Hi, we currently are having a pool company, which is actually a concrete company, installing our 12ft x 26ft inground pool. We have had issues along the way with voids in the concrete decking that were patched prior to sealing. The concrete color being brown vs white beige etc. However, today I got in the pool to inspect the floor and coping, and it is absolutely awful. Several voids and concrete dripped into the pool. They put a seam that separates the pool decking from the concrete coping in case of issues in the future. There is so much concrete on the liner that I am extremely worried about having them break the coping up and redoing it. In one corner there is actually duck tape sticking out under the concrete. The corners were square and for some reason they rounded them. Please help! What do we do to have them fix it? Do they break it up and redo it and will this tear the liner, or is there a way to put renovation pavers over it to hide all of this sloppiness. I have tons of pics if you would like more than this to help

Now that my other panel/actuator issues are solved (see my other thread!), moving on to getting my lighting working. The pool and spa lights are on a single relay, and the pool light works, but the spa doesn't. The spa is on a 12 VAC 100W transformer (pool is 12 VAC 300W), and voltage out of the transformer (Intermatic if that matters). The pool light used to just alternate between blue and purple on my old board when I did the on/off routine, but now with my new OmniPL it's cycling between several colors (haven't been able to figure out how to get it to turn on/off fast enough to change the routine). So the questions are 1. Can you identify the spa light model from those details and the pic? 2. Can the bulb be changed without having to run new wiring? (I really really really don't want to do that!) 3. How can I change the color routines of these lights? (I assume once I find out the answer to 1 I can search and find more info!). Thanks!

We bought our house mostly for a pool about 9 months ago, but have been having nothing but issues with it since. We planned on doing a '5 year complete rehaul' but now I'm trying to figure out the scope of what I want/can get, and price points.

I've reached out to some local builders but they're surprisingly difficult to schedule, so now I'm trying to 'level set' based on people's experience. And with that - I am curious if people wouldn't mind sharing what they experienced pricing wise for their pool/specs? People who did a reno vs full-build, esp.

In the past I've been quoted '50-60k for a gunite kidney pool' from a home builder. I am likely wanting something large, rectangular, top of the line pump/incentives, spa, and extending it into a firepit/kitchenette. So In my head I am figuring ~150K based on my research.

But if I can do the 'pool' sooner, for less, and do the rest later - I might go that avenue. But struggling with my research here.

Is there a preferred way to add Alkalinity Up to the pool - either sprinkling directly onto pool surface or diluting first? (Set aside the fact that we even have Alkalinity Up... I am now seeing that baking soda is basically the same thing but this was something our start-up crew recommended we get when we first got our pool, so working our way thru this supply!)

Hi everyone,
Hoping someone can help as I'm not sure what else to try.

My pool water has a green tint ever since shocking it after I had algae growth. The bottom and sides are clear aside from some sand and debris that needs to be vacuumed out. I did shock it, twice, and that cleared up the algae. It was cloudy. Now, it's still tinted green! I am on well water and have topped it off with untreated water (we know there are metals in the water). I suspect this is the issue after doing some online research. All chemicals levels are in proper balance.

I added Natural Chemistry metal free. I see no difference after 24 hours. Perhaps I did not add enough? I'm not sure. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.

Hi. I am a new pool/spa owner and new to TPT. We have a new pool/spa just built and I want to add a spa blower motor to get more bubbles and better venturi jet action. I am thinking about getting the 2HP Silencer blower. I have room in my electrical panel for either 120v or 240v but have few questions.
1. Does the blower require a dedicate circuit in my Pentair EasyTouch4 panel?
2. Is there any reason to go with 120v or 240v for the blower?

Thanks,
DavidU

I am trying to replace a cracked union nut that connects 2inch pvc to chlorinator. Would like to use a split nut so that I do not have to re plumb this whole connection, but can’t seem to find anything online that fits. Anyone had any luck with this? Or do I need to just by the whole union tailpiece replacement kit and replumb connections?

i was away for three days and my chemistry is way off. We had a lot of rain, had to drain 3" of water. I tested after cleaning (not very dirty) and draining.
Any suggestions what could cause this. Never had this big of a swing.

