new plaster acid start up

I have been reading up on pool care on this site for weeks now, and this is the first time I run into something like this elsewhere:
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Is this a thing? is the start up of new plaster really this complicated? no equipment can run for a month, no swimming for even longer. heavy doses with acid to extremely low pH (down to zero alkalinity), etc? This seems way over my head now, wondering if I have to hire a professional to start up the pool like this? Do we have info on this process on this site?

New at this- Semi-Cloudy water, Intellichlor system

If your cya is incredibly high (as the pool store claims) & you need to replace water it would be a waste to add the salt or calcium now as you will just dilute it and need to add more after refilling. Those two things are pretty far down on the list of priorities and will do nothing for the algae problem.
Proper amounts of chlorine are the solution. Until you can accurately test & dose & do the slam just stick with the 5ppm per day. Nothing else.

New installation - Low pressure from spa jets & heater issue

That label is not what I was looking for.

I think this CL 175-250 says your meter is limited to 250 CFM while the heater alone needs 400.

I have a 900 CFM meter in my house for my 400K heater + 250K furnace + gas stove + gas water heaters.

After the new gas meter is installed the dynamic gas pressure should be checked as described in the Installation Manual. The gas valve may have been adjusted to operate the heater with the low gas pressure and will need to be readjusted once the heater is getting more gas flow.

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New meter installed today but the MasterTemp400 is still making a high pitch noise when the flame turns on. I'll try to take a video and post is here so someone can tell me if this noise is normal. Here's a photo of the new gas meter installed.

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The Story of 3 Fried Phones

I've had the same issue with the S20 - admittedly it's old now, but one accidental dunk in the shorts pocket, not 15 seconds or 3 feet, and it was toast. Took a week in a bag of Silica Gel before it would even turn on again, then another couple days before it would let me charge it. In the meantime I had to buy a new phone because our entire life is controlled or monitored via that device ;)

I must admit, I've gotten a little tired of the Samsung bloat - I had a couple of older Pixels (6a and 5) for work purposes and I have liked the...simplicity, so I've plunked for a Pixel 9 this time around. I finally realized I just don't need that much horsepower in my pocket to browse TFP in the restaurant, and unlocked at 1/3 the price of the current flagships, it seemed financially smart too., ,

Samsung is great, but I just don't understand why they have to have their own version of every single app, and come on, give it up on Bixby already.

The IP8 standard only states that the device will suffer no permanent harmful effects from being submerged. Temporary impacts, until it dries out, are permitted.

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Another DE Filter Thread... Startup Clogging

Update - Over the weekend I went back through the system checking for issues. A new water sample was brought to the pool shop down the road to find that my levels were starting to even out nicely. At this point I had not ran my pool robot in a few days, and noticed that the water slowly began to clear at the shallow end. The next morning I was able to see the bottom and noticed quite a bit of (ok more like alot) of white media sitting at the bottom of my deep end. I do not have a low end main drain. I figured that this media was DE from the filter, given the fine cloud that developed after agitating.

Still dealing with pressure filter pressure issues, I bumped the filter only to notice the white cloud of DE being blown back into the pool after bumping. This is after visually inspecting the filter fingers for tears, rips, deterioration, etc. and finding nothing. I ordered a new flex tube assembly that should be coming this week.

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First time trying to SLAM, help needed

I bought the TFP salt pro kit to start testing my water more accurately this season. Pool was recently opened, and the deep end has a green tint to it - can see clearly to the bottom. 18k gal inground pool.

First test, CYA = 0. I could see the metal circle at the bottom perfectly even when the cylinder was completely full. CC = 1.5, FC = 1.5. So, I followed the SLAM checklist and used the pool math app. I added the required stabilizer in a large sock, hung it in front of a return yesterday morning, and by late night it was fully dissolved from the sock. Ran the pump overnight. This morning I tested again, and CC = 0.5, but FC went to 0. Tested CYA too just to see, and while definitely cloudier this time, I could still make out the metal circle even when full - but it was certainly getting less visible.

So, pool math app told me SLAM FC = 12, so to add 1.7 gallons of 12.5% liquid shock. Did that, and tested again at 12:30. FC still 0. Added another 1.7 gallons of liquid shock, tested again at 1:30. FC still 0.

What am I doing wrong?

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Should I SLAM??

I took my cover off on May 11. Wasn't terrible, but I haven't had the time to commit to doing it right. So....I've been running the filter, feeding bleach, brushing and vacuuming to waste maybe 3 or 4 times over the week. Hopefully, last night I got the last of the dead algae that has been sneaking through the filter and pooling. I finally did a full test on the the water yesterday and found my CYA to be non-existent. I put in 4 lbs. yesterday, but it's calling for 8(that's all I had). So, I can't SLAM until that goes up. My real question is do I need to? I tested around 9 am and my FC was 4. When I added the drops to test for CC, the color change was barely noticeable. 1 drop returned it to clear. Around dusk I added a gallon of bleach and tested, it took it up to 6.5. Tested this morning and it was 6. So, I passed OCLT with no stabilizer. Is that valid?

