I have a 30k gallon salt pool with a vinyl liner in Iowa and have been using liquid chlorine to boost my salt cell after hosting parties or if my FC gets too low (like right now after fighting phosphates).

I’m tired of worrying about the liquid splashing and ruining clothes and also don’t love storing all the gallons.

I am looking for a granular that is equivalent to liquid without CYA in it.

I was using BioGuard Smart Shock but found out it has CYA in it. Do you recommend their Burnout 3 or Burnout 73 instead? What’s the difference between those?

Or do you recommend a totally different brand?

I want something that is easy to dissolve and would love if it didn’t require pre-dissolving.

Thanks!!

I am helping out my aunt with maintenance of her pool that uses a Pac Fab Nautilus FNS DE filter. I have questions about replacing the grid but before I get there:

Is all Diatomaceous Earth meant for pool use the same?

I have been using this specific DE for my own pool but my late uncle, who was very specific about pool care used to order a special brand that they don't ship to California, so he used to go to Arizona to buy his DE (and ammo).

The one I personally use is this DE:


Can I just use this instead of the other DE that has to be sourced a bit more inconveniently?

I’ve read that alkalinity and pH should not change that much and only need to be tested weekly. That’s not true of mine -it can be fine & I can go in alone for a half an hour and the next morning when I test, it’s WAY low. I use a drop test kit. Is there something wrong this indicates? Can this be a sign it needs a change of water? It’s been 2 months.

Young (76 yo) retired Army guy living og Big Island Hawaii since 2005. Built our house 2006-7, built L shaped 39k gallon in ground pool on 2009. Pool has vacillated between crystal clear and nadty over the years. I’m in the process of cleaning up from latest nasty phase. Pool is 8ft deep at deep end and we get over 140” rain each year so it is self filling. I’ll be honest in that I lean toward minimum effort, wife is primary user. We did teach all our dogs, boxers, to swim, even the puppies.
Over the next month or so I intend to convert to salt water. That was our original intent but as we are 100% off grid, we deferred due to power. Now we can convert As our solar electric has been upgraded to fantastic.
Anyone like to know anything else, just ask.

My Intex skimmer basket has very wide holes. We don't really get big floating leaves in our little pool, mainly grass and finer material which slips right through the basket and into the sand filter.


I want to line the skimmer basket with a nylon net, but I'm unsure of the right mesh size to get. I found this Amazon mesh product and in comes in different sized, from 35 microns all the way up to 200 microns.



First, is there anything wrong with this idea? Any downsides?
Second, I'm assuming the largest 200 microns will be sufficient, aye?

My goal is to keep the sand in better shape so I can backwash less often.

NJ, second home/pool owner. 13 year old pool. 25,000 gallons, attached spa. Quartz surface. We’ve been here 2 years.
We are planning a renovation on our pool and completely overwhelmed with choices. Haven’t made a final decision as to pool builder.
Looking for pros/cons to quartz vs pebble vs polished aggregate (quartz or pebble)
My goals are
1. Primarily or fully white surface. No blotchiness, which we currently have with our light blue quartz. I like a pale water color, too, so color choices are not a concern as long as white is one of them.
2. Preferably smooth. I can’t help but feel it would be more hygienic and easy to maintain, but please correct me if I’m wrong. I also just like a smooth solid feel.
3. Durability/quality. We will probably leave in 8-10 years and hope the pool will still look good at that time.
A good price is much appreciated, but can afford whatever will best suit our needs.
The builder we’ve been talking to uses NPT finishes. If some other brand is truly better, we will seek it out. I do know a lot of people are very vocal about PebbleTec. I have heard, though, that the warranty is very easy for companies to wiggle out of so that isn’t necessarily a reason in my mind to prefer it.
I thought I wanted Polishedscapes, but the pebble proponents are making me question myself.
Also, if polished is not lower maintenance or more hygienic, I may just consider doing quartz again, which feels smoother to me than ALL of the pebble variations
Help! Please! Greatly appreciate any and all advice!

I have an Intex Easy Set 8’ x 24” pool with an Intex C-1000 pump connected.
I’m not a fan of the pump and someone in another thread said it’s only slightly better than having nothing at all.
Any recommendations on a pump for this pool?

I’ve tried every Jandy Watercolor on my OneTouch panel, but my pool only shows Alpine White. When I roll through the colors manually at the control box it works fine. However, when I take it out of Service Mode it always returns to Alpine White. The firmware in my AquaLink RS6 is MMM.

