Hi,
Ive been battling algae every summer. I have been pretty vigilant this summer in keeping all of my levels good. But, for some reason I still keep getting algae. I nip it in the bud but, it keeps coming back. I see some green on the walls but I also constantly get this brownish sediment in the bottom of the pool after running the pump. I vacumm it up and it comes back. if I don’t run my pump I will not get it. If I don’t shock it, it starts to turn green. Its been doing this for years. This spring was the first time in years that my pool looked like a swamp when I opened it. I didn’t do anything different last fall that I had done every fall with the closing chemicals. The pool was clear and balanced when I closed it. So, I’m looking for advice on what I should do to try to ensure that I don’t have a swamp next Spring. I just joined this group this year and have been trying to follow the program. Here are my most current test results. FC -8, PH-7.9, TA-73, CH-260, CYA-39.

Instead of replacing the incandescent bulbs in my Pentair Spa lights, I'm looking for some battery powered lights that have a single suction cup that will stick to the Pentair light glass lens. The lens is small and only 4" across and is pretty convex in shape.
I found some lights on Amazon that actually work pretty well, but they have 4 smaller suction cups that can't match the curvature of the glass lens. For whatever reason, they don't stay stuck to the liner either. Good for less than a day and they fall off.
So, my odd request is for a suction cup light that can stick to a very convex surface.

Here's what I have now. The lens is too curved for the glue on piece to work, plus not committed to gluing anyway.

9th season. Thankful to discover TFP early on! This season after the opening chems: 40lb salt, 3lb CYA and less than 1 gal muriatic acid. That's it! Crystal clear all season! Just renewed my Gold membership as an appreciation for the knowledge I gained here. Closing on Friday, see you next season!

Someone at work has just installed a pool that's using Magnesium Chloride instead of NaCl.
He was asking about pool care and I was wondering if there are any differences between the level of all the other chemicals compared to the NaCl SWG.
For example, FC/CYA, TA, CH.. can I just suggest the normal TFP recommendations?

We used Wet Edge on our first pool and really liked it. It was as smooth as a basketball court and no slipping. However, currently in central Texas there are limited applicators for this and they are not very responsive.

How smooth is quartzscapes? I’ve also heard Pebble Tech has a smooth version now but haven’t seen it in person yet.

Any thoughts on smooth options outside of wet edge are appreciated!

Very nice forum and community effort.

Looking for advise on tankless heating hacks to convert a hottub heating system. Experience in industrial controls and mechanical engineering.

Mike = Mikestub

I just pulled the trigger on an IG 18x36 rectangular pool. The pool will have double main drains and 2 skimmers (all independently plumbed 2"), and 3 returns (independently plumbed 1.5"), and another return w/ jets in the lounge area on the long end of the pool. Pump is an Intelliflow, with a 420 sq ft cartridge filter. The attached image shows the layout, with the prevailing wind direction coming from mostly southwest.

Where would you guys recommend placing the skimmers and returns? I was originally thinking of putting one return in the stairs, and 2 returns on the long end of the pool closest to the house, and the skimmers opposite the returns on the other long end.

However, the PB said this was NOT a good setup, as I would end up with 2 clear paths between return & skimmer, and in between would be dirty. He recommended putting a return to the right of the stairs, and a skimmer to the left of the stairs, and on the opposite short end, a skimmer on the right side, and a return on the left. He said this would provide a circular circulation w/in the pool. I have never seen a setup like this, and am hesitant this is the optimal setup.

I've also considered putting all returns on the short end with the stairs, and the 2 returns on the other short end of the pool, since this is the prevailing wind direction. I'm just not sure they will push through 36' of pool.

Any pointers, help, or guidance would be most appreciated.

Thank you!

- pc

hello, I’m wondering if anyone else is having issues with the calculated CSI in the app? I have been using the app for 3 years now with great success but the past couple months I am having issues with the CSI not making sense. Even if I change all the values to the TFP recommended amounts it says my CSI will be 0.76. What am I doing wrong? I feel like the recommended should at be at least a normal CSI?

