Hi. New on TFP. Any help appreciated.
32K gal gunite pool, DE filter, Hayward Tristar VS 950 omni pump
Hi. Recently replaced Hayward 1 HP superpump with omni 950 VSP. IT continuously trips 20 amp siemans breaker (wired for 230 V, requires 15 amp breaker). Happens at slow and high rpms, (1725 and 3450 rpm). Filter Operating at 25-30psi at high rpm, 7-10psi at 1725 (with minimal water output). Have backwashed multiple times. Will replace breaker, but never had a problem with single speed super pump(3450 rpm). Hard to believe this is problem. understand VSP pumps are sensitive to trip breakers, but happens even with priming. Why is high speed operating at such high psi -30? Mechanical filter problem?
Pump problem? (No leaks in basket). Almost no water movement at lower rpms after several hrs? Not skimming well at 1725 rpm. Any help appreciated. thanks, Steve.

I just want to come on here and thank everyone. A few weeks ago I came home from vacation to a pump not running and neon green water. I quickly figured out the pump issue but battled the green water. I went multiple times to the pool store and of course, didn’t really get much help and what help I did get was costly. Through some research online I came across TFP. I am so thankful I did. After about a week of SLAMMING my pool, I can say I am almost done. Still have a couple spots but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have learned a lot from reading a few threads and am definitely switching to liquid chlorine from now on. Thanks again

Not sure the best location for this but related to balancing the pool water. As mentioned previously SWCG installed ( w/new liner) recently so I’m in the process of getting it dialed in. Had the pool perfect until we went on vacation. Came back a week later to clear water but juuuuust tad of algae noticable when I went to brush up the bottom. Figured it was my fault for maybe not elevating the chlorine….or whatever. Had the pool for years and it happens when you’re away. …but then I noticed the pool light was almost full of brownish water and it had not been prior to vacation. Or I didn’t notice it. It‘s the original bulb not an LED unit. Surmising that when they replaced the liner they cracked the light and water seeped in and turned green. Pool place has accepted responsibility and agreed to replace it. I’ve told them we’d just do it at the end of the season but got to thinking. If water seeped in and stagnated, algae probably migrated into the pool and MAY be the cause of my pool beginning to turn and unless I replace it now, I’ll be chasing algae for the next two months. Thoughts?

My kids leave toys in the pool quite often which we have no issue with. We swim nearly every day. However, I need my pump to run in order to circulate the water for my heat pump. Inevitably, a toy gets caught in the basket or a pool float hinders the flow of water enough that the pump starts to lose its prime family sucking air.

I need something that will allow water to flow into the basket but not allow anything to come into the basket to stop its ability to suck. I found something on Amazon but it was three and a half weeks out on delivery. The Dolphin pool vac does a great job with leaves, dirt, sand, etc.


Question 2. I'd really like my pool pump to suck water from the bottom of my pool. I kind of thought of a way to do it using the pool hoses of an old pool pump powered randomized pool vacuum I used to use. The pump obviously has its own filter basket but we would to be bypassing the skimmer in the basket. Pump is 3/4 horse and flows around 52 gallons per minute. Not sure a simple pool hose in the bottom of the pool attached to the skimmer would be large enough to prevent taxing the pump.

Draw cool water up, send it through the heat pump, and pipe it back in.

I have trolled the site for a year & a half now, & gleaned everything I could about the best install for this pool. We leveled the ground to the lowest spot, added about 1/2" of sand to smooth out, 18x18x2" cement pavers partially in ground (even with the coming foam boards) all level to each other within 1/2" or less, Intex tarp, 1" foam boards double taped with Gorilla tape, another tarp, then pool. It all looked good & we began filling. When the pool was about 4" from full I noticed that the corners do not sit on the ground, they are all lifted off the ground. I can slide my entire hand under them, & one corner I can slide my hand back even further. Is this normal? We have had 3 Intex pools, but all round, so this was never a question.
We noticed a leak in the corner seams (but that's another thread) so we stopped filling. Pool is coming down tomorrow, but would love an answer for the next fill.
Thank you!

