Hello everyone. I noticed my pool was starting to loose quite a bit of FC per day so a couple days ago I performed the OCLT. (I would add enough chlorine to bring the FC up to 6ppm in the evening when everyone was finished swimming. By the next afternoon when I would test the FC it would be down to around 1ppm or less.) The Results from the OCLT were a 2ppm loss from about 8:30pm to 5:00am. It's worth noting that no one was in the pool the day I ran this test. The pump ran till 10pm and runs for 3 hours every night. My water appears to be very clear and with my weekly tests my CC is less than 0.5ppm (it barely turns pink which I attributed to my 4 kids living in the pool).
The only issues I've had with the pool was with the sand in the filter. I have a 16" Intex sand filter and used Clorox sand. Apparently I did not do enough research prior to buying it. I've been reading that the Intex filters do not like the Clorox sand since some of it tends to be smaller than the recommended size and slips through the laterals and into the pool. The other thing I've noticed is that the tube from the Intex skimmer to the port in the pool had a small amount of algae. I didn't even notice it at first until I starting giving everything a closer look. The other hoses leading from the pool to the filter are clear tubing also but they do not have any signs of algae.
Yesterday I started the SLAM process around 5pm and brought the FC up to 16ppm. pH was at 7.4 and CYA at 50. The rest of the numbers are within range also. Went out this morning around 6am and found the FC to be at 10ppm. Added additional chlorine to bring the levels back up and gave the liner another scrubbing. Checked again at noon and it was down to 12ppm. Again added more chlorine. Tested again at 3pm and is was down to 10ppm. I backwashed the filter, which I also did yesterday, and a fair amount of green came out of the filter. Rinsed and added more chlorine.
I'm new to pools since we've only had this one for a little over a month now. The information here has been awesome but the irregularities in the numbers have me a little confused. I have new sand to put in the filter but wanted to wait until I get the OCLT under control before I change out the sand and build my PVC plumbing. I know the California sun doesn't help with the FC loss but it just seems a bit off to me.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Doug
The only issues I've had with the pool was with the sand in the filter. I have a 16" Intex sand filter and used Clorox sand. Apparently I did not do enough research prior to buying it. I've been reading that the Intex filters do not like the Clorox sand since some of it tends to be smaller than the recommended size and slips through the laterals and into the pool. The other thing I've noticed is that the tube from the Intex skimmer to the port in the pool had a small amount of algae. I didn't even notice it at first until I starting giving everything a closer look. The other hoses leading from the pool to the filter are clear tubing also but they do not have any signs of algae.
Yesterday I started the SLAM process around 5pm and brought the FC up to 16ppm. pH was at 7.4 and CYA at 50. The rest of the numbers are within range also. Went out this morning around 6am and found the FC to be at 10ppm. Added additional chlorine to bring the levels back up and gave the liner another scrubbing. Checked again at noon and it was down to 12ppm. Again added more chlorine. Tested again at 3pm and is was down to 10ppm. I backwashed the filter, which I also did yesterday, and a fair amount of green came out of the filter. Rinsed and added more chlorine.
I'm new to pools since we've only had this one for a little over a month now. The information here has been awesome but the irregularities in the numbers have me a little confused. I have new sand to put in the filter but wanted to wait until I get the OCLT under control before I change out the sand and build my PVC plumbing. I know the California sun doesn't help with the FC loss but it just seems a bit off to me.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Doug