SLAM my pool for the first time

Hey Texas Splash

1. I agree on not worrying too much about iron right now. A water pool company filled my pool and they got the water from a neighboring town.
2. Yes I also agree my fc test have been up and down. The last 2 days its been .5-2 ppm lose but I thought that will the amount if green algae in there I would be losing way more than that every 2 hours. Yesterday when testing every 2 hours and your loosing only .1 or .5 or .2 it make you question if anything is happening at all. I know I have heavy organic load in my pool because it’s been green for over 2 weeks.
3. Thank you for the encouragement.
4. Yes but i also has to balance my pool before starting which cost me some money. To be fair i’m at like $150 in total but i’m only $150 away from being at the same cost as refilling my pool.
5. How do I know my CYA is correct? When I test the black dot never disappears before the tube is filled. I’ve been sticking to 30 the whole time.
6. After fill I added bagged shock like 2 bags and chlorine tabs and thats it until it became green and I had to use muriatic acid, baking soda and, some liquid stabilizer like 1 cup. Besides that just liquid chlorine. My cartridge is blue from the moment I bought it, is not the regular white cartridge. The green you see is the algae.
7. I do not see any staining. Will check again today and I cannot see anything inside the pool at all.

Thank you all for keeping an eye on my pool its needed.
 
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How do I know my CYA is correct? When I test the black dot never disappears before the tube is filled. I’ve been sticking to 30 the whole time.
The dot should completely go away. This note might help you.

CYA Testing:
Proper lighting is critical for the CYA test, so you want to test for CYA outside on a bright sunny day. Use the mixing bottle to gently mix the required amounts of pool water and R-0013 reagent, let sit for 30 seconds, then gently mix again. Recommend standing outside with your back to the sun and the view tube in the shade of your body at waist level. Then, begin squirting the mixed solution into the skinny tube. Watch the black dot until it completely disappears. Once it disappears, record the CYA reading. To help the eyes and prevent staring at the dot, some people find it better to pour & view in stages. Pour some solution into the viewing tube, look away, then look back again for the dot. Repeat as necessary until you feel the dot is gone. After the first CYA test, you can pour the mixed solution from the skinny view tube back to the mixing bottle, gently shake, and do the same test a second, third, or fourth time to instill consistency in your technique, become more comfortable with the testing, and validate your own CYA reading. Finally, if you still doubt your own reading, have a friend do the test. Don't tell them your numbers until they have completed their own testing, then compare the results.
 
The dot should completely go away. This note might help you.

CYA Testing:
Proper lighting is critical for the CYA test, so you want to test for CYA outside on a bright sunny day. Use the mixing bottle to gently mix the required amounts of pool water and R-0013 reagent, let sit for 30 seconds, then gently mix again. Recommend standing outside with your back to the sun and the view tube in the shade of your body at waist level. Then, begin squirting the mixed solution into the skinny tube. Watch the black dot until it completely disappears. Once it disappears, record the CYA reading. To help the eyes and prevent staring at the dot, some people find it better to pour & view in stages. Pour some solution into the viewing tube, look away, then look back again for the dot. Repeat as necessary until you feel the dot is gone. After the first CYA test, you can pour the mixed solution from the skinny view tube back to the mixing bottle, gently shake, and do the same test a second, third, or fourth time to instill consistency in your technique, become more comfortable with the testing, and validate your own CYA reading. Finally, if you still doubt your own reading, have a friend do the test. Don't tell them your numbers until they have completed their own testing, then compare the results.
This is very helpful, I have to wait until I get some more R-0013 but I might have enough for 1 more test. Sun hasn’t been out and i’ve been testing indoors so my cya may be off. I will test when I get home if there is sun out and enough test liquid. All very helpful tips on CYA, learning so much as I go. Keep you posted on the results.
 
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This is very helpful, I have to wait until I get some more R-0013 but I might have enough for 1 more test. Sun hasn’t been out and i’ve been testing indoors so my cya may be off. I will test when I get home if there is sun out and enough test liquid. All very helpful tips on CYA, learning so much as I go. Keep you posted on the results.
Update: check cya today as recommended and black dot never disappeared. Idk what to think, ant advise?
 
