We’re having our pool refinished with new tile, coping and gunite. They put in the coping and stone tile around the spa area and when I inspected it all a little closer I discovered chips the size of nickels and dimes in multiple coping tiles. The back side coping tiles have really bad jagged edges as though the blade was dull while cutting those tiles. In addition to broken pieces of the stone tile stuck in place. Plus the coping line inserting to the spa with a cut edge vs angled into the spa. There are a few tiles that don’t line up and are more than 1/8th of inch difference. I’m attaching pictures.

I just need to know if this is typical? I don’t want to be difficult and could understand one or two small chips but there’s over 10 tiles that have chips in them that they tried to fill with grout. See the pictures and please advise.

These small greenish yellow balls sometimes they look like pellets are popping up in my pool consistently. I’ve tried Algicide and shock. My pool water is crystal clear but these small balls keep popping up over night after cleaning it out completely. Any ideas?

In-ground saltwater pool was rocking-and-rolling, clear as a bell, numbers looking good. Then we had a pool party with 40+ folks after which pool looked cloudy, flow light on the chlorinator went red, AND, the pump motor starting intermittent squealing in a way that was very reminiscent of when the bearings went bad in the pump motors on our hot tub. Fearing it would seize up, I ordered a new motor intending to put it in place. While waiting for the motor to arrive, I also opened up the DE cannister and did a super clean on the fins (yuk!), after which, flow light green, pressure < 15 psi, and pool back to crystal clear in < 24 hours . . . AND the pump motor is humming right along with not even a squeak.

Could 40+ bodies in various stages of cleanliness overload the system, i.e., the pump, and now that everything is rocking-and-rolling again, the pump motor is ok? Just trying to discern if I should replace the motor since I have one, or send it back (or try to resell it).

Age? We've lived here six years, and the pool has been here for a long time before that, so no idea how old the motor is.

Thanks!

I was recently asked to look at a pool the forum helped me stabilize years ago.

1. The initial problem of why I was contacted was that there was a suction side air leak whenever the automatic pool vacuum (Barracuda MX-8) was connected to the skimmer. I changed the hoses and still got a leak. Then I tried hooking up 1 hose section at a time (this vacuum uses twist lock hoses). To my surprise, even with just 1 new hose 3 foot hose section fully primed with no air in it connected to the top skimmer, I would still get a large air leak in the pump basket. I would get no air leak when the top skimmer was just functioning as a normal top skimmer basket. Is the additional pressure caused by hooking up the vacuum hose causing the leak to appear?

It was time for a filter cleaning anyway, so I changed the grids and manifold (grids were well worn), changed the standpipe o-ring, changed the large filter o-ring, changed the pump basket o-ring, and tested every joint and plug by pouring running water over it with a hose. I couldn't find the air leak. Now I'm wondering if it's maybe a cracked skimmer pipe that only shows up when a vacuum hose is attached to it and there is additional load placed on the pump system?

I don't know if anyone has experienced anything similar, but any suggestions on where I might be able to trace this leak? I don't like running the pump too long in the air leak state as it will lose prime fairly quickly.

I've done a bucket test, and I don't seem to be losing any water. It just appears to be an air leak.

I resorted to just placing a basket in the top skimmer.

I was in the process of contacting a leak detection company.

2. I went to check the water balance.

The first test I got, the water was clear, but the numbers were way off.

FC 5
CC 0
pH 6.8? (It was below 7)
TA 10!
CH 1875!
CYA 30
Salt 3200
Temp 65
CSI -1.56!

When the forum helped me with this pool years ago, the CH was fairly high, but below 1000. Now it's solidly above 1000.

As far as I know, they were using liquid chlorine to chlorinate the pool. They floated pucks for 2 weeks prior to my arrival when they went on vacation.

From these results, I added about 10 pounds of baking soda with the goal of bringing total alkalinity to 50. For a 22K gallon pool I believe the calculation was for 16 total pounds of baking soda to reach TA 50. I'm glad I didn't do the full amount. I also added about 1/3 gallon of chlorine to try to bring FC to 6.

The second test 2 days later:
FC 7
CC 0
pH 7
TA 75
CH 1750!
CYA 30
Temp 67
CSI -0.18

The problem now is that I've got a cloudy pool. It's blue and I can see to the 3rd step in the shallow end but not the main drain in the deep end. It looks like baking soda hasn't dissolved or I'm getting calcium precipitating out. It appears that I overshot on the TA which makes me wonder if my pool volume calculation was off.

Any way to clear out this cloudiness?

