I've had this brown stuff in the pool, in patches, particularly along the seams, and on the sunny side of the pool - nothing on the shady side, nothing on the walls. This has pretty much been going over the past week.

I performed an OCLT test last night and the chlorine went from 8.0 to 5.5 this morning. All other test results have been normal for my pool over the past several days. Ph has stayed at 7.6 throughout the several days. Combined Chlorine was 0.5 last night and 0.5 this morning. It is almost always 0.0 or 0.5. CYA is at about 50.

Other facts:
1. I have a pool cover which is always covering the pool when we're not swimming.
2. Temps have been in the 90's here (Mpls area) for the last few days.
3. The brown stuff feels gritty, not as gritty as sand, but gritty.
4. I can move the brown stuff just waving my hand above it in the water and it will move away in a cloud of brown.
5. When I ran the Dolphin pool cleaner, the filter caught the brown stuff, and again, when I rubbed between my fingers, it had a gritty feel to it.

Thank you.

Our family is numb.

I'd like to use this as a "working thread" for myself and any other pour soul who has the pleasure of facing the feat we will this (long) weekend.

Can a pool 40x20 concrete "vintage" (ha!) pool be repaired in a long weekend? Or I guess more appropriately worded would be how well can such a pool be refinished in a long weekend?

Background - purchased a house in Fayetteville, NC (Ft. Bragg) from a "flipper." Soon thereafter, courtesy of the U.S. Army, we were forced to move to the DC area. House became a rental (that we lose money on every month and can't sell due to housing market).

Had maintenance performed by professional year around until winter of 2014 when our pool man retired (after 30 years) due to health issues, and we let it go. We traveled to NC a few weekends ago and dumped a bunch of chlorine and algaecide into pool. Cleared up reasonably well, but may be green again by now.

Pool Specifics;
From what neighbors have told us, the pool is at least 30 years old. There is no main drain, no hydrostatic hole. No tile around edge. Nothing but concrete.

Had pool pressured tested last year looking for leak that's not horrible, but drives up water bill about $10/m. Suspect leak is behind light (which was removed 2 years ago to fix, but never got done). Pool is plastered and was painted - who knows how long ago - and per the test done this week, it's plaster and an epoxy paint.

Before buying house the pool cracks (minor) on floor were "repaired" by a flighty-handy man. Within a week of closing paint started chipping from plaster/mortar of these repairs. Other than that, pool was pretty and certainly swimmable so we lived with it.

Fast forward 4 years and here we are. Plaster has started pulling away from walls at top edge and paint is chipping throughout, as well as chalking.

Pictures to come.

We realize the pool needs to be completely resurfaced, but quotes have come in for $10k and that's just not in the budget. We could likely venture a DIY replaster, but due to time constraints (living in DC) this isn't a viable option either.

So we will venture down this weekend (Friday morning) to do whatever we are able to make the pool reasonable for our tenants within a few days, a budget of around $1,000, and the weather - starts raining this afternoon and stops early Friday afternoon, but doesn't appear to be a lot of rain. We are not looking for a 20 or 30 year fix. We hope to get perhaps 3 years from this weekend's fix to keep our tenant happy and our chemical expenses down.

Before I start into questions about products to use, step 1 is to drain the (40k(?) gallon) monstrosity. I have someone local that can pick up a (rented?) sup pump for us and start the draining process. My immediate question is what specifications does the sump pump need to be? Besides being submersible, anything in particular we need to make sure the pump has/can do?

We can buy this one from Harbor Freight for $40 (with coupon). Any reason this one won't suffice? http://m.harborfreight.com/16-hp-submersible-utility-pump-1350-gph-68422.html

Or we could rent this one from HD for $42/day (or likely somewhere else for less). http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/mobile/Submersible_Pump_2/0009112/index.html


We would be so incredibly grateful if some of you will help us along in our journey this weekend for the "temporary fix" for our pool which we have affectionaly named "Pita" (for PAIN In The *****). As I intend to provide pictures along the way, there's likely someone else in the future who will also benefit greatly.

Cheers!

Greetings. I am shopping for a robotic cleaner. It would seem logical to me that these things would pickup fine-sized dirt like dead algae or wind-blown soils. However, just about every higher end model has a review stating that it has trouble with fine dirt and/or requires an add-on filter.

