Evening folks, im starting to regret not draining the pool. I’ll keep it short as i possibly can.

27000g Semi in-ground pool, 425sq cartridge filter, 3HP variable speed pump runs 24/, 2” piping in/out.

Pool cover came off in a wind storm early winter, was too busy to care so I left it open all winter to swamp out figuring id drain and refill, due to record rain and wet soil i didnt want to chance it so here we are 45lbs of shock later…

Starting Numbers

0 CYA (closed at 90)
50 TA (closed at 120)
8.6++ PH (off the charts red purplish)
240 CH

Opened by netting as much of the gunk off the bottom as possible, vacuumed a bunch to waste, cleaned filter and repeat a few times then began. Added a gallon of muriatic acid. Added a few lbs of cal-hypo shock and realized real quick i had ammonia, took 15lbs 56% cal-hypo + 4g 10% liquid to start holding some* chlorine, went from dark green to extremely cloudy white, This was 3 days effort but due to work i was forced to leave it for a week.

Started back up 2 days ago for round 2, the entire time ive been vacuuming, cleaning filters and brushing non stop. 15lbs of shock added over a few hours to maintain 10-15ppm then went to bed, woke up to 5ppm FC and 3ppm CC. Added 6lbs to get it back up but throughout the day in sunlight I struggled too hard to maintain 10ppm and due to 0cya I didnt want to keep throwing money away so I added 4lbs of CYA to skimmer this afternoon. Soon as the pool was shaded at 6pm here I added enough (roughly 10lbs) to bring it up to 29ppm FC hoping to hit breakpoint and lower the CC…..and still had 3ppm CC. I Just checked (it’s been 5 hours) FC is 17ppm and CC is now FOUR PPM?! Water is still extremely cloudy white haze, and smells like chloramines.

Current numbers

(Ran out of CYA reagent, should be 15-20 now I hope)
8.2 PH (Was at 7.4-7.6 earlier today while FC was below 10ppm before i started the heavy round)
17ppm FC
4ppm CC
70 TA
240 CH


The increasing CC is worrying me, the water refuses to clear up in any way or show signs of clearing and the insatiable chlorine appetite after THAT much shock and liquid is unreal, were talking 50lbs of calhypo 56% and around 8g of 10% liquid.

Ideas? Opinions? Thank you.

Hello,

We just had our new pool built. See my signature for details of the build and our equipment. Here are some additional details about the timeline on where we are now:

- PebbleSheen was completed on April 11th, acid wash was performed the following day and the pool was filled with water
- The PB did twice a week visits to maintain the water up until this week
- Salt was added on May 14th for the first time and the SWG was powered on
- Our pump has been running 24/7 for several weeks now at a rate of 1800 RPM (45 GPM)

I purchased a TF-Pro Salt kit and we did our first test today. Here are our results:

• FC = 15 (when adding the drops I feel like some of them were more air than liquid so I should probably test again)
• No CC observed
• CH = 400
• TA = 120
• CYA = 50? (this was difficult to determine with that test tube)
• pH = appears to be on the high side given the test below

The water itself looks very clear and there aren't any visible issues. We jumped in for the first time last night and it was surreal considering how complicated this build process has been (I'll create a separate thread detailing the build later).

What is the correct routine for a brand new pool build like ours? I thought that the PB would walk us through some of the maintenance items during 'pool school' but they only gave us a brief overview of the equipment and that's it. I want to start off on the right foot here and I know the builder isn't going to help. They told us all of their customers just pay someone to maintain the pool (which is probably mostly true).

Thank you!

Today is May 21, 2024, Julian date 24141. I just picked up some Pool Essentials liquid bleach from Walmart with a Julian date of 24137. That’s a manufacturer’s date of 4 days ago. Can that be true that they bottled that stuff 4 days ago, shipped it from who knows where, and stocked it on Walmart’s shelf in that short of time?

Hi there,

We had new tiles installed on our flushed spa. The tiles are slopped towards the spa. So there is a slight elevation going towards the spa. Is this the correct way to install tiles on an integrated spa? I thought the tiles would be leveled.

