Rookie Pool Owner needs some advice

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C

Cowboy46

0
Jun 28, 2016
26
New Boston, TX
I found your website and looked through some of the posts and started using PoolMath which seem to be very helpful.
I purchased a home with a rather large pool in December and am having some problems getting the chemistry right. The water generally looks, feels, and smells fine most of the time. There are dark stains or something in the imperfections of the pool surface.
The current levels using an HTC 6-way test kit are:
FC: trace
pH: 7.5
Salt: 3.2
TA: 100
CH: 340
CYA: 45 (yesterday prior to adding about 5 lbs stabilizer, not completely dissolved)
The pump w/SWG at 100% has been running for about 22 hours. I’ve had to add bleach to keep the FC up, even with the SWG at 100% 8 hours per day. I tried to get a separate sample directly in front of the return jet, but only got a slightly higher level. Could my SWG cell be going out? As far as I know, it’s about 9 years old. The previous owner said he gave up on using it and just kept adding bleach.
Does anyone have any advice?
Thanks!
 
hey there Cowboy46 :handwave: Welcome to TFP.

You've got a large pool, for sure! Do you know the size or model of your SWG? While 9 years is a pretty long lifespan for a cell, it may actually (also) be undersized for your pool.

With a pool as large as yours and a long swim season in Texas, I would suggest ordering a TF-100 test kit from TFTestkits.net

Until you get a good test kit I would add a gallon of bleach to your pool nightly to provide some FC otherwise you are at very high risk for algae with such low FC now. How does your water look??? The stains may be algae, or metals, but we can't really know until the chemistry is right. Get that test kit and lets talk you through this, ok?
 
Sorry for this long post. I hope someone can offer some advice.
My TF-100 test kit came in today. Here are most of the results:
Cl: 0
pH: 7.9
FC: 0
CC: 1.5
CH: 525
TA: 140
CYA: not tested
The sample of the Chlorine Drop Test turned slightly cloudy with the R-870 powder but did not turn pink. I added a few drops of R-0871 to see if it would turn clear but it didn’t. After adding the 5 drops of R-0003 it turned a very faint pink, then after 3 drops of R-0871, it was back to slightly cloudy.
According to the HTH test I used before, the CH was low so I added about 20 lbs of calcium chloride which brought it up to about 350 according to the HTH test.
The TA has always been high and I’ve tried to lower it by lowering the pH and letting the SWG bring the pH back up. Is there a better way to lower the TA?
I ran out of time and didn’t get the CYA test done and then a pop-up thunderstorm came through and we got about 3 inches of rain in about 45 minutes. That may help lower the CH.
I tried the sample CYA test with the R-7085 and I guess I am not doing it right. I followed the directions and filled the tube up to about 35 and still could make out the dot. The top of the label on the CYA Mixing Bottle is slightly over the top of the bottle. Is that the way it should be? The leaves just the neck and cap of the bottle open for shaking. I read someone in another post was not sure how to shake it. The card says to shake, wait 30 seconds, then shake again. I heard you are supposed to shake for 30 seconds, so I did that, waited for 30 second, then shook again.
I’ve dumped a gallon of Pool Essentials Chlorinating Liquid each of the past four nights, but the Cl remains at 0. I think some of it may have been bad because the seal under the cap was kind of dissolved.
I am very concerned about my SWG PureLink1400 cell (updated that in my signature). I have it set at 100% and it does not appear to be producing chlorine. It has service codes of 125 (manual says cell needs to be cleaned, which I did even though it did not appear dirty) and 193 which my manual only has codes up to 175.
I really appreciate any advice you can give!
 
Sounds like you have algae or bacteria consuming your FC about as fast as your SWG is making it. Get some generic store brand bleach, usually 8.25% or some liquid chlorine and raise FC to 10ppm, brush a little and test in 10 minutes. If it is below 7 raise it back to 10 and test again. Repeat until FC holds above 7.

When the sun comes out tomorrow let's us know what the CYA is. The test needs to be done in the sun, back to the sun so it doesn't shine into the tube but so light can flood into the tube. Pass the sample back and forth to recheck and try different light.

CH at 340 was fine.

Here are the recommended levels from Pool School, Pool School - Recommended Levels

Do some reading in Pool School
Start here, ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
And here, Pool School - Getting Started
 
After you solve the FC and CC problems, and your SWG issues, you'll want to bone up on how to manage high CH with a lower pH so that you avoid scale. You don't have to do anything now but I'm just planting the topic in your mind for later.
 

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I added 3 gallons of Pool Essentials Chlorinating Liquid (10%) and brushed the whole pool.
These are the numbers after that:
Cl: >5
pH: 8.0
FC: 8.0
CC: <0.5
CH: 425 (thanks to 3” of rain)
TA: 110
CYA: 65
I added another half gallon of the liquid and tested about two hours later and the FC was at 7.5.
Should I get some acid to lower the pH now? Should add some stabilizer to bring up the CYA?
I found out the pool is 7 years old so the PureLink1400 cell is not as old as I thought. Like I mentioned before, it has service codes of 125 and 193. If I put the chlorine production to 0, the service codes no longer appear. I checked on-line and they are at least $450 so I’d like to be reasonably certain that it is bad before I order a new one.
Thanks!
 