I was looking closely at the Dolphin e50, but read some critical reviews related to fine dirt capabilities.

Are there ANY models that are better-known for their pickup of fine dirt?

Thank you..

Hi, I have a 22,000 gallon pool in Southern California. My current 175K BTU gas heater needs to be replaced. IF the gas line is too small (I don't know its size yet) and I install the large 400k BTU heater instead of the 250K BTU heater, will the heater adjust something if it does not get enough gas flow to it? If it doesn't adjust something will something bad happen like run lean and too hot? Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone,
I am having trouble with my dolphin DX5S. It won’t run for a full cycle, it’s now continuously getting stuck on my floor drain. The other day it kept doing circles before it stopped. Any recommendations on a new robotic cleaner? The pool is a free from 20K gal gunite saltwater pool. Any suggestions would be appreciate.
Damian

Hello,

I have a 7 year old pool with a raised spa. A leak has developed where the spillway stone is connected to the rest of the spa. When the spa is turned off, the outside of the spa facing the pool is wet and I have determined water is seeping along the sides and bottom of the spillway stone. The water level in the spa drops to the bottom of the spillway stone, then stops dropping.


My question is, what type of material should I use to stop the water from seeping? It does not seem like the entire stone needs to be removed then re-set. Would clearly silicone be sufficient?

Pictures are attached and thank you in advance for any assistance.

Thanks,
Mike

Hello all. Thanks for the great forum. I’ve learned a lot from you. Hope I can get some insight into my new finding this morning.

I have a gunite pool that is 15 yrs old. I found my return jets are all discolored in black stuff. They appear as if they were burned. My pool chemistry has been great all season long. Did not have yellow/green algae at all. Using a brush does not removed it. There is no other place in the pool that has those discoloration.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Anyone use this stuff?



The Safety Data Sheet lists it at 8.25%, but even so at $3.47 $2.66 CAD it's still much cheaper than any other source of bleach even corrected for concentration. I calculated it out to be 11.3 9.5 cents per ml of actual sodium hypochlorite, vs 14 cents for the 10% stuff from pool store, which is normally the cheapest place.

I'm just not sure if there are any additives or anything else that I should be concerned about before I load up on this stuff.

EDIT - This is actually even cheaper. It's 3 for $8.50, so that brings the price down to 9.5 cents per ml of sodium hypochlorite. 32% cheaper that the pool store.

Hi. We just purchased a home with a pool that was not maintained and is currently very green. We put some type of chemicals (a trichlor and something before that) from Leslie's for the last 2 days after we took a sample there, but then my friend told me about TFP. I've read the SLAM article and have the Pool Math app. When I tested this morning, the CYA was quite low as the black dot never disappeared. The app is saying I need to add 11 lbs of dry stabilizer and 3 galloons of chlorine. Is it okay to put some dry stabilizer in a sock in a skimmer and then liquid chlorine in the pool? I've been ready that you shouldn't use both at the same time, so I'm not sure how we would raise both levels. How much dry stabilizer would you add at a time since I imagine it will take quite a while to get 12 lbs added. Thank you!

Hello, I'm new to the pool maintenance game. Have a large pool ~ 24,000 gallons (I think) looking to take over maintaining to save some $$ and enjoy maintaining my own pool. Our dog uses the pool more than anyone else

Hi, few weeks ago I went of vacation and forgot to dial up the SWC. I came back with algae in the pool. I did a double shock, brush and the algae was gone. Water is clear, all chemicals seem to be balance for a week now. Started few days ago, I noticed this black thing around the skimmer. It's sticky, gooy tar like substance that I had to use a sponge to remove it. But it comes back rather quickly. The ring would form within a day or so. The pic is showing the ring after few hours.

btw, nobody swam in the pool neither when I discovered the ring, so it can't be lotion or oil.

What is this? Is it black algae? This is new and I had never seen that before for the past 3 years since I got the pool. Please kindly advise.

Have a 30K salt pool and had algae come out of no where. I'll sweep the pool and within 2 days, it starts creeping back - always in the deep end and in the same couple spots. Below are my numbers with pool math recommendations.

CYA: 45 (60-90)
FC: 9.0 (3-9)
PH: 7.5 (7.2-8.0)
ALK: 70 (50-90)
Phosphates: 1,400

My numbers always look good and I always keep the FC on the higher side to prevent dumping $100 in LC to SLAM the pool. This one has me beat and comes back faster than anything else I've had. What am I doing wrong?

