Our Swamp

That IS a great deal on bleach. But Herwick, no need to set your alarm at night, although I applaud your dedication. :salut: If you think the FC may drop too much while you're away, it won't hurt to go slightly over your SLAM level as a buffer, but don't go too high. Maybe 2-3 ppm over the SLAM target. Too high and it's just a waste to the sun. Keep up the great work.
 
Here is a pic of Day 2! Woke up to it being more brown than green. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. Gets even darker brown when brushing and vacuuming.

Day 2 of SLAM | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Still Day 2. The rain we got the previous day added about 4-5 inches of water.

Day 2 of SLAM Stairs | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

And finally (still day 2) after we have drained, brushed and vacuumed. No matter how fast or long we work we still get the crud settling on the stairs.:grrrr:

Day 2 of SLAM After Drain | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 
keep up the good work, quick question, what is your pressure gage at and where did it start out at? Did you do a deep clean before you started, I wonder if your filter is not working as good as it can, although sand is the slowest filter at cleaning but it is the easiest filter for use...
 
Try this for testing and adding FC:

-make first cup of coffer-test and add

-get home, take off shoes-test and add

-Eat dinner, have after dinner beverage-test and add

-ready for bed-test and add

That is 4 times and good enough for work days.

Kim :cat:
 
Welcome, Herwick.
Your pool looks related to my pool ;)
Color change is a good sign. You asked earlier about how long this process takes. In my swamp, it Took about 12 days.

One thing that will expedite your slam in swamp condition is to get as much muck up off the bottom and out with a leaf rake.

Ride your pump/filter in terms of backwashing whenever more than 25% clean pressure, and seriously don't let the FC drop below your slam level for your cya.

In my black water conversion i did dose a good few ppms higher, eg. 16, if I had to be away for a bit and my goal was 12. Any time you drop below the kill zone in these cases, it gets ahead pretty quick...and you'll notice a reversion in color. That said, don't go crazy ;) Just work it out so you don't drop below at all for your cya, and remember the cya test is only accurate to 10-15 so if you actually dosed higher, you'd need to bump up the FC to the next level or stall (see cya:FC link in my signature.)

You can also partially close the main drain and pull more water from the skimmer...ths helps avoid clogs in the beginning stages.

I'm posting a larger pic of my "12 days of shock and awe" to give you a sense of color change and clarity over time in a "black water slam."

When you are further along than now, you can try a few veeeery slow vacuum to waste sessions if you thing you have most of he larger debris up off the floor. Be prepared to check and clean out your pump basket when you do this and let us know if you know how to do this or need help.

If you notice pressure DROP on the filter gauge, this is a sign you might need to clean the pump basket (eg shut down pump, close valves, loosen pump baket lid, clean basket, which might be full of pine needles etc., fill pump recess back up, wet the o-ring to seal, fill recess with water to help re-prime the pump, tighten lid, the open valves and restart system. It may take a minute or so to prime, so don't panic ;)

You will notice in my pic that though I'd "thought" I got it all, there was still a pile of leaves in the corner ;)

Cheers to clear ;)
PS eventually the frogs will put the word out that the party's over, bu you'll likely still get some swimmers now and then cause I guess there's no place like home ;)

image.jpg
 
keep up the good work, quick question, what is your pressure gage at and where did it start out at? Did you do a deep clean before you started, I wonder if your filter is not working as good as it can, although sand is the slowest filter at cleaning but it is the easiest filter for use...

In the beginning we had a "professional" come out and check all the equipment. Turns out the filter was "surprisingly clean" for how nasty the pool was, the guy thought that the previous owners may have shut it off while the pool was is good shape and never started it again. Our pressure runs a bit high even while clean and we were told to look for a specific number to backwash with. We have done it once but it didn't sound or seem to act differently before as after. So I think we did it to soon. We opened it up to make sure and it still looks good. We can see a crud ton of stuff going into the skimmer now. Little particles being sucked in where we couldn't before. So I guess the water is clearing just not as quickly as we had hoped. We are thinking it was way worse than we originally thought.

P.S.
Pressure is staying fairly steady at what it has been since we backwashed. Has not had a significant increase in pressure yet.
 
Thanks Swampwoman! We have been getting tons of debris from the bottom for the last 4 weeks. This week though it seems as though we are playing chase/hide and seek with the leaves. We were getting a net full every time we raked but now it seems to just stir things up and we ketch maybe a hand full of leaves. When we had to drain because of massive rainfall we did some vacuuming since it was going to waste anyway. Got quite a bit of stuff but not as much as we thought we would. Sure turned the water darker though. We have had to clean the skimmer baskets and pump basket so many times already I have lost count. It has slowed considerably though, not much in the baskets anymore.
 
