New Pool Owner in Mesa, AZ

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6:30 PM FC 22.5, down 3.5 in 6.5 hours

Leaving it at 22.5. Will test again before going to bed. We need to go buy more Chlorine, but it's storming out right now. Lots of lightning, wind, and rain so we'll get some at Walmart later after things settle down.
 
Rusty changed his mind and bumped the pool up to 26.5 after the 6:30 PM reading last night. We ended up going out to eat last night and went to bed without retesting when we got home.

7:00 am FC 26, down only .5 overnight (12.5 hours). We were surprised with it being so long and since it rained so much after the chlorine add.

We added another photo to our photobucket folder. When we got up this morning we discovered a cracked across the 2nd step down in our pool. I'll try to put the link in again so you can see it.

Pool by rustyandbonnie | Photobucket
 
That's wonderful on the .5 loss last night :party: but I sure hate to hear about/see the crack. I think Murphy is at work again, isn't he? :(.
It doesn't appear it is completely open though are you all losing any water because of it today?

Hopefully with the FC holding so well last night it won't be long depending of course on what that CC level still is. Also hopefully the crack will be a quick repair should it start causing you issues.

You guys keep us posted and perhaps a passing OCLT is in your near future. :whoot: Have a wonderful day :).
 
I'm glad to hear you're not losing any water.

Yeah but during the day that Hot AZ sun can use your chlorine up pretty quickly 3 is much better than 7 though, we are getting closer. :). The overnight numbers are more important than the daytime numbers as they give us a better overall idea of what's going on in there without the sun interfering in the readings.

On your evening and morning checks remember to check a CC also so we can see if it is down from the 2 CC it was at yesterday then we can go from there. Have a wonderful night.
 
Sorry to hear about the crack in the step. I was going to ask what that shadow line was in pic 4 of your original pic upload - different angle and not as close. It may not be a structural issue - at least hope it isn't. Just watch it and see if it's widening or the pebbletec is chipping out. If it doesn't get any wider, you may be able to seal it and keep it from getting worse. But let's see what it does first.

Great to hear you only lost .5 last night! Maybe that rain helped?.. - how much did you get? We only had about 15 minutes of light to moderate rainfall and a bit of wind here. Heard it was way worse in east Mesa.

You're really close to being done! Keep up the great work!
 
It down poured for about 1.5 hours. We got 2 inches according to the news. Our side yard was under water. When we bought this house we knew the runoff was wrong in our backyard, so our back porch was also full of water.

5:15pm FC 20, down 3 in 5hours 15 minutes, bumping up to 23
10:15 pm FC 23, stayed the same in the last 5 hours, CC 2

so it lost .5 overnight, lost 6 from 7 am to 5 pm and nothing from 5 to 10pm. Wonder how it will do tonight!

have a a wonderful night everyone.
 

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LOL I agree "Grrrr". The rain or something sure stirred something up in there the other night, hopefully once it gets rid of this run of stuff it will stop it.

I know you guys are ready for it to be done too. LOL little did I know when I told you at the beginning that yours would probably be a short SLAM that there was algae hiding everywhere in there. Try to be sure you are bumping it up enough to try to keep it from ever dropping below 20ppm even if you have to raise the FC Target higher. (But also just be sure to remain at Shock level, or lower when swimmers will be in the pool for safety.

I know it's tough to try to determine how much is needed when one night it drops by .5 and the next night it drops by 6ppm, then that CC of 2, so just do the best you can on trying to compensate until the drops stabilize back out some again. Anyway as always you guys are doing a great job, so keep it up. Have a wonderful day :).
 
4:00 pm FC 20.5, down .5 in 6 hours 15 minutes

Rusty brushed the pool down about an hour after this morning's test. The pool looked dirtier after brushing than it usually does, probably for dirt blowing in from the storms. He's going to go vacuum it out in a little while. He noticed we are getting more shade on the pool in the past few days.

We haven't been in the pool since we started this SLAM. The water is getting colder. Sure hoping we can enjoy the pool again before the water gets too cold! I know we can get in with the levels down, but we prefer not too.
 
The .5 loss sounds much better. I agree with Gene, if Rusty doesn't mind, ask him to just start checking an AM and PM CC level too when he checks the FC level) because with it at 2ppm the past 2 days we want to keep an eye on it to know if it is going up, or down, so we can tell more about where you are in the process.

And No, I did Not know you guys hadn't been swimming at all. That breaks my heart because you all are missing out/have missed out on your Summer fun because of that stupid algae, and I'm so sorry. I was hoping it would have been all gone by now, but the numbers keep telling us it isn't all killed out yet. :(

Like I mentioned before, it is safe to swim with the chlorine at Shock level, or lower. The bleach added in a washing machine raises the chlorine level to approx. 500ppm which is a huge jump from the 20ppm in your large volume of pool water right now. If you do decide to swim, I do suggest that you wear an older bathing suit vs a new one, as the higher chlorine my lighten the color, of course try to avoid drinking any of the water :), and that you shower afterwards just to rinse any chlorine off your skin, but you should do that regardless of what the chlorine levels are in your pool.

So as long as you check the FC level, and it is at 20ppm, or less, you guys can safely swim, if you want to. Just let the levels drop to or slightly below shock level, you and the family swim up a storm, and when you're finished just bring it back up slightly above shock level, and all will be fine.

