My 30 day initial start up is done, now what?

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Everything is golden with your SWG now salt level looks great (exactly like mine). I also suspect you have an algae issue. Put 1-2 gallons of regular bleach in the water and test after 15 minutes. SWG supply a little chlorine all the time but you need a lot of chlorine asap. In addition, I would set your schedule to run your pump 24x7 at 1500 rpms or higher. My pump runs 24x7 and I keep my SWG at 50%. In your case, you should be able to run at 25% given you have 1/2 the water volume I have. That is, after your algae issue is resolved. For now you need to get the chlorine level up and keep it up for a SLAM.
 
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Update for this morning:

FC 0.2 (at least it was not 0)
pH 8.0+
Salt 3000

I quickly put in one gallon 10% chlorine and about 1/5 gallon MA 31.45%. This bumped up the FC to 5.8 and pH down to 7.4

I will check FC levels tonight and see what it is again in the morning to see what the overnight loss will be.

One question I have is, when we check for FC, we add R-870-I to 25ml to make it turn pink and then count the drops of R-871-C to see the FC level. Then to check CC, do we use that same sample of water we just added R-870-I and R-871-C in, and add add the R-0003-C, or do we dump it out and use fresh pool water sample to add the R-0003-C?
 
You fill the beaker with 10ml of water, add 1 scoop of the DPD powder (turns pink), then add the 871 1 drop at a time until it turns clear. Then divide by 2 for your free chlorine. So 8 drops = 4 parts FC. Once clear, use that same sample for your CC test.
 
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Also I am still not understanding how you are getting . (point) anything for your chlorine readings. The chlorine results come whole or 1/2 numbers only.
 
Use a 10ml sample and save on regent.

As others have recommended above, add LC to keep your FC up. I also suspect you have an algae issue due to the low FC after start up so you may want to SLAM your pool with LC. It shouldn't take too long to complete the SLAM due to limited organics in your pool. Once the SLAM is completed per TFPs tutorial/instructions, let the SWCG maintain the FC level.

Good luck and nice looking pool!
 
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wilafur said:
Use a 10ml sample and save on regent.

As others have recommended above, add LC to keep your FC up. I also suspect you have an algae issue due to the low FC after start up so you may want to SLAM your pool with LC and then let the SWCG maintain the FC level once you have completed the SLAM process in its entirety.

Good luck and nice looking pool!
Click to expand...

Thanks wilafur! I guess being new at water testing and pool ownership, I just did what the instructions asked for thinking it would be more accurate. I will scale it back down to the 10ml sample from now on.

I was testing CH with 25ml and dropping a whole lot of regents to get to my 330 ppm. I tried 10ml and got a 325 reading. Wasn't sure how accurate we needed to be during start up.
 

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OK so the overnight chlorine loss test came back at 2.5 loss of FC. So I guess this means I have algae and need to do a SLAM?

I tested CC and it came back at 0.

Goes to show you that you can’t trust your pool maintenance guy. Water looks great and crystal clear. Who knows how he is really maintaining the pool? I was testing the water regularly during the 30 day start up. Had no idea there was an issue. I know the water got a little cloudy around 2nd or 3rd week but he cleared it up when that happened. And I know FC went down to zero a couple of times. I’m sure he did just the bare minimum to keep the water looking clear.

Off to pick up loads of chlorine! ?
 
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Looking at my FC consumption, I really did not have an issue until the salt was added. If you take a look at 9/14, I added 1 gal of 6% bleach to bump up my FC from 1.0 to 3.2. I also added 4 bags of salt at that time. That was at night. The next morning my FC was at 2.8. On 9/16 is when I started to see my issues with FC loss. My OCLT done last night shows a drop from 4.5 to 2.0. Do you think the salt has anything to do with this FC loss?

The salt added was Diamond Crystals Bright and Soft pellets with 99.8% purity. I could not find any solar salt at the time. After research, it shows that this salt has Sodium Hexametaphosphate 0.03%. Looking at previous threads about this Sodium Hexametaphosphate, it really should have minimal affects on the water.

What are you thoughts?

Water_Tests.JPG
 
OGSW20 said:
Looking at my FC consumption, I really did not have an issue until the salt was added. If you take a look at 9/14, I added 1 gal of 6% bleach to bump up my FC from 1.0 to 3.2. I also added 4 bags of salt at that time. That was at night. The next morning my FC was at 2.8. On 9/16 is when I started to see my issues with FC loss. My OCLT done last night shows a drop from 4.5 to 2.0. Do you think the salt has anything to do with this FC loss?

The salt added was Diamond Crystals Bright and Soft pellets with 99.8% purity. I could not find any solar salt at the time. After research, it shows that this salt has Sodium Hexametaphosphate 0.03%. Looking at previous threads about this Sodium Hexametaphosphate, it really should have minimal affects on the water.

What are you thoughts?

View attachment 118876
Click to expand...

FC dropping to 1 is time for an algae party. You can never let the FC drop below the minimum for your CYA level - FC/CYA Levels

It was the FC dropping below minimum around 9/14 and not the salt you added that allowed algae to take hold in your water.
 
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FYI: Everything you are doing with that spreadsheet you can do with the poolmath app for your smart device. Check it out it's a great logging resource. And you can share results with this board (click my name left).

PoolMath Logs

www.troublefreepool.com
 
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PoolGate said:
FYI: Everything you are doing with that spreadsheet you can do with the poolmath app for your smart device. Check it out it's a great logging resource. And you can share results with this board (click my name left).

PoolMath Logs

www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...
Thanks, I believe you have to subscribe to the PoolMath app to be able to track multiple logs, which I have not done yet.
 

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