When I woke up this morning I heard something from the backyard. I went out and found my spa empty. Why would it randomly empty? We did have a power outage on Sunday so I needed to reconnect it to wifi, which I did while the spa was refilling. I wouldn't think that would make the spa empty though. It did prudish some kind of power surge though. Quite a few people in our neighborhood had to reset thru a/c units because of it. Maybe it did something to the pool equipment that we need to rest? We also got our first monsoon rain of the season last night which filled our pool about an inch, not that I think that was the reason either.

ETA : I turned off the spa after it was filled and it emptied again. Do we just need to keep the spa on?

Hello. So, I see some scaling on the outer part of the cell plates. I'm gonna have my husband open it up this weekend to look inside.
Also, I felt a rough patch, about 12 inch area, on the wall of my fiberglass, next to the skimmer. I went around the perimeter, as far down as my arm would reach, and only felt it on that one spot. Could that also be scaling?
My #s:
FC -5
PH- 7.8
TA- 60
CH- 160
CYA- 30? ( not raising until I get more reagent, Pool store last month said 37, this month 46, my taylor test?? Black dot never disappeared, need to be sure)
SALT 2800 (SWG reads 3100)
TEMP -92

What am I doing wrong? I previously had CH at 120. Manufacturer said not go above that cuz I would see scaling with PH at 7.8. But did I listen?? No. I raised it cuz I didn't like the water having such negative CSI. And I like the TA at 60 cuz it keeps my PH at 7.8.

But now, I'm wondering if the man from the manufacturer was right. Is having my PH consistently at 7.8 and not adding acid ok? I haven't added acid in about 2 or 3 weeks ,as opposed to twice a week before when my TA was 70-90.

I even think I would like to add more calcium eventually, as temps start to drop, I'm gonna need to balance the CSI somehow.

I just thought I wouldn't get scaling cuz my CSI has always been fairly close to that -0.3 range, sometimes a little higher and sometimes a little lower.

I'm confused and mostly scared of any damage to the fiberglass. Pool is only 3 months old. Any help is appreciated.

To summarize:
1. Why is there scale in cell if I've always had negative CSI? (See pic)
2. Could the rough patch on wall also be scale?
3. Is it ok to keep 7.8 PH and not lower if that's where it just stays?
4. If I raise CYA, do I need to raise TA to account for carbonate alkalinity? (I don't know if I really understand this part. Forgive me, I'm new.)

Thank you!

We have a rule at our HOA pool that drinks must be 4 feet from the edge of the pool. I'm not sure when this rule was established, but I am questioning it. It is an older crowd here.... no rowdy parties. Average age..... probably over 60. Is it really going to be a problem if someone is in the shallow end of the pool or sitting on the pool ledge having a beer if a little beer spills into the pool? It's unlikely to even happen, but let's say it was a really bad day and we had a younger crowd at the pool one evening and there were a few spills amounting to 1/2 can of beer (or other alcohol) in the pool. Is this going to have any impact on the water chemistry or be harmful to swimmers in any way? I'd like to see us loosen up the rules a bit and let people enjoy themselves.... as long as people are responsible.

...and I seem to have ordered a MUCH large viewing tube, which I now know is from the TF-100 kit. What is the point of this much larger tube, seems like it would use way more re-agent. Filling the small tube up to the 50 mark and transferring to the large tube barely fills to the 100 mark.

Can I even use this large TF-100 tube with my TF-Pro kit, the CYA mixing bottle that you fill to 7.5mL line with pool water and then to the 15mL line with R-0013 or does this large TF-100 tube pair with a larger mixing bottle in the TF-100 kit?

I'm assuming that I'm going to have to order and pay for shipping another CYA tube.

It pays to plan ahead (I didn't) and it pays to search old threads (I did). My Power Flo pump pot o-ring stretched and I didn't plan ahead and order extra - I will now. BUT I searched old threads and thank you @Bama Rambler . This worked and I ordered two more. Cut at an angle for best adhering

So…. I have pool that is about to be completed for a customer. It’s pretty complex. 2 Laminars, 2 Waterbowls, 2 SWG’s, UV filter and an Omni PL. The 2nd SWG is for the spa. My only concern is that the customer is happy with their setup and that it is fully automated. That being said, is there any expansion I can add to the Omni to support a 2nd SWG. Or is there something like an Omni hub I can hook up a separate Aquarite to have the system fully “automated “. The designer said just to hook the other salt cell up to a separate Aquarite but I don’t think the customer will be happy with having spent all this money just to have a stand alone Aquarite.

