Tried other forums S.L.A.M, two weeks and still bad.

[Paul Land]

It's been over 2 weeks with chlorine level the color of iced-tea and pool is not clearing and very cloudy. I let the chlorine level drop to norm, and used algaecide and clarifier and in 24 hours it's 50% clear "swimmable" 1 or 2 more treatments will do it. I don't think this other sites S.L.A.M Process works at least not for this pool guy.

[Denniswiseman]

Don't forget that SLAM stands for shock level and maintain
Let's have your numbers (CYA is very important) Use a pool store if you don't have a FAS/DPD kit
FC:
TC:
pH:
TA:
CH:
CYA:

[Teapot1]

Chlorine is a sanitiser and an oxidiser, that means it will burn out organics and breakdown particles. It is not a panacea for poor filtration. Algaecide does nothing useful and uses up chlorine quicker as it tries to oxidise it from the water. Clarifyer on the other hand helps poor filtration. After 2 weeks of slam I am not surprised that clarifer has helped but ultimately how good the filtration is can be measured by how long it takes to clear a problem pool.

[Paul Land]

3 days @ 1Lb per day, 3Lbs of Shock in a 6500 gal pool did nothing. Level stayed high for 10 days. Algaecide worked in 24 hours and clarifier dropped cloud to bottom so I could vac and filter with 2 stage filtration 1st sand and 2nd D.E.
Pool is now Icy clear.

[Teapot1]

I would disagree that the 3 days of shock did nothing, you may not have got clear water at day 3 but you have strongly oxidised organics and some other things like persistent algae and bacteria. That laid in the ground work for your next step. If you used a poly quat algaecide over a quat you'll have got a bit more flocculation occuring and your clarifier was there at the end to complete the process. If you had just gone for algaecide and clarifier you would still probably been waiting as your total treatment time has been 11 days? There is a synergistic effect when products are used in combination it is a process. As you have now said your setup is two stage sand then DE you could have used a flocculent earlier as you shouldn't use flocculent with DE and some clarifiers will clog DE as well so products must be suitable. So your filtration is potentially good, then the hydraulic flow must be sub optimal for the process to have taken that long. Please bare in mind we are not there to see what is happening or take readings of the water, we are sitting behind computers trying to help. On closing I wonder if the addition of the shock on top of whatever your usual method of chlorination is has meant a large increase in your CYA stabiliser concentration, you should get that checked and not with dip strips as they are no good at measuring CYA.

[Paul Land]

It a learning curve, My 2 other pools 20X40 in-ground and 27 round were in the north east. This small pool 18' is in the deep south and seems to me that high heat and humidity and rainy wet are causing this problem. Up north if I had a bloom I would add shock by volume and within hours pool would clear. Last nights weather was 98F at 100% humidity and 1.4" rain this time pool stayed clear, I even thought the rain was dirty/cloudy. D.E. addition is having a positive effect on keeping pool clear. The clarifier I use is not a flocculent it just drops micro particles to bottom. I have used clumping Floc, a few times and discharged thru waste when vacuuming.

[Teapot1]

Out of interest which clarifier did you use?

[Paul Land]

Clorox Crazy Clarifier. It's really nice stuff after initial dose 5oz I will do maintenance dose about 1.5oz once a week with small amount of algaecide.

[Teapot1]

The Clorox crazy clarifier is most likely a Chitosan based clarifier, these are very good and derived from shell fish crustacean waste, its one where nature beats man made products. With the correct ratio of chlorine to CYA
(5-7.5% of the CYA figure) you wont need the algaecide its not strong enough to prevent algae growth, chlorine is the cheapest most powerful algaecide. The chlorine will get used up quicker burning the algaecide out of the water, its a pool industry lie to call it anti algae. Where it does have a use over winter where the chlorine subsides the algaecide remains longer provided it is used at the correct strength and most if not all pool shops dont test the level. The only algaecide that is strong enough to stop algae is copper based and that comes with issues from staining surfaces and green tint in blond hair, it should never be used in a plaster/pebbletec/tiled pool as surface staining is a real problem.
By all means use the clarifier with the chlorine but packaged chlorine contains CYA stabiliser which builds up in the pool and lowers the sanitising power of chlorine.

[Paul Land]

I did not know clarifier is Chitosan, I have Quick Clot (Chitosan) bags in all my vehicle's first aid kits. Being a tinkerer I am going to try an experiment using it contained in 5 micron bag with the same diameter as skimmer basket. D.E. filters to 3 Mics, the stuff very expensive by weight but it's granular and stabile. Who knows I might create something that can be useful.

[Teapot1]

Sounds like fun! Keep us posted. Not all clarifiers are chitosan some are just PAC, polyaluminumchloride with other additives but most commonly flocculent. but the colour usually gives it away.