SLAM Complete: Still Milky

My CH was reading zero and they got 94 so my chemicals are probably shot
Why ? Why isn't it their machine thats off ? You're more accurate than they are.

Never cheat off the dumbest kid in class. I dont care he got a couple right this/last time. It's not gonna end well.
When I first looked at the difference between Free and Total Chlorine I went 'Ah... there it is. Still have Algae' except, that it is .7 which means that it would pass the OCLT test.
You need 0.5 CC to pass the OCLT. (TC - FC as reported) *if* we believe the data. You shouldn't be doing the OCLT without clear water either because you don't need multiple fails. 1 is enough to continue slam.

Did you try DE ?

Possible leak?

Hello,

I have opened our pool Southern Wisconsin and everything seemed to be doing fine. Experienced some water loss pretty heavy (4in) in 48 hours and thought I had a suction side leak. Had the pool off for a few days and the water loss stoped just above the bottom of the skimmers. Filled it up and it’s been fine for the last week and a half. No water loss, no air in pump, no bubbles in returns, everything was perfect. Backwashed yesterday and have had 3 inches of water loss with the filter running. Water loss the first time was the same with pump on and pump off. No other signs of water loss as pump is working perfectly and keeping prime with no bubbles on supply or return side. I have checked the backwash pipe and it’s not leaking as I thought it may be the multi port seal. I have tried the leak dye and nothing on the return sides and I thought there was a possible leak on the supply side due to dye getting sucked in slowly. But with there being no water loss the last week and an half I’m lost. Any thoughts on next steps?

Need help before laying out bottom rails of new above ground pool, please.

I hear ya on the digging! I did my own for an multiple intex pools but i had my big pool installed and it was definitely worth it. Their little bobcat made light work of the dig 🪏 the whole thing was done & filling with water by the afternoon and mine is even buried in the side of a hill.
About your level discrepancy,
You want the bottom track to be laying on the undisturbed hard ground- not the sand. The paver tops should be flush with the hard ground- aka - sunken.
The sand bottom and cove are there for the liner to rest on inside the pool wall and be more comfortable under foot not for the pool wall & bottom track support. The cove’s purpose is to prevent the liner from making its way under the bottom of the wall.
The sand will become compressed under the weight of the water and can get pushed out under the wall if the wall and supports aren’t on the virgin ground level and instead on the sand.

Have a look at this build
👇
Login to view embedded media I would advise against building up any dips/low spots & instead shaving the rest down to be more closely level (at least within a couple inches)

Floating skimmer baskets when pump is on

Other more qualified members will chime in, when was the last time you cleaned your filter? It sounds like you have almost no suction from the skimmer with poor skimming and the basket floating. Do leaves and debris also float?
Do you have a lot of air coming out of the return jets?
You could replace/inspect the big o ring in your pump cover. I had a dandelion seed on my O-ring last week that was causing some air in the pump.
Filters are clean, I cleaned them at the end of last season and I opened my pool a couple weeks ago.
Not anything significant from return jets.
Good call on the o ring. I’d like to try cleaning a lubing before I replace, it’s not even 2 years old. What lube do I use?

RayPak Outdoor Stack Kit or Pagoda

Just had a Raypak Bronze ASME 266 heater installed to replace my rusted out Raypak. Purchased unit from an individual that did not install it. I hired a local HVAC company that specializes in Hayward equipment. The Raypak came with an Outdoor Stack 009835. The guys that installed it said the stack was missing a top and that rain and leaves would get inside. They called the manager who said it does not need a top. I have searched as much as I can and cannot find anything about if it should have a top. I haven't tried to remove it yet and see if the Pagoda from my old Raypak 266 would fit this new unit. Does anyone have an Outdoor Stack that can tell me if it does or does not have a top? You can see that they placed the heater on top of some of the PVC and fountain valve. :(

IMG_3313.jpeg

FC and CYA - Justifying the increased cost of Liquid Chlorine

Hello and thanks to all of you for this amazing resource!