FC went from 5.0 to 0.2
PH 7.6 to 7.0
TA stayed the same at 70
CH 270 to 260
CYA 35 to 25.

Drained most of my pool at the beginning of the year. Added about 8lbs of stabilizer over the course about a week. Pool store said I had a reading of about 60. Had to wait to get my new test kit, but when I tested myself, I am only getting about 20. I've tried the test a few times and I am still getting a low reading. The pool store and my readings are so different. Not sure if I should add more or not. Could it have vanished? I have had to add a little bit of new pool water due to evaporation. What readings do I trust?

Hello,

I’m in the process of designing the pool and the backyard has been demoed. My initial wish list included a water feature (sheer descent) pouring into the pool and automatic cover, which I really, really, really want. I live in the City of Trees, for Pete’s sake. The pool builder informed me today that the water feature would void the warranty on the automatic cover. My choices are to keep the water feature knowing that if anything happens to the auto cover, I’m SOL, or get rid of the water feature. Can someone make me feel better about getting rid of the water feature? Do you use yours frequently enough that I should think about putting a fountain somewhere else in the yard?

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Cheers,

CD

Good evening all. I checked my chemicals. Last night. PH is at 7.2. My chlorine was real low. I put 94 oz in last night. I check my levels an hour ago and it only measured at .5. I’m going for at least 3. Any suggestions? Should I add more conditioner?

We had issues with our pool plaster when it was first installed in November 2022. There was a lot of clouding on the pool surface (SCP StoneScapes - Puerto Rico Blend. We finally went with an acid bath(?) by the pool builder. The surface looked fantastic.

It is now two weeks later and the white is back with a vengeance. What is going on?! We are pulling our hair out. We should have NEVER built a pool. This is insane.

Photos attached:

During and immediately after install, after acid bath, and 2 weeks later (e.g, today)

I thought i read that the OmniLogic has the ability to have an emergency stop switch. Does anyone know how this is wired?
Thanks.

steve

I've searched high and low about this, doesn't matter if we use sunscreen or not. It's a new development the last 2 years.
The only different thing we are doing different is using more of the liquid chlorine.
Could this be the reason for the dryness?? I thought it was because we were getting older LOL.
We like to maintain 3 ppm all summer so we do use the liquid here and there but more often of course if it's rained a lot etc.
The water is sparkling clear!
It's kinda embarrassing when friends and family are over, they've noticed it too.
Thanks for your thoughts and input.

Vinyl Liner
Here are the latest test results.
FC 3
TC 3
CC .14
PH 7.6
Alk 130
CH 146
CA 39

I'm keeping my water balanced. TA is a tad high at 100ppm. FC is kept at 7ppm and CC at 0.5 or below. CYA at 60. PH is perfect at 7.6.

This yellow/green stuff keeps showing up daily. Not everywhere, but under the steps, a couple places in the shallow end, and in 1 corner of the deep end. I brush it every day and it clouds up into the water but the water is still quite clear. I'm running the sand filter 12 hrs per day. I don't think it's pollen because we are past that season here.

How can it be algae if I keep my chlorine levels good? I'm stumped. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Tips on how to deal with low alk ,high ph . while serviceing 1x aweek. Cant add bi carb and acid at same time ?? What do other companys do? Please help

So management has approved the purchase of a Salt Water Generator now that the VSP pump is in and working so nicely.

24k gallon pool, I typically use about 3PPM FC a day.
With the new VSP, I run the pump about 18 hours a day, mostly at low speed which is enough for the heater to kick in as required, and then some faster times during the day when I add LC and we're swimming (so we can clean and skim)

Given that, I'm leaning toward the RJ-45+, RJ-60, or the Universal 55 - mostly as they seem to be $500 cheaper than the alternatives.
Is there any advantage/disadvantage of going with the clear case vs the closed cell ?
Is there any reason NOT to go with the 60 - I assume I can just run it as a lower output, and extend my cell life accordingly - the extra $100 over the 45 seems like a no-brainer.

I have 110 or 220v available where I am planning on installing this too, should that be a consideration.

