Hi, everyone. We opened our 18x36 IG Vinyl pool in the middle of last month. It was a swampy mess! I think it was so bad in part because the winter was very mild, but I made it worse by closing early and allowing leaves to sit on the cover long enough to weight it down into the water. Lessons learned here.
After opening, I added 2 gallons of chlorine at the recommendation of the company I've been working with for opening/closing since buying this pool a couple years ago. Pump to 24x7. Two days later, most of the solids were gone, but the color was not great:
FC: 1.0
CC: 1.0
pH: 7.7
TA: 100
CH: 400
CYA: 55
I started running the dolphin to assist with brushing at this point, and that kicked up a ton of nasty dust that took a few days to go away. Then we left town for a little over a week, so obviously I didn't come back to any drastic improvement. Color was a little better, but still very murky with plenty of green.
Upon return:
FC: 0.2
CC: 0
pH: 7.0
TA: 130
CH: 400
CYA: 0 (This still baffles me, but I re-tested several times and found that it was low enough that my Taylor kit's test would not let me get a reading)
So I picked up some stabilizer and chlorine and started a SLAM after reading up on the process. Somehow, I misunderstood the process and was aiming for a FC of 4.0. I'm still not sure how I got this number into my head, but it's what I was striving for from the 25th until the 29th. Here's where it got me by the 28th:
FC: 4.6
CC: 0
pH: 7.8
TA: 150
CH: 300
CYA: 10
It's worth pointing out that I was making another big mistake in my SLAM process here because I had loaded some chlorine (4x) tabs in the skimmer. I was still trying to get the CYA up and figured it wouldn't hurt, but all it really did was make my SLAM progress more difficult to monitor since it was a steady trickle of FC into my test results. I ended up removing those, so they are no longer a factor but want to call them out since they contributed to the FC seen above.
On the evening of 5/29, the lightbulb went off for me, and I realized I was aiming for way too low FC for a proper slam. The water was improving, but still hints of green and too cloudy to see to the bottom of my ladder. I also managed to get my CYA back up before starting this, as I didn't want to waste chlorine.
For the last two days, I have been following what I believe is a proper SLAM, but I'm sharing all this in hopes that someone can help me be sure I'm not making any other stupid mistakes. I'm encouraged by the progress I'm seeing day to day. I can now see further down, and the color continues to improve.
My tests are consistent at this point. I'm typically showing 0.5-1.0 FC, 1.0-2.0 CC, and a CYA around 45. My only concern is that I'm using a lot of chlorine. I've bought about half of what Home Depot had on hand this week.
5/30: 19 gal 10% + 5 lbs dichlor (I ran out of liquid and wanted to keep the pressure on) - This was across five different test & treatment periods
5/31: 12 gal 10% - Across two different test & treatments (Sunrise & Sunset)
Today, 6/1, I have added the recommended 4.25 gallons of 10% and have 15 more gallons on deck.
I'm brushing when I get the chance (at least daily) and running the dolphin consistently to try and stay on top of any rogue leaves.
Apologies for this long-winded rant, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible in order to wrap up with a few questions:
If you read this far, thanks for riding the roller coaster with me. I'm grateful for the wealth of wisdom shared here.
After opening, I added 2 gallons of chlorine at the recommendation of the company I've been working with for opening/closing since buying this pool a couple years ago. Pump to 24x7. Two days later, most of the solids were gone, but the color was not great:
FC: 1.0
CC: 1.0
pH: 7.7
TA: 100
CH: 400
CYA: 55
I started running the dolphin to assist with brushing at this point, and that kicked up a ton of nasty dust that took a few days to go away. Then we left town for a little over a week, so obviously I didn't come back to any drastic improvement. Color was a little better, but still very murky with plenty of green.
Upon return:
FC: 0.2
CC: 0
pH: 7.0
TA: 130
CH: 400
CYA: 0 (This still baffles me, but I re-tested several times and found that it was low enough that my Taylor kit's test would not let me get a reading)
So I picked up some stabilizer and chlorine and started a SLAM after reading up on the process. Somehow, I misunderstood the process and was aiming for a FC of 4.0. I'm still not sure how I got this number into my head, but it's what I was striving for from the 25th until the 29th. Here's where it got me by the 28th:
FC: 4.6
CC: 0
pH: 7.8
TA: 150
CH: 300
CYA: 10
It's worth pointing out that I was making another big mistake in my SLAM process here because I had loaded some chlorine (4x) tabs in the skimmer. I was still trying to get the CYA up and figured it wouldn't hurt, but all it really did was make my SLAM progress more difficult to monitor since it was a steady trickle of FC into my test results. I ended up removing those, so they are no longer a factor but want to call them out since they contributed to the FC seen above.
On the evening of 5/29, the lightbulb went off for me, and I realized I was aiming for way too low FC for a proper slam. The water was improving, but still hints of green and too cloudy to see to the bottom of my ladder. I also managed to get my CYA back up before starting this, as I didn't want to waste chlorine.
For the last two days, I have been following what I believe is a proper SLAM, but I'm sharing all this in hopes that someone can help me be sure I'm not making any other stupid mistakes. I'm encouraged by the progress I'm seeing day to day. I can now see further down, and the color continues to improve.
My tests are consistent at this point. I'm typically showing 0.5-1.0 FC, 1.0-2.0 CC, and a CYA around 45. My only concern is that I'm using a lot of chlorine. I've bought about half of what Home Depot had on hand this week.
5/30: 19 gal 10% + 5 lbs dichlor (I ran out of liquid and wanted to keep the pressure on) - This was across five different test & treatment periods
5/31: 12 gal 10% - Across two different test & treatments (Sunrise & Sunset)
Today, 6/1, I have added the recommended 4.25 gallons of 10% and have 15 more gallons on deck.
I'm brushing when I get the chance (at least daily) and running the dolphin consistently to try and stay on top of any rogue leaves.
Apologies for this long-winded rant, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible in order to wrap up with a few questions:
- Am I making any glaring mistakes since that adjustment on 5/29? I didn't want to use the dichlor; but also didn't want to stop with the aggressive treatments and couldn't get into the city to buy more liquid
- Pool company responded to my SOS yesterday and invited me in to do a test. They found no phosphates but did show nitrates. The pool shop let on like I'd have to drain the pool to get rid of it, but my interpretation of similar discussions here is to stay the course and keep adding chlorine. I use well water and am surrounded by agricultural property, so I expect this is something I'll never truly get rid of - Which makes draining / refilling seem kind of pointless.
- Is it safe to continue several treatments daily? I was initially thrown by the fact that adding all this chlorine never seemed to result in an increase in FC - or even a corresponding (high) CC. But I am making the assumption the breakdown of whatever is in there is simply resulting in it being released elsewhere. I'd like to continue hitting 3-4x per day over the weekend, as I need to be out of town a few days next week and don't want to lose this momentum by letting whatever is in there gain another foothold.
- While away for a few days, does it make sense to load the skimmer with pucks just to keep a steady inflow of FC?
If you read this far, thanks for riding the roller coaster with me. I'm grateful for the wealth of wisdom shared here.
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