I am a new pool owner living in a long-term (3-4 years) temporary home after my family's home burned down earlier this year in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA. I am eager to learn and have read through the Pool School materials which are really great! I intend to order a tf-100 or tf-Pro kit to help me take care of our new pool. We always thought of putting in a pool in Altadena, so having one now will give us something to enjoy as a family and give me some experience with what it takes (time and money) to properly care for a pool.

First my current numbers (as measured by my local pool store which is 1 mile away):
FC: 1.31
TC: 1.45
PH: 7.7
TA: 112
CH: 220
CYA: 48
Iron: 0.1
Copper: 0.2
Phosphates: 326

I realize the pool store is not the way to go and I will be ordering the tf-100 or tf-Pro shortly.

Some history on this pool:

The person who lived here before me installed the pool and cared for it himself for 26 years. He said he always used 3" pucks year round and 1lb of weekly powdered shock during the swim season. The only other chemicals he added was some muriatic acid about 3 times a year to keep the PH down. He said he kept 4 pucks in the floater and added 1-2 per week max during the winter and 2-3 per week in the summer on top of the partially dissolved pucks.

He brushed the pool 1-2 times a week and used a Zodiac G3 automatic pool cleaner which he left behind for me. He ran the pump on high for 3 hours in the morning (during which the G3 did its thing) followed by 6 hours on low (not sufficient pressure to move the G3). I have maintained this schedule since moving in about a month ago.

When I asked him rabout CYA increases he said in the 26 years he only ever replaced about 1,000 gallons of water twice. The pool was replastered this past October, and he used LC until January and then switched back to pucks.

So the question is does it really make sense for me to switch to LC since it seems like he had success with this particular pool using pucks without significant need for water exchange. I have been reviewing the forums and it looks like I will need to add approximately 1 gallon of 10% LC a day to my 20,000 gallon pool (at CYA of 50). (see How much liquid chlorine is normal?)

The cheepest chlorene I have found is $0.437/oz ($6.99 for a gallon of 12.5%). Assuming an approximate .8 conversion rate for 10% to 12.5%, this would mean $5.59 of 12.5 LC needs to be added every day, $167/month during the swim season. Does my math seem about right or am I missing something here? If this number is correct it would far exceed the cost to continuing to use pucks.

Thank you for your thoughts and thanks again for creating this community!

Floating skimmer baskets when pump is on

That's high. What's the minimum speed that still satisfies the flow switch on your SWCG?
Minimum is 1750rpm which would be a little over 20gpm (the minimum flow rate required of an IC-40). However, at 1750 my pump basket fills with air, I’m guessing the big rubber ring has a leak somewhere (my pool is less than 2 years old).
Have you investigated the possibility of a suction side air leak? How bad is the problem? Can you post a picture?
It’s bad, about half the basket full of air if suction is too low
More skimmer suction will help.


Put a rock in the skimmer basket. Make sure it's larger than the skimmer suction pipe in the bottom so it can't go into the pipe by accident.
Done.
That would help maximize the effectiveness of your skimmer(s). Do you have a reason to pull water from the main drain?
Other than to pull debris off the bottom of the pool, no, but last summer I didn’t have to mess with any of this, which is my reason for concern.

My filters are clean.

Nasty stain on Pebble Sheen!

Looks like metals staining - iron or copper.

Crush up some vitamin C tablets into a paste and put it in s sock and rub it on the stain. If it lifts it is iron staining. If it gets darker it is copper staining.


Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading For iron staining

When to remove water (from rain fall)

What do others do to drain water out if they don’t have a waste?
They use a submersible pump. You'll need one for the winters if you have a mesh cover. It's good to have even if not, kinda like a shop vac. You won't use it often but if you ever need it, its worth its weight in gold.
My well balanced water wasted 😔
That was the greenest and thickest spot by far at the old place. At my new place up the block, it doesnt seem to care either way.

