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  1. skyeboysteve

    Salt levels and CYA levels dropped a LOT: why?

    What a mess... yes, it's lousy workmanship like that that can cause much anguish and spent money for the next victim... Wife just did a dye check and discovered that one of the returns we had leaking issues before, is now leaking again. However, it's not on the same side of the pool as the...
  2. skyeboysteve

    Salt levels and CYA levels dropped a LOT: why?

    I was afraid of that... but that's probably the only logical conclusion. Just when you get done doing multiple tests (including getting 4 different leak detection companies in the past year or so); it's hard to imagine that there would be yet another leak developed; (but bad luck seems to be...
  3. skyeboysteve

    Salt levels and CYA levels dropped a LOT: why?

    Yes sir... for one thing we don't have autofill. Did the test three times over the summer. Twice with pump running and once without. Water consumption for property: (which includes watering the lawn) April: 4K gallons May: 6K gallons June: 17K gallons July: 19K gallons August: 17K gallons...
  4. skyeboysteve

    Salt levels and CYA levels dropped a LOT: why?

    I'm using the reagents that come with the TF-Pro Salt with SmartStir-for pools with SWG test kit. Also both Leslie Pool stores gave me similar numbers for salt this last time. That being said, I only used my own kit when I measured earlier this year. I agree at the crazy amount of salt loss...
  5. skyeboysteve

    Salt levels and CYA levels dropped a LOT: why?

    I do not have an auto over flow system or auto fill valve (would be nice though). Well, in some ways I think I have a bit of an auto overflow system--called the back of the skimmer box; which has a few cracks at the very top so water can leak out there when the water line gets up to the coping...
  6. skyeboysteve

    Salt levels and CYA levels dropped a LOT: why?

    Before I switched to SWG, too much CYA was always my nemesis--requiring draining my 20,000 gallon pool every year. I never had to add CYA when I'd refill it, as apparently there was a lot absorbed in the plaster (even new plaster) that would leach back out--plus the tricholor tabs would then...
  7. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    I was much slower on this than normal. In retrospect I shouldn't have been so lazy and taken the time to find a tripod and search the house / car / garage for my phone tripod adapter... I was having a hard time aiming my phone (keeping auto focus engaged on the right thing) and aiming my...
  8. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Thanks Jeff... this is intriguing to me that angle could effect drop size enough to presumably error greater than 10ppm. As I said before... I'm going to test this next when the festivities subside.
  9. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    I honestly don't usually dry the tip either as I've noticed in the past when testing it didn't seem to effect anything... I only did it for this video as that's what the supplied instructions say to do for the TA. Didn't realize it had anything to do with static electricity as @Turbo1Ton...
  10. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Interesting... that's hard to believe, but now I want to experiment with the same sample of water and see how much variation there is. I do know that I CANNOT hold my R-0871 bottle vertical without the contents pouring out--this hasn't been an issue before. I suspect the size of the bottle...
  11. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Here's a video demonstrating my testing the pH and TA levels:
  12. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    FWIW, the reagents I'm using are pretty new. Ordered them from this site a couple months ago. Is there a way to get known water samples? I've taken water samples to three different pool stores in my area, and got different TA results from each one from a sample taken the same day... so not...
  13. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Not sure what you mean by how I'm doing the test... carefully? I keep reading that a lower TA usually buffers the pH from rising too quickly... so confused why too low makes pH more erratic... my pH never goes down on it's own--that's for sure.
  14. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    True... I do keep a log of my test results and how much stuff I put in, but haven't been recording rain... granted I'm indoors so much I didn't even notice it rained till my wife mentioned it to me. I guess part of the reason for why I feel so perplexed is combining past experience (when I was...
  15. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Yes, I'm using the 31.45% stuff. I actually had my TA down to 20 at one point as I dumped in so much acid to try to get it down.... but it went up to 80 in a week's time--nothing added including no tap water.
  16. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    My bad... paying $16 per two 1 gallon bottles of 31.45% muriatic acid... so, actually my acid cost would be $425 per year.
  17. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Well, I was well aware of the increased amount of free chlorine needed as CYA climbed throughout the year... and reaching those goals with the trichlor I used was not a problem.
  18. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Okay, I'll try not knocking it down so much... but I'm starting to feel like I made a bad financial decision switching to SWG Before: $105/year on 50lbs of Trichlor (that's gone up recently to $400) $150/year of city water to refill the pool to get rid of the CYA (which would often hit 100ppm...
  19. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    I understand that... I have virtually no aeration other than from the SWG and polaris sweeper... and yes, understand that the reason trichlor kept my pool in check was because of the acid it provides... but just curious if there's a way to keep from having to add murriatic acid for the rest of...
  20. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Is there a way of getting away from having to dump a gallon of muriatic acid per week with a SWG system (say a year after new plaster)? Dumping in more Borate? Up to 70ppm? Or is adding acid constantly something I should expect to live with, unless I go back to trichlor?
  21. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Okay, I'll try with the drop based test for pH, but doesn't explain the TA per se, since that's drop-based. FWIW, my tap water is 7.9pH and 75TA, so I don't think that's contributing much.
  22. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Forgot to remind in last response, this is a 2 month old plaster job... so I think that is responsible in part... but when I first got this house 10 years ago with the pool built in 1975, the last re-plaster job had been done back in 2006, and TA would always go up on it's own even then...
  23. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    I have a digital pH tester that goes up to 14. I calibrate it routinely so that it's accurate to 0.01 on the scale.
  24. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Interesting that a rising TA is odd.... other than when I've used trichlor, TA has always gone up in my pool for the 10 years I've had it, unless I add muriatic acid... or just use trichlor floaters... which keeps pH and TA perfectly within range with no adjustments needed. I'm testing with the...
  25. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Anyone else able to help? BTW, what is more important, CSI or being in the correct pH and TA ranges? Six days ago my pH was 8.1 and TA was 85 giving me a CSI of -0.16 Today with pH at 8.4 and TA at 115, I have a CSI of +0.28 I just added two gallons of muriatic acid to lower my pH to 7.0 to...
  26. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    Thanks for your response, @Texas Splash. Welcome to my magical pool where TA always has gone up on its own unless I have trichlor floating around (with the old plaster). I wish I had an autofill but in any case no water (nothing at all in fact) was added to the pool during this period. I even...
  27. skyeboysteve

    More help with incessant pH rise

    I know there is a lot of discussion on this matter, but haven't been able to find any tips yet (or at least understanding) that applies to the situation I find myself in. I actually posted on here years ago with a similar question, and in the end resolved myself to using trichlor tablets (vs...
  28. skyeboysteve

    Leaking around return jet flanges when pump runs after pool replaster

    Thank you for your response, but we don't have the Hayward kind. Actually, I think we figured it out. It might have helped if I had tried taking them apart to see for myself first; but it looks like the pipe has it's own flange that the eyeball fitting flange attaches to with four screws; and...
  29. skyeboysteve

    Leaking around return jet flanges when pump runs after pool replaster

    I tried some searching on this forum; but apologize if this question has already been answered elsewhere that I missed. We recently got our pool re-plastered by a company that came with rave online reviews--though our experience with them was less than stellar with their sloppy work and lack of...
  30. skyeboysteve

    Polaris 380 relief valve screen fills with debris daily

    A little background: my pool filter pump went out on me this past spring. I don't know how much power it produced, or what brand or much of anything about it. The previous owner of this pool (and house) owned an alternator repair shop, and I suspect he put that original pump motor together...