My local pool store over the last few years has dramatically increased the costs for liquid chlorine. For example it used to cost me $3 for 10 Liters, now it is $16. The price of calcium hypo has been stable or decreasing. I asked them about this and they said they are trying to discourage sales of liquid chlorine in favor of solid products due to the fact it is easier for the store to handle it. Are others finding the same thing?

So we’ve been chasing a leak all summer. The pool people said it’s probably time to get a new liner, because ours is 7 years old. I can’t believe something so expensive has such a short life span! They told me that environmental regulations changed what liners are made of now, so they will better degrade in landfills.
Is this true?
Is there a liner out there that will last a long time?
The person telling me this doesn’t make money off of me getting a new liner, so I don’t think he’s trying to sell me something.

With the heatwave, I've spent much more time in the pool over the last few weeks and have been taking a long hard look at the plaster. As far as I know, it's the original plaster to the pool, and just the plain white variety. I don't have any major cracks or anything, but there's a lot of etching (that's been there since I bought the house) and I do have calcium nodules pop up from time to time. The pool was built sometime around 1980-1982 so likely the plaster is approaching its end of life.

What is a "typical" scope of work for a replaster of an older pool? My waterline tile isn't offensive, but I wouldn't necessarily mind replacing it if it's something that would typically be replaced during a replaster (plus, I do have a few places where a tile has popped off and I can't find replacements). What about the coping? I have just regular old concrete raised bullnose coping and I'm fine with that, and it all seems to be intact. As for plumbing- because it's a renovation, will they need to update my drain to current codes? Or can the existing single drain remain?

I haven't called anyone for a quote- Just trying to gauge how deep this rabbit hole might become if I decide to go through with it.

Thanks!

I have seen a few other posts about how this is probably a fruitless endeavor. I have a 16'x32' 14,300 gallon saltwater Intex AGP and I am trying to heat it up 5-10F. I have a pool cover and that has been getting it up to the mid 80s with the high ambient air temp in the low to mid 70s, but I want to get the water temp into the 90s. I was thinking about building a secondary pump system that did not drive off of my main filter pump, run it through a few hundred feet of PEX tubing and use heat spreaders that are used for radiant floor heating, paint it all black and cover it with greenhouse plastic sheeting, and set it up along the south edge of the pool. I am thinking that this DIY setup will run me probably about $600 for plywood, pump, tubing, plates, etc. plus the electricity to run the pump when desired. I don't think I can run it to the roof and I am in the process of getting solar panels anyway which would mitigate the cost of electricity to run the pump. I saw a YouTube video of someone doing something similar with copper tubing in a single circuit and got the water temp to near boiling. I want multiple circuits of about 100' instead of one very long circuit because hot water only absorbs so much heat. I can't use copper due to saltwater. If I do 4 sheets of 4'x8' plywood that would be a total area of 128 sqft vs 512 sqft of pool surface area so only 1:4 instead of the recommended 1:2, but I am hoping for more heat transfer.

New here; last summer was not that hot where i live, so i was able to snag a summer waves 13 foot, 33 inch deep metal frame above ground pool. I neglected to consider what it would take to set up; i have an upper body injury. It is only 97 degrees today, next week triple digits. I have to hire someone, even though i can't afford it...my questions are:
Can anyone tell me approximately how long it should take? 15 ft, 33 inches deep.

2) are pavers under the feet necessary for such a small pool?
Thank u in advance.

I am new here and have questions about my pH and Alk. Pool came with house we just bought in Dec. It is 14000 gal plaster. Looks like it was not maintained well in past. Minimal staining on bottom, considerable paint loss on bottom, beige build up on sides that will not brush off even with metal bristles. Treated twice for yellow algae, hope I have it under control now. Currently using cal hypo, will switch to beach when I run out of my current stock. Removed floating tab duckies 2 months ago. Partial draining is not really an option so I am riding out the 90 CYA until fall when we plan to have pool resurfaced.My alk is consistently 110, pH is constantly 8. Keeping FC at 7 and above, I shoot for 11. CH 280. Water temp 88. I use pool math to calculate. I do my own testing but do confirm these numbers at the pool store. I live in Texas. My questions are as follows:
Is it normal to add 1 qt muratic acid everyday? pH comes down but by next day it is always back to 8
Is it normal to add 2 lbs shock every other day?
When using Pool Math calculator should I be using the true alk number of 110 or the cya corrected number of 80?
Why will my pH not stay down in the recommended range for any length of time?

