Indoor pool cover questions

[nickE]

Hey all,
New to the page. I work at an animal hospital in Wilmington, DE where we have an endless pool and an external underwater treadmill hooked up to the pool. I've never known much about pools, but I've been doing the general maintenance on it for about a year. We put a lot of dogs in the water and dirty water from the treadmill gets dumped into the pool. I've been tasked with figuring out how to put on a solar cover onto the pool. My dilemmas is that when I put the cover on the pool (where it sits on the water), the water does not filter then I come in the next morning with gross water and a gross cover. I've been trying to figure out how to make our existing cover sit off of the water so that it can filter, and reduce the ridiculous humidity in the pool room after we swim a dog. I've read different pages that say that the pool filter should have no trouble filtering the water with the solar cover on, but the water in the pool seems to be worse than when I put it on. I check the indoor pool levels every 2 weeks and every single time, all the chemicals values appear in check and I've never needed to add any aside from 2-4 cups of bleach per day. When the pool is not covered, it seems to filter very well. Any advice or obvious pool things that I'm missing would be great. Thanks for reading!!!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Water that is not clear is more often than not a chemistry issue and not a filter issue. The cover should not really have any impact on the filtering other than reduced skimming.

Do you have a full set of test results?
Do you have any regulation on how this "commercial" pool must be maintained?

 

[nickE]

I have an i-care residential pool and spa test kit which has always seemed pretty basic or maybe inadequate. The only instruction I have ever gotten was to add bleach in the morning and when I leave. We get a lot of dog fur and funk in the water. I clean the main filter every week, we replace the filter every 3months, and I drain/scrub/refill the pool every 6 months. We have the blue bubble wrap type of cover. We've had a pool maintenance people out and they only told us to keep it covered. There are apparently no pool servicemen for endless pools around us, and the ones that are take forever to respond and are generally grumpy when they come out.

 

[jblizzle]

Sounds like an investment of ordering one of the Recommended Test Kits might be in order and at least give us some idea what is going on in the pool.

It could just be that a few cups of bleach is not nearly enough each day to oxidize the waste introduced by the dogs.

 

[duraleigh]

I didn't read your post word for word but is it a requirement to cover the pool? I didn't see that.

 

[Isaac-1]

for a solar cover to help with humidity control it really does need to be in contact with the water

 

[nickE]

No it's never been required but it really does cut humidity, which is helpful since we heat it to 87 degrees constantly. I compared the pool manual to the chemistry and it remains in perfect levels (TA, balance pH, CH). Is there something additional I should be looking for additional to these? Should I just add more bleach? We already go through a lot in a week and I don't the water to become dangerous to us or the animals by adding too much bleach. When we fill the pool, we use only hose water and add a bunch of bleach and by 12 hours later, all of the chemicals are within normal limits in their specific parameters. Thanks for all the help!

 

[jblizzle]

Again, I think it would be best to get a good test kit and post numbers. We do not know what you think normal limits are.

If you are allowed to add CYA to the pool, that would make the chlorine much less harsh to the animals. But you should certainly not just keep blindly adding extra bleach.

I would suggest your read some of Pool School. Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool

 

[duraleigh]

Well, I see the reason for the humidity control but you are paying a price for it. Pools generally don't like to be covered that much......they like to breath.

Any other humidity control you could consider?

 

[nickE]

Thanks for all of your help. We do keep a dehumidifier running constantly and we have a fan running most of the time to keep the clients cool. I'll try covering it at different times during the day to help for now.

 

[jblizzle]

Except the cover is not the main problem ... your testing and chemistry is the main problem.

 

[joegus]

Hi Nicke! You came to the right place for answers. In order to maintain water properly you need to understand the chemistry that goes into the water. I believe you are looking for a simple answer to a more complex situation.
At the temperature you are required to keep your water, the more it is covered, of course, the less humidity you will have in the room. Common sense right? Maintaining proper water chemistry takes a little bit of effort but has high rewards! How would you like to not drain that pool so often? Walk into a nice smelling pool room? Impress your clients with a sparkling clean pool every time? This can be achieved if you take the time to understand how to test and maintain the water in your pool. Just dumping a couple of cups of bleach into the water is not the way to go. It's almost negligent. Listen to our Moderators.
1. Read through our Pool School section
2. Learn how to properly test water and what kits will ACTUALLY and ACCURATELY do this.
3. Learn how and what to safely add to your water to maintain it.

Good Luck. Start here, Getting Started: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/165-getting-started
and work your way through all the topics in Pool School. Any questions feel free to ask!!

P.S. I'd try cleaning the filter more often, perhaps every day. With the dog fur it may be a good idea.