What did you do to your pool today?

[V___25]

I'm so excited I can finally play this game for the season. After opening on Friday and spending a rainy weekend babysitting FC levels, I got the CYA sock going today. Lots of brushing and clearing dead algae. I'm also waiting for my new batch of dpd powder and R0871 reagent to arrive Thursday. The powder turned to rocks over the winter even though I store it in the main part of the house so I'm not super confident in my testing results right now.

 

[Newdude]

so I'm not super confident in my testing results right now

So it's far from accurate, but the comparator block test goes orange around 10FC then gets darker like the yellow does.

My third batch since the new pool goes orange at 11 FC, last years was 10 on the nose and the year before was at 8.5.

At least you can prove you 'have enough FC for today'.

 

[jark87]

Pulled my cover off and “opened” our pool today. It’s the latest I can remember opening, as I usually do so in April. I’ve been nursing a shoulder injury from skiing and we’ve had thunderstorms in the forecast almost every day for the past couple of weeks, so I kept putting it off. Pretty nice day today, although hot. Too bad the pool isn’t swim ready.

Brushed and vacuumed to get a winter’s worth of dust and cedar elm seeds up. The cover is mesh, so all of that small debris gets through. Water is very cloudy, but that’s normal for my opening process. CYA is below 30, so getting to SLAM level was easy. Added a couple of bags of salt, too. FC was 5.5 before adding bleach, pH 7.4, alkalinity a bit low at 50. I’ll raise it to 60 once everything else is stabilized. I have the CYA ready to add once the SLAM is over. Filter will need to be cleaned tomorrow.

Water should be crystal clear and ready for swimming in a couple of days! Good to be back here on TFP as the pool season begins!

 

[Wolfepack88]

Wallie took a dive to clean the pool from some stuff that got under the autocover. Turned the SWG down to 5 and I'm barely losing 0.5 FC a day. Cold spell the rest of the week so no swimming in store and the water cooled down from my heat up last week, hovering around 75. We have had 25-30 degree swings in one day so the pool is in confused. The friggin wasps though keep building all over. The Mrs takes care of them as she has no fear. Those are my kryptonite but watching her bundle up in a winter jacket with hood as if that will matter is actually funny. She took out three wiffle ball size nests today.

 

[Lake Placid]

Curious how long it'll take until you can see your stir bar on the bottom of the pool...

Well the answer is today. Pool has been clear for a while, but I’ve been swamped and just managed to swing over for a full detail of the pool. Stir bar was 40 feet across the pool in the opposite shallow end from where I dropped it. The dolphin running must have moved it a “touch”. Original stir bar is back in the kit, and all is right with world.

 

[Homebrewale]

Maybe I should have done a longer soft open. Instead of plant based debris getting into the pool, it is now cicadas.

 

[HermanTX]

Had 5 inches of Rain in Katy TX. Had to drain pool down as to mid skimmer as about to overflow coping. Also added 1 gallon of LC because pool was cloudy and SWCG not able to keep up.

 

[Newdude]

Also added 1 gallon of LC because pool was cloudy and SWCG not able to keep up.

Kindly clip one corner from your #teamrunhot membership card. It's a reminder that you have 3 chances left before membership is revoked. That 3.5 to 5 FC nonsense has to go !!! Sure, you *can* get away with it, until a 5 inch storm comes by.

 

[Katodude]

Running at 13 FC today. Bring on the rain….

Oh yeah we are in a drought.

 

[Homebrewale]

I like to run hot but not more than 10 FC. I know pH tests should still be pretty accurate at 11 FC but don't want to go too high. I'm not sure exactly what level I should completely disregard the pH test.

 

[Wolfepack88]

I'm a solid 11 FC today. Took SWG from 10 yesterday back down to 5. I bounce back and forth, maybe I should try like 7 or something. he he.

 

[Wolfepack88]

I know not ideal, but its raining today so i don't want to take the cover pumps off and open the autocover so can I get a pretty accurate test reading from a water taken from the spigot that is plumbed into my return line on my pad? I cant imagine a huge variance in the numbers from holding my hand down 18 inches.

 

[Newdude]

Yeah. You're looking for 'enough FC for today' and it'll be plenty ok for that. If anything, any rainwater getting in the system will dilute your actual # so the worst that happens is you test an 7 when it's a 9.

 

[jwiegley]

The season is well underway now in sunny California, which has brought with it a few changes in the pool!

- Using the UltraTemp heat pump that was installed in December, to maintain a balmy 85 degrees each day (and we swim daily)
- Found another leak along the tile at the rear corner of the pool; patched it up with some epoxy putty and so far it looks like water less is down from ~190 gallons/day to ~120 gallons/day. For reference, 120 gallons against my surface area represents a 0.24 inch loss.
- Had Pentair send me a new power supply for the Prowler 920. Finally I get daily automation! But... it then broke 4 days later and I'm back to manually turning it on every morning.
- In January I had a new return line put in, taking over a defunct suction/cleaning line that used by in the old configuration. This is so that I have a direct-to-pool return option, since prior to this there was only the circuit through the spa and back into the pool.
- Installed a new return actuator and programmed the Intellicenter to use it to turn on the spillway twice a day, 30 mins at 9am and 2pm, for chemical distribution.
- Found a really heavy metal angle bracket and glued a ruler to it so I can accurately measure evaporation loss against the refill rate.
- Once the leaks are all gone, getting ready to add some boronic acid for the season! Looking forward to seeing what that changes.
- The other day I had a guest over whom swims at a lot of local pools, and he said he'd never seen a pool as clean as mine. Proper chlorination for the win.

 

[proavia]

Maybe I should have done a longer soft open. Instead of plant based debris getting into the pool, it is now cicadas.

Just think of it as doing your part to reduce the population quicker.

 

[Homebrewale]

I fixed the solar cover reel. I noticed that the reel pole was sagging quite a bit. Upon inspection, I found the pole sections were coming apart. Apparently, the previous owner who put together the reel did not use screws to secure the sections. I slid the section back together and secured it with screws. Hopefully there will be no more issues.

 

[Wolfepack88]

I fixed the solar cover reel. I noticed that the reel pole was sagging quite a bit. Upon inspection, I found the pole sections were coming apart. Apparently, the previous owner who put together the reel did not use screws to secure the sections. I slid the section back together and secured it with screws. Hopefully there will be no more issues.

$20 fine on that guy for failing to use screws.

 

[phonedave]

$20 fine on that guy for failing to use screws.

I put mine together with the supplied screws. They promptly fell out after about a season. I then bought some stainless steel bolts and nuts, drilled some holes, and bolted the thing together.

Now I have given up on it and I have three 10' or so sections of 4" aluminum pipe that I can't bring myself to throw away.

 

[Wolfepack88]

I put mine together with the supplied screws. They promptly fell out after about a season. I then bought some stainless steel bolts and nuts, drilled some holes, and bolted the thing together.

Now I have given up on it and I have three 10' or so sections of 4" aluminum pipe that I can't bring myself to throw away.

First rule of thumb, throw any supplied screws into the garbage as they are Crud made in china that will strip, step 2 proceed to ACE Hardware and buy quality screws. I abide by this every time I buy something that has screws no, it has saved me aggravation and my wife hearing me cursing while I'm on a ladder.

 

[Homebrewale]

I used stainless steel screws to secure the sections.