Thanks for any help provided.

Hello all,

I recently resurfaced my pool with NPT Stonescapes mini pebble. My pool is about 11,000 gallons and a skinny 'free shape' looking, about 30' x 8'. I replaced my old Sand Filter with a new Pentair Clean & Clear 420 Plus Cartridge. In addition, I upgraded all my 14 pop-up heads with the new Venturi G2 and the G2 non-Venturi 'adjustable' for the steps (low pressure).

My current pump schedule is as follows:

4 hours (11am-3pm) on 3,000 RPM
8 hours (3:01pm - 11pm) on 1,600 RPM
Then from 11:01pm - 10:59am on 1,300 RPM.

Question: Is the schedule above good enough with the new Venturi pop-ups, or should I make a change, perhaps decrease the 3K RPM to something lower?

Thanks all.

Did some research and was not 100% sure whether an old pool heater (Rome Industries, AquaComfort S95) can cause rusty water (e.g., the heat exchanger is rotted) - I thought I "fixed" the issue by repairing rusty wall behind my liner last year but the rusty water is worse this year - posted by repair here last year.

Also, we do not use the heater at all (but we do run it once in awhile as maintenance), and whether the water runs through the heat exchanger regardless of the heater being on vs. off (just the heater core is not "hot", perhaps?)

Since we find ourselves dumping pounds of ascrobic acid almost on a daily basis, we are also wondering whether I can simply get rid of it. Is this a simply DIY to "reconnect" the piping?

Thanks!

Hi!

My aqua rite was producing chlorine as expected and was displaying 2800-3300 salt which is accurate to my salt test strips. Suddenly and overnight, my cell is no longer producing chlorine and my salt reading dropped from 2800-3300 to 300.

Is this consistent with a dead cell ? Serial number is 3E15062-202851 if this helps determine age.

Thanks

Pool had a relatively new Polaris booster installed When I purchased it. I’m switching to a robotic cleaner…
Can the booster be repourposed as a dedicated spa pump or maybe the bubbler instead?

Hi all!

I'm a bit new to the pool world....

I have an enormous crack/leak by the bulkhead/o-ring going into the sand filter however I don't know what model number my sand filter is but I've been able to see the product number for the bulk head which is "de360fb." I've attached pics of the situation.

Question 1 - any1 know what the model number of my filter is? (it's a hayword filter know that much)

Question 2 - how do I go about the fix? Just replace the o-ring?

thanks to everyone who helps in advance!

My pool has high alkalinity, but I don't want to buy a pump to aerate the water, so I want to install a return fountain (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PYRL67X). I started to remove the return fittings, and managed to get the lock and the eyeball itself out, but it seems I also need to remove the seat, which is stuck.

I bought a metal SP1419T Removal Tool (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B56LC3NG), but it seems like the eyeball seat itself was installed directly into the plaster. When I try to turn the tool in either direction, I heard a snap, and then plastic flecks float out of the seat.

Before I completely destroy the seat, I was hoping you guys could check if I should keep trying, or maybe wait until I need to replaster the pool and have those guys break these out and replace them. Let me know if I need better pictures...

Thanks in advance!

Hey Again -

We seem to be having our fair share of start-up problems so far.

The latest is that we cannot get our Intellibrite lights to sync. Here's the setup:

One Intellibrite Pool light

One Intellibrite Spa light

Both wired together through a single 12v transformer.

Connected to Easy Touch panel through a single AUX relay. Circuit is labeled as Intellibrite for Aux2, is labeled as 'Lights' and is set up in the Lights/Config menu as 'Lights' under #1.

Lights come on and off no problem but are different colors. The Sync feature on the Easy Touch toggles the relay a few times but the end result is usually a red spa light and a blue pool light. The pool light seems to be following the commands from the Easy Touch panel. If I choose Green, the pool light turns green but the spa light goes into party mode with multiple colors flashing.

Any ideas on how to get these things in sync? I wanted them to be switched separately but our PB pretty much ignored it and wired them together. I'll redo them some day but for now, I would just like them to be the same color.

Thanks in advance.