There have been quite a few posts asking about the differences between the 2 and 4 wheel versions of the "The Pool Cleaner" / Aquanaut / Phoenix cleaners. They focus on the standard idea that the 4 wheel is for pools larger than 16' x 32', and/or deeper than 8 feet. I have not been able to discern, however, what the specific differences are in actual functioning OTHER than the 4 wheel having a cam that makes fewer turns, which allows it to cover a larger area more effectively. My questions, therefore, are what disadvantages of the 4 wheel might be given that a 2 wheel model can use the cam from the 4 wheel model, thereby making fewer turns, but simply not having the extra 2 wheels. I assume that the 4 wheel gets more traction and is able to pull a longer hose more effectively, but what if you have a "larger" pool, but the port is in the middle such that you don't need to use all that much hose? In this case, does the 2 wheel - perhaps with the 4 wheel's cam - actually make more sense?

In my observations, the 4 wheel is more likely to keep the unit "flat" to the ground (less forward/backward "tipping" due to the extra wheels), but I'm not sure if this is an important issue. Might this imply that the 4 wheel could climb walls better, or would the extra weight and possible slight loss of power from the extra mechanics more likely be an impediment?

My bottom line question ends up being this: As I mentioned, you can put the cam for the 4 wheel version in the 2 wheel model, giving you a two wheel version that has the same turn behavior as the 4 wheel. If a larger pool (but less than 8 feet deep) has the port in the middle and therefore doesn't need too long of a hose, would the 2 wheel version with the cam that does fewer turns offer better performance than the 4 wheel?

I've tried to get this info from web searches, and I actually called Hayward and asked them directly, but even Hayward had no idea what the answers to these questions were, and all the info I find online just covers the generic recommendations stated above without any further information.

Thanks for any information/feedback on this,

Larry

I have a new Raypak heater model 264. It worked when installed last fall. Today when I went to fire it up for the first time it wasn't able to get all the air out of the gas line in its 3 attempts and now it is locked out and just says call service. Does anyone know how to get the controls unlocked without calling service? Thanks

TL;DR: (skip down to numbered questions)

This is my first season as a pool owner and my absolute worst fear has just happened - algae.

I have spent all summer trying to get all of my chemicals perfectly balanced at the same time and I FINALLY achieved it about a week and a half ago...and then yesterday I discovered some algae collecting in the middle of the pool. I should have known it was coming bc FC was getting gobbled up more rapidly than usual. I even did regular maintenance level shock treatments* night before last and the night before that. Last night I did a double shock treatment** and I can still see some green in the middle.

I should also note that when I say "some green" I mean the vast majority (95-98% ish) of the pool is crystal clear; we're nowhere near a full bloom (yet).

My plan is to brush and vac to waste after work and then double shock it, see where I'm at tomorrow, and repeat if necessary. In other words, SLAM is the plan. I read the TFP SLAM article (and  many others) but I still have some questions.

1. If I brush before vac, which is what it says to do, aren't I going to stir up the algae that's currently collected in the center of the pool, thus causing it to float around instead of resting on the bottom where I can get it with the vac?

2. I also read the OCLT article and it says to wait at least 30 minutes after last chem addition of the day, but how can that possibly give an accurate FC reading? Based on my calculations, it takes roughly three hours for all of the water in my pool to complete a filtration cycle. Testing only 30 min after adding a huge dose of shock doesn't seem like it'd be enough time for it to properly circulate and disperse to yield a reading accurate enough to compare the next morning.

Thanks in advance!

* With the FROG Leap system, a maintenence/normal shock for our pool is 6oz of 100% cal-hypo
** A double shock is what most people without the FROG system would consider a normal shock (1oz/1k gal)

Hey everyone! Happy Monday!!! We are finally close to pool season up here in Indiana! This will be our first pool season and we are really excited and in the renovation/refurbishing stage. We are replacing the liner with a grey liner to make the pool more modern (the one we have now is 30 years old!), cutting out the loose concrete around the plastic coping and filling it in with a uniform border and replacing our pool pump with a variable speed pump. Once that is all finished we will be ready to enjoy the pool but I'm doing research on the pool furniture. My goals are for it to be left outside all winter, be heavy enough that 50 mph winds won't blow it away and for it to be somewhat stylish. We are strongly considering the Polywood furniture. It's pricey but seems like the best option for our low maintenance goals. Does anyone have any pictures or experience they can share with us on this product or similar products? THANKS A BUNCH!

Hello,
Yesterday I went out to clean my skimmer baskets and noticed that there was not water coming from my returns. Walked over to equipment pad and pump was not running. Not sure what happened. Initial thought was maybe we lost power over night and it hadn’t restarted automatically. So I went to restart it and it gave a small little “sound” and threw me a E-01 Error Code. Tried to power it down/start it up a few more time and got the same.