Thanks,

Salt water 24,000 gal infinity pool

Pool guy on vacation (returns in 2 weeks) but over shocked pool due to some mustard/algae prior to leaving and that was 9 days ago...
SWG- off
No chlorine floaters
No cover on pool
No morning sun due to clouds approx 6 hours of sunlight
Day 1 pool pump on for 24 hours after that 8 hours day

Water was always clear and now mustard/algae gone

Today I had water tested at leslie's pool since we wanted to swim but make sure we could;

FC & TC= 8.42 (yep no way swimming in that)
PH =7.5
TA =90
CYA=171
Salt 4000ppm

Air 75 Water 78

Pool was tested prior to shock all chems were good in range we were told

Do we just wait it out for chlorine to drop?

I have finally figured out iAqualink and set the dip switch so I can control spillover mode. The pool was previously set up to filter 8 hours per day in spillover mode at 2750 RPM which is about 70gpm (according to FlowVis) which works out to about 1.5 pool volumes through the filter per day. Of course pH crept up with the spillover on all the time. I need to check but I think 2250 RPM would be around 50 GPM or 1.1 pool volumes per day. Indoor pool is pretty clean water anyhow.

My proposed new setup:

• pool filtration 7 hours per day at 2250 RPM / 50 GPM. Floor sweepers work in this mode although not much dirt to sweep.
• spillover mode 1 hour per day at 2250 RPM / 50 GPM to mix and to filter spa. 600g spa so 5 spa volumes per day.

Does this sound like about the right mix?

Thanks

We recently had an inspection of our pool by the Health Dept. and inspector noted that we were not testing for combined chlorine in the pool weekly, as required. Do you test for combined chlorine in a bromine pool?

We installed a 15x26 oval AGP last year so this is the first year opening after winter. We took the cover off last weekend, water was very clear, no visible algae, I could see the liner pattern on the bottom, and got the pump going. Tested early in the week with Taylor K2006-C.

Opening results:
FC .8
ph 7.6
Alk 200
CYA less than 30

I started with muriatic acid to get the alk down which lowered the ph. I also added 1.5 pounds of stabilizer in a sock but CYA still too low to register on my test kit so I assumed still under 30.

Chlorine has been disappearing faster than I can add it so I stopped adding. Example - I added a bag of shock last night and FC was the same .6 this morning. Thursday and Friday my CC was high (greater than 3 and 4 on several tests) so I thought maybe there's something eating it up and kept adding shock (I have bags purchased late last season I want to use up. I'm not worried about adding too much CYA because mine is way too low).

My CC is down to 0 as of yesterday afternoon but I feel like I'm throwing chlorine in with no change day after day.

This morning's results:
FC .6
CC 0
ph less than readable on test kit
Alk 140
CYA less than readable on test kit

Pool store test this morning showed CYA of 9 and ph 6.6 since I couldn't get numbers for those myself.

I added 2.5 pounds of soda ash today to get the ph back up and about a half pound of stabilizer. Haven't retested ph yet.

I also have very low calcium hardness score but it seems that can wait until everything else is in range.

How do I proceed? Add more stabilizer? Assume it's in there and continue with more shock?

Thanks!

Hi folks,

I’ve got a newly built pool in North Central FL that we cut the ribbon on in April 2023. Details in the signature. I had my pool builder start off doing the maintenance and it seemed haphazard so, being an engineer, I did some research and found TFP. I’ve read all the ABCs and even done some deep dives on further details and read some pertinent forum threads. I’ve since taken over my own maintenance for the last 9 months and have my TF-100 test kit. This is a long post but I’ve learned a lot reading from you guys and I’m trying to cut down on important missing information.

I’ve had to slam my pool probably 3 or 4 times in total since we first put water in it up until Now which is a little over a year later. I feel like I’m getting better at keeping it clear and the chemicals balanced. Im pretty strict when I say clear. It’s a 7ft deep pool and if I can’t see the Phillips head screw pattern on my drain when standing over the coping in the deep end, then it isn’t clear in my book.

In the winter it isn’t cold enough to “close” the pool but definitely too cold to swim. So with no bather load I find keeping the chemicals balanced and the water crystal clear was a snap. I keep CYA around 75 and FC I let fluctuate between 12-24 which is shy of SLAM level and I have no issues.

But now that the season has started back up I’ve got kids and their friends in the water, as well as a young Australian shepherd who LOVES to swim and be in the pool.

