Obtaining & maintaining adequate FC w Intex ECO 5110, please help

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

Hello. Searching for wisdom. 1000g above ground pool. Intex ECO 5110 SWG generator. Previously posted w issues having earlier this season w error codes. SWG 1 yr old and only 2 months of use last summer. In summary— got 91 repeatedly, so slowly added tons of salt, tested salt and it had gotten very high (~4700), but still got 91 error. Removed salt/water (down to ~3400), cleaned titanium electrode and still got 91 error. Intex finally replaced titanium electrode. Manually added chlorine (7.5% bleach or dichlor) in the interim.

(Side note, some of my tubes now seem to have something pink/red in their corrigation— red algae? pink sediment? any other ideas? Pic attached)

Excited for hope of SWG working after electrode replacement. Did an 8h boost and all seemed fine, then repeatedly got 92 error code, but salt not too high (~3300). Intex replaced control panel. Excited again that would finally work…

SWG adequate run time should be 1 hr for 1000gal pool, according to documentation. First boost was good and got FC of 5 within a few hours of it ending. Then started daily 2 hour run time cycles (an hour more than what should be needed, but wanted to be on slightly higher side for sanitizing given young kids in pool, meaning goal FC of 2-4 instead of Intex’s 0.5-3). But the morning after each cycle, checked it and FC consistently only 0-0.5, although, yea, finally now no error codes. Water started to get a little cloudy too. Called Intex and they said, among other useless things, I needed to buy another titanium electrode or replace the control panel again (return shipping at our expense). Not sure either of those is going to work— already now have brand new control panel and titanium electrode. So, did a trial 4 hour cycle and, immediately after, FC seemed good at ~3, but our pool is only 1000gal so shouldn’t need such a long cycle to get good FC levels. So then increased the nightly run time to 3 hours. 12 hrs after end of 3 hr cycle, tested again and FC 0.2 (didn’t test immediately after 3h cycle bc it was 3am…). I’ve been doing some extra cycles and/or adding chlorine occasionally when it’s low to make sure it doesn’t get cloudy.

Please help us figure out what is going on? I’m just trying to have the pool w FC consistently from 1-or-2 to 3-or-4.

Other info: pool covered w clear thermal bubble cover when not in use. In NYC sunlight ~half the day. Salt still ~3300. Using taylor K2006–

FC 0.2 (as above)
CC 0.8
CH ~100
pH 7.4
TA 110
CYA 70

Just now finished another trial 3 hr cycle and FC just after that cycle only 0.8. Interestingly it unequivocally turned clear after swirling 4 drops of reagent R0871 but before the next step ~1-2 min later, it was very slightly pink again (so maybe FC is really 1.0, but still). CC now 1.0

Seems like may be a combo of insufficient Cl generation by my SWG (but have no idea why that would be the case after control panel and titanium electrode just replaced an not getting any error codes) and increased Cl degradation. But why increased degradation? We only use the pool a few hours every 1-3days depending on the weather. We keep it covered (although not opaque so there will be some UV degradation) when not in use. CYA levels have been good (currently 70, but always have been 50-90). Could it be the red/pink stuff in some of the tubes? Would an opaque cover over the clear thermal bubble one make a significant difference?

Oh, TFP collective brain— what do you think is going on? Thank you for your wisdom!

 

[ajw22]

Run the SWG a lot longer. 12 to 15 hours and see what FC level you get.

Raise your FC to 5 using liquid chlorine and then see if the SWG will maintain that level. A SWG generates chlorine slowly and can maintain FC but not always get it to rise much.

 

[cowboycasey]

We can get this figured out... First off SWG really suck at raising FC.. they do great at keeping FC at a constant level..

Raise your FC to 7 using liquid chlorine.. let the SWG run for 4 to 6 hours and see what your FC is at tonight

Turn off the SWG this afternoon, tonight do a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

 

[Griswald]

Like everyone else stated, SWG is not like dumping a gallon of bleach into your pool. It's more like adding a teaspoon of bleach every minute. You need to run it along time.

Also, because of the teaspoon thing above, they are terrible at raising FC from zero. Use bleach or even powdered shock to get your FC right and the SWG to "keep" it right.

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

These ideas are all very helpful. THANK YOU, ALL, TFP!

Before getting your replies, I ran a 4-hr cycle overnight and ~12h after it completed today rechecked and FC 0.4 and CC 0.6. (but it started w low FC, so not surprising considering your insight above.