Relay Electrics

Intelliflo 3 relays? You should have one wire under each terminal screw on the relays. If you’re running 240, that’s 4 hot wires - 2 for each device. Each relay has 4 screws - supply L1, device L1, Supply L2, Device L2. Why are you putting 3 wires under 1 terminal screw? Post up what you’ve got in a picture if you wish….something doesn’t sound right.

EDITED: Just caught your photo. My bad. Pigtails as Allen instructed if you’re going to wire in that manner. How large of a circuit are you feeding the pump with?

SLAM Complete: Still Milky

I got concerned that perhaps my chemicals were old or that I just couldn't read them, so I took my water into the pool store to get analysis. Overall, I'm really pleased with how close they were - especially for a color-blind guy. pH and FC were both actually a little higher than I expected, which would make sense. TA, CYA, and Salt were all within single digits of my readings. My CH was reading zero and they got 94 so my chemicals are probably shot, but its a vinyl lined pool, so who cares about CH anyway.

I'm posting the pool store results. Yeah, I know my TA is a little lower than it should be and my FC is elevated because its coming down from a SLAM... but other than that... can you see ANYTHING that would make the water cloudy? Its funny since the one thing I got FIVE STARS on was Clarity. When I first looked at the difference between Free and Total Chlorine I went 'Ah... there it is. Still have Algae' except, that it is .7 which means that it would pass the OCLT test.

I'm just stumped other than the, 'Just keep circulating until its cleared up' but it has NEVER taken this long.

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Pentair Pool Filter Installation license to install


Professional Installation – Defined as product installation by a qualified professional who charges a fee for their services, and possesses a business license, and/or contractor's license. Common examples of a “qualified professional” include: Swimming Pool, Home Repair or Landscape Professional; Plumber or Electrician; General Contractor; Heating and Air Conditioning Specialist.

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NEED POOL CLEAR QUICK

First question is to ask your insurance company what "fixed" means?
Does the pool hold water? Or does it have a leak and that is why the water level is where it is at?
Does the pool have a vacuum?
Does the equipment work?

Those stains are not likely going to be removed with a power wash. Your plaster is old and stained and there’s little to do about it with a power washer. You are better off SLAM’ing the pool, getting the water cleaned and balanced and then investigating possible stain removal techniques.

Draining a pool, while a favorite of the pool service/pool store industry, is rarely ever necessary.

If the equipment works,
Get a good kit. Link-->Test Kits Compared
Get as much organic material out of the pool that you can mechanically. (i.e. long handled rake)
Get your SLAM on...Link-->SLAM Process

Ascorbic acid treatment

If you can’t replace the metal laden water with fresh water, then you have to be really careful to keep the pH and TA low. You need to keep the TA closer to 50-60ppm and the pH below 7.4 as well as add the maintenance doses of sequestering agent. Unfortunately that means you’ll be using more acid than normal to keep the pH/TA in check and the money will start to rack up with all the sequestering agent you’ll use. So only you can determine if the extra cost is worth it with respects to what it would cost to get fresh water into the pool.

Diverting rain water into the pool can help as long as the collection process is clean (roof water tends to be pretty dirty). Any time you lower the pool water level an inch or two and let rain fill it back up will only help to minimize metal contamination.

NEED POOL CLEAR QUICK

It may not be the cheapest but I’d call an environmental hydro vac/pressure wash company (septic pump folks) and get them to drain it and pressure wash it like they do septic systems. Refill it with fresh water, then SLAM and run pump. Your filter media more than likely needs replaced and no telling what may come out of the pipes when you turn the pump on. If filter media is a sand filter, I’d backwash throughly first before turning to “filter” and then vacuum any junk to waste. If it’s a cartridge type filter, I’d probably remove and chunk the filter media in the trash and replace it with new and vacuum/remove/clean as often as necessary until DP quits rising. Just my $.02 but others may have better ideas.

DIY to save some money would be in lieu of enviro vac company would be to drain with a portable sump pump, sprayer with bleach on floors and walls and pressure wash yourself. Rubber boots, cheap rain suit, and go to town lol

Filter