Problem with SLAM

[mikefamig]

Do you use a winter cover and/or a solar cover? I'm in farm country and the pool is surrounded by trees and landscaping. I used to open late to avoid the farmers ploughing and spraying the fields. Then I'd switch to a solar cover to help keep stuff out. Now that I have an auto cover I can open earlier and now worry about it.

I use a Loop-Loc safety pool cover. It is a sieve type cover and everything goes through it all winter. Last winter was unusually warm and the water never froze here which is very unusual and I think that was a factor. No solar blanket. I used to use a floating solar blanket but it just let everything fall into the water when I rolled it u pinto it's reel.

Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

Does anyone else here use the sieve type loop-loc winter cover?

Mike.

 

[DorsalSpine]

Does anyone else here use the sieve type loop-loc winter cover?

Mike.

My first winter cover was a mesh. My second was a solid with a pump on top. The solid cover seemed to open with cleaner water in the spring. The solar cover had a reel. As you said some of the stuff on top would fall in when I removed it, although It did seem to keep a lot of stuff out of the water.

 

[Tuckerclan]

Hey Mike, I think you are spot on with the pollen thing. You and I have been having a "like" problem with the thought of adding too much Chlorine daily. I too, have finally leveled out. For the past week or so I have been adding less than a half gal. a day, and the last few days a quart. I am going to start mine everyday at 7 or better even though the app says 6. The garden around my pool has stopped blossoming and gone more flower established so I really do think the biggest problem was the pollen. Of course now, the leaves are a problem as it has been windy here for the last week. It's always something, right? To answer your newest query, I use a mesh cover and don't have a problem in the spring with an unusually green pool to start. Usually takes me a week to balance everything out to sparkling clear water. Glad our problems have subsided, for a while. The only other thing I have done was to try and lower my TA. Going by the app I should of had it licked with 3 or so cups of Muriatic Acid (29%), but after a week and adding 3 cups every other day or so, my level dropped a little, but not much. I never got to 7.2 PH or less which the app said I would. The levels I'm at now satisfy me and I hope they are close. Continued luck with yours.

 

[mikefamig]

I do not have an autofill here. My wife has just retired and so she is learning to care for the pool water and she has been adding 2 to 2.5 gallons of 12.5% per day in 18,000 gallons of water. Youwould think that it would be easy to find the source of our problem but I have tried everything that I know including changing the sand in the filter yesterday.

We had to go out after changing the sand so the last test that we took was yesterday at 2pmwhen FC equaled 15ppm. The next test was at noon today and FC eqaualed 10ppm. We added 1/2 gallon and will see what happens today and tonight with the new sand.

Mike.

I am reviving this old thread from last summer for the sake of anyone curious of what was causing my problem with very high chlorine demand.

As I mentioned, my wife retired and was learning to care for the pool water. The short story is that the problem turned out to be a lack of communication. I assumed that she was testing at least the PH and FC daily and it turns out that she was ignoring the PH. I sat down near the end of the season and did a full test and found the PH and I think also the alkalinity to be way out of spec. I adjusted them and touched up everything else as necessary and the chlorine demand returned to normal.

So to sum it up I believe now that it was high PH causing very high chlorine demand. I don't remember but I think that the PH was high rather than low. Those of you who undersand the chemistry may be able to confirm or deny this and I look forward to hearing your response.

Mike.

 

[mknauss]

So to sum it up I believe now that it was high PH causing very high chlorine demand.

pH has little to do with FC loss per day. If no CYA in the water, the FC has less effectiveness at high pH, but I would assume you had CYA in the water.

 

[mikefamig]

pH has little to do with FC loss per day. If no CYA in the water, the FC has less effectiveness at high pH, but I would assume you had CYA in the water.

I wasn't doing the actual testing so I can't say anything for certain. It is history now, we'll see how this year goes.

The only thing I can attest to is yes, the CYA was OK when I tested everything at the end of the season and I know from experience that it doesn't fluctuate a lot.. the Ph was off .

Mike.