This is in my hot tub, 370 gallons, fiberglass, stabilized chlorine pucks. I use a Taylor k 2006 test kit

My last results were
PH- 7.7
FC - 5.5
TA - 50
CH - 140
CYA - 10
CSI - 0.51

If I adjust the CH to be in the ideal range that will put my CSI at 0.89 according to the app.

Thanks for any help in advance.

This brutally hot summer with basically zero rain has shifted either my concrete pool deck (most likely) or my pool--see attached pics. The pool and deck is 25 years old, and I had it replastered with new coping a year and a half ago. I haven't had any issues with this at all until just this past few weeks. The water line is level on the tile all around the pool, so I don't think the pool has shifted. The pool deck concrete is lower than the coping in some areas, and higher in others. Most notably, it is higher around a skimmer and I think it's pulling the skimmer up relative to the pool (I'm hoping the plumbing doesn't become damaged). The coping has cracked by the skimmer as well. How can I fix the pool decking? I can see raising the parts of the deck that are lower than the coping, but how would you go about lowering the deck by the skimmer to make it level? Could it instead all be a problem with how the coping was installed? Does coping shift at all?

So I have a leak in my pool, Potentially.. Background: Pool was complete July 2022, within a month I noticed a damp Wet Spot on Beam/back wall (pic #4). builder dismissed for moisture from stone…. Fast forward to April 2023, I keep a significant mud hole in my yard directly down hill 15 feet. Dug up area and check all sprinkler lines, no leaks. Has City come test water in hole 4 times over last several months, always test out as city water not ground water. So then I took sample of water from hole To pool supply and had water tested, water comes back 1000ppm salt, with trace CYA. Notice oily reside in water. So now I am concluding it has to be coming from pool. But the question I have is how? I have performed the bucket test, and could not tell much. Seems like an extremely slow leak? Builder says it could be coming thought the tile line, is that possible, to come through crack in tile grout and swept through wall, enough to keep a 4’x10’ area muddy directly down hill? The last photo is a pic in yard where the wet/muddy area has been all year. See other attached photos. Any insight would be great!!

Hi everyone. First time poster here. My wife and I bought a home with an inground pool over a decade ago. While I do open (early April) and maintain the pool myself, every October I tend to make excuses on why the pool company is best suited to close our pool. Life these days is just too dang expensive to continue making those excuses! I've ordered a Cyclone blower to help, and I'm pretty sure my pool plumbing is rather basic compared to many on this forum. I have one skimmer (with one hole in the bottom), 2 return lines, and a main drain in the 8' deep end. My pool pipes are 1.5". I have a mesh cover and we get plenty rain/snow/ice during the winter, so my plan is to lower the water just below the return lines (after balancing and slamming).

Question #1 - does this pool plumbing generally go well with blowing out my pool lines from the skimmer (with filter set to recirculate)? My current thought is to just purchase a short hose and adapter for the Cyclone, connect the hose to the single skimmer hole (or just have my wife hold the hose to the hole), and use the valve in front of my pump to direct the air flow.

Question #2 - when I have the main drain valve closed to off, and when the cyclone is blowing into my skimmer with filter set to recirculate, the air will first blow water out the return lines, correct? Once those are blown out and plugged, then I could transition to blow out the main drain and airlock, correct? Last step would be to pour some antifreeze into the skimmer and the screw my gizmo into the skimmer hole.

I'd sincerely appreciate any guidance and/or nuggets of wisdom from the experts here. I've attached some pictures of my pool plumbing for reference. The pump is about 5-yrs old, but the sand filter and gas heater are all original, although still chugging along (knock on wood). Please note that the salt system has been out of commission for several years now. I should have probably invested in a new one by now, but keep putting it off and using liquid chlorine.
Thank you!!

The screen in the aqua rite was dead and no lights were on indicating I was generating chlorine with the salt cell. Pool chemistry also backs that up. I bought a new PCB board and put it in behind the screen board and now I'm getting additional line items when I scroll through the settings and readings.

