Montucky hello from Montana! New pool at hotel is driving me nuts.

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Montucky

Montucky

0
Oct 5, 2014
7
Big Mountain Montana
Hi there! I have been working in a hotel for over 5 years now and take the maintenance of our pool and spa very seriously. I take care of it as if my own children would be swimming in it. I do not have a CPO but my friend at work who has moved to another department has one and I stole his book and pick his brain from time to time.

I was shown the basics and expanded upon it over the years. Not an expert by any means but I take pool chemistry seriously and look forward to taking the online CPO class and finishing it up with the actual class they hold in Montana once a year. Not having my friend in my department to streamline the process of our new indoor pool and hot tub has been very frustrating. I have found several problems with the new install and have had some of my concerns corrected but the new system is so complex that I keep finding very odd things with the build.

Aside from the basics as a helper to the pools when I started out, I learned a bunch from the Taylor test kit book that comes in the blue plastic box, I researched online and I read the CPO training book on subjects that relate to what I am experiencing with my system.

I take care of a 50,000 gallon outdoor pool that we will be closing soon, a 5,000 gallon outdoor spa, a new 14,000 gallon indoor pool with a waterfall and an 2,000 gallon spa that is also indoors.

The new seresco dehumidifier is not plumbed in to the pool filter so we are wasting a bunch of money and water not pulling it back into the pool. The waterfall evaporates a lot of 80 degree water and also increases the PH. The surface is also playing with me. It is a grouted stone and will probably raise the PH for a few months.

The one thing that is really DRIVING ME BATTY right now is the automation. Our builder put in two Pentair Intellichem controllers and I just got done reading the manual. I will ask about the problem I am having and if it was done wrong or why it was done this way.

I appreciate all your help and wisdom. My mouth and way of communicating is a bit foul in the real world. I will try to not get political, foul or offensive on this forum. If I offend you or get out of line, please let me know. I go off on tangents at times and need to be corrected.

Thanks and have a good one!

Nic
 
You can keep the pH from rising as quickly, especially in the pool with the waterfall, by lowering the Total Alkalinity (TA) level and setting a higher pH target. According to Montana state regulations for water chemistry parameters you are allowed to have your TA as low as 60 ppm and your pH as high as 7.8 and can compensate for the Calcite Saturation Index (CSI) by increasing Calcium Hardness (CH) if needed. This chart shows how over-carbonated a pool is with respect to equilibrium with air at various TA and pH levels. You can also use CO2 instead of most of your acid and bicarbonate (you'll still need some acid, but no bicarbonate). I gave a short TED-style talk (only given 7 minutes which is way too short) on this topic at the Worldwide Aquatic Health Conference (WAHC) in Portland. I've uploaded the presentation you can get in this link.
 
The state of Montana requires us to have the big blue box. Taylor Test Kit K2006c.

I like the kit and would not consider a color matching chl test. We test 4 times a day so we eat up the dpd powder! There is a floating rumor that the powder is the most nuclear stuff on the property. :)

Still looking for the old blue crusher.
I would like to post photos but it seems that they have very little storage on this server.
 
You're freaking awesome! Thanks! I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me! I just take orders really well. I was told to keep the alkalinity at 100 so the boiler does not **** out on us. This was the order given after a new pentair boiler failed months after install. the guts were corroded. Granted, the exterior ground was never connected and no check valve before the line hit the inline chlorinator.
 
The corrosion is more likely due to a low pH condition which could certainly result from exclusive use of trichlor tablets. The TA is related to how easy the pH can swing, it is a buffer. The trichlor would have been lowering the pH and the TA, but really the low pH was the problem not the TA.

If you are going to continue to use the trichlor tablets, you are going to have to keep an eye on the pH and TA dropping and raise them back up. But, we generally do not recommend the exclusise use of tablets due to the CYA rise they cause.

How much Pool School have you read? Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
 
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