Opened up the owners manual and the E-01 code means: Inverter Unit Protection with the following comments:
01,02,03,04,05,06,07,09,10,24 – Internal Errors: If this error displays multiple times, then there may be a problem with the pump’s rotating assembly. Please disassemble the pump and investigate to see if there is a problem with the impeller or mechanical seal. See page 14 “Pump Disassembly” for instructions for disassembling the pump.

There was also a reference on the CircuPool website with the following:

I’ve since followed the instruction for both: Disassembled the pump and inspected for damage to the impeller and the mechanical seal (none to my “untrained” eye) and I’ve also disassembled the control box per the pdf.

Nothing fixed anything. Still getting the same error. The pump makes a small noise as though it is attempting to start - just a soft little “starting” noise, but then nothing and throws the error code.

Anyone have a similar experience or know more about these pumps? I’m at a loss and if I cant move water I am going to have a bad algae problem very soon. CircuPook doesn’t have weekend hours for support - according to their website.

Thanks!
Steph

Hello to all,
My husband and I bought our house about 10 years ago. It was built in 1986 and im not sure when the pool was installed. The pool is plaster and until recently, we have relied upon a pool guy for balancing, cleaning and maintanence. This year, summer in particular, we had a very hard time with the pool guy just not showing up. Pool turned green twice, black algea took hold so we started quad shocking and brushing like mad. We fired the pool guy. We are now in the process of a resurfacing with pebble, new plumbing, tile, deck, and heater for the spa. We are trying to learn as much as we can about balancing and cleaning ourselves. So, here I am!

I'm working on building a roughly 700 gallon plunge pool, and would love any advice/feedback on a few key questions, now that I've completed digging and am ready to start building.

The plan is for a dodecagonal (12-sided) pool build from cinderblock. Inner diameter will be 5 feet, with a 5'10" depth, and a spiral/nautilus shape step on one side.

The pool is dug into a hillside, with a composition of mostly hard sandstone, granite rocks, shale and dirt. (It was extremely hard to dig.) One side of the pool will be ground level with the hill, the other side will be roughly 2-feet above grade, and 3-feet below.

I've gone over plans with an engineer, and arrived at the following plan:

1. Current plan is to pour a 6-inch floor, with a 1.5-inch deep 3.5-inch wide channel around the perimeter centered underneath where the blocks will be set. When the blocks are filled with concrete, that will create a lateral "lock" underneath the walls connecting them with the floor. A waterproofing membrane will be set into the channel before laying the block and pouring.

2. 3/8 rebar will be laid for the floor, with 90-degree bends to continue into the walls--ie: floor and wall rebar will be one continuous piece down one wall, across the floor, and up the opposite wall. Rebar will also be added vertically at each corner of the dodecagon. Rebar will also be laid horizontally around the perimeter at each level of cinder block.

3. Cinderblock will be stacked straight, not interlaced, to create clean corners. "Lintel" cinderblock will be used so that concrete can flow into the corners. A vertical form will be placed outside each corner, so that the corners will fill with concrete in addition to each cell of cinderblock--meaning there will be a continuous flow of concrete vertically and horizontally at each level of cinderblock, and connecting through each corner. A bonding cement is planned before filling the cores with concrete to hold everything in place, and straps will be placed around the outside of the blocks to hold the corner forms in place and keep things from shifting.

4. I'm planning to make about 1/4 of the perimeter of the pool an infinity edge, and dug out enough space for a catch basin with enough capacity for about 40 gallons.

5. During the dig, I noticed that the hole does not drain or saturate much into the soil--significant rock/clay content. So I bored a 6-inch hole for drainage down the hill to ensure water doesn't collect around the pool and saturate the hillside behind the pool.

Here are my questions at this stage:

1. Given that I now have drainage underneath the pool, is it a smart or stupid idea to create a "gravity" drain option for the pool? I could tie in a pipe to the main drain and run it down the hill, and I could put the valve in an accessible location in case it needs to be replaced.

2. I'm just starting to get my head around waterproofing. Any recommendations on approach for this application? I will have access to the external walls of the pool before I backfill. Should that be bonded and waterproofed while it's accessible? Or only the inside?

3. I'm a little confused about the Bond Beam. Is the idea to put forms at the top of the cinderblock walls *after* they've been poured and cured, and then pour a continous perimeter on the top of the walls all the way around? Or is the idea to pour that at the same time as filling the cores?

4. I've seen some debate about engineering things to pour the floor at the same time as the walls. In that case, would you still pour a concrete footing for the walls before stacking the blocks? Or would you stack the blocks on gravel, notch the blocks to pass through the rebar, and only do a single pour?