Older lady here trying hard to keep a home and pool up is not what I expected to have to be doing at this age but here I am. I’ve been having trouble quite some time I replaced the pump. It seems to be working fine however, I just can’t get it to prime and work strong. I’m tired of trying to save money and do things myself. I need somebody to come look at it. My ex even felt sorry for me so he bought me a Groupon for trouble. Free pools two month service. I’m hoping to get some response from somebody please help.

Excited to learn more about maintaining our pool and learning tricks and tips from the vets!

Thanks for having us on your forum.

Hi everyone,

We just had a 28’ above ground pool out in today. I live about 30 miles east of Cincinnati Ohio with my wife and our 5 year old son. The pool is going in just in time for his birthday party so any quick start tips will be well appreciated.

I have a vinyl above ground pool with 8500 gallons of water. I recently converted to a salt water generator and have been battling with the water chemistry.

I have been using a ColorQ test kit to get the chemistry in line and a digital saline meter but am now really confused! After reading the recommendations on test kits, I purchased a new TF-Pro Salt kit and received it today. I went through testing and do not understand. My saline meter tells me I have a salt content of 4100 ppm. However, the TF-Pro salt test shows me I have 2800 ppm, even after running the test 3 times to make sure! I also used some new test strips for salt, and they show content around 4000 ppm. I was getting ready to drain some more water to get the count to my target of 3500 ppm, but now I do not know if I should! That is problem 1!

I also have conflicting results in my ALK and CH readings. ALK shows a reading of 80 with the TF-Pro and 118 with the ColorQ. My CH shows a reading of 187 with the ColorQ and 400 with the TF-Pro. I know CH is not a really big deal with a vinyl pool, but there is quite a difference between test kits. ALK is in range with the TF-Pro, but high with the ColorQ. Just for background, The ColorQ test kit has brand new reagents and new batteries in the device.

To add to my confusion, my CYA readings have been above 100 all along. I have drained 60% of my pool and refilled with fresh water and have not been able to get it lower. On top of that, I have also applied 4 treatments of Bio-Active Cyanuric Acid Reducer. Each treatment is supposed to be for 25000-gallon pools! My tap water shows a CYA value of 7 with the ColorQ test kit. I realize I need to get CYA under control to get the chlorine in line, but I do not know what to do next! My pool water is crystal clear.

We are in an exceptional drought in southern Texas and draining the water is a last resort!! What's next?

I am currently using liquid chlorine for my 18,000 galon pool, and I am considering switching to SWG. The current lowest price on liquid chlorine that I can find in Southern California is $5.44 per gallon from Walmart. I am trying to understand in how many years I will break even if I switch to SWG. Is the deal on CircuPool UL40 (am I correct it is going to sufficient for my pool size) from Discountsaltpool still currently the best in the market ($999)?

I have a fiberglass pool and what Leisure Pools want and what my Raypak heater wanter are different so which one do you follow. I'm more inclined to be what the heater wants. What do you guys think?

what n the range of what raypak wants vs the pool .

Ok, so I have been as diligent as possible in testing and balancing my water since my pool was finished a couple of months ago. I test every morning and have kept everything in line as much as possible. In mid-june I did a very small slam due to not passing an OCLT, once I was passing though I let things settle down and attempted to maintain the FC at the highest level of the recommended range for the CYA.

Fast forward and we did a lot of traveling in the last 2 weeks, during which time our auto-cover was on nearly 100% of the time. Everything seemed more or less in line, except for the last 6 days the cover was on 100% of the time (except when the PB came by to add the mastic to the pool finally, which resulted in a decent amount of sand making it into the pool/spa). Before leaving I spiked my SWG up to a higher level than normal thinking it would be a little extra insurance. When I returned home yesterday the first thing I did was tested the water and found that we had 0 FC! I quickly ran down to Walmart last night at 10PM and bought 10 gallons of liquid chlorine and spiked the FC up to SLAM level and have been brushing and testing and adding more chlorine this morning.