Everyone on the FB groups rave about PoolRX and while I agree its more important to have a balanced pool vs using PoolRX to overcome bad numbers, I've got good numbers and still having an issue. Plus I get a little weird with higher than normal metal in the pool.

Only thing I've never done is address phosphates since I always keep my pool in balance. Would it help to use some Orenda PR-10000 to get ride of the algae food?

Last thing is I know algae dies off once the pool gets to 55 degrees. Pool is getting colder and I'd imagine in 3-4 weeks my kids will no longer swim. If I can hold out, will the winter 100% kill everything and I can start fresh next spring? Thanks!

Morning everyone. Finally got in my Taylor 2006-fas/dpd kit. Been battling an off and on green pool since going to the beach for a week in June. Seems like I’d get it ok and pretty clear and blue but over night it would go back to green. Now having found TFP I realize I probably didn’t kill the algae off all the way. Anyway, here are my stats. I know I need to slam but dang I don’t think I can with my cya this high. How would y’all start this process? Also is it dumb to even start now that it’s fall?

Pool details-
22k gallon in ground vinyl pool
350lb sand filter
No saltwater

Test results as of this am-
pH- 7.4
TA-60
CH-140
FC-2
CC-0
CYA- 100

Pool is green, but you can see the bottom. Was using tablets/powdered shock with stabilizer until I found tfp. Since then using liquid chlorine or bleach (depending on what stores have in stock). In July pool store testing had me add 4lbs stabilizer .

I have an Hayward Omnilogic Panel and shows me that the temperature of my spa is at 80F when the water feels at 100F and I can confirm it by looking at the screen of the heater that the water is at 100F what I did was replace the temperature sensor but it still gave me the same problem, panel shows 80F and no temperature rise or fall on panel. The next thing I proceeded to do was update to the latest version of the MSP and MP but it was still the same, I already changed the temperature sensor 2 times and I even put my neighbor's sensor on it that was working fine on his property but it shows me on my panel 80F and it doesn't go beyond that, I tried to contact Hayward but no one speaks when they answer, at this point I don't know what else to do!

Hi Guys,

Yesterday, when I went to use the pool, I noticed that on my shallow end, I had a spongy section that looked like a wrinkle. Stepping on it would move it back into place. I guess water somehow managed to get behind the liner. Not sure how this happened since my drywell is empty, and I have an automatic pump inside to make sure water is removed during the rain. We have had a crazy amount of rain in the last two weeks. Overnight, the bulge has gotten much smaller and seems like it's going back into the same place and might not cause a wrinkle. I have a couple of questions.

Should I try to remove the water, or wait until it disappears on its own? Anything I can do to prevent this? My drywell was put in the over-dig and sits at about 3.5 or 4 feet deep, but my deep end is 5.5 feet. Should my drywell have been made deeper? My shallow end was also done at 4 feet deep instead of the normal 3.5.

Yesterday


Today - area much smaller

Hi everyone, i have a older minimax plus that was working great. I went to try and turn it on yesterday and the service light is on along with just the power light. pilot is not doing anything. but when i turn the temperature down the service light goes away but still no pressure or heat light comes on or any spark from pilot. i tried jumping the pressure switch/wires and still nothing. I would greatly appreciate any suggestion on what i can try and check thank you.

Hi Everyone,
Quick question on an aquabot classic repair. The pump motor stopped working, so I took it apart, soldered in new capacitors and got it working again, no problems. Now the confusing part for me.. The capacitors were initially in some sort of sealant/epoxy about 1". So far I've read, replace it with Duct Seal, Sik N Plus, or some sort of Marine grade epoxy resin and hardener. I personally am leaning towards the duct seal, or GE Silicone but wanted to ask 2 questions, do you know what the original material was (I attached a picture), and which of these will actually work? I'm going to bucket test it first, so if it leaks, I'll just try something else. I thought the cable might have been what is technically the waterproof seal, so I don't think this necessarily is for waterproofing, but I can be wrong on that. Any advice/suggestions would be great, thanks!