5. With a 5-foot diameter floor, would you just do the double drains on the floor 3' apart? Or would you set one drain in the center and one on the wall?

Thank you for any and all advice,.

Hi everyone, I have a Hayward sand filter. The filter head (multiport) was replaced last year and everything was working great. However this year, the "pin" on the valve handle started sliding out. I can push it back in, but is it normal for the pin to do this? I only turn the handle in one direction (clockwise). See pictures below of the pin. My old filter head did the same thing but I figured it was because it was very old. Now I'm starting to wonder if I am doing something when turning the handle to cause the pin to come out?

Thanks in advance for any help or insights!!

Hi, having trouble with a Pentair Superflo VSP. It started showing an Err 0018 code which Pentair said was a three phase issue. I turned the power off, waited, restarted. Still Err 0018. Then did it again and Err0018 went away but the pool pump turned on making a very, very loud noise. Turned it off again. Turned it on and then it gave error code 0019 (motor). The pool service company came and took the pump apart and said there was nothing blocking the impeller. I've attached a video with the sound. Any help? The motor is only 1.5 years old. here is the video which has the sound

Login to view embedded media

Hello there!

Newer pool/home owner here who is methodically addressing what appears to be long-standing pool issues. I did a SLAM recently, following the directions on this site, and the pool water has never looked better. Thank you!

Another issue is that I’ve long believed the pool to have a leak. I did a bucket test a few days ago and confirmed the suspicion. The pool lost a couple inches more than the bucket.

I ordered some Anderson dye to perform a leak detection and determined that I have a leak in the passive (not hooked up to the pump at all) pipe running from the pool to the spa. The dye was being sucked into the pipe from the pool and spa side.

In retrospect, it makes sense that there is a leak there. A previous owner built a room over the spa and there’s a large wall right over where the pipe runs. My hunch is that the weight broke the pipe.

Good thing we passed on the pool inspection!

Anyway, my question is: Is there any reason that I shouldn’t plug both ends of the pipe?

I really appreciate the help! I can add photos if necessary.

Hey everyone!

Been awhile since I last asked a question. Sorry if this one is sort of basic but here it goes:

For the most part I rely on my robot to clean the pool. Then occasionally I pull out the hose and pole to manually vacuum the debris it misses (mostly fine sediment, dirt, dead algae). Yes I do have the Polaris fine basket too but even that isn’t 100%.

My question is when the sand filter multiport is set to waste and pump is running at full speed for best suction how do I prevent the pool water from dropping so quickly? Sticking the garden hose in while I vacuum doesn’t quite seem to fill it up at a fast enough pace. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

We convert to salt on Monday, and I saw a comment on here from a couple of years ago about Aqua Salt. The poster made the comment that they did not like Aqua Salt brand because it had "mystery stain inhibitors" in it. My PB has brought a bunch of bags of Aqua Salt over for us to use on Monday, but I have been reading and was really wanting to use Diamond Crystal Solar Naturals for water softeners from earlier suggestions I read on the forum. My questions are:

• Is the Aqua Salt really that bad? I looked at their product data sheet online and it says 99.9% Sodium Chloride. Nothing on the bags though to indicate that.
• Would the Aqua Salt work in my water softener? If so, then I will use it for that and just buy what I need for the pool with the Diamond brand.

What do you guys think?

Hi guys

I am a new pool owner who has been following the threads. I moved into this house couple of months ago. I have couple of questions if someone can help me out.

1) Is my pool water color too dark or is it just the shade coming from the ground that makes it appear too 'dark'. During the night with pool lights on, you can see the floor easily but during the day, this is the shade. I was just wondering if I am missing something? Image

2) I am seeing a lot of these white stain buildups. Is this calcium deposit or something else? What would be the best way to clean it up? Stain 1 Stain 2

These are my most recent test results from TF Test kit:

FC: 3.5, CC: 0.5, pH: 7.8 (or 8), TA: 110, CH: 325, CYA: 90, Temp (from intellitouch system so no idea of accuracy): 87, CSI: 0.49

My CYA got high as pool company once recommended I had low CYA and had to put more stabilizer in and using tablets. I have now moved to liquid chlorine to prevent CYA from getting higher. Adding chlorine basically daily (~0.5g or so).

Thanks for your help

I've just about got my head wrapped around my pool's plumbing and equipment system, at least insofar as I understand what things do and what valves send water where. But I have two things I'm unsure of.

