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Hey Gang! Long time, no see. I've been away a few years.

I have some sort of foam bottom on my AGP, and the seams are coming apart. I installed a new liner in September 2009, and re-taped all the seams at that time. Even so, the seams are coming apart and leaving deep grooves in the floor. In addition, the bottom is not smooth, but has a number of...

I bought the Taylor SpeedStir earlier this year, and it's been really handy for testing. I've been happy with it. But... (of course there's a "but") lately, the bar hasn't really been spinning in the cylinder. Instead, it sort of vibrates, and makes about 10 revolutions per minute, compared...

Last year I had a leak that I was never able to find, and I finally resorted to replacing the liner. Yesterday, I looked out the window, and saw a tremendous amount of bubbles coming out of the return. I went out to investigate, and found that my water level had dropped 3/4" from 6:00am to...

Please check me on this. I bought the CYA 50ppm Standard solution from TFTestKits to verify my testing procedures. The way I understand it, I use this solution in place of pool water, mixed 50-50 with the CYA reagent, (just as I would with pool water.) Mix it up, and let is sit for 30 seconds...

Instead of my usual long, drawn out explanations, I'll ask a simple question. :D There's some background for this, but... Does UV burn chlorine faster at higher levels than at lower levels? Without having done any controlled tests yet, it looks like it does. When I add bleach to my pool, I...

In another thread, svenpup suggested that we start a new thread for the most disgusting thing we've ever eaten. [cue dramatic music] This. Is. That. Thread. [/dramatic music] I've eaten a number of disgusting things over the years, but two really stand out in memory. The first was when I...

Everyone here has been very helpful in making me an expert with my pool. (OK, maybe I'm not an expert yet, but everyone's still been very helpful. :-D ) First, I moved from charcoal to gas almost 10 years ago, so am a bit out of practice with charcoal. Over the past few years, most of my...

Last evening I noticed that the pressure gauge on my filter hasn't moved at all over the past month. Normal operating pressure lately has been 12 psi. I haven't had a huge problem with dirt lately, but I would have expected to see some movement. I replaced this gauge this spring, and was...

A few weeks ago in another topic, while discussing the Solar Saddle, I mentioned that I was considering building a harness for my solar cover to make it easier to get it on and off. I built it, and have been using it for a while now (until the past several days when it's been too hot to have...

I had a "DOH!" moment last night. When I first did the CH test with my HtH kit last summer, I read the instructions that you should count drops until the solution turned blue. I tested my CH, and came up with a number in the 300-330 range. When I got my TF-100, I looked at the instructions...

I've seen several posts stating that a solar heater is operating at peak efficiency when the temperature difference is only 1 or 2 degrees. Is this also true of heat pumps? (I would assume that the physics remain the same, but...) There's about 8' - 10' of pipe between the heater outlet and...

My 24' round AG does not have a bottom drain. I have a skimmer, and one return. I have an EZ-Vac, but it tends to get stuck so I don't leave it in the pool all the time. It also doesn't seem to do that great a job anyway. (The following is where I am, and it may or may not really apply to my...

Weirdo question time again. Let me preface this with the disclaimer that it seems I'm missing something. I'm not advocating high levels of anything. Nor am I planning on increasing my CYA to astronomical levels, I just think that I'm not getting it. I understand that the purpose of CYA is to...

I have my pump on a timer, and right now it's running about 6 hours per day. (I haven't even tried to calculate how long it really needs to run to do a complete turnover.) The water is crystal clear, but I'm getting a lot of dirt build up on the bottom. My chlorine demand is under 0.5/day if...

I just put the umbrella back up, and got the table and chairs back on the deck. Have my new solar cover trimmed and fitting. I installed a solar saddle this afternoon to have somewhere to put the solar cover. Vacuumed and brushed the pool. Had to drain a couple of inches this afternoon due to...

Split off of Portable magnetic stirrer from apollo pools. JasonLion I just discovered that yesterday, myself. I placed the order last night. :whoot:

At the end of last summer, before I discovered TFP, I bought 2 gallons of HtH AlgaeGuard. After searching the board, I see that it is referred to as a linear quat instead of a poly quat, it isn't terribly effective, and it can cause foaming. My question then: Does anyone have any suggestions...

I've read several postings recommending that when fighting algae, you should vacuum to waste. I got to thinking about this yesterday while vacuuming my pool for the first time this year. Without getting too verbose on this one, why the recommendation to vacuum straight to waste instead of...

I've been here for several months, and many of you have seen the rather odd questions I sometimes ask. I thought it was high time I introduced myself, and told the saga of how I came to TFP. Unfortunately, after I wrote it up, I discovered that it runs to over 3500 words. (Yeah, all that for...

This is another of my "I'm just curious" questions, so most of you can simply shake your heads and move on. :mrgreen: This quote is from another thread: First, let me say that I would normally get the water sample from much deeper in the pool, and not while the pump had been off for any...

From all the reading I've done, it appears that adding a little DE to my sand filter will greatly reduce the smaller particulate matter. For my pool, so far, this is really only an issue at night when the light is on. (Dear daughter won't get in at night with all the "yuck" even though she'll...

Last fall when I was first learning BBB, I was trying to lower my TA. This had me raising my pH through aeration. This was a somewhat time consuming process, and I'd like to speed it up if I could. The biggest issue was a concern that if I started aerating in the morning, the pH would get too...

This spring will be my first opening this pool using BBB. I don't know what my FC level might be right now, because the pool's been frozen since mid-December. I'm assuming that my chlorine level will be pretty low, and if I let it get too warm out, I'll have a green mess. I'd rather not deal...

I know it's only February, but I keep staring out the back window at that big, black, ice-covered mass out there longing for weather warm enough that I can open it back up. I wanna play with it. I wanna try out everything I've learned from this site and all of the helpful people here. (I mean...

Not being a chemist, I may have this all wrong, but here goes: When someone posts here stating that they have very high levels of CYA or calcium, the recommendation is always to replace some of the water in the pool. Is there nothing that would break down or sequester the CYA or calcium? Or is...

I've seen quite a few threads specifying unscented bleach, but haven't seen any that give a reason for this. What is in scented bleach that would cause problems? Would the additives used to provide the scent not dissipate just like the chlorine, or would they instead build up over time...

I've seen repeated posts here stating that the only practical way to decrease CYA is to replace some of the water in the pool. However, (From Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis) So does CYA slowly diminish over time? My CYA when I closed was at 70. According to the Pool...

I've seen a number of posts regarding the effects of sunlight on FC and performing an overnight FC drop test. My pool is on the east side of the house, so with the exception of a couple of days in June, the pool is not exposed to direct sunlight after about 7:00pm, and is fully shaded as early...

I ordered the TF100 Thursday, and received it this morning. Talk about fast!! Saturday delivery, too!!! Having had a chance to play with it, I have a question (that I also had with the HTH drop kit.) When testing for color changes (TA test goes from green to red) the solution goes from green...