with large debris removed and working equipment I was ready to “shock” the pool. Added 11lb of 65% cal hypo. Test strips (I know they are not the best) went from Barney purple to paper white within two hours. Same thing happened again with 9lbs the next day.
This is where I made my first major mistake and surrendered all of my thoughts to the pool store. They sold me two bottles of 90 day Algaecide, some phosphate remover, ph balance, 65% cal hypo, yellow trine for mustard algae, and something else that “guarantees a chlorine residual”. Followed their instructions as suggested and it got a little better and turned greenish gray. Went through multiple flock treatments with them and multiple vacuums as well.
I am about a month in, $3500 poorer, and all my family asking when it’s going to be open, and the conversations of “just hire a professional”.
Super frustrated by this point I began to dive into researching everything and find TFP. See everyone talks about the SLAM method constantly and swear by it so I was gonna give that a shot.
I gear up by buying a boat load of 10% chlorine from rural king ($17 for 4gal!) as I know this is suggested and a 55lb bucket of 65% cal hypo to keep it going after I got it high. Cal hypo was even cheaper from Amazon for $130.
SLAM method significantly helped along with the pool math calculator for dosing. I was jumping for joy when I first saw the bottom. I could hardly contain myself.
Pool is now blue but cloudy. Pool cleared up fast for a day or two and no improvement over the next 4 visually. I can see the shallow end (3.5’) but only about half way down to the deep end (8 or 9’).
My question now is, what is my source of the cloudiness? Does the floc play a part, could my sand be bad, just keep doing the slam? How long could this take?!?
Everything has gotten so convoluted at this point that I just want to make sure I am continuing down the right road. I am tired of spending money on chemicals and want to make sure there isn’t something else I should do as I feel like I might be on the outside of a normal “green” pool.
I have been using a hach dr300 with free chlorine and total chlorine pillow powders for testing. This unit is extremely accurate but only up to 10ppm. I have a Taylor k2006c kit on the way. Below are my current levels. I let the chlorine levels get down because I’m swimming in this thing come heck or high water for Memorial Day. I will pick back up with treatment after.
I have been using the pool math app for recommended slam levels vs CYA and it recommends 19ppm. I have maintained it between 20 and 8 for a week now. Most of the time between 15 and 20ish.
FC 5.3
CC 1.2
PH 7.3
CYA 48
TA 127
CH 227
Salt 2900
Estimate pool to be 30-35k gal
Sand filter
Performing OCLT currently because I know someone will ask.
Thank you for reading my sob story and I appreciate any input!
Okay, so you took the long (expensive) road, but you finally made it to TFP. 
The elevated CC level is the only issue right now. No doubt the chlorine is still killing something. Checking that light would be a good place to start. If you have a main drain, going down there to remove the cover would also be a good thing to do. 
Also check behind the skimmer weir doors. Sometimes they have hidding spots.