Hopefully, your SLAM will soon be finished I hope, I hope, I hope.

I still can't believe though that there was that much hidden algae/organics in there, yet your water appeared clear, (lol well until you hit it with the extra bleach the 1st time), but the chlorine drops, and CC increases tells us there was/is algae/organics in there. So if the FC level will stop those big drops, and the CC drop back down to .5 or less,(which the chlorine is doing what it does to kill all that stuff out of there), then I'll be a happy camper, and I know you, and Rusty will be super happy campers too.

I'm continuing to keep my fingers crossed. Again I am so sorry that it is taking it so long and that the numbers will start to look like they are going to level out for you guys so you'll be able to finally pass OCLT, and then BAM, something else gets stirred up again. But again, you guys are doing everything you can do to get it killed out of there so keep up the great job, and have a wonderful night. :)
 
Rusty decided to go back out and test again and do the CC tonight.

At the last reading at 10:30 we measured out and put in 1 qt. 6 oz. Of 10% chlorine which we thought would bring it up to 22. Our test about 45 minutes later showed FC 24 and CC 2.

Aldo, Rusty brushed the pool down really good this morning and vacuumed it this evening. I guess we'll see what the test shows in the morning.

Have a great night!
 
Thanks Bonnie. The FC drops are looking much better.:whoot: (LOL I'm afraid to get too excited about it because I'm afraid MURPHY might be watching and I don't want to jinx you). Now if we can get the CC of 2 to follow suit you guys might actually be able to pass an OCLT :). That little extra chlorine in there tonight won't hurt a thing.

I'm hoping for a continued overnight loss of 1ppm or less, and for that CC level to be down at least some by morning. (I'd love to see the CC completely gone, but I suspect that's just wishful thinking, but we will see. I too am looking forward to, seeing what the AM levels are.

Anyway, you guys have a great night too. :)
 
7:15 am FC 22 down 2 overnight, 8 hours 15 minutes
CC 1...yay it went down 1

After reporting the numbers last night, Rusty mentioned that he had backwashed and the pool was down about 2 inches when he added the chlorine so that could be why the added chlorine bumped it up more than we expected. He did the backwash in the dark, so he couldn't really see if or when the water started running clear, but he said the yard was flooded more than the other times he backwashed. He also said the gauge was high (30) afterwards.

This morning the gauge is at 20. He is vacuuming again because he felt like the vacuum wasn't doing anything yesterday. It seems to lose suction. He's about a third of the way across the pool this morning and just checked the suction which for once is still strong. His family had a pool when he was younger and he said he could see the lines of clean/dirt as he vacuumed. He can't see that in this pool probably because of it being pebble tec.

Now, I have to tell you a funny story... Rusty was vacuuming the pool once when he was a kid and a plane was flying over. Instead of vacuuming the whole bottom of the pool he vacuumed "Rusty" across the bottom and left. He wondered if the people in the plane could see his name in the pool...lol

He just checked the gauge again and it's at 30 but he said the suction is still strong, which is the first time it has stayed strong throughout the whole vacuum process. He's going to backwash again to see if it runs clear now.
 
Hello Bonnie,

LOL They probably could see if from a plane. Good thing he didn't vacuum in a big ole SOS lol because he may have had an entire SWAT team called in, or something. Your Rusty sounds like he's a big jokester. I bet he's really fun to be around. (No wonder you 2 make such a good pair). :).

Yay is right on the CC being less today that's a good sign. Hopefully Rusty's excellent vac skills today will put it even lower than that. I'm not sure why the pressure was 30 after the backwash though, it should have went down to clean range number immediately following the backwash (20 in your case per what you told us). (Even 20 as a clean psi seems a little high in itself to me, but lol I've got a sissy filter so my clean number is like at 12 lol).

The pressure being at 30 would also explain the lack of adequate suction. The higher the pressure the less suction you'll see that's why it needs to be backwashed at a 20-25% pressure increase from your clean pressure. So if 20 is your clean pressure then a backwash should be done at around 23-25 psi which may be what's causing some of your issues, and making it difficult to clear all the stuff from the pool.

Mine rose higher than expected one day after adding DE to my sand filter for the 1st time. I had an approx. 50% increase in pressure, and it stopped ALL flow in or out of my filter until after I back washed it. (The filter wouldn't pull any water in from the skimmer side, and I had no water coming out the return side either because of a too high pressure in my filter).

Tell Rusty that one way to tell if he has the vac hooked up correctly, and is getting adequate suction is to check to make sure there is adequate water coming from the return to the pool. (once I figured that out my vacuuming became much more effective, and much more pleasant experience. So now when I hook my vac up before I even start cleaning I reach down in front of my return to ensure there is adequate water returning to the pool during.

If you do the math portion on your filter from the info above, if your starting pressure is 20psi, then a 50% increase in pressure would be 30psi, so I can from my own experience see it being a problem causing you to lose a lot of suction, and it not allowing enough suction to vacuum out the pool properly. So I think if he'll backwash at say 23-25 psi with a starting pressure of 20 or less then that should help a lot. Have a wonderful day and keep up the great job :).
 

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