What the what?

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L

L'anseMeg

0
Jul 29, 2016
31
Mamou, Louisiana
Here goes... As some of you may recall, I changed my liner at the end of last season. Blue Raleigh, beautiful. Anyways, earlier this spring I was having difficulties with, what I thought, was sediment/trash by passing my sand filter. So I though maybe there was an issue with a lateral. Emptied filter, changed out laterals while I was in there. Issue continued after that, so I remembered the diffuser, on the bottom of my filter valve, had remained in place when I removed the valve to change my sand/laterals. I bought a new valve and installed it. While vacuuming I noticed that same sediment/trash coming right back into the pool through the inlet (it's only noticed when vacuuming). Then it struck me that this may be the terrible mustard algae I had heard of but never (fortunately) had the opportunity to run across. So I purchased my Taylor test kit K-2006 and began testing seriously. Whoa! CYA 160! FC was like 10. So drained roughly 40% of my water...yes folks I left a good 6-12 inches of water in the shallow end. Filled her back up circulated for 24 hours, checked CYA...90 ugh! Yes, another drainage (water is cheap in Louisiana) another fill up and CYA 50! Bam! Ok, anyway, at each drainage I would vacuum to wasted any sediment that appeared. Now I work 14 days away and then return for 14 days to spend every waking moment with my pool.....not. The pool was shocked to 29ppm FC before I left 2 weeks ago. My waife said the pool was looking good and she was steadily testing water every other day and continued to add the liquid chlorine to maintain 3-4 ppm. It wasn't long before she said the sediment showed up on the pool floor. I returned home yesterday, vacuumed the sediment to waste (otherwise it was coming back into the pool through inlet return), filled pool to proper depth, tested water: FC- 0, CC- 0, PH- 7.0, TA- 150, CH- 50, CYA- 50; dumped the 4 remaining 121 oz bottles of 8.25% bleach that we had on hand and left pump running. So here we are today after purchasing Borax and many bottles of bleach ( by the way folks $2.50 for 121 oz 8.25% at Family Dollar...I was happy). Someone please walk me through this. And could I have someone remove that "In the Industry" thing, I am way far from being in the industry.I was unable to attach pics so I'll be working on that. Sorry for the lengthy post. Forgot to mention retest today: FC- 5, CC- .5, CYA- 50.
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Thanks pooldv. last night's readings: FC 23, CC 1. This was 3 hours after dumping 5- 121 ounce jugs of 8.25% bleach. This morning's readings: FC 20, CC .5. I did add another 121 ounces of 8.25% bleach after taking this reading. Picture is from this morning. Also, is it safe to put my pool vac in?
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If your CYA is 50 your target range of FC is 6-8 (from the FC/CYA Chart pooldv posted above). If your wife was keeping FC at 3-4 it was a touch low, and would allow for algae to take hold. Once you slam have her keep it a touch higher and you should be OK.

Book mark that FC/CYA chart. It is invaluable!
 
I am in Alabama, and I find that once you are done with the SLAM, and you just want to maintain your pool... CYA of 50 is the sweet spot for me.
 
Full sun, all day...sounds perfect! I'm jealous!

I think 30 might be a little low for all day sun, we keep ours at 40 and our pool is surrounded by trees so we get shade. So yeah, 50 sounds pretty good.

If you think you are getting close to being done and are close to passing the OCLT...you could leave the CYA at 30 for over the weekend as you finish up the slam (as long as you are home to keep a close eye on things and make certain your FC doesn't drop below that shock FC of 12, otherwise you are just going to extend the time of your slam). Then maybe Sunday you could get yourself up 50 with the CYA and go from there. You could also try adding some pool grade DE to your sand filter, I've found it works fantastic to get that last little bit of clarity in the water when you have a sand filter. Here are the instructions for that: Pool School - Add DE to a Sand Filter

You do need to get a good handle on that CYA reading. I'd try it again just to make sure you are at 30. If it is not actually 30 you could be causing yourself more trouble by adding more CYA and your required FC values will be off. Maybe do the test one or two more times, make sure you are out in the full sun when you take that reading - that will help.
 
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