Just bought house with pool---probably hasn't been opened in 3 years...

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nice pond you started with...
and good progress.
no point in testing the water til you get all/most the debris out. and i wouldn't run the pump before i could see the bottom.
leaf rake is good for big stuff - but as you mentioned - it stirs up the silt and any visibility is quickly gone.
i have used a leaf gulper next - but even the fine bag does not catch the silt. so i fitted it with one of these 5 micron filter bags - http://www.mcmaster.com/#5859k61/=x6iode - not intended for pools - but it helped with the silt.
last year i bought a used dolphin deluxe 4 robotic vacuum and its filter bag is pretty good at catching silt - but of course can only hold so much.

good luck.
 
SLAM DAY 13

Still had some algae clumped at the bottom this morning, so will keep slamming. But less than yesterday. Since the water is so clear, I am guessing that some of this gunk is coming off the sides? We have been brushing them every day to keep loosening the stains, but not sure that is working.

Bought a new scrubby sponge thing to try and work the stains off. Had minimal results.

day 13a.jpgday 13b.jpg
 
christo said:
no point in testing the water til you get all/most the debris out. and i wouldn't run the pump before i could see the bottom.
Click to expand...

Not true. You do need to test the water to see what needs to be balanced to do the SLAM. You also HAVE to run the pump to circulate the water to help mix the bleach and filter the water.

The OP is doing a great job of testing, asking questions and following through. Keep it up!

Next we will work on the stains...........

Kim
 
Skitch said:
Wow.

I live in Athens. If I had seen this thread sooner I would have drove over and helped.

Good work.
Click to expand...

I would've taken you up on that offer!

- - - Updated - - -

Interesting thing happened today. Lost about 3 inches of water over a six hour period. Also had very low chlorine levels, which I was kind of surprised at. Wonder what happened?

I did not backwash it all today, didn't have to. No apparent leaks that I can see.
 

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That is a lot of water to lose in 6 hours. You may have a leak that was being masked/plugged by material in the pool. You can start by checking the usual suspects for leaks such as cracked areas in skimmers. You can do this using food coloring in a syringe, releasing a small amount in areas that look suspect and see if the dye is sucked into cracks. Here are some videos. Food coloring is not the best as it's thinner than leak detection dye, but it works OK.
https://youtu.be/ZnCUuCXoruo
https://youtu.be/7dhKEWxjX6I

There are others on youtube.

I haven't seen you post any recent FC results, but the FC drop indicates that chlorine is being consumed by some latent algae growth or perhaps if you had a very sunny day and your CYA is still low, that could account for more FC loss.
 
SLAM DAY 15

Sorry, i skipped posting yesterday.

I have 2 issues to tackle: the water loss and the staining. For the water loss, we are losing about 2 inches every 24 hours. When we were doing the backwashing a few times everyday, we just assumed it was from that. But, it now appears we have a leak. We will try the dye testing described above today. It usually drops from mid-skimmer to the bottom of the skimmer and then stops dropping. So, i think we can rule out the underwater returns. I would guess it's the bottom of the skimmers or an underground pipe. If it is an underground pipe, are there any options other than digging?

As for the staining....for the past few days we have had crystal clear water. YAY!! But, at the Slam level of 20-22, we are still getting some algae clumpage like this 2x a day (we vac 2x a day):

day 15.jpg

Since the water is so clear, I am guessing this is coming from the stains on the sides? If so, my question is this....what will happen if we stop Slamming? Can we go down to regular FC levels and start enjoying this pool? Yeah, there will be stains on the sides but we can live with that for now. The reason I ask is because at the current rate it will take a very long time to get rid of the staining, and it's really REALLY hard to keep looking at the nice clear water while dumping in lots of bleach!
 
Jump in and enjoy your pool when you are just below SLAM level! Don't wear your new, best suit though LOL.

I wonder if it is staining or algae that has not be touched by the chlorine yet. I say get in with the brush and see what happens when you brush it that way.

Kim
 
The SLAM procedure tells you when to stop.
1. CC less than 1
2. OCLT passes at less than 1.
3. Water is crystal clear.

If you still have some sand, dead algae on the bottom but the water is crystal clear and you pass the other criteria, you can lower to maintenance levels. Perform the OCLT and let us know what happens.

Leaks: Investigate the skimmers as much as you possibly can with the dye testing. Check every edge, seam, suspicious looking spot from the skimmer mouth plate all the way through to the bottom of the skimmer suction hole. If you find no smoking gun in the skimmer assembly itself, you can maybe see if the dye is being sucked downward into the skimmer suction hole opening in one skimmer or the other. With the pump off and minimal turbulence in the skimmer bucket, you might be able to see flow down into the tube, indicating a leak in the line leading to that skimmer. Otherwise, you can also run the pump with only one skimmer on at a time and in each situation, see what your water loss is. If you lose with only one skimmer running, you know the problem is in that line/skimmer.
 
SLAM Day 16

FC 7.5 (it was at 10 last night, and we tested at 2 pm today)
CC 1
pH 7.2
TA 60
CYA less than 20?

I did the CYA test again using the suggested light behind me (hard to do at 2 pm). The solution was cloudy this time (not clear like before) but I could still see the dot all the way to the top of the tube. So, I will get more CYA, but until the leak is discovered and fixed, not sure how effective adding it will be. We have the hose adding fresh well water in the pool about 6 hours a day.

As for the leak...no one sells food coloring anymore! The stores I all checked sell food dye gel. Hopefully, I will have time tomorrow to get to the pool store.

I will test again tonight and tomorrow morning, see if we can pass the OCLT.

Until then...they promised to do some scrubbing while in:

day 16.jpg
 

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