Hurricane Havoc

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PoolGuy52

Member
Nov 6, 2020
11
Florida
In addition to many other things, hurricane Ian destroyed the screen enclosure over our pool. There is much debris, tree leaves, and other foliage in the pool which I have cleaned out the majority of. I still have to vacuum the small stuff.

My pool water now looks like pea soup. I have done slam treatments before but nothing approaching this. There is green on the sides and the bottom of the pool. In fact I can barely see deeper than 6 inches down through the water but I know it’s there.

Is it even possible to salvage this. Any advice would be very much appreciated. I’m really at a loss as to what to do here.
 
Vac as much of the green as you can, preferably to waste. (Or clean the filter after).

Slam is Slam. Big or small has the same steps. Yours is obviously going to take more chlorine than a light algae outbreak, but we've cleared way worse before. :)

SLAM Process
 
Thank you for your response! My main concern was doing a slam on water that is so visibly bad. If I didn’t know better, or if you hadn’t confirmed, I would think this would need to be emptied and replaced. Glad I don’t have to do that!

Question: there is a lot of green on the sides and bottom and I’m worried about staining. Will that come clean with brushing throughout the slam process?
 
Depending on water cost and your local conditions, drain and refill would likely be quicker and cheaper. Do be ware that draining entails risks.

Algae does not stain. It will be eliminated by following the SLAM Process
 
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+1. When faced with a similar challenge, I drained half and then only had half the battle once full again. But I had a clear path to drain and free water from an irrigation pump. (Minus the 4 hours electric cost to run the pump).

But the pool or the process wouldn't care if it was a mild algae, or a swamp.
 
As a follow up, my pool has been clear for about a week. However, it is still using a lot of chlorine and I’m still in the slam process. It used six ppm and my overnight test last night. The combine chlorine ranges between 1.0 and 1.5. I’m not sure why it’s taking so long especially since it’s been clear. The stabilizer is at 50.

Any thoughts or similar experiences from the community would be most appreciated!

Thanks
 
How crazy have you gone finding all the spots algae could be hiding in plain sight and being introduced ? Light niches/ auto fill/ ladder rails / all up in the skimmers / etc. Deep clean the filter if you haven't already too.

Every inch is suspect until it's proven otherwise on prolonged SLAMs.
 
I have searched very thoroughly and I am not seeing anything. The first week of the slam I brushed, vacuumed, and cleaned the filter 3 to 4 times. When the water was super clear I got a new filter. That was about a week ago. So I’ve been doing this for two weeks. Remember, it started out pea soup green. I can’t seem to get the combined chlorine below 1.5 ppm.

I’m adding chlorine equivalent to 15 ppm on average per day. My normal output with SWG is 3-4
 
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Hi Duraleigh

No, I have the swg off.

The last 7 days I’ve averaged 17 ppm chlorine use per day. Did an overnight ch loss test last night and it’s was 3 ppm. The combined ch seems to be rising. It was 2 ppm.

Guy at the pool store said it might be phosphates.
 
Glad you have the SWG off.........SLAM can be done with it on but it's confusing for a lot of folks. Leave it off until you get your pool clear.

You are using an extraordinary amount of chlorine but the only real solution is more chlorine over and over until the use starts to dwindle. Keep vacuuming, cleaning/backwashing your filter and run the pump 24/7. You have a ton of organic material in your pool but the chlorine, filtration and cleaning will get it........stay the course.

Please disregard advice from the pool store. Phosphates are not relevant in this situation (if ever))

Don't worry about you CC test going up and down.........that's the nature of that test.
 
Thanks. To be clear(no pun intended) the water is crystal clear. The only thing I haven’t been doing since it cleared up is brushing and vacuuming. I got a brand new filter and cleaned that once. It looks great which has me baffled. I looked and the there is no algae that I can see.

Confusing…and frustrating!
 
always remember that ONLY two things consume FC in your pool........UV from the sun and organics in your pool water. When you do the OCLT, you remove sunlight as a possibility so the inescapable fact is there are still organics in your pool water.

Your FC consumption will fall off only after you kill those organics. They are not always visible.
 
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Does your pool have it's own toothbrush? If not get it one. Use it around the returns, lights, skimmer door (front and back), etc. Did you take the light out? If not do so as algae has been known to hide in there. This is not fun but you will get it done!!
 
Thank you for your replies! I discovered today, after losing 14 ppm in four hours that my stabilizer is extremely low maybe 10.

It was 50 ppm when I started the slam 2 weeks ago. I checked it again last week and it was still 50. How did it drop so far? Would all of the chlorine I’ve been adding have depleted the stabilizer? If so I have just learned something I did not know before. At least it explains why my chlorine is dropping so much during the day. It’s still dropping 2 to 3 overnight but much more during the day. That’s why I decided to check the CYA again.

So, Duraleigh, you are absolutely correct when you said it’s either organics or sun. I’m confident that will be further proven out once I get my stabilizer level up and I can more accurately measure chlorine loss due to organics and not sunlight.

Can you confirm my hypothesis that all of the Corine I’ve been adding depleted my stabilizer. I don’t know how else to account for it.
 
I am using the K – 2006C test kit. I am still using up 12 to 15 ppm per day after one month of slamming. There is absolutely no algae and the water is crystal clear. I added a new filter two weeks into this test and I have cleaned it once. Is there anything else that I should be doing or is there anything that can explain this prolong process. Last night between sunset and 9 AM this morning are used 6.5 ppm. There is only about two hours of sunlight. Then from 9:00 until 1:00 I used another 8 ppm.

My stabilizer is at 50 which I just checked again to make sure.
 
Looks like you started slam on Oct 18th? Almost three weeks in for a Pea soup water quality may not be that bad, especially if it’s the pea soup recipe with chunks of ham in it. 🙂 Keep at it, you have something eating chlorine. Have you removed light niches, etc?
 
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