Search results

I'd really like to add a couple of solar heating panels to my pool. I've been looking around at different brands and sources and it is really tempting to try out some of the $89 panels, but I'm guessing I'll get what I pay for there. Looking at ebay when I look at fafco or heliocol panels, they...

Hi all. I was surprised to notice my pool looked green through the ice earlier this week. It has warmed up a bit now, and the ice has mostly melted and I can see that sure enough, it is light green and there appears to be a layer of algae on the floor and walls. I'm surprised to see this as I...

Hey all. A friend of mine bought a house with an above ground pool that has been sitting unmaintained for a while now. The pool is green and I don't really know any more, but I volunteered to come look at it, since he trusts me having kept my pool clear with TFP. So assuming everything works...

Last night I decided to tackle the problem of my Stenner pump not pumping bleach. I didn't replace the tube from last year, I hoped I'd be able to use it a little longer. Looks like I'm learning that no you can't, just replace it every year. Anyway, so I replaced my tube last night and expanded...

Hi all. I am in need of a new home for my Big Green Egg. When we moved I gave up on the wood table I originally had for it, and now want something more permanent and either stone or brick or something like that. My first question is do I need to go below the frost line for my base support for...

Hi all. I'd really love to add a heater to our pool, and solar keeps seeming like my favorite option due to no fuel costs and plumbing I can do entirely myself. The only thing holding me back is my fear of having to climb up on the roof every spring to fix leaks in my panels. I live in the St...

Hi all. I am having a slight issue with my pool this year in that I noticed my pool was consuming FC pretty quickly. Like 5 or 6ppm per day. I'm never losing much overnight, maybe .5ppm, but if I don't continually add chlorine during the day it drops a lot. I believe it is because I was lazy and...

Hi all. I finally got my Doheny Saturn robot by Dolphin today. I ordered it last Sunday and they shipped me a caddy instead of a robot on the first attempt. Luckily they got me the actual robot today. So I've had today to run the unit in my pool, and I gave it a good workout considering my pool...

I want a robot. I'm tired of vacuuming manually mainly because of the way my pool is plumbed and the small skimmer that has no access from the top, only the mouth. I've taken care of pools all my life, and I've never hated vacuuming so much. Anyway, I'm looking at the Doheny Saturn by Dolphin...

Hello all. I've searched for this, but can't seem to find anything here or anywhere else. But there has to be a way, so I ask.... My dad has a Pentair Mobiletouch 2 controller on his pool. The battery is beyond worn, and needs replaced. Pentair wants something like $300 and I see them for as...

Hi all. Hope this is the right place for this, but I had a question after winterizing my pool pump yesterday and discovering a leak on my stenner. The stenner just needs a new tube I'm pretty sure (not sure why this one only lasted me 5 months, but I got a season out of it, so ok). I decided...

How does water evaporation from the pool work when it comes to cold temps? Will it evaporate when when the water is in the 50's and 60's? Does it gradually just diminish the amount it will evaporate until it hits the freezing point?

I'm going to half close my pool this year. I'm going to blow out the plumbing and winterize the pump, but not cover the pool. My question is should I remove the wedding cake stairs that I have in my pool? The attach to the concrete deck, and my only concern is whether ice freezing around the...

I think this year I'm going to leave my pool uncovered during the winter instead of using the mesh safety cover we got with the pool and used last year. I have no idea what brand of cover it is, but I doubt very much it is a UV blocking one. My pool plumbing is simple and not very efficient due...

Hi all. I'm going crazy trying to research something related to my Reverse Osmosis water filter I use to filter our drinking/cooking water at home. I recently came across something talking about how RO water was bad because it lacked minerals, which led me to an alkalinity filter that my RO...

I've been running with the TFP method since opening my pool this summer. I get what I'm supposed to do for my setup, and have been following faithfully. But I always wonder why, when SWGC is just another method to add chlorine besides dumping in bleach, would the CYA levels vary? From what I...

I was looking for the CYA standard solution on tftestkits.com and didn't see it. This got me thinking, can't I just make my own by adding a certain amount of CYA to tap water? I'm busy trying to wrap things up as I leave work to go home, so don't feel like mucking around with pool math to...

Hi everyone. I went to bed last night thinking "hmm, my pool could user some water, i think I'll put the hose in it...oh wait, no there might be rain tonight, I'll wait till tomorrow." Woke up this morning and the pool was full to the brim from the rain. I've read all over the place that...

My wife is insisting we get a safety fence around our 20'x30' in ground octagon shaped pool. Our yard is already fenced in and meets all code requirements. However, we want to be able to play with her in the yard and keep her from being drawn to the pool to throw things in or get things out...

Split from Adding Borax makes DE filter clogged. Zea3 Hi all, sorry to dig up an oldish thread, but I just went through the Borax process yesterday with my pool. I have a sand filter, but with DE added. I got up this morning and my pressure had shot up well over 25%. So I backwashed and the...

Hi all, I'm trying to make sure my pool is stable pH wise before adding borates. I've determined that my pool is nice and stable at 7.5pH and 60ppm TA. Problem is, my fill water is high in TA, and through adding replacement water over the last 2 weeks I've increased my TA to 80ppm. My pH is...

I'm currently working on lowering my TA to add borates eventually also. I'm curious, how do I prevent overshooting my TA goal? I've been testing my TA with a 10mL sample, in 25ppm increments. I'm between 100 and 125 now, and figured once I test between 75 and 100 I'll start testing with a 25ml...

I have built myself two PVC aeration devices that I attached to a 1/4 HP submersible pump I got from Home Depot a while back. It has a 1 1/4" male thread, on which I put a piece of female threaded pvc and then stuck a straight piece of 1 1/4" PVC up into the air. The first style is simply capped...

My wife proposed the idea of building a bat box for the back yard, to invite bats to live and eat bugs. Supposedly they'll take care of all the bugs in the yard. I told her I had memories of being in our swimming pool at our home on a farm at night and bats swooping down into the pool scaring...

Hello all. My TA is high (175) and I would like to add borates. I know I need to lower the pH with MA and aerate to bring the pH back up, and repeat until the TA falls to where I want it. I lowered my pH a little to 7.4 and thought I'd bring it up to 7.8 or so before knocking it back down. We...

Hi all. I finally got my Stenner pump installed at the pad tonight.I threaded the injector/check valve assembly into the T that I plumbed in for it, and turned the pool pump on before hooking up the hoses to make sure it didn't leak. To my surprise, water slowly bubbled up the injector tube. Is...

Hello all. I discovered this site about a month ago when I opened up my pool for the first time since taking ownership of our house. I've read all through pool school, as well as many threads in this forum, and feel pretty well versed on the TFP method. My pool looks perfect, and mostly is. But...

Not to hijack this thread, but my neighbor's pool is cloudy...it was green, and though he's not sold on TFP yet, it was memorial day weekend, I had bleach, and no pools stores were open. We SLAMed it, got it blue, but cloudy, and once Tuesday came around, he wanted to talk to a "professional". I...

The pool school chart says vinyl TA for a non SWG pool should be 50-90+. I read somewhere that for vinyl liners it was important to keep the pH balanced and the TA below 120. Now, here on the TFP forums I've read that TA mostly only matters if you have a plaster pool, or if you are having...

Hi all. I've got a pool with relatively high CYA. It was 160 when I started, and via water replacement I got it down to 60. I decided to stop there and let my levels drop as I replace water through the season and over winter. So, with that acceptable but still high CYA, I'm maintaining a higher...