Slamming since mid-May

[PatyKay]

Hello. I've been using PoolMath and TFP for a few years now, so amazing to be able to learn how to care for my own pool!

This year we were tossing our winter cover so we decided to open the pool on our own (first time for us). Pool was not opened last year. as cover came off the pool was dark but clear, I could see the bottom.... as the cover came off that ended quickly a lot of debris fell in. Hubby watched some utube to get all the fixtures back where they go.

Tested:
FC: 0
CYA: 0
TA: 110
PH: 7.3
CH: 100

Added some stabilizer with sock in front of return and some pellets in the Frog chlorine thingy. (very technical here, lol). a touch of muriatic, continual brushing, vacuuming, backwashing, a filter grid swap. along with adding liquid bleach multiple times per day as pool math demanded.

Our CYA is up to 32 now, FC i'm aiming for 15 to be sure to stay 13+. We have had a couple nights of near pass for the overnight test (-.2 ) but mostly losing 1-ish per night.

May 20th grids were swapped bc dirt was going back into the pool.

Once our CYA was up for a week or so and no difference i started searching forums again. Came across the recommended DE amounts, asked hubby and yes that was way low he had only added 1#. Bought more DE Tuesday and added that in. water is still milky. pls haaalp summer will be over soon! lol

Not sure if my signature is good or not so adding pool info here: Inground 36,000 gallons. Chicago, IL. 36 square foot DE grid filter. VS pump.

 

[PoolStored]

Tested:
FC: 0

FC i'm aiming for 15 to be sure to stay 13+.

Both of these cannot be true...Lol.

Just follow the SLAM process and it will clear the pool. The more often you test and replace FC, the faster it will go. No more often than every 2 hours. Link-->SLAM Process

 

[PatyKay]

those are the test numbers at open. Current FC is 13-16 depending on when bleach goes in. CYA is 32. PH was 7.2 at the start of slamming. I thought we didn't check PH, TA, CH again until after slam.

 

[PoolStored]

To be clear, if you only test and replace FC once or twice a day, it will not clear. You need to do it more often than that. The more frequent you do it, the faster it will clear. No more often than 2 hours.

 

[PatyKay]

We test before sun up, add LC and test until 13+. Re-test and add at 8-ish, noonish, 4-ish. Re-test at sunset add LC and keep testing and adding until 13+. We keep that very last FC reading for overnight test, we wait at least an hour after adding LC before testing to be sure it is distributed. The lowest FC has been since open is 9/10 (we had zero cyn to start so 10 is the slam level pool math gave at that time). We haven't had a lot of super sunny days yet but I know they are coming and 60 12.5% gallons in i'm worried it's never gonna get there. It has never taken this long in the past.

 

[PoolStored]

If you can test and replace more often, it will speed things up.

How often are you cleaning your filter. You should replace the DE, not pressure. When pressure rises 25%, clean it again. You may be cleaning often. Gotta get that stuff out of the pool by filtering and cleaning the filter.

 

[PatyKay]

Yes backwashing as needed. I told him to add 3 scoops instead of 4 scoops of DE after each backwash now. Thanks for the GIF totally needed it!! we have been borderline on getting the pool peeps to come sell us a bunch of stuff! #tired&wannaSwim

Oh and I'll push to give the pool love every 2-ish hours instead of every 4-ish, tx!