Air in return with rooftop solar

It has wall returns, same thing. Still get air out in a burst every time actuator cycles. I've done every problem isolation conceivable, and it comes down to the solar system. It doesn't matter where else water comes in or goes out, what other valves are open/closed. If it goes through solar, there are bubbles.

You are correct about the pressure being a problem. When the actuator is rotating to a new set the pressure drops to close to 0. Then a burst of bubbles. Then it goes back up to about 2-3psi.

But, what is causing the pressure to be so low when solar is active?

The pump is running at 2500 psi. Default speed is 2000. These have been optimized based on calculations of energy efficiency and water flow. I.e. lowest $/gpm, rotate all heads at least once per day, and circulate all water at least once a day, and sufficient to operate the heads. Except when solar is active.

I could crank it up, but maybe that's a patch, not a solution.

Pump Losing Pressure - Need Additional Ideas

Thank you @Rancho Cost-a-Lotta and @BillyMac96, I ran a temp hard line from the pool to the pump, and what do you know, the pump primed again! I've got water moving again - thank you again for your help! Although the pump does prime, it does not prime perfectly as there is still some air in the basket (pump basket gets 3/4 full with water), and it slowly drops to 1/2 full with water after running for half a day. My hypothesis is that I think I have a weak seal at the drain plug, as I inadvertently bought a non-oem replacement. I have the official Hayward plug arriving today which I will replace. Although I have seen no water dripping from this plug, I guess it can still pull in some air from it.

My next challenge will be to determine where the failure is on the piping from the skimmer to the pump. My first hypothesis at this whole problem was a clogged skimmer line (as I get tons of debris in the pool), but I had two different techs blow the line with compressed air and CO2, and no blockage was found. I guess it may be in the PVC joints/fittings above ground where it attaches to the pump (as I already replaced and lubed the gasket there?
My skimmer basket has two holes, and we think one runs to the floor drain in the pool, but the tech could not blow air through through that line and out the floor drain - so maybe this one could be clogged and causing this whole issue? He also mentioned that this line from floor drain to skimmer basket is sometimes capped (don't know if that is true), which is why I did not pursue cleaning this route initially. Don't know if I should try to snake this myself, or camera it.

Temp solution:
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DIY Hybrid Pool Renovation

After a couple busy weekends, I finally had a few hours to start digging into this project.

I knew what I was getting into when I decided to tackle this myself, but now that I've started the reality of just how much work it's going to be is starting to set in.

The first thing I did was worked my way around the walls and drilled holes in "all" the osmotic blisters to relieve the pressure and mark them. Doing this made me realize just how many of them there are. Some panels are worse than others, but they all have at least a dozen. I chipped out a few of the blisters while I was at it as well to get a better idea of how deep into the fiberglass they go. I have a lot of grinding to do...

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I also got out my diamond grinder and spent some time on a section to see how much work it's going to be to grind off all the old paint. This is going to be a real process. I may hire a professional to come out and sand blast or something for the sake of expediency.

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I also tried pressure washing to see if made much of a difference. It actually worked better than I was anticipating and took off the first couple layers of old paint and identified a few areas where I will need to do some minor surface repair in the gunite.

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I've cleared my whole upcoming holiday weekend to focus on the pool, so hopefully I'll make some good progress in the coming days.
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Successful SLAM, 2.5 ppm FC loss over 4 hours during day and CYA at 40ppm

at cya of 40....so here's the way me and a neighbor take this on (lets say MY pool indicates 96 oz for slam level) I add that , 3 days later repeat and on he is just dumping and running under your direction ....kinda like the pool service in the neighborhood
This is good advice/approach…I may be able to convince a neighbor to do this… it’s not too much chlorine back to back? SLAM’d this past weekend…FC should come down this week and we’ll maintain it at the recommended level then basically back up to SLAM 7 or so days later?

Some renovations before liner replacement

Hey folks! My new skimmers have worked very well since I completed this project in 2023. I’m thinking about switching from liquid chlorine to a SWG and wanted to ask a few questions.

When I did this project I was very careful to bond all new rebar and metal (including the niche and j-box) together with the existing rebar. That said, I don’t really know if any of the existing rebar was actually bonded when the pool was installed around 1980. The builders took a lot of shortcuts. There is a bonding cable going towards the pool from the pad, but I get about 300 ohms from the ladder and railing sockets to the pad. I don’t think the aluminum coping is bonded at all: I didn’t see any provision for connecting wire when I had the extrusions exposed.

I imagine there are a lot of pools out there with poor or incomplete bonding. It’s not feasible for me to jackhammer my entire deck and repour it and replace the coping. Should I avoid adding a SWG because it requires increasing the conductivity of the water? Would there be any benefit to burying an eight gauge wire just outside the deck and tying it in to the existing bond?

Some system details:
30,000 gallons
Vinyl liner over concrete walls
No heater
1HP pump and Hayward sand filter
Plastic Hayward niche with water bond
Upper Midwest

Thanks!

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Identify this filter?

Helping someone out after a death in the family, just trying to get a grasp of what they have so I can point them to appropriate resources for help. This thing is an antique, but what is it? And is the housing fiberglass or actual metal? She did say it has what appears to be surface rust so guessing metal, unless it’s just rust staining from the fittings/clamp/etc.

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Filter