Thanks for your advice on sources of copper. After engaging the top rated pool service company to treat copper symptoms ( green hair and nails ) it lead to a fiasco that stained the liner with bright blue splotches after Cop Out precipitate was left I vacuumed for 5 days. At same time as Cop Out they super shocked the pool and added 500 grams of CYA to my already high level of 100. Now Cl and CYA are off the test charts. After vacuuming the liner colour pattern was completely removed from the slopes and bottom and purple precipitated out.
I find out they don’t have copper test strips or kit which is first thing instructed in Cop Out use. Today we replace the pool water to get rid of residual copper and CYA over 250.
Back to my thanks - your tip on the copper heat exchanger source solved the mystery as my 4 year old heater was rotted out and replaced two weeks before the green hair started and ashamedly I then started to manage pool water chemistry after 35 years of just adding chlorine pucks to keep the pool clear. You can imagine where I added the pool
pucks.

This Friday will be two weeks since I started SLAMing my pool to get rid of what I think is mustard algae. I live in west Texas, so dirt is always an issue, but even more so now. The land beside my house that used to be full of Mesquite trees and cactus was cleared just a few days into the process and is now a huge (an acre) field of loose dirt. I've consistently vacuumed using a robotic vacuum 3 times a day and I brush the pool at least 5 times if not more. I've never been able to get all of it out, which make me worry that there is also algae (dead and alive) hiding in there. One of the issues is that there is wrinkles in my pool lining, so unless I'm able to stay out there the whole time, the vacuum gets stuck and not much is picked up. The other issue is that any time I get close to getting it all out, we'll have a windy day and then I'm back to where I started. The good news is that my water is more clear than it's ever been, so I know I'm making progress. I'm still losing a ton of chlorine through the day and my overnight loss seems to be 4 ppm. It was originally 8, so I think that's a good sign.
Today I spent several hours outside vacuuming and brushing and I was able to get quite a bit of dirt out and fortunately there was only a small amount of algae in the vacuum when I was done. I recently purchased a solar cover and I decided to go ahead and put it on today. It's supposed to be pretty windy for the rest of the week. But then I got to thinking that it might be a bad idea while SLAMing and got sort of mixed results about it while looking through the forums. So I guess this has been a very long winded way to ask if I should keep the cover on or just risk getting more dirt in the pool and not worrying about it?

Good evening all. So I discovered a break in the wire of the pool cleaner. Looking for suggestions on a repair (connectors) or is this a cord replacement? Thanks in advance!

Dave

I am sure most of you with Maytronics pool cleaners have dealt with this at one time or another. Its my turn now. My Dolphin S300 has stopped working yet again for the 4th time. Three times it was the control unit, once the blue cable, and now its out of warranty. I don't think it would matter if it was as I think my current problem is wear and tear items not covered by warranty. The plastic bushings, wheels and rubber tracks have worn out and gears are slipping causing it to shut down. I have ordered almost every part I have needed and am missing just one item or maybe two. I installed all the other parts I have received but the big wheels are the source of the most slop in the system so of course it still wont run for long before shutting down. So I need a pair of the large front wheels. They go by several part numbers, 9993219 (wheel & bushing kit), 99983111 (wheel only kit), and most recent number, 9983114 (wheel only kit). Nobody seems to have these things in stock. I just ordered the bushings for them which will be here in a couple days but both bushings and wheel are worn. Marina Pool and Spa is out. So is Pool Poolweb, and of course Maytronics. Ebay vendor shows to have 4 but they aren't accepting messages. Not likely they are available and I am not going to order and hope they ship out someday this year.
So I am wondering if anyone has any other sources I might have missed? Some stashed in their garage they want to make disappear? This whole manual cleaning stuff is hard! I know, 1st world problems right???

Hello ya’ll
I have been TFP’d for just about 2 months now and my pool looks, feels, smells (lack of smell) beautiful.
My current test results as of Aug 2, 7:30PM Central
FC: 8.5
CC: 0.0
pH: 7.4
TA: 60
CH: 360
CYA: 60
SALT: 3400
BOR: 44
TEMP: 90F
CSI: -0.49

I’m planning to depart on a 3 week vacation and will not have anyone tending the pool while away. I was hoping folks with experience can chime in and let me know what to expect when I return.

CH, CYA, SALT, and Borate levels are stable and I do not expect any changes.

