New Owner - Here are my levels, what order should I be doing things in.

nacra88

New member
Jun 14, 2024
1
Conn, USA
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Just moved to Connecticut River Valley and have a 40 year old, ~20k gallon in ground vinyl pool, sand filter and tab/cake style auto-chlorination. We also have a plug in Dolphin vacuum robot with fine and ultra fine filter boxes. Paid a company to open the pool for first time in, I'm guessing at least 2 years and they scrubbed, unplugged blah blah dumped a bunch of liquid chlorine i presume and said run the filter as often as you can and vacuum as often as possible, we are busy till july. Got the green to go away eventually after a lot of hair pulling, shocking and eventually trying flocculant. Which wasn't the solution but made me essentially do a 30-50% water change by vacuuming all the floc out to waste and refilling with garden hose water. So pool is mostly clear now and the green is gone. See attached photo from this week. Have since found TFP, got a TF pro kit and here are my #'s from today:
FC - 2.5
TC - .5
pH - 7.2
TA - 80
CH - 300
CYA - 10 or 0 (the look down tube & dot was essentially clear)
I also have some test strips that show:
Bromine - 1
Total Hardenss - 120
I am hoping the experts on here can tell me what the next steps are or what other info they need. I am going to do the Overnight FC Loss Test tonight or tomorrow and post those results, but I'm guessing CYA is the first step....? Thanks for all your help!
 

Attachments

  • Pool june 24.jpg
    Pool june 24.jpg
    237.6 KB · Views: 8
welcome,

I am not the expert but I think the first question is your OCLT. If it's zero then SLAM is done and I'd add CYA.

But I'm guessing that isn't the case because your chlorine levels are inadequate for SLAM even at CYA 0. In that case what I'd do is backflush the filter if needed; then add enough CYA to get to about 20 to help stabilize chlorine from sunshine degradation; then SLAM (add lots of chlorine per CYA/chlorine chart) and keep the level high enough till SLAM is done. Then back flush final time, let chlorine drift down, and simultaneously add CYA up to around 30-40 or whatever your goal is.

That's the process we use every year and it seems to work.
 
Do the OCLT.
If you pass, raise your CYA to 40ppm. Use dry stabilizer, put it in a sock, tie it off and hang on a stick at least 6" out in front of a return.
If you fail, follow the SLAM process. Link-->SLAM Process

Then, follow this always. Link-->FC/CYA Levels

Everything else looks fine.
 
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.