I’m writing this thread for a few reasons. First to introduce myself, second to give some data on what I notice about my slam experience and my dog in the pool, and third to see if anyone has any insight into whether I’m on the right track or not.

For background, I only use CYA powder, never tabs. Baking soda for alkalinity, muriatic to lower the PH, and liquid Cl as needed for a boost or a slam. I haven’t put anything else in the pool. I run my pump at 45% (43Gpm) 7am-7pm and drop it to 20% in the evenings. I never turn it off. I’ve got dogs and dog hair that require constant skimming.

Currently finishing a slam because we had a pool party about 2 weeks ago and the water got a tad cloudy on me and I noticed my SWG could not keep up even when set to 75%. This is unusual especially with the SWG being set that high. My FC balance each day of testing continued to fall. I prefer to have my FC on the high side of about 11 with CYA around 75. My FC never fell Below 4ppm but something was clearly consuming the FC faster than the SWG could put it out. (I acid washed the SWG and made sure the FC at the return was 1ppm higher than at the skimmer to ensure it’s working). I cleaned the filter several times because I was hoping maybe it was sunscreen residue but as my FC continued to drop I decided to just slam it to be safe. The water got back to my threshold of clear within 2 days but I was not passing the OCLT for FC loss and my CC’s were between 1.5 and 2.5 for several days. My FC and CC numbers were actually a bit erratic in that the FC would get consumed at an expected rate of ~2-4 ppm
But I’d hit these strange bursts of losing 6+ppm in a short time period, including overnight.

During a slam, when the water is clear I notice that I typically lose about 3ppm of FC on average from the sun plus whatever is being oxidized.

My CYA is currently 55. I had a couple late evenings where I topped my pool off around 630pm to get my FC to about 26 (I know slam is 24 but I go a touch higher to allow for fluctuation). I test again around 830pm and that’s my benchmark for the OCLT when I test before sunrise the next day. Well, I noticed things getting funky when I added 0.8 gal of chlorine to the pool at 630pm and at an 830pm retest the FC didn’t move. I should’ve seen a 5ppm or 6ppm jump from that dose but it didn’t move and there is no sun on my pool from 6pm onwards. This is very out of the ordinary to happen.

I’ve always suspected my dog has an impact but I didn’t pay much attention to it as the TFP forums I read on dogs seemed to indicate they don’t have too much of an effect. Well this slam is taking a lot longer than usual but I kept at the slam and 2 days later passed the OCLT for FC but not CC.
The following day I did not pass the OCLT but CC dropped to 1.5 from 2.5.

I began observing the dog’s behavior as part of the test and slam process and I now believe my dog has a major effect based on my test values.

Ive got a 8foot long 9” deep
Sun shelf in the pool where he likes to hang out. He does this thing where he puts his bottom legs on the next step down from the sun shelf and rests his upper body on the sun shelf. He will lounge like that off and on throughout the day, swim a few laps, and return to his lounge spot. I noticed he was chilling in my pool after I added the 0.8 gal of chlorine as mentioned above and I’m convinced now he’s sometimes peeing in the pool, or his marinating in the water like that is bringing enough organic material into the water to mess up my readings (or both). I can’t otherwise explain why my FC didn’t move up the 5-6ppm 2 hours after I added the Cl so late in the day and why my CC’s are bouncing between 1.5 and 2.5. I suspect this is also why my SWG was not keeping up after the party was done. The dog was so happy that the water was warm again he was back in the pool constantly.

I put him in the house the following night and this time passed my OCLT for FC but the CC had only dropped to 1.5.

It’s not practical to keep him out of the pool, But I’m also not sure I need to slam anymore. I’m planning to finish it out over the weekend and then get my CYA back up and put the SWG on and just watch it closely. I don’t think I’ll ever get my CC down to 0.5 or 0 as long as he’s in the water.

Just wanted to share that experience and see if anyone had any thoughts on fundamental flaws in my logic or if I’m on the right track.

Pic of the little %#^* in his lounge pose attached.

Many thanks for all the info I s learned on this site.