First, I've got two skimmers and a main drain in the pool and a drain in the spa. Here's a pic of where my suction plumbing emerges from underground at the pump. The pipe on the right is labelled "Spa Suction" so that's clear. The far left pipe must be the skimmers, since I know those are operating, and the diverter is open that way. Then I suppose the middle pipe is the pool main drain. How are the skimmers typically plumbed if they emerge as a single suction line at the pump? Is it a long run of pipe from the far skimmer to the pump pad with a lateral teed off to pick up the near skimmer? Or maybe two separate home runs teed together closer to the pump? Each skimmer has a single port in the bottom. Also, this main drain is clearly off, and I've seen numerous references to bottom drains being unnecessary and excluded from new builds. Will I ever have reason to operate the main drain short of using it to pump the pool dry?



Second, I have a booster pump for the Polaris pressure cleaner, and I have a pretty good idea that once the pressure side pipe goes underground it heads directly to the port in the side of the pool. However, the suction side pipe also disappears into the ground and don't know where it pulls from. Would it typically be teed off the pool return pipe? If so, I don't know why it goes underground to do that, when the return piping is aboveground about a foot away.



Any good guesses?

Hello!

We've had our pool for a little over a year (built new) and we've just started to have an issue over the weekend. When running our pump on anything above medium (75%) it begins to "pulse" and causes the pressure gauge to bounce all over the place. There is quite a bit of air in the pump basket, which I can normally get rid of by running the pump on high and opening the air relief on on the filter. But with it behaving as it is, I can't run it on high, and opening the pressure relief only lets water out.

Video Link of issue.

Some notes:

• It does this no matter what position the valves are in (all pool, all spa, sheer on/off, all valves partially open [mix of pool/spa]).
• The returns output pressure/volume is much lower than typical
• The filters were cleaned at the end of June, and again at the end of July.
• I haven't taken anything apart yet.
• Skimmer baskets are clean
• We get very little debris in the pool (no trees, etc.), usually a few small leaves per week.

Thanks for any help or thoughts!

(edit to fix video link)

A pool I'm familiar with but being managed by another guy, with Pentair Easytouuch/intelichem system and the guy says he puts in weekly 4-8 ounces. Can someone explain why this is needed but I think I know the answer $$$.

Also wondering what the highest firmware for the GLX-PCB-MAIN is and if anyone is willing to share it.

I’ve searched and searched but cannot find an answer. I’ve learned so much in my few months of pool ownership about chemicals from this website and I just am learning that my pump has been going full rpms for 12 hrs every day and I have a vsp.
I run it 12 hrs overnight with fountains out of the returns because I’m in Texas with no shade and it helps cool it to 85 at night when it was 92+ before.

My problem is when I just have vsp scheduled the filter pump doesn’t appear to be on and no temperature is read in the IAquaLink opening screen even though in web info the pump is running at the rpms I have set.

After a lot of research (and poolgates previous post) I scheduled the filter pump for 12 hrs and also the lower variable speed I want for that 12 hrs. Now this gives me a green in filter pump and temp reading. Am I doing it right?

Also, is there any way to make my default filter pump button/setting not run max rpm?


In the winter I may make different settings with different speeds at different times which I will probably have to ask help for.

Do I have this set up right? @PoolGate

I

I see that the Taylor Service Complete Pool Water Test Kit K-2006C is selling for $130


Is the TF-100 functionally equivalent to the K-2006C?

1. Has the same size bottles
2. Has the same reagents

I have read numerous post regarding robotic pool, cleaners as we have never owned one before. Currently we have the suction side The PoolCleaner 4 wheel. We use the pressure side option on her other pool and it worked pretty well as we had lots of leaves; however, our current pool has a few leaves, but mostly a lot of pollen and dust that falls into the pool. We live up on a hill in the south westerly winds that blow across our backyard drop everything into the pool. Our pool cleaner is not able to really keep up with the pollen so we’re looking at a robotic option. We need something that will climb the care of everything else. Our pool is 20 x 40 so it’s a pretty good size. Would really like some recommendations from folks that have similar situation with a lot of pollen it their pool.

Hello TFP community
Looking for some additional advice on this issue. Thanks to this forum, I was able to troubleshoot my "No Cell Power 2" problem little over a year ago.
Re-soldering burned contact didn't work and I ended up replacing the relay. Repair process went well and system was up and running again.
Fast forward about 12 months and the problem has returned. This time re-soldering the "famous" relay works, but the fix only lasts a few days before I see "No Cell Power 2" message and have to re-solder again.
One other thing I should mention, the power supply on the right (the transformer, I guess that's what it's called) runs extremely hot. It's so hot that the entire box is almost too hot to hold my hand for a period of time. Could tat be the main reason for what I'm dealing with?
Any help / advise would be greatly appreciated.