Preventing algae - no power

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luma7

luma7

Gold Supporter
Jun 3, 2020
108
Baldwin County, AL
Pool Size
19500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Jandy Aquapure 1400
Hi all,
We just had hurricane Sally pass through. Our area is expected to have no power for a week. Everyone is okay so now we are assessing how to deal with the new pool.

Our levels appear to be spot on if we had not just had a hurricane that had dumped dirt, clay, and various vegetative matter into the pool. I've read lots of hurricane related threads and understand that usually to prevent algae while the power is out, I should bring the FC up to slam levels. However, this is brand new 2-week-old plaster.

Here are my current levels, this is based off of 3 ft of rain that has just fallen into the pool after we half slammed it in preparation for the rain (12 FC). Should we half slam again? One key item of note: we have very little CYA to put in the pool so if we're going to have to bring up the CYA I'm going to have to go try to find it. Any suggestions are welcome. I am happy to read somebody else's post if there is a post that already addressed is this. Most of what I found earlier people had power. We don't.

Summary:
New plaster
No power
Lots of dirt and vegetative matter
No CYA on hand

I think I have told pool math to share my logs. Can anyone see them? Here are the current numbers just in case:

FC 4
CC 0
TA 50
CH 300
CYA 60
PH 7.5
CSI -.4

Thank you in advance!
 
Hey Luma !! First thing first, SUPER glad the storm spared the important things.

second thing second, You need to be vigilant on your FC. The plaster pros will be along with knowledge of how high is safe for the new pool but in the meantime you need your target range at all times. Dump liquid in as needed and brush to stir it up. It is heavier than water and can sit on the bottom of its not mixed. A couple of passes will do the trick.

third things third, The vegetative matter needs to go. Scoop out the best you can. If the dirt doesn’t let you see it all, Scoop blindly. Let it settle and go some more. The good news is that fresh/ green debris won’t consume nearly as much FC as old/rotten swamp stuff that’s already breaking down. But it will still consume some, so stay on top of the FC tests.

The dirt won’t necessarily hurt other than it can be a female dog to filter out. There are threads from earlier in the season on this.
 
Might add that with no electricity, you're no longer a SWCG pool, so CYA of 60 is way high. You won't need to add CYA while you're manually chlorinating the pool. Minimum FC while you're using liquid chlorine, for CYA of 60 is 5ppm with recommended 7-9ppm.
 
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Thanks for the help. Yesterday, the FC dropped pretty low. We added slightly more chlorine last night than pool math said we needed, kept it within recommended but at the high end.

We have been netting vegetation out. So far about 2.5 yard trash bags (the big black ones). There is more in there but we can't see it. I brushed last night and tried to send all the dirt and vegetation to the deep end and will continue to net tomorrow. I'm balancing this with all the other post-storm repairs/tasks/etc. that have to be completed so right now it is only feasible to spend about 2 hours a day on the pool (1 morning and 1 night).

The FC dropped so much yesterday, I really wonder if I shouldn't take up the level even more today so it doesn't get a chance to drop so low during the day while I'm working. Will try that unless someone recommends against it.
 
luma7 said:
We added slightly more chlorine last night than pool math said we needed, kept it within recommended but at the high end
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Always the smart call. Well done !!
luma7 said:
I'm balancing this with all the other post-storm repairs/tasks/etc. that have to be completed so right now it is only feasible to spend about 2 hours a day on the pool (1 morning and 1 night).
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Life always gets in the way. If it wasn’t the storm it would be a graduation, Or a dance recital. Do what you can when you can and you’ll get there. :)
 
Glad your safe, also glad your here and know to take care of the pool.
Having any problems getting liquid chlorine? If possible get extra in case you need to bring to level way up.
I have a SWG and still keep a few gallons around for emergencies.
 
We are fortunate to have almost 30 gallons of chlorine. Right now I'm using a gallon to a gallon of half a day so hopefully that will last us until power comes back on. The power company will make the decision today about power. The small section of the neighborhood I am in still has standing power lines. To give us power, they'd have to cut everyone else off the grid because all of their lines and poles are on the ground. I've not heard yet what the decision will be
 

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luma7 said:
We are fortunate to have almost 30 gallons of chlorine. Right now I'm using a gallon to a gallon of half a day so hopefully that will last us until power comes back on. The power company will make the decision today about power. The small section of the neighborhood I am in still has standing power lines. To give us power, they'd have to cut everyone else off the grid because all of their lines and poles are on the ground. I've not heard yet what the decision will be
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Tell them you have some duck tape and can just warp the lose wires so they can get you back up :)
Crazy year for sure, and another storm was named today heading toward the gulf again.
Come on 2021 :)
 
luma7 said:
That is really great advice, thank you so much! Did not even occur to me. Been focused on the pool and the shell.
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Should we hose the filters out and let them dry? Or just rinse everything off and close it back up? we just watched a video on YouTube so we have a sense of what to do now
 
I'm not a cartridge filter expert but lots of people here keep a spare set so they can swap them out during cleaning. I image the spare set is dry so I'd let it all dry out.
 
^^^. +1. There will probably be standing water in the bottom half of the filter. Leave them out, dump some bleach in the filter water and close it up. Just don’t forget to reassemble it when the time comes.
 
Really appreciate all the tips. We had not yet learned the equipment so all this information is so helpful.

My husband cleaned out the entire filter yesterday (thank you YouTube!). He said it looked like the filters were full of red clay and dirt from where the start of the storm. He said no matter how much he hosed them off he was getting dirt out of them so at a certain point he just moved onto other things. They are substantially whiter now than when he pulled them out (brown/grey). When the power comes on, we might try a pressure washer with them.

He thinks that when the power comes on we should try to run the pump with the filters out (if that is possible) and open the valve (located after the filter) that dumps the water on the ground. This should hopefully extract all that sludgy stuff from the bottom of the pool into the yard instead of clogging up the filters. So - we will research that today.

We are almost out of CYA test and no mail is being delivered in our area. Going to call around pool stores here locally to see who might have some. I'm also going to contact TFTestKits to see if they can sell that in the larger size. We're testing 2-3x a day and using 0013 and 0010 up quickly.

I half slammed the pool last night and for the first time, the FC didn't drop substantially; however, the PH rocketed up to 8.2. Our TA is fine so I will be treating with MA this morning and holding off on more chlorine.

Very grateful for all your help. It has made things easier during a stressful time!
 
Running the filter without cartridges is a good idea until all the muck is cleaned out of the pool. I think you should be able to do that with your model.

You don't need to test CYA often unless you do a big water change. Once a month is fine.
 
luma7 said:
He thinks that when the power comes on we should try to run the pump with the filters out (if that is possible) and open the valve (located after the filter) that dumps the water on the ground. This should hopefully extract all that sludgy stuff from the bottom of the pool into the yard instead of clogging up the filters
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Great on paper but the bottom drains don’t really pull debris/sludge/cloudiness like you’d think. A few inches from the drain will remain untouched. What you CAN do with great success is vacuum to waste if you have the old style manual vac. If you don’t have a manual vacuum you can brush the sludge to the main drains and then it will get sucked out to waste. But you’ll have to add water a bunch of times. It drains much quicker than your house hose can fill it.

If they plumbed it the ‘regular way’ you don’t need to remove the filters to use the waste setting. It should bypass the filter on its own if you select it.
 
On my hayward I still had to attach the top "hat" part that goes on top of the filters to make it flow without the filters. For some reason when I left that out if just seemed to vapor lock and nothing came out..

I use a small electric pressure on my filters some but but careful you can damage them. Mine is weak and I use a wide spray tip
 

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