Drained inground pool

[cpm]

Quick background on pool:
• 9 years old
• Mineral Springs Salt Pool. I started buying Leslie's Pool salt as it $8.00 a bag vs. Mineral Springs salt at around $33-$35 a bag. Should I not do that?
• 16x32 21000 gallons
• Vinyl Liner
• Sand Filter
• Polaris 360 cleaner
• Never covered opened year round swim about 4 months out of the year
• No heater
• Atlanta GA location
OK so after 8 years of trouble free pool this year has been a nightmare! Started in March trying to clean up pool for season. I remove the salt cell every year as I had one crack my 3rd year during the winter. I put a blank in and run pump with pucks in skimmer. Pool still turns brown from all the leaves that fall in and I get lazy and do not clean them out like I should. So in March I start dipping out leaves and adding algaecides. Water will not clear up went from dark green to a tea brown. Real bad staining on stairs and liner. I have had the staining on the stairs for about 2 years. Treat it with "Pool Stain Treat" and stairs cleanup. So I go to pool store and buy all their suggestions: Metal Free, Jacks magenta stuff, Leslie's Stain remover, Leslie's Chlorine remover, BioGuard Sparkle-UP, tons of shock, Nothing is working. My salt reading was 3100 and my TDS was at least 5000 as their machine did not go any higher. So Im not sure if it was higher than that. This is why I drained pool. With all that being said here is my concern.

Right after I drained pool I immediately started filling it backup as I read horror stories about pool walls collapsing, water getting behind liner, having to readjust liner, liner tearing. So I did not have anything to remove the stains on stairs and deep-end of pool. Pool is almost full now and I think I got lucky and have 1 18" crease under diving board on wall and 1 6" crease by stairs in deep-end. Should I be real concerned about the creases? And how much metal am I reintroducing to pool by treating the stains on the stairs, deep-end of pool, and anything that might be in sand filter? Should I use a bottle of Metal Free and if I do will I have to continue using that for now on. I hope I did not ramble to much.

Thank you for any comments

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

You could save even more money just buying solar salt from the hardward store for $4/bag.

Sounds like you have been adding a lot of chemicals that we find you do not even need. Also we ignore the TDS, phosphates, nitrites, and all that other garbage.

What is in the Mineral Springs salt? Does that add the metals that have caused all your problems.
Does your fill water have metal in it?

 

[cpm]

Forgot the part about fill water. I use city water so I believe it would not be much.

Mineral Springs is just a name brand. I was told that it is a higher quality salt.

 

[jblizzle]

So does it have better sodium (Na) or better chlorine (Cl) to make up the NaCl? Salt is salt.

So your refill should not have too much metal in it. You can treat the currect stains, but I am not sure if that would be enough to require the use of a sequestrant.

What kind of SWG do you have? Any time I see the word "Mineral" I get jumpy as you do NOT want to be using a system that is intentially adding copper to the water.

 

[cpm]

I do not know the answer to your first question. It is a 2 step process you add the beginnings at start of pool to bring salt reading to around 3000-3200. Then once a week you add renewal.

Here is a link to their site if you have a moment.

http://www.bioguard.com/Our_Products/Sa ... al_Springs.

 

[jblizzle]

My first question was a joke ... salt = salt unless they are adding other stuff in it that is not needed.

This Bioguard stuff is a huge waste of money. And their wesite even states that in Beginnings and REnewal they add minerals ... like copper, which are causing all your staining.

You would be wise to read through Pool School to gain an understanding of the pools chemistry and what you whould really be concerned about. The BBB method we teach is really just about understanding your pool’s chemistry and through accurate testing, adding only what the pool NEEDS and not what someone wants to sell you.

 

[cpm]

Cool I will take a look. Should I be concerned about the creases? I got up at 2:00 am this morning worrying about the liner. Walked outside saw the 2 creases and thought oh no Im screwed now according to the internet. The internet is a good and a bad place to do research. :-D

 

[jblizzle]

I think it is fairly "normal" to have a few creases, but I have not experience with liner pools. There is really not much that you can do about them now.

 

[cpm]

True on the last statement because Im not draining again! Thanks again for your input.