I have a roughly 20K inground River Rok pool. 60 sq ft DE, 2hp pump, big dinosaur of a heater.
My water cleared fast after plastering. Alkalinity came down in a weeks time, I let it drift down on its own then the last day before a pool party brought it down to 120 with a short course of acid/aeration.
Spa spill over is only type of daily aeration, but way it was done its more of a trickle when regular valve settings, when I turn more flow to spa, then it spills over alot. My returns are pointed mostly level, 2 on opposite ends I pointed a little towards surface to create slight ripples around steps.
My numbers now:
FC 4
CC 0
CH 280
PH (varies from 7.4-7.8, higher by end of day, adding acid at night)
TA (90-100)
CYA 35
no metals
Phosphates 1500
My question is should I do something about the phosphates? The last week or so I have added more chlorine than I usually have to keep my FC level stable. A few weeks back it seemed like I didn't add any for a week at a time. Was that stable.
Water is clear, crystal clear and sparkly.
Feels great, soft almost.
But brushing the other day I found a one inch green spot on some grout on the rock wall in pool. Could not find it anywhere else. 10 days ago we had a big bday party and tons of kids in pool. After they left I dumped 2 gallons of bleach in pool, since I use the BB method right now. Will add borates later.
Weird thing is, my phosphates were near zero when I filled pool. Zero for the first 3 days of pool, then suddenly were 1500, then 1000, then 1500, then 1000. Not just at Leslies, I ordered a kit thinking they are just screwing me over.
I have no idea where it's coming from? Yea I could have gotten some from the kids, but it was high before that party. NO runoff at all in our pool. COncrete deck all around, sloped right, away from pool. I cut down a huge tree over pool, so less organic than ever before.
The same time I noticed the green strip, I noticed that day my FC dropped faster than usual, which means it was killing alot of something...which killing bad things can result in testing positive for phosphates as well. Right?
My old plaster and the pool could not get rid of green algae. One of reasons I redid it. Just never could do it. I brushed nonstop, dumped tons of bleach, jacked with PH and TA levels to different settings, my cya was never super high, tried algaecides, etc. I DO NOT WANT THAT AGAIN.
I hear horror stories on using Phos free, or any Phos remover. Then I hear tons of good stories of dropping from 1500 to 300 in 2 days. I hear dont worry about them if all else is balanced, but my old pool all was balanced and never got rid of algae. I also hear yes mess with them if as high as 1500, then I read a pool guy who says his pool has 3000ppm and crystal clear. SO....?
My CH will keep climbing a little more since I just had the pool done. I know my PH will not bounce up as much as time goes on because the plaster will cure slower and slower. I know I have just enough CYA to keep chlorine around, but not enough to need astronomical chlorine to shock.
What I don't know is should I really worry about the phosphates? I'm actually worried and concerned because I found green in a 5 week old pool that I have been checking water chemistry twice a day since birth, and I brush it twice a day. (per SGM, the more you brush it the more exposure the pebbles and beauty and it is gorgeous)
and on another note..are there any pucks out there that don't have a ton of junk in them?
My water cleared fast after plastering. Alkalinity came down in a weeks time, I let it drift down on its own then the last day before a pool party brought it down to 120 with a short course of acid/aeration.
Spa spill over is only type of daily aeration, but way it was done its more of a trickle when regular valve settings, when I turn more flow to spa, then it spills over alot. My returns are pointed mostly level, 2 on opposite ends I pointed a little towards surface to create slight ripples around steps.
My numbers now:
FC 4
CC 0
CH 280
PH (varies from 7.4-7.8, higher by end of day, adding acid at night)
TA (90-100)
CYA 35
no metals
Phosphates 1500
My question is should I do something about the phosphates? The last week or so I have added more chlorine than I usually have to keep my FC level stable. A few weeks back it seemed like I didn't add any for a week at a time. Was that stable.
Water is clear, crystal clear and sparkly.
Feels great, soft almost.
But brushing the other day I found a one inch green spot on some grout on the rock wall in pool. Could not find it anywhere else. 10 days ago we had a big bday party and tons of kids in pool. After they left I dumped 2 gallons of bleach in pool, since I use the BB method right now. Will add borates later.
Weird thing is, my phosphates were near zero when I filled pool. Zero for the first 3 days of pool, then suddenly were 1500, then 1000, then 1500, then 1000. Not just at Leslies, I ordered a kit thinking they are just screwing me over.
I have no idea where it's coming from? Yea I could have gotten some from the kids, but it was high before that party. NO runoff at all in our pool. COncrete deck all around, sloped right, away from pool. I cut down a huge tree over pool, so less organic than ever before.
The same time I noticed the green strip, I noticed that day my FC dropped faster than usual, which means it was killing alot of something...which killing bad things can result in testing positive for phosphates as well. Right?
My old plaster and the pool could not get rid of green algae. One of reasons I redid it. Just never could do it. I brushed nonstop, dumped tons of bleach, jacked with PH and TA levels to different settings, my cya was never super high, tried algaecides, etc. I DO NOT WANT THAT AGAIN.
I hear horror stories on using Phos free, or any Phos remover. Then I hear tons of good stories of dropping from 1500 to 300 in 2 days. I hear dont worry about them if all else is balanced, but my old pool all was balanced and never got rid of algae. I also hear yes mess with them if as high as 1500, then I read a pool guy who says his pool has 3000ppm and crystal clear. SO....?
My CH will keep climbing a little more since I just had the pool done. I know my PH will not bounce up as much as time goes on because the plaster will cure slower and slower. I know I have just enough CYA to keep chlorine around, but not enough to need astronomical chlorine to shock.
What I don't know is should I really worry about the phosphates? I'm actually worried and concerned because I found green in a 5 week old pool that I have been checking water chemistry twice a day since birth, and I brush it twice a day. (per SGM, the more you brush it the more exposure the pebbles and beauty and it is gorgeous)
and on another note..are there any pucks out there that don't have a ton of junk in them?