So, my questions are these:

1. How did this happen, and how could I have avoided this situation? I'm confused by the fact that chorine wasn't being eaten before I left at a very fast rate, then the pool was covered allowing little-to-no UV/light into the pool to burn off FC or to promote algae growth. I'd love to better understand what may have gone wrong here and how I could have planned better for this trip.
2. I've had a really tough time determining my CYA, I'm wondering if it's possible that by misreading the CYA test that I possibly wasn't running my FC as hot as I thought I was?

Anyhow, it seems I'm in for a SLAM so I'll update this thread as I go along so that those wiser than myself can help steer me right. Here's the Pool Math overview from this morning for those that don't want to dig through my logs.

==========================================
El Berro
------------------------------------------
Build Type: Plaster
Volume: 22000 gallons
------------------------------------------
Latest Test Result Summary:
FC: 18.0 (3 hours ago)
CC: 0.0 (3 hours ago)
pH: 7.8 (13 hours ago)
TA: 90 (16 days ago)
CH: 275 (16 days ago)
CYA: 60 (7 days ago)
SALT: 3200 (16 days ago)
TEMPERATURE: 85° (3 hours ago)
CSI: 0.02 (3 hours ago)
==========================================

My pool, ~10K gallons, and now my 5th summer. This my second IC40, the 1st lasted 3 years. this one only 1 year.
Chemistry is ok except for high salt (5200 ppm). pH 7.4 Alk: 110, CYA: 75, Pho: 90, FC: .9 (added liq NaOCl), Ca: 500.

The IC40 had no lights when pool temp rose above 50deg this winter. Will high salt potentially 'break' the Salt Generator?

I just swapped out my old 120v incandescent white light and enclosure with this LED light at 12v that fits right over the existing niche. But it is forming these white flaky things all over, what the heck is that? I did a different LED light in the attached spa (same water) and it’s doing fine! Any ideas? Poor metal in the light housing? There’s no power to it (switch is off) if that matters.

A little over 3 years ago my intire outside electrical panal blew up, taking my pump with it. I had a complete replacement and rebuild of my panel. After that I had the new Pentair pump installed. About 2 months ago I started noticing that my pump was occasionally not turning on as per schedule. The 220 breaker for the pump would be tripped. This is now happening about 2 time per week. I called the electrician who did the electric panel rebuild and he spent about an hour checking every thing from the panel up to the pump,. He said the breaker was fine and all power readings were up to spec.
I am about to call the pool company who sold and installed the pump. However I was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem so that I can have an idea of what to expect and what questions to ask. The pump is about 2 months put of warranty, so I expect all charges will be my responsibility.
Any assistance wiil be greatly appreciated,
Thanks in advance for your help.
DerrikM

Hello everyone!
I take care of an above ground pool at my parents house. It’s about 10,000 gallons and we’re in our 4th year.
We’ve always had trouble with algae. I’ve been slowly learning about chemicals and levels and we were doing well this year! But I got distracted and let the chlorine drop to 0.
We’ve now got a pea green pool, very sad. I quadruple shocked it and was sad to see little change today. The ph had lowered so I added some ph raiser and phosphate killer.

Now I found this website and see I need better chemical tester and liquid bleach.

What I’d love to know is if I should order anything else from the th store when I order the test kit? Also, as my chlorine is currently very high, where do I start with the SLAM method? I’m going to do some learning in the pool school, but was hoping for some answers to these questions so I can get my order placed.
Thank you so much, really hoping for success!

Our 20-yr old concrete deck had to be cut open recently to replace the underground pressure side pipes. The pool is 16*36 with the steps, so the entire length of the work is probably 55-65 feet long in all. We've hired a contractor to come pour new cement soon. We're located in Long Island, NY.

We were originally interested in getting RenuKrete, but we just felt that that's a bit out of our budget. I've heard about epoxy coating but the downside is that it doesn't last and all the imperfections and cracks will show.

I'm not sure what other options are out there that are a bit more affordable. If epoxy is the way to go then it is what it is. I need some suggestions because the deck will look so ugly if we don't do anything about it.

Thank you.

Hi everyone. So glad I found this website. Wonderful information. I bought the TF testkit and love the ease of seeing the color changes. So much easier to use. I would love some information on using Borates. Read the article on TFP website, but still not sure I understand.

