Hello! My wife and I moved into a new house this year and now we are first-time pool owners! I encountered a lot of poor help from our local pool store but after discovering this community, our pool is looking relatively fantastic! We had a dark green swamp when we opened the pool and now the water is very blue but still quite cloudy. I can sort of see 2-3 feet into the pool but not yet to the bottom of the shallow end.
Test results after 2 days of SLAMing (had a family BBQ and couldn't maintain that day, but it gave me a good chance to check the progress from the first 2 days (before starting, the pool store had my FC at 0.84 and CC at 0). I've been SLAMing since.)
FC: 1.2
CC: 0.4
pH: 7.2
TA: 80
CH: 200
CYA: 20-30 (I think this is closer to 30 than 20, but my test kit bottoms out at 30 and I can't get a specific reading)
I'm currently on Day 5 of SLAM (maintaining FC of at least 12 using 8.25% bleach). The first couple days I saw quite a bit of improvement (from Venice green to the blue I see now). On Day 2, I cleaned out the cavity for the pool light. It had the same layer of green gunk that was previously on the floor and walls of the pool (spent about a month blindly vacuuming and brushing that!)
This quote from Pool School has me worried:
"While SLAMing, the appearance of the water should improve each day, though perhaps only by a little. If you fail to see any improvement you might have a problem with your filter, or have a higher CYA level than you think, or bad circulation, or have some other more complex problem."
With respect to those immediate suggestions:
1. I have no idea when the sand in the filter was last replaced. The filter has been working great so far (frequent bashwashing while I was vacuuming and cleaning the pool) but I could imagine that replacing the sand may be the next step.
2. Higher CYA levels - If anything, CYA are lower than I think, but I'm not having issues maintaining FC levels with the sun.
3. Circulation seems fine to me. I have good pressure on the pump and the filter and the returns look good to me.
4. "more complex problem" - yikes...
I have yet to pass an OFLT (I consistently lose about 3 ppm of FC overnight), so clearly there is some organic matter making the pool cloudy and eating the chlorine. My question is: if the pool surfaces are clean of debris, how long does SLAM usually take to finish?
My current worries are:
1. Drain/Return lines (or some other place??) have the same gunk that was on the surfaces I've cleaned, meaning the pool won't clear up until those lines are clean. Is there a good way to determine if this is true, and if so, to clean them?
2. Sand in filter needs to be replaced to clean the last bit of the pool. Again, is there a good way to determine if this is needed and are there any resources I can look over about how to change the sand?
Thank you so much! The posts here have gotten me to where I am now and I feel like we're so close to a clear pool!
Test results after 2 days of SLAMing (had a family BBQ and couldn't maintain that day, but it gave me a good chance to check the progress from the first 2 days (before starting, the pool store had my FC at 0.84 and CC at 0). I've been SLAMing since.)
FC: 1.2
CC: 0.4
pH: 7.2
TA: 80
CH: 200
CYA: 20-30 (I think this is closer to 30 than 20, but my test kit bottoms out at 30 and I can't get a specific reading)
I'm currently on Day 5 of SLAM (maintaining FC of at least 12 using 8.25% bleach). The first couple days I saw quite a bit of improvement (from Venice green to the blue I see now). On Day 2, I cleaned out the cavity for the pool light. It had the same layer of green gunk that was previously on the floor and walls of the pool (spent about a month blindly vacuuming and brushing that!)
This quote from Pool School has me worried:
"While SLAMing, the appearance of the water should improve each day, though perhaps only by a little. If you fail to see any improvement you might have a problem with your filter, or have a higher CYA level than you think, or bad circulation, or have some other more complex problem."
With respect to those immediate suggestions:
1. I have no idea when the sand in the filter was last replaced. The filter has been working great so far (frequent bashwashing while I was vacuuming and cleaning the pool) but I could imagine that replacing the sand may be the next step.
2. Higher CYA levels - If anything, CYA are lower than I think, but I'm not having issues maintaining FC levels with the sun.
3. Circulation seems fine to me. I have good pressure on the pump and the filter and the returns look good to me.
4. "more complex problem" - yikes...
I have yet to pass an OFLT (I consistently lose about 3 ppm of FC overnight), so clearly there is some organic matter making the pool cloudy and eating the chlorine. My question is: if the pool surfaces are clean of debris, how long does SLAM usually take to finish?
My current worries are:
1. Drain/Return lines (or some other place??) have the same gunk that was on the surfaces I've cleaned, meaning the pool won't clear up until those lines are clean. Is there a good way to determine if this is true, and if so, to clean them?
2. Sand in filter needs to be replaced to clean the last bit of the pool. Again, is there a good way to determine if this is needed and are there any resources I can look over about how to change the sand?
Thank you so much! The posts here have gotten me to where I am now and I feel like we're so close to a clear pool!