0000
071
32.6
-00.00
73p
-0000
AL-0
R016
T-15
E000
--EE

Traditionally these line items ended with the cell size. The pinch a penny pool store confirmed the cell to be working but according to this something is still wrong. It still will not illuminate the generating light. Do i need to replace the small board with the screen as well?

Hi all.... Looking to pick your brains on some pool issues.... Think I had a lightning strike recently and now have SWG and oil robot issues....(had A/C issues.... But fixed them... I'm now a semi pro on all sorts of crawl space nightmares.

Hello everyone, my name is, Chris, and I am a swimming pool servicing contractor in Central Florida. I found this forum researching a problem with a Pentair Mastertemp pool heater. This forum really has some good information and advise so I decided to sign up. Howdy everyone!

I just began seeing small spots, looks almost like it’s my pigment crystals, in my plaster that has a reddish tint(pool color pigment is black), if I attaching on the surface it appears I smudge the color? Any idea what this could be, please see photo I took in my tanning ledge, zooming in can help see the color/smear better.

We just had several Cypress trees removed from around our pool. They did a decent job, but during the process, they lost control of one of the big pieces they were going to lower via rope and dropped it on our pool side. It hit right at a grout joint and broke the corners off of two pieces. I found the corner piece from one and parts of the second (it appears to have been pretty pulverized). It also broke of a couple pieces of tile ( I have several spares). What would be the best way to get this repaired. I'm thinking of having them replace both pieces if possible.

Our pool was built in 1987 and was re-plastered/retiled in 2011. The original paper work called it Safety Grip 17, white.

I already spoke to one local company that does refits and repairs and they don't want anything to do with it unless we want to replace it all and re-plaster.

We replaced our Jandy TruClear salt cell in December 2021 (just the cell not the panel). I purchased the replacement cell on-line and simply replaced it myself. Everything seemed to be working well up until about a month or so ago. I don't know if it was the extreme Florida heat this year, but we experienced an extreme amount of calcium in our pool. I cleaned the salt cell in the 10/1 acid solution about three times in as many weeks! We replace the cartridge filter and the panel is just reading Check Cell. I am pretty upset that the cell lasted less than 2 years, if this is the problem. Our pool chemistry seems out of whack and every time the water is checked there seems to be something lacking... When turned on the control panel goes through the start up and then reads Check Cell, previously was reading Low Temp/Low Salt. I have tried restarting the system numerous time to no different outcome. The control panel is now off. I am now chlorinating with liquid chlorine while we wait for a Jandy approved person to come out and check the system. I am sure there will be a cost to that! If I have to shell out another $450- for a new cell, I would rather eliminate a service call and upcharge from the Jandy approved technician...my only reprieve would be if Jandy covered the new cell under warranty. Not sure if it is worth the risk.
So, a couple of things. The panel itself is very faded in the sun and hard to read as it is original from 2017 as it was not replaced when I replaced the cell. Could the problem be within the panel? What is the life of these panels? Do you know if Jandy is helpful when it comes to warranty replacement? I am trying to minimize all these expenses as the chemicals and everything else that is being recommended are breaking the pool budget!
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.
Thanks

We are installing our steel wall Bestway above ground pool. Everything looked level until we got above 1.5-2 feet of water inside. To my eye, it’s off by maybe 1-1.5”. The other issue is that, during installation, some ground washed away from one section and the bottom rail sort of “floats” in that spot. So, is the 1 inch difference going to collapse the pool? And will back filling under that rail to support it fix that side? Or should I start all over? I really don’t want to drain it unless absolutely necessary. I don’t want a huge water bill, but I also don’t want this thing to collapse.