Concerning FC, pH, and TA: I plan to do the following before I depart:
1. Drop FC down to ~7ppm, knowing that my SWCG slowly increases my FC level by about 1ppm per week. Expect this to be ~10ppm, maybe a bit higher, upon return. I don’t see that being any issue.
2. Shut off my fountain and my 3 vertical bubblers to minimize aeration.
3. Drop pH to 7.2. The addition of MA will also lower my TA a bit as well.

My questions:
What should I expect my pH and TA to do during the 3-weeks I’m gone? Yes..Rise...but how much?
Is there anything else I should consider doing?
Will high pH (above 8.0) damage anything that quick (guessing above 8.0 and rising for 2-weeks). Or will the borate keep things under control.
Will TA remain within a satisfactory range. If not, will that be a major issue?

Thanks in advance for all your support.

I recently had my water tested. Attached are the results. They said I should FIRST add 1lb. 2 oz of PH up. Then wait two hours. SECOND, add 7 lbs. 10oz. pf PH down. Third, add 25 lbs 9 oz of calcium Increaser. This sounds stupid to me. Why should I increase the PH and then lower it. Hope fully the attached works. Suggestions, Mike

I’m so weary with trying to get my pool looking good this year. I’ve had stains on everything white and the liner of the pool. I’ve done 3 ascorbic acid treatments. The 1st 2 times, I didn’t use a sequestrant. My bad, I was confused (I thought I could use polyfil). And, the second time I used Culator thinking that would pull the metals out. I did an algea treatment also. Then, I did a a third treatment using a sequestrant. I have cleaned my filter cartridges and salt cell. As soon as I start raising my chlorine back up the stains come right back. I’m thinking about opening my wallet and throwing my money in the trash. I’m including pics of the sequestrant I used and the stains.
CYA 40
FC 1-2
PH 7.4
Alkalinity 60

I’m feeling a little discouraged about this. I started in early May, the water temps were in the 60 degree range. Now they’re in the 80’s and I don’t like dropping the chlorine. And, I’m about $250 in now. I just ordered another CULater.

4 yr old pool, constantly has high ph and high calcium hardness issues. I recently drained the pool and did an acid wash all by myself... somewhere around May. Came out pretty good. Restarted the pool got all the numbers right everything fine for the first month or so. Calcium hardness upon startup was around 150ppm. I waited a while before testing the hardness because I thought that issue was gone but recent results show over 400ppm. How can this be? Only chems added where a little bit of shock to get started, some salt, some cya and some acid to control the PH. Nothing for Alk it was in range around 80 I have not put one other chemical in this pool since except acid. Not to mention the PH is always still high. Currently draining some and adding some fresh water. Going with borates this go around. All results from Taylor Test kit and bounced off of pinch a penny results every once in a while. Aquapure SWG.

Lasts results from pinch:
FC/TC 4ppm
PH 7.9
Alk 100
Hardness 400
Cya 60
Salt 3300

I looked on Amazon and saw a bunch, mostly being sold by well known pop-up entities that also specialize in crocheted welcome mats...

I have a dummy cell coming for my SWG, but the existing threaded/rubber plugs and the skimmer 'gizmo' are pretty manky, so time to replace
All my returns/inlets are 1 1/2" threaded, so are the Threaded plugs preferred, or the rubber-wingnut types, or the duck valves ?
Thinking a new 'Gizmo' for the skimmer too...

I usually have my local pool store do the blowout and manhandle the cover etc, and I haven't had any issues, but last year we had so much rain I had to pump the pool out twice, so it was well over the returns well before the freezing weather was done, so I want to be certain I'm not risking any leakage etc, as digging up all that concrete would be a nightmare...



Thanks !!

Hi

I am looking to install a bypass for the pool heater but needs some guidance. I have a Thermeau electric heater with no bypass. Attach pics are how the pool equipment looks. I would like to use 3 diverter for the bypass. I am thing i need one coming out of the pool filter, one coming in the heater and one coming out of the heater. I know there might be more details than that but I am looking at the basic right now. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am planning to do this myself.

Thanks

I have balanced water, shock, and scrub regularly, water is clear. I’ve had the look 10 years and just this year I’ve had these green spots showing up in my pool. They can fade slightly with vigorous brushing. One came free today and feels like algae/lichen growth. Wondering if anybody has came across this!