Trouble with SLAM

[jpoulos2000]

Hi,

First time pool owner here, and doing my first slam. I have a new fiberglass pool with a saltwater system. I had everything up and running good, chemicals all within a reasonable range. My CYA was ar about 45 and chlorine was mostly in 4-6 range.

The problem:
I had my saltwater machine set on 50 and my chlorine was up around eight. I turned it down too quickly and my chlorine dropped to zero. I turned it back up, but could not generate chlorine and the water started to get cloudy. I realized I probably had an algae bloom and I needed to SLAM the pool pool.
I am on day three of the slam. I have used 20 gallons of liquid chlorine. The pool has been crystal clear for three days, but it will continues to fail the overnight chlorine test. Should I continue with the SLAM?

Also, when the water got cloudy, my CYA had dropped to zero.

Should I continue the slam without any CYA or do I need to get some CYA in there to help the pool retain its chlorine level?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Jon

 

[reggiehammond]

Yes - continue SLAM until all 3 exit criteria is passed. If you stop early, you’ll be starting over and will have wasted $$.
You need to immediately add enough CYA to get back to 30 minimum. Without CYA, your SLAM is going to be ineffective because it’ll be hard to dose frequently enough to make sure FC doesn’t fall under SLAM level significantly.

If you have a ladder, stairs, lights, etc - those can all be hiding places for algae. Make sure you look through the pool carefully to find any hidden areas.

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Stick with it. Let us know how it goes.

 

[PoolStored]

I turned it down too quickly and my chlorine dropped to zero. I turned it back up, but could not generate chlorine and the water started to get cloudy.

For future reference, SWCG is good at maintaining, not so much raising FC. Use liquid chorine to raise FC first, then SWCG to maintain.

 

[Bperry]

Hi,

First time pool owner here, and doing my first slam. I have a new fiberglass pool with a saltwater system. I had everything up and running good, chemicals all within a reasonable range. My CYA was ar about 45 and chlorine was mostly in 4-6 range.

The problem:
I had my saltwater machine set on 50 and my chlorine was up around eight. I turned it down too quickly and my chlorine dropped to zero. I turned it back up, but could not generate chlorine and the water started to get cloudy. I realized I probably had an algae bloom and I needed to SLAM the pool pool.
I am on day three of the slam. I have used 20 gallons of liquid chlorine. The pool has been crystal clear for three days, but it will continues to fail the overnight chlorine test. Should I continue with the SLAM?

Also, when the water got cloudy, my CYA had dropped to zero.

Should I continue the slam without any CYA or do I need to get some CYA in there to help the pool retain its chlorine level?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Jon

I would question your CYA test. It’d be nearly impossible to drop from 45 to zero within 3 days unless you have ammonia. But if you had ammonia, you’de have no chlorine at all. I’d suggest trying the CYA test again and note that zero isn’t possible to read on the Taylor test kit.

 

[Oly]

Please tell us you are testing yourself, at home, with a quality test kit?