Good to know about the timing considerations of SWG (ie maintaining better than raising). Will take your advice and either add chlorine or a LONG cycle now to a FC of 5-7 and then restart with longer routine daily cycles from there (although I still don't understand why Intex would recommend so much shorter than is needed, like 4-5x shorter than what is needed). Did that before (got it to TC ~5 after 16h boost) and then ran more than manual-recommended (1hr) daily cycle at 2 hrs and that's when I started getting into trouble-- running a routine daily cycle.

I was going to see where the FC level is after boosting from now until tomorrow morning, then raise it to 5-7 with chlorine if it's still low, then try a 4 hour daily cycle and reassess. But now, I'm thinking it may not be too late today to try cowboycasey's specific suggestion. Looking forward to doing the overnight chlorine loss test, excellent idea. If I can get the FC high enough today, maybe Ill try to do the OCLT tonight, hmm. I'm suspicious of the pink coloration in those tubes...

Will keep you posted. Look forward to more advice after we see where we get after following your wisdom so far. Thanks.

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

Hello today, TFP brain. So yesterday I brought the FC up to 7 with chlorine and then ran the SWG for 5 hours, eager to do OCLT and figure out about the suspicious pink in my tubes… BUT then it rained last night so unfortunately I didn’t (?couldn’t) do the OCLT… Instead, I decided to boost w the SWG overnight and see where I got.

In the am (15 hrs of SWG boosting out of 18hrs total) FC was 9.5. So it did go up with the boost from 7 after the chlorine, but not that much considering for how many hours the SWG ran.

In the meanwhile, during the rain I scoured the TFP forum and pool school and learned that high CC was also a sign of contamination (further supporting my suspicion about the pink on my tubes being pink slime) and reason to SLAM. Now I had to decide what to do next— prep to do the OCLT tonight, or just SLAM starting today based on the high CC, difficulty getting and maintaining FC, and suspicious pink in my tubes. Because we’re expecting hot weather later this wk, I didn’t want to wait for the OCLT (unless I absolutely had to) to likely confirm what I’m thinking anyway and end up being mid-slam with screaming young kids in 90 degrees. I was conflicted bc I really really wanted to know the results of the OCLT (before slamming)…

So, started my first SLAM ever today. Although from other threads, I’m not sure how effective it will be against the suspected, dreaded pink slime. The pink seems to only be in the corrugations of our tubing, where I can’t get to manually dislodge the biofilm. (**Side ???— anyone, any wisdom on that part of things please— how to get rid of pink slime if you can’t reach the biofilm to manually dislodge it to expose it to chlorine? I’m slamming, but will that really do it? I really really really don’t want to have to change out the tubing).

6 hrs (in daylight) after the overnight boost (FC 9.5), the FC had gone down 2 ppm (FC 7.5)

pre-SLAM numbers:
pH 7.4
CYA 67
FC 7.5
CC 1.1-1.5

Went w a SLAM goal of 26-27 based on TFP cya chart. Plan to slam until 3 TFP criteria met.

So, what else, TFP brain? What am I missing? What are your thoughts on chances of getting rid of pink slime in my tubes w SLAM alone? Other wisdom to share?

Thank you.

 

[cowboycasey]

Your CYA is 60 or 70, so I would say 70.. So SLAM at 28 FC..

Good job not waiting on OCLT with a CC of 1.5 or so something is growing..

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

Thank you! After I followed pool math and added bleach to goal 27, I rechecked the FC and it was only 21.5 (maybe 1-2 daylight hours later). So I pool mathed again to 28 this time and rechecking now…

so I put in 80 drops of the R-0871 (FC 40) and it still is slightly pink. I’m thinking that it took me too long for all those drops and it timed out or something (you know, how it turns pink again after it turns white after a couple of minutes?). Will rpt again and post.

Thanks for sticking with me on this, cowboycasey

 

[cowboycasey]

I am here...

FC of 40 is way to high.. you only need 28 FC... let FC drift down and check again in the morning.. Do not add until FC is below 25 or so.. You can check every 2 hours after adding to 28 FC

Until the end of the SLAM only check for FC and CC..

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

thanks again, cowboycasey. Appreciate you and TFP.

I repeated the FC an hour or so later and same thing happened— I kept dripping and it never turned completely white (more of a light beige-ish pink), but I stopped at 62 drops this time bc don’t want to run out of the reagent… Left me wondering if I’m out of the range of detection?

