New house, new pool, and an uphill battle

[kmerkel]

FC has never tested at 0 since I started and only dropped below 10 once. I've been adding chlorine with an intended target of 18ppm (splitting the difference between 40 and 50ppm CYA) at the rate of about a gallon of 12.5% per day, but over the last couple days it appears that consumption is tapering off; only added a half gallon last night and FC was still at 16ppm this morning.

In an ideal world I would have tended to it more carefully, but unfortunately real world commitments and weather didn't permit. As long as progress keeps getting made, I'm still calling it a win.

 

[kellyfair]

You do as much as you can do! Looking forward to another progress pic!

 

[kmerkel]

Speaking of the weather, I'm kind of concerned that the copious amount of rain we have received here over the last couple weeks has diluted the CYA down. I already had to drain some off once because it was up over the skimmer, and now it's back up that high again. Is this something I can do mid-SLAM, or should I just hope for the best and keep the FC at the levels I have been?

 

[mknauss]

If you have drained more than 25% of your pool volume then I would say a re-test is in order. But otherwise, your CYA has not changed all that much.

Good luck!

 

[kmerkel]

Maybe not 25%, but there has been a fair bit of rain water added. I started off with the level just above the minimum mark on the skimmer, which then got raised over the maximum mark by about an inch (completely over the opening) so I drained off a couple inches. Today it was back up as high as it was before so another couple inches came out. Probably 8" of total water height has been added and maybe 5" drained off.

 

[sccm_sysadmin]

FC has never tested at 0 since I started and only dropped below 10 once. I've been adding chlorine with an intended target of 18ppm (splitting the difference between 40 and 50ppm CYA) at the rate of about a gallon of 12.5% per day, but over the last couple days it appears that consumption is tapering off; only added a half gallon last night and FC was still at 16ppm this morning.

In an ideal world I would have tended to it more carefully, but unfortunately real world commitments and weather didn't permit. As long as progress keeps getting made, I'm still calling it a win.

I totally understand -- this annoying thing called "real life" sometimes has to take priority. :-x

 

[kmerkel]

Internet hive mind, I'm a bit concerned about the lack of improvement in water clarity. It's been going for almost three weeks now, and progress seems to have stalled out since the last update. The good news is I don't think I'm losing ground, but it doesn't look like I'm gaining much, either. So I, being the firm believer in the scientific method that I am, decided to dig a little deeper.

• CYA Level: My gut said to recheck, considering all the rain we've had recently and the significantly increased FC loss on sunny days. The measurement method for this is, in my opinion, almost too subjective since the final reading depends on the light conditions and the person observing it. Today, it appeared to be less than 40, so I added some more per Pool Math and will recheck probably tomorrow.
• Filter performance: This, I think, is the bigger part of the problem. I took water samples from the pool and directly from the return jet, and to my eyes there is no discernible difference between the two. I would expect that the return water would have noticeably better clarity. On the topic of the filter, backwashing has a tendency to eject sand with the waste water, and a few times now I've observed red/brown return water for a couple seconds after backwashing. I'm wondering if my sand of choice is not as good as advertised.

Any thoughts on this and/or something else I might not have considered?

 

[splashpad]

What is Zeo Ruby sand?

- - - Updated - - -

Found this on the website:
Trouble Shooting | ZEO Inc.

 

[kmerkel]

I'm going to take the filter head off to see what it looks like in there tonight. I followed the setup instructions that came with the sand and went straight to using it from there, so there wasn't any period of time where it could have settled like the FAQ suggests.

 

[splashpad]

Sounds good! Curious to see what you find

 

[kmerkel]

I found a lot of filthy sand, and that's it.

Couldn't really see inside very well, but feeling around the top of the sand didn't reveal any tunnels through to the bottom.

After I put it back together and purged the air out, I did a gentle backwash just using gravity from the pool and actually inspected the waste water. I wasn't seeing sand in the return flow, it was actual nastiness that I didn't get out completely because I was stuck on the notion that backwash had to be done with the pump and so I never did so for more than a few seconds.

Once that was done, there was significantly more flow out of the return, to the point that it was almost aerating. I redirected the jet so it pointed down more and immediately saw more debris kicked up in the water. Hopefully all this combined jump-starts clarification!

 

[kmerkel]

Looking more like a pool now! I vacuumed it late last week, and I was amazed by how much junk was still on the bottom, enough to completely clog the skimmer. I also now have the filter backflushing properly figured out, so flow is staying up. The water is still cloudy, but the color is beautiful, which hopefully means I'm over the worst of it.

As you can see, I've had the ladder out for basically the whole SLAM. It's hollow plastic, which means there's probably a bunch of nastiness hibernating inside from when it was in the swamp. What's the best way to make sure it's sanitized inside and out before putting it back in? Or would I be better off just replacing it?

 

[splashpad]

{pic}
Looking more like a pool now! I vacuumed it late last week, and I was amazed by how much junk was still on the bottom, enough to completely clog the skimmer. I also now have the filter backflushing properly figured out, so flow is staying up. The water is still cloudy, but the color is beautiful, which hopefully means I'm over the worst of it.

As you can see, I've had the ladder out for basically the whole SLAM. It's hollow plastic, which means there's probably a bunch of nastiness hibernating inside from when it was in the swamp. What's the best way to make sure it's sanitized inside and out before putting it back in? Or would I be better off just replacing it?