Hi, we just put up a 27' round, have pH, Alk and hardness within spec, salt is at 3220. We have a Hayward Salt & Swim ABG, brand new with the pool. Initialize it and it locks on Cell Life Low. Vendor sends another cell and get the same result. We have tried both of the cells in both directions, changed horizontal mount to vertical and cleaned one of the cells in muriatic acid - always the same result Cell Life Low. Pool Factory is going to replace the S&S ABG unit, just wondering if anyone else had a similar problem and knows a simple fix.

Thanks!

So I was losing water about and I knew that I needed to have the plumbing redone which I hired some guy to do so. But yet I still have a leak and he's clueless. Here's some information

- Fiberglass Pool
- Poolrite Skimmer box
- Hayward LED Light
- I pulled the light out and plugged the hole where the wire comes out of the niche with a rubber plug, thermaseal, and pool epoxy
- I have determined that the skimmer drain leaks or the pipe connecting to the drain leaks
- Once the drain is plugged the skimmer holds water - no plug water leaks!

-But with the drain plugged I filled the pool mid way to the skimmer entry point. And over night the water is about 1-2 inches below the bottom of the skimmer faceplates
-Returns are plugged as well.
-Water will maintain it's level about 1-2 inches below the skimmer faceplate.

I'm perplexed and lost as to why this thing is leaking/water level 1-2 inches below skimmer faceplate - the drain I understand and is probably obvious I think.

Curious to see if anybody has taken litigation against their pool builder for multiple construction defects after the 1 year warranty

Hello all,

My pool lights failed a little while ago. I’ve been trying to fix them. Instead of working lights, I’ve ended up with a pool full of bubbles and a pump that won’t prime when used with the spa. I’m confused. Thought I’d see if anyone here has any ideas.

In troubleshooting the light failure, I found and fixed two problems. There were two gfci circuit breakers on the circuit. Unnecessary and I read that can cause intermittent problems. I also found a loose wire in my EasyTouch enclosure. It wasn’t related to lighting but needed to be fixed anyway. After that, the power tested correctly at the light junction box. I verified neutral and ground there as well.

I hooked up the light to the now working junction box, got the light back in the niche, filled up the spa and tested it. Light! Woohoo! … for a few seconds. Then it flickered and went out. Junction box still tested correct. Light did not have water in it when I pulled it back out. After reading more about the lights - Pentair IntelliBright 5G LEDs - I concluded there was a good chance the lights had failed. I decided to replace them with a Pentair AmeriLite with an LED bulb. Easy, right?

As I removed the old light, I pulled in a pull string while pulling out the old wire. When the ordered light arrived, I tried to pull the new wire in using the pull string. It broke.

I then spent several hours trying to push the wire through or get a fish tape through. Nope. I filled the conduit with laundry detergent. Very effective. The wire slide right in until it hit the same sticking point and will not budge. I ran a hose to the conduit and hoped to push out any debris. Result: Spa full of bubbles.

Meanwhile, the spa is refilling with water. There appears to be a leak from the pool to the spa just below the tile line. I turned the pump on to remove some of the water from the spa. Nothing. After another hour of troubleshooting, I find that no matter what, there’s no water getting to the pump from spa suction. Pool is fine. And I can route it so pool water goes into the spa. So everything but spa suction seems to be fine. I’d used this method to drain down the spa just a few hours before. I’m completely confused as to how anything I did led to the spa suction failing.

Any suggestions???
I’m contacted my pool guy to try and get on his schedule. I’m leery of continuing to try and fix any of this myself since I just seem to have made things worse. But I’m also just puzzled as to how one thing could have led to the other.

Was away 6 days. Came back and Dolphin wont work at all. Power supply seems to function. Lights work as normal, but the lights on the clearer itself and motor never come on. Acts like it's dead. Any thoughts? Emailed Maytronics and sat on hold for 30 minutes or so.

Hi,

A few weeks ago i had the same error and back washed my filter and heater came back to life. A week later I got the same code so completely cleaned DE filter and now I get the error codes again. I replaced the ignitor and it is definitely glowing so I'm not sure what else to do now. My pool guy who really doesn't work on equipment said I should just change out control board but he admittedly says he has know idea of what's wrong. I have a multimeter but not manometer. Should I attempt to try and figure it out?