Regardless, will follow your directions and recheck in the morning. Thanks and will keep you posted.

sleep well

 

[LandCruiser]

Just wanted to say I have the same SWG and finished my first SLAM under similar circumstances. 4 gallons of 10% bleach and about 5 days later I have sparkling water again so stay with it. You can fix it. It will work.

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

Just wanted to say I have the same SWG and finished my first SLAM under similar circumstances. 4 gallons of 10% bleach and about 5 days later I have sparkling water again so stay with it. You can fix it. It will work.

Thank you for the support, much appreciated. Did your similar circumstances include pink slime in the Intex corrugated tubing? Our water has been clear throughout so it feels like a bummer to have to go through this just for a little pink in the tubes…

Hopefully we’ll follow in your footsteps and when this is done we’ll be able to maintain our FC better. And be able to get in the pool in time for the upcoming heatwave.

 

[jeffchap]

If I were you, I'd close off the valves and remove that hose with the pink in it and wash it out with bleach, then reinstall it.

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

If I were you, I'd close off the valves and remove that hose with the pink in it and wash it out with bleach, then reinstall it.

That’s the smart, but dreaded, thing to do. You’re right. I may have gotten lucky though when I seemed to have overshot my FC goal last night— this morning there was no visible pink anymore. We’ll see what happens to my CC and OCLT.

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

Before work this morning, FC was 16 and CC 0.6-1.0. So I pool mathed it back to FC goal of 28. And will check again at my next work break. GOOD NEWS for this morning— NO PINK visible in the tubes.

thanks, everybody. Will keep you posted.

 

[cowboycasey]

ohh your killing some stuff going from FC of above 40 last night to 16 this morning..

 

[LandCruiser]

Thank you for the support, much appreciated. Did your similar circumstances include pink slime in the Intex corrugated tubing? Our water has been clear throughout so it feels like a bummer to have to go through this just for a little pink in the tubes…

Hopefully we’ll follow in your footsteps and when this is done we’ll be able to maintain our FC better. And be able to get in the pool in time for the upcoming heatwave.

My water was pretty clear too but my FC would plummet within hours of adding bleach. You can read my thread if you're interested. Again, similar scenario to yours. Even after the water felt clear my FC was disappearing so I just tried to keep with the SLAM efforts.

I think in your case I probably would have drained off some water to lower my CYA so my FC target was more attainable. I only had to target 16ppm FC with a CYA of 40.

Point being, I was ready to give up after days chasing FC even when it felt like my CC was zero, I was still losing FC overnight so something was still in the water so I just kept it up. I didn't worry about PH even though I was supposed to be targeting a lower value to make FC more effective but I read that part too late and didn't want to mess with things more so I focused on FC as recommended by others and it worked.

I also did have something in my skimmer tube, it wasn't pink, it was brown but still. It went away on its own (although I did tap the hose with my pool pole).

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

My water was pretty clear too but my FC would plummet within hours of adding bleach. You can read my thread if you're interested. Again, similar scenario to yours. Even after the water felt clear my FC was disappearing so I just tried to keep with the SLAM efforts.

I think in your case I probably would have drained off some water to lower my CYA so my FC target was more attainable. I only had to target 16ppm FC with a CYA of 40.

Point being, I was ready to give up after days chasing FC even when it felt like my CC was zero, I was still losing FC overnight so something was still in the water so I just kept it up. I didn't worry about PH even though I was supposed to be targeting a lower value to make FC more effective but I read that part too late and didn't want to mess with things more so I focused on FC as recommended by others and it worked.

I also did have something in my skimmer tube, it wasn't pink, it was brown but still. It went away on its own (although I did tap the hose with my pool pole).

Thanks, super helpful. Yes, very similar.

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

2p : FC ~18 (again, never really stayed fully white, but briefly white and then faint pinkish beige)
CC: 0.6-1.0

Taking it back up to 28. But, you’re right, I have been having a hard time getting it up and readable up there. Maybe I’ll try to lower the CYA first (bummer bc I just raised it a few days ago before I realized what I needed to do).

thanks

 

[Backyard Dreams in NYC]

Removed water and got CYA down to ~47, so new target FC = 20 (right?). Several bleach additiona

CC now <=0.5 finally, hooray. Rained again but hopefully done until tomorrow so can do OCLT. Water remains clear. Tubes still without any visible pink!

hoping (but not expecting) all ok tomorrow so kids can go in later in the day if enough UV to bring level down to swimmable level for young kids.

Is there a TFP chart for TC swimability, ie what’s the highest TC where kids (and adults) can safely swim? Does it vary by CYA?

we’ll keep you posted.

Thank you, TFP brain