I noticed Friday night my Intex ECO20110-2 system making a rapid clicking noise. Further investigation found the noise to be coming from the GFIC on the end of the power cord. Note, there where no light on the control panel. I unplugged it, and put a new plug on the end, non GFIC since power is coming from a GFIC protected circuit. GFIC did not trip but the system will not power on, no lights, nothing. Had an old system with the GFIC on the end of the cord, I spliced that onto my ECO system, there is not the rapid tripping noise, the gfic just pops and when reset, pops again. I did verify power at the source so that is not the issue. Any suggestions? Is there a reset inside the control module?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Jason

We recently had a pool installed and had some issues with the builder. We have gotten everything worked out but I noticed the other day when I turned the Air Blower on for the Spa that nothing came out. I could hear it running so went over to check and the blower itself popped off the pipe. I'm assuming it needs more force at the start to force any water out of the pipe and then it can blow the air. So I turned it off, put it back on, and then turned the blower back on but I had to hold it on the PVC pipe so it didn't blow off again. After about 30 seconds it was running fine and I could remove my hand. But it doesn't seem like I should have to be manually involved when turning the Blower on!

So what do I need to do so this doesn't happen again? I'm hesitant to use PVC glue because it will make it harder to remove in the future without cutting the pipe off when it needs service or to be replaced. I have attached a picture of the unit and where it connects to the PVC. The grey coupling is glued to the white PVC pipe. It's everything above the coupling that will jump off when turned on.

Thanks!

The salinity ppm difference between my IC40 and the Taylor kit has finally grown larger than 500…now it’s 600-700 as the pool is cooling down. Yet the temperature reading on the cell and the water itself are matching. So I called Pentair warranty and made it through a couple levels to a specialist.

They first asked if I had been inspecting the cell every 60 days and acid washing it every 90 days. Then they asked for a pool store chemistry test () and to make sure it was a complete test. They want to make sure that the chlorine is less than 4 (“preferably 3, but can go up to 4”) and the ph, metals and phosphates are ok in case I’ve been “damaging” the cell.

I tried to rationally talk with them about the salinity and the chemistry and they were adamant about having a pool store test and not going forward without it. Couldn’t get to any other service person either as it’s in the file now as a request.

So I find myself with the SWG off and waiting for my FC to drop into low end of target, so I can go to store. I can get pH into their range but CYA, CH, and whatever else will be higher.

I can’t imagine that pentair is going to be this pedantic on the chemistry when it’s a salinity sensing issue. But maybe I’m wrong….

How does one normally handle situations like this? Just grin and bear it, game the system, and visit a few stores and pick the best test results??

Have seen a couple of references to "6-8 hours" to allow this test to run. Should I assume from this that an hourly free chlorine loss rate of 1/8 to 1/6 ppm per hour (or less) is a passing result?

It seems a target of 1 ppm "overnight" is a bit vague, considering this could easily be applied to anything from a 6 hour to a 10+ hour test?

Apologies if I've missed this being stated in terms of an hourly ppm loss rate elsewhere! If not, could that bit be clarified in the test description?

Many thanks!

So my RS4 the lcd display went out, but the display still has backlights, and red light for the filter pump is on but the unit is not responding or sending a signal to the pool. I've had zeros issues with it until now. Is this just a pcb board replacement type thing? If so any recs on where I can source. I"m not scared to unscrew and rescrew 4 wires.

Thank you for your help.

Hello everyone!

I have the iAqualink app that controls the equipment and features of my pool. I recently started having an issue with it. I have the filter pump set on a schedule, which seems to be working because the pump is coming on, but it's not showing that on the app's main screen. The filter pump toggle switch is to the left (grey). I also noticed my SWG wasn't coming on with the pump unless I toggle the Filter pump to the right (green).

Weird, right? It gets weirder. I also can't turn off my chiller in the app. I tap on the "ON" button, and nothing happens. When functioning normally, it should switch to "OFF" after being tapped.

I tried deleting and reinstalling the app, hoping that may resolve the issue, but it did not.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

I apologize if this is posted elsewhere and I missed it.

I just pulled my floating luxuries loungers out for the season and there is pale green water and green particles exiting drain holes which I assume is algae. I assume this has happened to other people as well. Does it just die over winter or do you guys fill chair with a bleach/water solution to kill it?

Thanks!

