first pool failure... starting over

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thanks Ryan... good to know im not the only one.... and youre right, everyone is mighty friendly here!.... much appreciate their time and effort to answer my novice questions!!!

needsajet... i was a little off on the slope, im home now at the pool, its only 4" difference from one side to the other

i think today showed a promise of progress!... last 2 days when i got home and tested, my strip showed 0 FC... today (after adding more CYA yesterday) i finally got a reading, only 1 ppm, but after sitting in the hot sun all day that's better than zero right??..... ill continue to add chlorine every evening, as it seems to be working.. water is still chrystal!... maybe a false sense of achievement, since its only been 3 days... but hey, baby steps
 
JRammit said:
thanks Ryan... good to know im not the only one.... and youre right, everyone is mighty friendly here!.... much appreciate their time and effort to answer my novice questions!!!

needsajet... i was a little off on the slope, im home now at the pool, its only 4" difference from one side to the other

i think today showed a promise of progress!... last 2 days when i got home and tested, my strip showed 0 FC... today (after adding more CYA yesterday) i finally got a reading, only 1 ppm, but after sitting in the hot sun all day that's better than zero right??..... ill continue to add chlorine every evening, as it seems to be working.. water is still chrystal!... maybe a false sense of achievement, since its only been 3 days... but hey, baby steps
Click to expand...
4" out of level is extreme, and way beyond anything we would recommend.

There is 56,000 lbs of water in that pool, and it's leaning downhill...... I recommend you drain and re-level.

If you choose not to that is your choice, but the risk of a liner/structure fail is increased 10-fold. If that failure should be at the bottom seam, the force of the water is enough to pull children under and trap them.

And that 1ppm of FC might as well been zero...... With 40ppm of CYA your absolute min FC is 3ppm. Going below that is inviting algae/bacteria/pathogens to the party.

Dom
 
wow!... 4" over 18' is only about a 2 degree slope... i had no idea that was extreme........ but ill admit, im no expert

ok, on the FC.. i take the reading in the evening, 24 hours after adding chlorine the previous evening... is it not normal for FC to drop in that amount of time?...... ill try taking a reading in the morning, before the sun has a chance to beat down on it
 
JRammit said:
wow!... 4" over 18' is only about a 2 degree slope... i had no idea that was extreme........ but ill admit, im no expert

ok, on the FC.. i take the reading in the evening, 24 hours after adding chlorine the previous evening... is it not normal for FC to drop in that amount of time?...... ill try taking a reading in the morning, before the sun has a chance to beat down on it
Click to expand...
The trick is to control & anticipate your daily FC loss, and always dose enough to cover. Based on my CYA I target FC @ 7ppm, and lose about 3-4ppm daily this time of year. I know right there that I'll be adding at least 24-32oz of 12.5% daily. When I check in the evening and I get FC at 6-8ppm, I dose up to 10-11ppm so it will be about 7ppm tomorrow evening.

My first pool was a 16'x42" easy set on a concrete patio the first season. The patio has a 1-1/2 to 2" pitch away from the house over its 18' width. Within 6-8 weeks the pool would elongate and begin to roll towards the lower end, until it would finally (& violently) spill over.

The following year I moved it to a leveled spot in the yard. The pool was less than 1" total out of level there, and never rolled again.

YMMV. Be safe.

Dom
 
Keep in mind that the forces are dynamic. Kids bombing the pool, horsing around, falling into the wall, jumping around, stepping on the liner in the worst possible spot, etc. etc. All that increases the forces immensely.

Not that you would do this anyway, but no kid should be in there without an adult. I'm glad some AG pool folks were watching the thread. I don't have the knowledge to be the bad guy here, but most things used by people, and sold or manufactured by reputable companies, are engineered to handle all the likely forces, but only within allowable installation specs. That is usually 1" from what I've heard here. If it were me, I would look up the tolerance in the owner's (installation) manual and then pick an upcoming day to level the pool.
 
If you do decide to relevel (and I hope you seriously consider it!) be sure to dig down the high side to match the low. Don't put the dug out dirt on the low side to build it up. It will settle and you'll end up out of level again.
 
with dom's advice, i doubled up on my chlorine last night, this morning i show 3ppm.... today is my only day off, so ill be able to test a few times and get an idea of the usage

on the pool level.. this is a little disheartening..... i work over 70 hours a week and only have one day off... i simply dont have the time to start over again right now...... i will hope for the best this season and plan to take it down and re-level over the winter....... thank you all for the honest warnings
 
I do want you to do one thing. Next post, use "Go Advanced" and change the title of your thread to "starting over... learning the right track" or sumthin like that.

Glad to hear you FC is up. Have a great and well deserved weekend!
 
Re: starting over

title changed.... i thought my algae problem was a failure, but i feel better knowing it wasn't

2nd test.. sun is out now and my FC has not dropped... CYA is also right on par..... thank you TFP for getting me on the right track!
 

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So right now, we have:

FC 3
CC unknown
pH unknown
TA unknown
CYA 40

Two things: FC at 3 is your bare minimum. Try to get it to 4 or 5 ppm FC

pH and TA are also important, can you fill in the gaps and let us know how you're testing?
 
well i thought i changed the title.. guess it didnt work

anyway... im still using the 6 way test strips, since i already paid for em... they don't have CC on them.... im at work right now, so ill try to go by memory

FC=3
PH=7.8
TA=240
Hardness=200
CYA=30-50

hmm... thats only 5... ill have to look at the kit again when i get home
 
Plain facts:
You can't manage pool water properly with test strips
This is the bare minimum for your situation, $23: Hth 6 Way Test Kit - Walmart.com
If you don't correct the situation now, there an extremely high likelihood you'll end up spending more to fix the problems later
The $23 is better value when put toward a TF100 test kit
 
JRammit said:
well i thought i changed the title.. guess it didnt work

anyway... im still using the 6 way test strips, since i already paid for em... they don't have CC on them.... im at work right now, so ill try to go by memory

FC=3
PH=7.8
TA=240
Hardness=200
CYA=30-50

hmm... thats only 5... ill have to look at the kit again when i get home
Click to expand...
If those guess strips are even close, staying at your minimum FC (3ppm) is flirting with disaster.

You should be targeting 5ppm. If this were my pool and I was at 3ppm, I would dose the pool an additional 6ppm or so, for a goal of 9-10ppm. If I lost up to 4-5ppm I will still be at target, or above min. I usually find myself adding 3-4ppm every day in this heat, with my evening reading being at 6-8ppm. I deliberately target 1-2ppm over the recommended due to high use & organic debris from two trees.

Dom
 
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