After losing both pump and filter last summer I replaced them both with used equipment. My bad. I am now stuck with a leaky pump that is far too powerful for my above ground and a Sta-rite System 2 Modular Media Filter that I cannot open. The filter cartridge is in dire need of replacement though. Not going to happen. Short of reattaching the Posi-loc, turning the pump back on and waiting for my neighbors to call the police after the shell pops off, or venting my frustrations via sledge hammer and crowbar, I am as seriously stuck as the lid of my filter. The bush-pilot of a pool tech who sold me this monstrosity of a set-up told me I would never have to open it (the Sta-rite) as the psi would never reach critical...and that was after he and three other guys struggled for nearly an hour to close the darn thing after replacing the cartridge that was in there when it was sold to me, as is. I should have known better than to believe him. What I think happened is that the o-ring keeping the two parts together melted, froze; contracted and expanded, and then vacuum-sealed the deal with sludge. Now I am using my sump pump to circulate the dirty water in my pool along with the algaecide and pool shock...so my question is really simple -- how do I get the lid off the filter so that I can exchange the filter cartridge? Any life hacks? At this point I am starting to think I should just buy everything new.

Opened pool today. Slamming and already have a clearing pool.

But the cottonwoods are already seeding. I don't remember ever having them start this early before! They were covering the water when I pulled the cover. Already went thru a skimmer sock.

Anyway, CYA at 50. FC over 20. Filter running 24/7.

I thought I'd be clever with my pool build and I added a couple of Waterway Power Storm jets to each side of my pool steps (8' "sit n step"). I plumbed it using 1.5" PVC to back of the steps, then used a waterway 4 way manifold (2 outlets capped) and 3/4" flex PVC to feed each jet. When I finally went to try them yesterday for the first time, I get almost nothing coming from the jets? If I turn off the 3 main returns, leaving only the stair jets, I can feel a slight improvement, but still next to nothing coming out of them. I connected a hose to the air inlet and it bubbles when I blow into it but otherwise, it's open to air.

Should this work, or am I just not getting something about the way spa jets work? Or maybe the flex PVC got crushed with the backfill gravel? Or ???

I turned off my pump while swapping out the filters today and when I went to turn it back on, it says it’s in “service mode” and won’t change to any other modes (run, off, schedule, etc). The knob turns but nothing changes.

Doesn’t look like the knob can be just pulled off and inspected. Hard to tell but possible there is moisture in the control panel… where the RUN light is it looks like there might be condensation.

Tips? Suggestions? Can I just replace the knob? The control panel?

I used some 2" flange couplings a few years age from big box storeto replumb during pump replacement.I need to do another mod, but I cant fing the coiuplings I bought before.

Threads are ~8/.85 in = 9/in = ~2.822/mm

Anyone know who might have these?

Thanks,
John

Folks,

This is the start of a thread that I expect will take a year or so to complete. We're finally getting to build a new house and pool exactly the way we want to. I think a little context is in order up front here since it will drive a lot of the pool decisions. My job has been to manage large construction projects around the world and we've ended up living wherever we could find something "reasonable and close". So the house and pool (if there was one) was never really designed to complement each other. Then we did a 6 year sailing adventure living mostly year-round on the boat somewhere in the Caribbean and the ocean was our pool. After that we bought a home with a pool in Florida and we love it here but need another adventure. Since joining TFP I've followed many owner build threads with great interest since I knew this would likely be part of our next adventure. That day has come. We sold our house last week and closed on our new property two weeks ago. So our next adventure will be to OB the house and pool. We really want this pool design to be integrated with the home and site not just added in as an afterthought. We are getting close to complete with the architectural design and next step will be to meet with a pool design company and and do this collaboratively with the architect. The home is on about 1/2 acre and looks out over a lake between two holes on the golf course. So it seems to make sense to put a pool behind the house that has an infinity edge that overflows to the lake. Our site is elevated a good 15' above the lake and about 200' away. Does an infinity edge sound right for this situation? And can you please comment on the pluses and minuses of an infinity edge? The pool will be covered with a screen enclosure that also encloses the patio. The back of the house faces roughly west. I'll add some photos and drawings after we get the next rendition from the architect.

Thanks.

Chris

I am trying to re-boot my pump. Does cable connector unplug(pull apart) or twist to unlock. I've gently tried both with no joy and I am concerned about damage.