I don’t know if this thread is still active since there were no replies but I’ll try it and see if anyone has any comments..
My PureLink1400 cell came in today.
The numbers a few hours ago before replacing the cell:
Cl: >5
pH: 7.4
FC: 7.0
CC: 0.0
CH: 550
TA: 90
CYA: 75
I replaced the cell and now at least there are no service codes. I don’t know how to tell if it is actually working. I have it set at 75% now. I tried to check for chlorine production by putting the Chlorine Only cylinder directly in front of a return jet, but got the same result of FC: 7.0. What would be a good way to tell if it is actually working correctly?

To try to take care of the algae or bacteria problem, I added a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine on 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, July. Since I didn’t get a response from my previous post, I went ahead and ordered the cell and got some 8.25% bleach and muriatic acid.
On 26 July: FC-3.5, pH-8.2 so I added a bottle of bleach and about a half gallon of MA.
On 28 July: FC-6.0, pH-7.5 so I added another bottle and a half of bleach and the other half gallon of MA.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the high CH? Today is the highest it’s been. Since I got my TF-100 the results have been: 23 July – 525, 24 Jul – 425, 26 July – 475, 28 July – 475, and then today’s 550.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.
 
No replies. Maybe I need to start a new thread. I’ll try one more.
I did not start a SLAM yesterday. I think I may have a black algae problem so I’m trying to follow the directions for that. After scrubbing most of the pool yesterday evening, until it was too dark to tell if I was doing anything, I did a FAS-DPD test: FC-17.0, CC-0.0. I added 1 gallon of 10% liquid chlorine to try to bring FC up to 20.0 and went to bed. The pump is running with 90% chlorine production. I tested again about an hour ago when I got home from work (have to work to support the pool). The FC dropped to 15.0. Do I need to dump 5 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine to get the FC up to 29 (PoolMath recommended shock level)? I still need to scrub some of the floor for the black algae and I need to be in the pool to do that.
Thank you for any advice you can provide.
 
Thanks for your reply, pookiv!
I’m a rookie at this. I don’t think I have algae. The water is clear. I can easily see the drains. The reason I thought it may be black algae: Some areas of the plaster are pitted and there are many other imperfections in it that have very dark shtuff in them. I’ve brushed them out numerous times but they just came back. Since yesterday afternoon I’m trying to follow the black algae procedure. Like I mentioned, I have to work in order to support the pool, so I don’t have a lot of time. I scrubbed on it for about 3 hours again this afternoon. I have most of the easy part done, the shallow end. Tomorrow I’ll work on the deep end.
How critical is it to get every last bit of the shtuff? There are some deep pits that I can’t easily get the bristles into. And the deep end will be very challenging. I don’t have SCUBA gear.
If I maintain the FC at least 15ppm, will that be sufficient? I just dumped two more gallons in to try to get it to 20.
As always, any advice, encouragement, or consolation is appreciated.
 
Cowboy46 said:
Thanks for your reply, pookiv!
I’m a rookie at this. I don’t think I have algae. The water is clear. I can easily see the drains. The reason I thought it may be black algae: Some areas of the plaster are pitted and there are many other imperfections in it that have very dark shtuff in them. I’ve brushed them out numerous times but they just came back. Since yesterday afternoon I’m trying to follow the black algae procedure. Like I mentioned, I have to work in order to support the pool, so I don’t have a lot of time. I scrubbed on it for about 3 hours again this afternoon. I have most of the easy part done, the shallow end. Tomorrow I’ll work on the deep end.
How critical is it to get every last bit of the shtuff? There are some deep pits that I can’t easily get the bristles into. And the deep end will be very challenging. I don’t have SCUBA gear.
If I maintain the FC at least 15ppm, will that be sufficient? I just dumped two more gallons in to try to get it to 20.
As always, any advice, encouragement, or consolation is appreciated.
Click to expand...

Can you post a picture of the problem area in daylight?

To test for overnight FC loss correctly you need to turn your SWG off or it doesn't count: in a algae- free pool FC doesn't drop overnight more than 1 ppm as there's nothing to consume it.

Can you bring sample of your water to a pool store and ask them to test it for metals? Don't mind them telling you anything else, just ask for metals test and don't buy anything on that trip- just come back and post your results here. Copper is of particular interest.
 
Thanks for the reply, max2k!

I tried to take pictures of the problem area, but the spots don’t really show much anymore. I’ve been doing a lot of scrubbing the past few days.

I set my SWG to zero before I did the OCLT that I posted about on 31 July.

I’m not sure when the next time I can make it into town. How do I know I can trust a pool store to give accurate results? How much should I expect to pay test for metals?

Thanks again!
 

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Forgot the test updates:
0510 this morning: FC: 29.0, CC: 0.0
1500 this afternoon: FC: 14, CC: 0.5
My son mowed around the pool today, but there wasn’t much grass in the skimmer baskets, one had two frogs. There were a lot of bugs in the pump basket, so many that it was restricting the flow a little. Would that account for the loss of FC?
Do I need to get the FC back up to 20?
 

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