Can the ladder be disassembled? If so, some have disassembled it and "tossed" it in the pool so that the high SLAM chlorine can kill the algae on the ladder (but first scrub it down by hand for best results)

For Backwashing: Turn pump off, rotate lever to BACKWASH, BACKWASH until water/sight glass runs clear (3-5min for some filters/depending on pool water condition), shut off pump, rotate lever to RINSE, run pump for 2-3min (this clears the laterals of any dislodged debris so that is doesn't pump back into the pool), shut off pump, rotate lever to FILTER and resume "normal" operation
Once your pool is clean/clear, you shouldn't have to backwash too often =) (this depends on your pool's dirt/dust/pollen/debris rate of blow-in, of course)

 

[kmerkel]

Can the ladder be disassembled? If so, some have disassembled it and "tossed" it in the pool so that the high SLAM chlorine can kill the algae on the ladder (but first scrub it down by hand for best results)

It should come apart, I think. Might have to get creative with a way to tether the steps since there is no shallow end to toss them. Or could just disassemble, clean, reassemble, and put back as it was.

For Backwashing: Turn pump off, rotate lever to BACKWASH, BACKWASH until water/sight glass runs clear (3-5min for some filters/depending on pool water condition), shut off pump, rotate lever to RINSE, run pump for 2-3min (this clears the laterals of any dislodged debris so that is doesn't pump back into the pool), shut off pump, rotate lever to FILTER and resume "normal" operation
Once your pool is clean/clear, you shouldn't have to backwash too often =) (this depends on your pool's dirt/dust/pollen/debris rate of blow-in, of course)

The Zeo sand complicates the procedure a bit. Its low density means it gets caught up in the backwash flow and flushed out of the filter with the pump running. The best way I found is to put the valve in backwash, run the pump for 1-2 seconds to get the dirt into suspension in the water, and then let gravity do the rest of the work until the sight glass is clear. Put valve into rinse, flush out the remains with the pump, then go back to filter. From what I'm seeing, I don't know how that sand would work if the filter was above water level, like an IG pool, without significant medium loss.

 

[kmerkel]

And the surprises keep coming!

Found a dead mouse in the skimmer (which needed to be cleaned anyway) . I'm not sure how long it had been in there, but it looked fairly, um, fresh. Hopefully that will curb the chlorine consumption a bit; it seems like it's been a bit excessive for being this far along in the SLAM.

I also decided to clean the pump basket and found that it wasn't installed correctly, so that was probably restricting flow or at least not straining properly.

I've been mulling over adding some flocculant to the water or DE to the filter to help the clarifying process along, but I don't know if I should do it quite yet.

 

[splashpad]

And the surprises keep coming!

Found a dead mouse in the skimmer (which needed to be cleaned anyway) . I'm not sure how long it had been in there, but it looked fairly, um, fresh. Hopefully that will curb the chlorine consumption a bit; it seems like it's been a bit excessive for being this far along in the SLAM.

I also decided to clean the pump basket and found that it wasn't installed correctly, so that was probably restricting flow or at least not straining properly.

I've been mulling over adding some flocculant to the water or DE to the filter to help the clarifying process along, but I don't know if I should do it quite yet.

Floc will definitely ruin the zeo sand (or any filter for that matter).

According to the zeo sand website, it is supposedly equivalent to DE, (again according to it's website)... Which could mean you might need to do your light/quick backwash/rinse more frequently until the water is clear. (unlike "regular" sand that you want to "let" it get dirty, to enhance filtration)

 

[kmerkel]

Baseline filter pressure is 13.5psi. I've been backflushing at 16.

I'm glad I asked about floc/DE before doing it. This whole pool thing is new to me, but at this point I think I know enough to know when I don't know.

The water is getting clearer, slowly. I can now see several inches below the surface down the sides. Still going through about a gallon of 12.5% a day to keep FC at or near 20ppm. I'm attributing a lot of that consumption to the lack of shade which results in about 9-10 hours of sun exposure per day of clear skies.

 

[splashpad]

The water is getting clearer, slowly. I can now see several inches below the surface down the sides. Still going through about a gallon of 12.5% a day to keep FC at or near 20ppm. I'm attributing a lot of that consumption to the lack of shade which results in about 9-10 hours of sun exposure per day of clear skies.

The PATIENCE part of P.O.P. (pool owner patience) is the HARDEST part of SLAM Process, hands down!

It sounds like you are doing great though!

 

[kmerkel]

Noticed another milestone today. The water certainly isn't clear yet, but it's translucent enough that I was able to see a large swath of accumulated crud right in the middle of the pool. Vacuuming that out, and scooping out some other vitriolic sludge that I found by accident, should speed things up even more.

Every little bit is one step closer...

 

[kmerkel]

Vacuumed some more today and got a little more gunk out from the bottom. The murkiness significantly impairs judgment of how thorough the vacuuming was, but I find it hard to believe there's anything of much consequence left. The upside is I can see the faint outline of the leaf rake when it's on the floor, so that's something.

Real talk, how long should SLAM take when starting with a swamp like I did? This is now week 5, and I really had my hopes up that it would be done by now. Not that I'm on any sort of a schedule or need to keep a deadline, but the daily diet of about a gallon of 12.5% a day and the power bill for running the pump nearly 24/7 has been costing more than expected.