Newbie SLAM questions

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J

JaySee

Well-known member
Jun 29, 2021
65
Toronto
Pool Size
70000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hi everyone,
First time pool owner here. Having quite a challenge opening the pool as we just moved in and opened later than typically recommended.

First, the stats:
Kit :Taylor 2006C
TA: 90
PH: <7.0 (rain last night brought it down)
FC: 0.4
CC: 0.6
CYA: 40

Vacuuming daily (sometimes twice) with a pool robot, sand filter is on 24/7. Using liquid chlorine, but have 2 trichlor tabs in a floater because my CYA was low when I first opened last week.

The intermittent rain has also made it a challenge to keep my levels stable. I've been adding soda ash to bring up my PH but it looks like the rain undid that. I can't seem to get an FC over 1, and the CC has been varying between 2.4 and 0.6 just in the 24 hrs. Been dumping in a lot of liquid chlorine, but it gets eaten up fast.

When SLAMming the pool, do I add chlorine even in the broad daylight? Right now, I've been only adding chlorine (several times) in the early evening so that it doesn't burn off from UV. Wondering if I should just add chlorine whenever possible, even in the bright of day?

Any help/tips would be appreciated, thanks!
 
Welcome to TFP! :wave: So here's what you want to do:
- Don't add anymore stabilizer right now. Remove the tabs.
- Since your pH is a bit low, go ahead and start the SLAM Process by increasing the FC to "16" with liquid chlorine You want to "maintain" that elevated FC level per the FC/CYA Levels.
- Test fairly often in the beginning, perhaps an hour or two apart, and increase the FC level back to 16 as needed. Soon it should stabilize and not require as much testing and chlorine. But the early part f the SLAM Process requires some babysitting. We add chlorine day or night as needed.
- Do your FC testing as follows: 10 ml water sample size with ONE generous scoop of powder. Count drops until clear and divide answer in half. Example - 32 drops equals an FC of 16.

The elevated FC level should also show your pH as a little higher. Not really something to worry about right now, just letting you know that an increased FC (over 10 ppm) creates a higher pH reading. Once the SLAM is over (passing all 3 criteria), the pH will fall back to its normal pre-SLAM level. Then we can address the pH if it still appears low.
 
Tell us more about your pool:
Gallons
Vinyl/Plaster
Type of filter

You're going to use a lot of chlorine the first day or two. I'd start by buying 10 or 12 gallons. Once we know the size of your pool we can tell how much chlorine it will take to get to 16 ppm.
 
Mike1162 said:
Tell us more about your pool:
Gallons
Vinyl/Plaster
Type of filter

You're going to use a lot of chlorine the first day or two. I'd start by buying 10 or 12 gallons. Once we know the size of your pool we can tell how much chlorine it will take to get to 16 ppm.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, forgot to add those stats:

Pool: 70000 Litres (18500 gallons)
Vinyl
Filter: Hayward sand filter

Thanks for the help so far!
 
Texas Splash said:
Welcome to TFP! :wave: So here's what you want to do:
- Don't add anymore stabilizer right now. Remove the tabs.
- Since your pH is a bit low, go ahead and start the SLAM Process by increasing the FC to "16" with liquid chlorine You want to "maintain" that elevated FC level per the FC/CYA Levels.
- Test fairly often in the beginning, perhaps an hour or two apart, and increase the FC level back to 16 as needed. Soon it should stabilize and not require as much testing and chlorine. But the early part f the SLAM Process requires some babysitting. We add chlorine day or night as needed.
- Do your FC testing as follows: 10 ml water sample size with ONE generous scoop of powder. Count drops until clear and divide answer in half. Example - 32 drops equals an FC of 16.

The elevated FC level should also show your pH as a little higher. Not really something to worry about right now, just letting you know that an increased FC (over 10 ppm) creates a higher pH reading. Once the SLAM is over (passing all 3 criteria), the pH will fall back to its normal pre-SLAM level. Then we can address the pH if it still appears low.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Just replaced a leaky spider gasket so hopefully that will get the filter working more effiiciently.
 
Mike1162 said:
Check FC again in 2 or 3 hours.
What strength is your chlorine?
Are you using PoolMath?
Click to expand...
Hi, Yes definitely using the pool math app.

Using 12% liquid chlorine.
Tossed in 10Litres (2 gall) about 1 hr 45 ago, and just tested chlorine levels:

FC: 2.0
CC: 0.8-1.0 (kinda went clear at 4 drops, 5th drop locked it)
 

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Mike1162 said:
Just use a 10 ml sample size & 1 heaping scoop of powder when checking Chlorine levels. Divide the number of drops by 2 for the PPM reading.
Click to expand...
Ah, yeah I was doing it as per the Taylor kit's instructions. The TFP method saves on reagent.

A torrential downpour has started with thunder + lightning-- should I stick to the SLAM schedule or wait it out?
 
After the rain the water was looking a tad milky. Beforehand it was clear enough to see the drain's little holes in the deep end, but never perfectly 'clear'. The pool tech who was servicing the valve recommended that i use some clarifier to help clear it up.

It's roughly 90 minutes since my last addition-- gonna do another test.
 
Rained AGAIN last night! This morning's test got me FC = 0.5 CC = 1-1.5. Added another 10 L of chlorine.. I'm all out!

Not sure what's eating my chlorine? I've brushed under the ladder, the stairs, the light. I send the pool robot every morning. I can see the bottom of pool in the deepest area. Is it the weather that's making this journey especially difficult?
 
Your FC is falling much too low. We know it should be maintained at 16 during the SLAM Process, but it's never gotten close. The chlorine has yet to overtake the aggressive organics. Once you can find a new supply of chlorine, add the 3 gallons or so required to get to 16, then test again in about 20-30 minutes. Test more frequently at first until you see the FC hold.
 

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