Add 20 and test again in 24-48 hours.
If your pool is 7500 gallons, that means add 20oz (by weight) of dry stabilizer. Use the sock method described above. It may t4ake a couple of days for the level to register correctly. Just pretend it is at 40 (we're thinking your current level is 20, and the addition will increase it to 40) for figuring out how much to Cl to add to get to your new SLAM level of 16. Once you get consistent readings of the CYA, then you can adjust the SLAM to whatever the real reading is.
If it ends up that your pool volume is 8400, the above amount of CYA will add a small bit less to your readings, but not enough to worry about. Better to be slightly under than to add too much and go over.
If your current CYA level is lower than 20 (the test being hard to read and all), then your ending real reading may be less. So you might have to add some more later to build it up more. But lets worry about that in a couple of days after we see where this addition ends up.

BTW - you noted that in the last 5 days you've gone through 5 gal of chlorine. So an average of 13 ppm per day. We don't know how much is normally used for your pool/conditions, but that number is not excessive at all when doing a SLAM. Your loss due to low CYA might be higher than if the CYA was at a better level. So getting the CYA up likely will help in keeping the Cl at SLAM level more consistently, which will speed things up.
 
If your pool is 7500 gallons, that means add 20oz (by weight) of dry stabilizer. Use the sock method described above. It may t4ake a couple of days for the level to register correctly. Just pretend it is at 40 (we're thinking your current level is 20, and the addition will increase it to 40) for figuring out how much to Cl to add to get to your new SLAM level of 16. Once you get consistent readings of the CYA, then you can adjust the SLAM to whatever the real reading is.
If it ends up that your pool volume is 8400, the above amount of CYA will add a small bit less to your readings, but not enough to worry about. Better to be slightly under than to add too much and go over.
If your current CYA level is lower than 20 (the test being hard to read and all), then your ending real reading may be less. So you might have to add some more later to build it up more. But lets worry about that in a couple of days after we see where this addition ends up.

BTW - you noted that in the last 5 days you've gone through 5 gal of chlorine. So an average of 13 ppm per day. We don't know how much is normally used for your pool/conditions, but that number is not excessive at all when doing a SLAM. Your loss due to low CYA might be higher than if the CYA was at a better level. So getting the CYA up likely will help in keeping the Cl at SLAM level more consistently, which will speed things up.
My pool is 8400 galloons we figured out the other day. I have to change it in mg about.
 

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Also i use liquid stabilizer so how much would it be?
Liquid CYA is difficult to dose properly unless using the full jug. The goods clump up on the bottom and you pour mostly water even when it's well shaken. Then at the end some clumps fall out and give you way more than you wanted.

The whoopsie is worse the smaller the pool.

PoolMath will tell you how much you need of either CYA.
 
Liquid CYA is difficult to dose properly unless using the full jug. The goods clump up on the bottom and you pour mostly water even when it's well shaken. Then at the end some clumps fall out and give you way more than you wanted.

The whoopsie is worse the smaller the pool.

PoolMath will tell you how much you need of either CYA.
Yeah I noticed that, I had to shake it really well and even then I decided to stop adding it to the pool. Lets hope and pray I didn’t add too much.
 
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Preferred method : (you'd need to tweak the patio part and can scale it down with a sock)

 
Preferred method : (you'd need to tweak the patio part and can scale it down with a sock)

Thank you but I only had liquid stabilizer so hoping I didn’t add too much
 
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Liquid shows on the test pretty quick. Unless you were at the bottom of the just you likely added too litttle CYA. Tread carefully as you finish the jug down the road and then switch to granuals. When you need more, HD/Lowes/Walmart sells 4 or 5 lb bags of granuals. Google them up before you go because they flip flip which one is cheaper per lb. Sometimes it's $20 for the bigger bag and $30 for the smaller bag, other times it's a wash per lb.
 
Liquid shows on the test pretty quick. Unless you were at the bottom of the just you likely added too litttle CYA. Tread carefully as you finish the jug down the road and then switch to granuals. When you need more, HD/Lowes/Walmart sells 4 or 5 lb bags of granuals. Google them up before you go because they flip flip which one is cheaper per lb. Sometimes it's $20 for the bigger bag and $30 for the smaller bag, other times it's a wash per lb.
I think I added too little the first time. I think yesterday i added too much but i won’t know until i test tomorrow or next sunny day. Nothing I can so now but wait and keep adding chlorine.
 
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UPDATE: I can see theough my pool now but still yellow and green. Brushing everyday and adding necessary chlorine. Sucks as today is 90 degrees humid and my pool looks terrible. My cya tested in between 30-40 after adding stabilizer like 3 days ago. Should it be 30 or 40?
 
Still don’t know what my cya should be any advice? Picture below, camera makes it look more neon than it is. I feel the process is taking to long like im doing something wrong something feels off
 

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