Thanks

Any advice for finding intex out of stock parts? We have the 18 X 52 intex ultra XTR and found many holes this year so we ordered a replacement liner and its is here tomorrow. In the meantime a storm it our area and mangled our frame. OF course it did!

We need three replacement leg joints part #12427b - intex is out and can’t find them anywhere. you can find the #12427a joint which fits the non XTR pools. UGH - I would return the liner but then I am out the shipping. We already had the pool up and ready for water we found the holes. Should have just replaced the whole pool but for $350 i got the liner not expecting the storm and now I need horizontal beams and the joints.

Any source for finding these joints?

Yes, I probably should have spent the extra money and gotten a Hayward motor.

All the mechanical stuff came apart and went back together like a breeze. But now it's time to wire it up, and when I remove the cover for the new motor, there is nothing I can discern that allows me to select between 115 and 230 volts. Please see pictures.

I know very little about electricity. Could it be some sort of auto-select/auto-detect? Many thanks!

Pictures are old Hayward voltage selector, new after-market motor label and electrical connectors, etc.

My Polaris cleaner is fed from a 3/4 HP pump that wired for 240 volts. I would like to put this pump on a GFCI breaker.

The 240 volt GFCI breakers are expensive. The 120 volt GFCI breakers are less than half the cost.

The pump is rated 115/230 vac at 12.8/6.4 amps. It is located 10 feet from a 100 amp sub-panel.

At 10' from the panel, I see no reason not to rewire the pump to 120 volts using a 20 amp GFCI breaker. Note only would the breaker cost less but I would pick up an open space in the sub-panel.

What are your thoughts?

(Booster pump is fed from the 20 amp non-GFCI breaker shown in the photo.)

Anyone tried connecting a different device to the intellicenter, my ENS202EXT got water logged. Need to replace. plan to move in the next 10-12 months so just want a cheap solution

As posted in a previous thread at the end of last season I was battling white water mold as a result of high cya/chlorine issues. My scheduled opening is early May. Took a look at things today. The entire pool is COVERED with white mold. I did test chlorine, ph and cya today .
Fc basically zero mayyyybe 0.5
Ph 7
Cya 50

Is there anything I can or should prior to opening to try to get a handle on this ?
Thanks in advance

I did a SLAM process and the algae is clogging my filter but now a 2 week old filter will no longer become clean enough to get a good prime or flow from the system. I tried without the cartridge filter in there and it primes fine. Do I really need to throw away a cartridge that is only 2 weeks old or is there a way to clean the algae off? Currently using a jet nozzle on my standard garden hose to clean the filter.

Hi all, our pool has a deck chlorinator, which is used to to slow feed tablets into the pool (much like the floating ones you can buy at the pool store).

It probably goes without saying that we are not using tablets anymore (thanks TFP!!!!) so now we don't know how to keep the deck chlorinator clean, sanitized, etc. since it will be off and not having any water flow (or Cl for that matter) through it. We recently noticed leaves, debris, and bugs had accumulated in this area and was clearly becoming a biohazard. we cleaned it out the debris, standing water, and scrubbed it with some SLAM'med pool water (~16 ppm). Not sure what to do next since, again, we have no intentions of putting pucks in there.

Anyone know about a lot deck chlorinators? Any chance LIQUID chlorine can be used instead? I can't find any info about this online or in the TFP forums. Thanks in advance!!

I believe I have some type of metal in my pool water, just not sure if it is iron or copper. I am on well water. After completing a SLAM process a few weeks ago, I noticed my water was clear but bright green so I let the chlorine levels drift down and did an initial dosage of Metal Magic and the water turned clear blue but cloudy. After 48 hours, I brought my chlorine level up from 2ppm to 6ppm and unfortunately, that seems to have precipitated the metals out of the solution as the water is now teal green. So now I am trying to come up with a weekly process for managing how to tackle this problem best. Based on my CYA of 40 my recommended target FC level is 5-7 but I may need to keep it closer to 3 for a while to prevent oxidation of the metals, but I also do not want to risk algae developing and the need to shock the pool.

I figure I will need to add a weekly maintenance dose of Metal Magic to the water to keep the metals sequestered but really struggling to figure out how to maintain my FC levels to avoid algae outbreaks. I was considering maybe supplementing with Poly60 but unsure how that interacts with Metal Magic and when to use each product, and if the application of that product even makes sense.

