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I have an in-ground spa but no pool in my current house. Came with all Pentair equipment, with a MiniMax NT heater. Takes quite a while to heat the spa. Of particular note is that my heater is a LONG ways way from the spa itself. I have been considering swapping this older heater for...

I replaced the bulb in my spa about 1 year ago and it is already burned out again. Have not checked it to see if it is water tight, but was when I replaced it last time, and it ran 1 year or so. Any recommendations on a bulb brand that will last longer next time I replace this, or other tips...

I have an inground spa build just like a pool (pumps, heater, etc) but just a spa. It has a built in light -- looks to be something like a Pentair Aqualight with a "normal" looking bulb inside. 120V. I'd like to place this with an LED bulb, but not sure what will work in this fixture, good...

I'm actually looking to see if I could repurpose an filtration system for a modest sized above ground pool for a large roman style fountain that I have in my new home. The fountain holds about 800 gal of water, and didn't come with a filtration system built in. It collects debris, some algae...

I'm the new owner of a home with an in-ground spa, no pool. Older Pentair pumps and heater, some which are leaking slightly. Thinking of an overhaul for energy efficiency to new pumps and a new gas heater. I see Raypak is highly recommended on the heater. Why Raypak? What pumps should I...

Looks like its gotten to where a drain / refill is going to be necessary after years of not doing so. Too much calcium and other stuff that just has to go. I didn't do the initial startup when we put the pool in, and I've since become a BBB follower. So the question is, what is the right...

Folks -- ascorbic acid treatment went great. Iron stains lifted like magic. So I used Poly60 to hold off algae and that went okay. So I started adding Chlorine back and the pool turned iron yellow/brown. So I added a modest amount of ascorbic acid back to the pool and bang, it went away...

Guys, My SWG (Pentair) recommends CYA 75 or greater, so shocking is super tough with CL only. I have some Bromine, and some poly60. If I do need to shock (will do a drop test tonight), can I shock with a combo pack of these things? If so, how high is high enough? Drop test is funky after...

Folks, I keep a log of my pool for comparison year over year. This year so far I've had to run my SWG at a setting quite a bit higher than last year (but our weather has been weird too). There are some differences and I'm wondering if that is playing into things. Last time I did an overnight...

I've read the pool school recommendation on water balance for SWG pools, and it says TA of 60-80 is very important, but does not say why. Can someone explain? Further, I have a pentair IC-40 SWG, and my salt level ended running a bit high, the SWG complains it is high (but often that reading...

I recently broke out a new vial of this reagent. Now I'm suspecting that it is possibly bad because my CC numbers have been uncharacteristically low (more or less zero when usually I run about 0.5-1 due to so many leaves that fall into my pool). Is it possible that this reagent is bad, or am I...

Let's say that I master the BBB method at some point and have my pool dialed into 5-6ppm FC as I should. Now, how do I account for big pool parties, the 6 kids from up the street crashing the pool on some random hot afternoon? I've got a SWG, so nothing happens too fast. Should I just add a...

I had made the assumption that I should run my waterfalls daily in order to flush them and make sure algae can't get a foothold. Now I'm wondering if I should do that at all. Seems like maybe it is pushing any algae I might have into my pool on a daily basis and providing nice, oxygen rich...

I've got a SWG pool and been having problems with a bit of algae creeping back in when FC levels fall to "recommended" levels. Even though I've got a SWG pool, any harm at running at slightly higher "bleach" levels? That would mean more like FC of 6-7 rather than 5-6. - Jeff

Gurus -- question here. I shocked my pool at the start of the season. Drop tests are good, pool is clear, yeah! I let the chlorine levels fall down to around my target slowly as the pool warmed up -- still everything is okay. Now, I suspect I might have a bit of algae (have not had a chance...

I have a pool with returns that don't have the fancy ball and screw mechanism shown in their videos. I have basically a pipe fitting with what appears to be some sort of notched coupling built in, but it is basically flush to the level of the plaster, rather than having a flange and screw...

It is getting warmer here in SoCal, so I've been running the solar and the water is getting warmer. Today, my SWG showed the "check salt" light. I checked it and cleaned out a small amount of scale on the inside and gave it an acid wash, but it still reports the same. It seems to be...

I have a mastertemp 400 pentair heater. It has been installed about 1 1/2 years. The last time we fired it up, it would start, run, heat for a bit, then cut out the flame, run for a bit, relight, run for a bit, shut down, etc. From all I've read, it seems I may have a thermal regulator issue...

Weeks ago, I had to shock my pool and then ran my SWG at a pretty high level. I had to finally cut that out to get my FC levels to settle down, and they took DAYS to do so. I had the SWG set to like 15% and still my FC was falling very slowly. Once I got near my target level, I moved my SWG...

My levels have been good and steady now for weeks, but I'm wondering if it is still possible to get algae and if I need to be doing drop tests at night periodically just to check on things. My FC has never dropped below 4, my CYA is around 65, pH is under control at 7.6-7.6. -- jeff

Folks, I'm having problems getting accurate readings. Here is what I mean. I seem to be off by plus or minus 0.5 or so on a given reading. I did two tests this morning within 5 minutes with no equipment running and one was a FC reading of 4.5 and the other 5.0. As best I can tell, I did...

I had my water tested at a pool store (because I was there), and they compute TA with a stabilizer adjustment. With that, my TA by their reading is 42. My CYA is around 65. With the TF test kit, my TA is 80 (slightly pink at 70, strongly pink at 80 if that matters). Since I have a SWG pool...

Guys, The TF test kit says TA should be 90-120, but recommended levels on this board for a SWG pool is 60-80, so which is it? I'm at 90 with other numbers good (CH is high, but that is how our water is). Thanks! - Jeff

I'm thinking that I might not be running my pump fast enough for my SWG to be totally efficient. The "enough flow" light is set. Without solar, I'm running at 25GPM. However, I notice that I see what I assume are little chlorine bubbles coming out of the return lines and bubbling to the...

Folks, So I have a 15K gallon pool and have a bit of an algae problem -- probably due to my SWG clogging up with calcium a bit back and then having things off after that. I've noticed that after shocking my pool to get the algae under control, with my SWG set to around 40% (rated for a 40K...

I've got naturally harder water to start with -- tested this morning at 220 for CH. I'd have to drain 20-50% of my pool just to bring my CH into a better situation, and even then, the floor would be 220. I assume it continues to creep up due to evaporation. Any tips on how to make the best of...

Is there a mapping between TFP test kit reagents to Taylor ones? I'm asking only because in a crunch, I'd like to be able to run down to my local pool store and pick up a reagent I'm running low on. Specifically, is the FAS-DPD Titrating Reagent sold by Taylor the same as the R-0871 reagent in...

What clarifier / conditioner do people recommend (if any)? Thanks! - jeff

My TA is pretty high -- 240. Otherwise, all of my numbers are in line. This is a new pool so I suspect it just picked up a bunch of junk, plus they had to fix a problem with the PebbleTec on the baja shelf (by draining the pool down) and redo some, so I suspect some debris from that made it...

I've got a pentair minimax heater and i7 controller. It seems that when I hit the "spa" button, the heater fires up and reaches or exceeds the target temperature. As the water starts to cool, the heater does not readily fire up again. I was told by Pentair that it is normal for the heater not...