I haven't yet been able to find another good installer (mine disappeared shortly after the original build in 2015), so since I am somewhat technically inclined I took on all of the maintenance from the beginning and want to do some updates to our simple system.
Currently I have 1.5" plumbing to the pump inlet (Superflo VS) - no isolation valve - , 1.5" directly to the existing Quad DE 100 (via reducer), 2" from Quad DE 100 to the heater and out to the Intellichlor, then that's distributed back via a series of valves to the 1) stair jets, 2) water feature and 3) pool return jets by 1.5" lines.

I am adding a heater bypass valve (manual valve for now, I could spring for an Intellivalve at some point) and that portion is all 2". (This bypass is being added more to improve flow for a soon to be enlarged waterfall feature than anything else - covered by another post on TFP.)
No MPV was put in originally because the Quad100 (P/N 188594) is oversized (and I pre-filter with a sock in the weir's filter basket) so it can run all summer without needing a backwash. However, with no MPV and just a pre-filter exit for waste water discharge, and no way to backwash without physically reversing the filter unions, it makes cleaning old DE into a DE filter sock difficult at season end (we're not allowed to discharge DE into the street sewers of course and I find the DE filter sock to be a good option to decanting DE in a garbage can....).

So I am thinking to add a MPV to more easily be able to do the season end DE disposal and I don't entirely trust the slide valves (here they are the same price as MPVs)

I wanted to ask if the 261055 is the correct MPV for the older Quad100 (188594) and if I should replace the 1.5" from the pump to the MPV with a 2" pipe and union ?
Any other suggestions you folk might suggest since I'm in the process? (I will be replacing the heater manifold o-rings and seal this year too.). Thank you in advance, I always learn so much here!

I replaced my old Apple wireless network with an eero wireless network today. I gave the new network the same name and password. Once it was up and running all my smart home devices (Ring, Nest, Alexa, Sonos, etc.) connected to the new network except...iAqualink.

I have had to reconnect iAqualink to my wifi network several times in the past. I know the drill. Unscrew the faceplate. Toggle to switch from wired to wireless to reset. Find iAqualink in the Wi-Fi page under Settings. Choose my network, enter password, done.

Well...this time no matter how many times I try it just won't connect to my wifi network. Status stays red in the iAqualink app. I refresh like crazy every time I reset it. I've tried about 20 times. My network is fast. I keep checking it with Speedtest just to make sure it's no a network issue. I am currently getting 350 mbps at the pool equipment.

Only one other thing I can think of to share is...when iAqualink asks me to choose my wireless network it shows up multiple times. (See Picture/ My network is called "Summerfield Wireless") I have tried selecting each appearance several times but nothing works.

I have even tried Manual WiFi Setup several times with no success.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

Currently installing a pool up in Sudbury, ON, and am wondering about options for insulation. I'm putting in a pool with 42" walls and a ~8 foot deep end. Because our ground conditions weren't the best, we dug down to bedrock (over excavated by about 5 feet all around in order to build up a good base for the walls to sit on) and then backfilled with Granular A and compacted very well. We will be digging out the form of the pool from this base and then putting down a thick layer of ground/Portland mix (3:1) as recommended by our pool supplier.

My question is: What have other people done (or what do people wish they'd done) for insulation around the base of the pool? My plan is to spray foam the outside of the steel walls as well as the lines running to the pump/heater, but what about the rest of it? Can you spray foam the granular before putting the grout/Portland down? Or spray foam over the grout/portland mix so the spray foam would be between it and the liner? Other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

My pool is losing a lot of water and am wondering if its possible to diagnose the problem from the results of the testing I've performed.

I let the pool sit for 5 days with all equipment off and the pool water level dropped 6 inches and the Spa water level dropped 2 inches.

I refilled the pool and then ran the filter for 24 hours. After 24 hours the Pool water level dropped 2 inches. The Spa water level remained the same.

Based on these results do you have an idea of what could be the cause? I've called the pool builder to come do leak detection tests. I just am trying to be as educated on this as possible before they come by so they don't try to overcharge me or misdiagnose the problem.

Has anyone used this product? Is it as good as other brands? It seems much cheaper so I am a little bit wary. It's 40oz for $27 vs $39 for Proteam.


Thank you.