I have a brand new SW pool- unfortunately the SWG initially installed was a dud and pool builder will not be able to install a new one until Monday. In the meantime he seems to have shocked it last week when it was fileld, and stuck a couple of chlorine pucks in the baskets that are there now but it's not going to bring the pool to the correct levels obviously.

Here are my current Taylor kit results:

FC- .5
CC- .5
TA- 90
Calcium- 200ppm
CYA- 0
PH- looked to be 7.6 on color test

My plan is
remove pucks from filter baskets
add HDX bleach - TFP app says 1qt, 3cups, 3oz
add CYA with stocking in filter baskets- app says 11 pounds to target level of 70



I'm most worried about the CYA- I see the preferred method is a sock in the basket or in front of the returns, but it seems like once this level is changed it's a no going back sort of thing so I want to make sure I'm on the right track

The pool will be heated starting Monday and I'm unclear on how much temperature will affect what I'm doing and if the addition of the CYA and bleach will throw the TA and PH out of whack and I'll need to plan for that if it's a wait and retest later situation?

After adding CYA how long do I wait to retest levels? How long do I need to wait before using the pool robot after adding chemicals?

Hello smart folks of TFP,

I've had a struggle with my pool for over a year now. We kept losing water and eventually it was proven that the shell is cracked. It's been cracked for over a year, close to 18 months. Luckily this is all under warranty and isn't costing me anything, yet.


The gunite company came out today and followed the crack by removing tiles. The picture above is one tile away from the corner of the pool in the deep end. Well, the crack was much longer than we could see on the surface. It went the entire length of that wall and wrapped around to the stairs. It's the wall closest to the house.



Yes, the water is a disaster because I couldn't keep chemicals in it and just gave up the fight. Anyway, it's fully drained now. After they removed all the tiles and revealed the full length of the crack they started cutting away the gunite for the entire length of the crack.





I'm being told tomorrow they are going to back fill behind the shell with gunite/concrete, and then respray the section they removed. They are currently adding holes to add new rebar because they said the rebar was laid improperly and it what likely caused the crack. idk. How well is this fix going to work? How do I not still have two large seams that run the entire length of the pool? Wouldn't it still leak water?

Also, does anyone know how the surface should be repaired? I was told they are going to resurface the entire pool, but how does that work with the tile that is already in place and with things lining up properly? I thought the surface (pebble finish) was a few inches thick.

I'm just confused as to how this is actually going to fix anything and not sure how the surface would be redone so things line up without a 2-3" ledge around the pool.

I'm sure I explained some things pretty poorly so if you need me to clarify anything just ask and I'll do my best.

Thanks,
Joe

I'm getting the flashing red light that according to the manual means an issue with the flow/temperature gauge. When I try to get the temperature it shows -- F which obviouslky means it needs to be replaced. Question is should the SWG function when this is gauge is not working? Mine is not generating any chlorine so I'm hoping the answer is no and that this is the issue. Pretty sure I can fix it myself.

Hello, I have an outdoor event next month and we will have mermaids there. We have a 5000 gallon above ground pool we'll be setting up. I've looked into tankless water heater and it was the route I was thinking of going until I realized they are only designed for shorter is use and would probably fail if used for 24-48 hours straight. I've thought about using a copper coil and a propane heater with a water pump. Would this be a viable option? I would like to spend under $300 if possible. If anyone is in or around Pocatello Idaho next month this will be setup at Mystic Realms Fantasy Fair.

See from the photo... I made a couple notes on it.
The placement of this Jandy Valve makes no sense to me.
If it's there to prevent inflow from the skimmer basket / bypass the skimmer basket -- I have no understanding of why it's necessary.
In the 7 Summers I've lived in my house and had this pool - I have never had a reason [that I know of] to use it to shut off that flow.

Present Day:
It is cracked. Air is being sucked in.
There is no true way to permanently fix it - needs to be replaced.
I could buy a replacement on Amazon for ~$35

I am here to ask this:
Why bother replacing it at all?
Or I could buy a few pieces of PVC and do away with it.

What should I do?
As always... thanks in advance.