Opening (FINALLY) to a green gem

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Finally the cold weather has passed and this year’s opening happened today. Peeled back the cover and WHAM! A gorgeous hue of green hit my eyes.

This is the first time I’ve opened to algae?. Most years I pull the cover off at the end of April, but we had snow and frost well past Mother’s Day this year so it was put off. Got the pump hooked up while the cover was draining. Checked the numbers:

FC: 0
PH: 7.2
CYA: 0
TA: 50ppm
CH: 30ppm
Temp: 62F

Got the stabilizer in a sock targeting 20ppm, and dosed CL up to 10ppm.

Will update as the day goes on.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Update 2:30pm: Slight green still. Re-dosed back to 10ppm FC.

4:15pm Getting there. Bumped FC back to 10ppm. Pump is now on filter.

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Looks like you're making progress! Keep up the good work

 

[IceShadow]

If my pool ever goes green I'm totally doing a time lapse video of the correction.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

If my pool ever goes green I'm totally doing a time lapse video of the correction.

That’s a great idea! I just realized I have a camera outside that’s pointed to our pool. I bet I can grab the footage and do something with it.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

No big change overnight with the filter running. Slight pressure increase on the sand filter, so it’s catching some stuff. FC was down to 8ppm, bumped back to 10.

UPDATE 11:45am:
Now the sun is on the pool I can barely make out the bottom liner pattern. Progress!

 

[HeyEng]

Woot! Looks like you will be swimming in no time at all!

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Woot! Looks like you will be swimming in no time at all!

Once the water warms up—it’s 67f currently ?

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Much more clarity today. Still losing about 2ppm FC overnight. Water was clear enough to vacuum by sight, so I got all the ok off the bottom. Surprisingly the sand filter pressure has only moved up about 10%, so I’m letting that chill for now. Photo below shows the 24 hour clarity shift from yesterday to today.

EDITED TO CORRECT TYPOS

 

[Richard320]

This is going in my links thread.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Weekend Update: Water was clear enough (and warm enough) so the boys took a dip yesterday. Much more brave than I in these later years. Clarity from yesterday to today is a slight improvement. You can see more sparkles in the Live photos from today. Still work to do. Had to backwash the filter yesterday as the pressure was up 20%. Looks like it’s time to vacuum again?. Lots of tree debris is falling in the pool as our maple trees are flowering atm and our course the leaf net broke yesterday?. Got the solar heater connected and we’re seeing swimmable temps finally!

Side by side photo: Yesterday (left), today (right)

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Happy Memorial Day to my friends down south. This year has been a tough one and as we all honour those lost, I pray that we never forget the lessons learned from their sacrifice.

Monday Update: TFP clear still eludes me this year. With the hot weather the kids have been in the pool everyday, and frankly I don’t blame them—I finally got in today to cool off and took the chance to scrub all around the returns and liner seams. Found what looks like a small amount of filter sand in the pool, so tomorrow I may open up the sand filter to double check the stand pipe is properly seated. Last fall I deep cleaned the filter prior to storing it. The amount of sand is small but definitely filter sand—grains are uniform and the same colour as the quartz sand we have in the filter.

With the heavy bather load I’m trying to balance getting the pool TFP clear but also deal with 4 kids worth of skin, sweat and sunscreen in a small 1700 gal pool. Dilution is a great solution, but not till next year when I upgrade finally to a larger pool.

Still running the filter 24/7 and keeping FC at SLAM levels. The tabs I have in the floater are almost dissolved which should bring my CYA up to 30 (my preferred target for the start of season). I used the tablets to make up for the fact I only had 20ppm CYA left and didn’t want to do a dedicated store in the current COVID climate run just for stabilizer.

As it stands between a broken leaf net, being almost down to the last gallon of bleach and the need for stabilizer (maybe) and a few other equipment supplies I may just head out this week to collect those pieces. Amazon and other online retailers I’ve looked at up here don’t compete even with local pool $tore prices. Best bet are the big box stores usually.

Having a ? now and feeding the minions. Trying to keep patient and avoid the temptation to fiddle with things too much?

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Hump Day Update:

We’ve a had few days here in the mid to high 80s so the kids have been swimming like goldfish. I’ve been playing cat and mouse keeping up with FC loss through it.

TFP clarity still eludes me, but I will get there. There is still a slight haze, much the same as Sunday’s update. This is my goal (from last year)

 

[Richard320]

Haze correlates with kids in the pool.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Haze correlates with kids in the pool.

For sure. I’m hoping with the few days of cooler weather ahead of us that they will be less inclined to swim and I’ll get ahead of things. Last season it would require at least two additional “daily doses” of chlorine anytime the kids swam. Usually things would clear up by the next day. From the smell I can tell I’m still burning through something in the water.

Just going to keep on keepin’ on.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

Well I’m 10 days in now and I’m still looking a hazy (though clean enough to see the bottom) water. Something wasn’t sitting well this morning when I went to check the pool. 10 days, stalled improvement and frankly what looked like a film on the water this AM. We’ve had cooler temps for two days mixed with rain here and there. I’ve had to scoop lots of tree flowers and seeds over the two days. Been keeping FC up in SLAM range. Yesterday morning I pulled off the solar cover to give it some UV to burn off any CC and noticed a slight smell.

I decided to check my numbers again today just to cover my a**. I had to wait for a pocket of sunshine to check CYA as today is another stormy day on and off. Low and behold I somehow overshot my CYA target! CYA was registering at 50ppm! I waited for another 2minutes of sunshine and re-ran the test, same result. Considering I KNOW what I put in the pool this year should have brought me to 30ppm (20 from the stabilizer and another 10 from the trichlor I floated to get the remaining). The error had to be in my assumption that my CYA at start up test wasn’t 0, but probably closer to 20ppm which my test doesn’t register. ?

Lesson learned, and I’m sure I’m not the first or last to make that slip. Anyway, no biggie as I usually run 40ppm through the summer. Boosted FC to new SLAM target and I’m off to get more chlorine.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

I’ve been holding the new SLAM levels for almost a week now and am seeing improvements, but still working on the clarity. Frankly it’s been very busy with work this week and I’m not staying as on top of the FC as I would’ve liked. Thankfully consumption is slowing and levels are holding better than a week ago.

This pic is the clarity at 8am before the sun hits the pool. I can tell heads from tails on a quarter at the bottom. My goal is to read the year on the quarter

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

I’m finally feeling like the haze is nearly (if not completely) gone!

Water has nice sparkle now. I ended up using a few layers of polyester felt in the skimmer to act as fine pre-filter like a skimmer sock and I was surprised at how dirty it got within a few hours. I had to wash it out three times in the first 24 hours. The rinse water was grey and I couldn’t see through it. I’ll be doing an OCLT tomorrow night and if it goes according to plan will start letting the FC drift back to normal.

Here’s an eight day (May 29 vs June 6) side by side photo comparison.

 

[Richard320]

I believe you've turned into a pool snob. Welcome to the club.

 

[ashtonfitzgerald]

I believe you've turned into a pool snob. Welcome to the club.

It didn’t take long...