Thanks Swampwoman! We have been getting tons of debris from the bottom for the last 4 weeks. This week though it seems as though we are playing chase/hide and seek with the leaves. We were getting a net full every time we raked but now it seems to just stir things up and we ketch maybe a hand full of leaves. When we had to drain because of massive rainfall we did some vacuuming since it was going to waste anyway. Got quite a bit of stuff but not as much as we thought we would. Sure turned the water darker though. We have had to clean the skimmer baskets and pump basket so many times already I have lost count. It has slowed considerably though, not much in the baskets anymore.

OH THE AGONY of cleaning those baskets! UGH!! Every 3 minutes it seemed. I was so frustrated because it seemed like I would have JUST gotten the pump primed and started to vac when I had to clean the baskets again


did you look at my thread?
 
OH THE AGONY of cleaning those baskets! UGH!! Every 3 minutes it seemed. I was so frustrated because it seemed like I would have JUST gotten the pump primed and started to vac when I had to clean the baskets again


did you look at my thread?

Oh, I know! We cleaned them out and after an hour sometimes less we were cleaning them out again. Now it just very few leaves in the skimmer baskets and for the last 2 days nothing in the pump basket! Yes, I got through most of it last night, kids started complaining they were starving and I never feed them. :grin: I plan on finishing it up today.
 
Oh, I know! We cleaned them out and after an hour sometimes less we were cleaning them out again. Now it just very few leaves in the skimmer baskets and for the last 2 days nothing in the pump basket! Yes, I got through most of it last night, kids started complaining they were starving and I never feed them. :grin: I plan on finishing it up today.

Yeah, I ate at 11:30 last night after everybody else was in bed. I had to give my knees a break from leaning over the pool squeezing the CYA sock lol
 

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Herwick, in the "chasing leaves and silt" department, I found that this tool I'm linking to saved my back a bit when raking was no longer productive.

I put a plastic ball in the net for buoyancy. It attaches to a hose to create a mini Venturi effect. Apart from swamp recovery, its not especially useful, but not bad for hunting "blind" for more leaves without having to repeatedly pull up the leaf net:

Amazon.com : Universal Leaf Gulper Pool Vacuum : Swimming Pool Pressure Cleaners : Patio, Lawn Garden
 
Yeah, I ate at 11:30 last night after everybody else was in bed. I had to give my knees a break from leaning over the pool squeezing the CYA sock lol

Vick, Next time let it sit in a 5 gal bucket to get good and wet then squeeze it in the bucket. At least that way you will not be kneeling down on the cement. You can be sitting in a chair with a cold one on the table and do the work that way. Pour the water out when you get tired of squeezing and let the sock sit in the skimmer for a while.

Kim:cat:
 
Herwick, in the "chasing leaves and silt" department, I found that this tool I'm linking to saved my back a bit when raking was no longer productive.

I put a plastic ball in the net for buoyancy. It attaches to a hose to create a mini Venturi effect. Apart from swamp recovery, its not especially useful, but not bad for hunting "blind" for more leaves without having to repeatedly pull up the leaf net:

Amazon.com : Universal Leaf Gulper Pool Vacuum : Swimming Pool Pressure Cleaners : Patio, Lawn Garden

I have one of these, and LOVE it. I got tired of vacing, and constantly having to stop and get the leaves from the skimmer basket. This thing works great

- - - Updated - - -

Vick, Next time let it sit in a 5 gal bucket to get good and wet then squeeze it in the bucket. At least that way you will not be kneeling down on the cement. You can be sitting in a chair with a cold one on the table and do the work that way. Pour the water out when you get tired of squeezing and let the sock sit in the skimmer for a while.

Kim:cat:

You know, I thought about that.... when I was almost done lol!
 
Another day has come and gone. FC was 6 yesterday morning, I had brought it up to 13 the night before. So I added some more bleach which brought it up to 15. I was able to make it home yesterday after noon and it was at 12 so added another gallon. Last evening it was at a 10 so I added 2 gallons which brought it up to 16 in the hopes it would hold decently overnight. This morning it was at a 12 so added another gallon and brushed and vacuumed. CYA is holding in the low 30s, yesterday at a 35, this morning it was 32. Seems I have finally found the magic numbers for overnight!
 
Numbers look weird. What kind of test kit gives 57, 82, 32 results? They should be multiples of 10. PH at 7.0 is too low, it should be 7.2 to 7.8. The rest of the numbers are OK, just weird.
 

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