Opening a pool w/ high pollen in the air

[s1njin]

Hi Gang,

Its seems in in a quandry. My pool passes OCLT and is crystal clear, however I have persistent 1ppm CC. I break it during the day w/ the sun on the pool, but overnight it comes back. I don’t lose any chlorine overnight.

Could it be the high winds and pollen blasting my pool all day long? I find it a conundrum to pass a SLAM when the pool is inundated with pollen and other debris given the exceptionally windy conditions I’ve had here the past few days. I’ve read pollen creates chlorine problems.

At least the water is cold (55-60 degrees).

Thanks !

 

[mknauss]

Can you post your test data?

Be sure your testing vial is clean. Use bleach.

 

[s1njin]

Chlorine 22
CYA 45 (midway between the 50 and 40 in the tube)
pH 7.2 (before the SLAM)
TA 90
CH 245
Borates 30-40 (test strip - not very precise)

 

[mknauss]

Your CYA level is 50. Round up. SLAM level FC of 20 ppm.

If you pass your OCLT at least two nights in a row, and your pool water is crystal clear, no debris, etc, then let your FC drop to near 10 ppm and do the OCLT again. See if the CC drops to less than 1.

 

[s1njin]

Thanks - I’ll give it a whirl. I appreciate the quick response.

 

[s1njin]

I give up.

I’ve had wind gusts of 25 mph dumping forest garbage into my pool all day long and to this very hour. I’ve cleaned out my skimmer socks 4 times, 2 skimmers each. Each time they socks were caked with forest garbage and pollen. My robot has been patrolling the bottom of the pool all day, and my filter basket was STILL clogged up w/ forest garbage in spite of the skimmer socks. That doesn’t include the time I’ve spent skimming w/ the net.

And on top of it I went from sunny and 62, to marble sized hail and super windy, to clear skies and 43 but still windy as all heck.

And - my combined cholorine predictably climbed. Now I’m at 2 but holding steady on actual total chlorine.

So - until the weather gets back to normal on Thursday I’m throwing in the towel. I am beyond disgusted and mother nature wins this round. I have NEVER had this much trouble opening a pool following PoolSchool technique and guidance. Mother nature is just royally ******* in my cheerios.

 

[Newdude]

Mother nature is just royally ******* in my cheerios.

First off, thank you for the new expression. I will use it often and for various reasons.

I am often overrun with fresh tree debris whether its pollen, leaves, or the end clumps of branches with the leaves still attached. We get frequent heavy storms out of the blue and several times a season i have the mess that you have now. As long as its fresh debris, i have never seen it affect my FC. Sometimes the pollen is so heavy it makes me go cloudy but still not affect the #s. And leaves...... whether its a Nor'easter or just regular fall droppings, i can have more Tea than pool sometimes.

Any chance you have old water leftover somewhere ? Water featues, ladder, niche etc ?

 

[s1njin]

About the only thing I didn’t do was unscrew the pool light so the water could get behind it. That’s next on the list, though I was hoping to avoid it this year.

 

[Newdude]

Only because if it was something smaller, the SLAM FC level would laugh at it and you would pass the OCLT but you might see the CCs.

 

[s1njin]

That’s what was happening before nature through Mardi Gras into my pool.

 

[s1njin]

Something hit me this morning when I tested my SLAM. Yesterday afternoon when I tested my CCs were at .5. At 10:30 when I tested they were at 1. This morning the pool stunk and my CC is 2.5.

As I was fantasizing a backhoe filling my pool w/ 10 dump trucks of dirt it occured to me that it smelled like camping outside.

This crazy cold snap we’ve had in the Northeast has been record breaking in many areas. My area enjoys heating with wood burning stoves - as evident by the thick campfire smell that greets you some days when you venture out. Especially at night. Like last night when I went to get my sample; I could have sworn it was a smidge hazy even at that relatively early hour of the night. I figured maybe it was my eyes or I was tired.

Is it possible that smoke and that type of airborne particulate is eating my chlorine and screwing up the works? I’ve been trying to consider my SLAM done for days now, however each night its been in the 30s and people have been burning wood.

 

[s1njin]

Testing at 12:30 today - in full sun my CL dropped only 1 over 6 hours and my CC is now back to .5.

I really think its the smoke at night that’s throwing off my readings.