I'm thinking this pool needs to be drained. I've struggled with this decision even years ago. I'm thinking of using an RO filter company. For a 20K gallon pool, they quoted me $1K for the job. I like the fact that most of the water will stay in the pool being that it is the hottest time of the year.

I'm not sure if this is better than just simply draining and refilling it?

3. Questions:

At this point, should I do the leak detection / repair first?

Is it even possible to do a leak detection in a partially clouded pool or should I try to wait and see if I can filter out all the precipitate?

Does anyone have experience with RO pool filtration versus draining/refilling the pool in the middle of July?

Thanks in advance!

This is my first time on a forum so I hope I'm doing this right. If I don't get a response then I'll know I did it wrong. My question is concerning my skimmer. My algae problem is so bad this year that a "normal" vacuuming will not work. I'm having to vacuum to waste. This is the first time I've had to do this. My problem is that water is being sucked out around the vacuum hose where it's connected in the skimmer. The end of my vacuum hose that connects to the skimmer is larger than the skimmer hole so I have to use an adapter to get it to fit. It feels like a good connection but it obviously isn't. Therefore, the water in the skimmer is sucked out which causes a loud sucking sound. My question is will this hurt anything other than having to listen to the noise. I can still vacuum the algae but, of course, the suction isn't 100%. I just want to make sure I won't damage my pump or filter by continuing. Thanks for any input.

One of my 3/4 inch plastic aerators - Pentair 8620150 - broke and instead of getting the exact same cheap plastic version, I was wondering if I should get this brass version. Any thoughts on whether brass could cause issues with my salt water pool? It wouldn't be submerged and and most of the time no water would be in it since they drain out when not in use.


I also wanted to look at options that put more water through, for better cooling. The plastic ones only get like 12gpm for 4 with the filter pressure already at 15psi. I found this fire suppression option. Anybody have experience with that? However, I'm not sure if this will actually spray much at 10-15 psi pressure ... or if it will just gulp the water out without shooting into the air.

And I found this thing with a much bigger diameter hole in the center according to the picture but no specs / data on this.

Any recommendations?

Our pool was opened as usual by our pool company. The water remained cloudy and the pool bottom was never cleaned despite multiple back washes and chemical checks. After a month and a half, we finally opened the DE filter tank and to our surprise found no filter in it. Just water inside the tank. We realized that we had no filtration for all this time and even the DE we added after the backwash ended up in the pool. The pool company had removed our filter and never replace it and didn't tell us about it. We had them come back for a service call to replace a cracked chlorinator, but even then they didn't say anything to us. I am concerned that running a pump almost continuously for 45 days could have caused damage to the pump and the impeller. Is it reasonable to assume that damage has occurred?

Hey all!

So I have a 22k Gallon "bean" shaped pool with a 11" deep Baja shelf and a 17" deep seating ledge across on end of the pool. Its Grey Pebble finish if that matters.

Ive tested the Dolphin E20, and Dolphin Sigma so far.

The E20 did a good job cleaning bottom of floor, but would hardly climb the walls, wouldn't even make it up to Baja shelf, would just stop

The Sigma so far does an amazing job! It drives up and cleans the entire 11" Baja shelf and the seating area which to my surprise I was told these robots "dont do" However the Simga every single run has gotten stuck on my main drains (2) and the filters are a pain to clean.

Ive been in contact with Marina Pools & Margaret which have the best prices but aren't very good at replying. Im stuck between the Active 40 with Caddy $1299, and the Active 60 with Caddy $1599.

Pickup Mode is important to me because I have a bad back and dont like tugging on the cable, but Margaret & Marina claim the Active 40 does not have this, when every other website says it does?

Margaret did recommend the Active 60 as it would do a better job cleaning the shelfs with the Dual Drive, but also told me "not to expect them to clean the shelves much as none do".

My question to the community is which would be a better bargain for my case scenarcio? Does the dual drive and extra motor on the Active 60 make that much of a difference? the bottom looks like my sigma so im concerned it will also get stuck on my drains.

The Active 60 looks taller, will it be able to make it to clean my Baja shelf like the sigma? Or will I have better luck with the Active 40 cleaning my shelf/seating area with its lower profile?

The price difference is $300 which the only major thing I can say for sure sets them apart seems to be the warranty? Please help. Thanks!

Hi.
I have a Pentair 48 FNS plus DE filter and a Pentair Intelliflo pump. After backwashing and refilling my DE I notice the pressure start rising 16- 25 now and the GPM on the pump keeps slowly dropping over the last week.

I would assume I should backwash and refill with less DE. Maybe it's a combination of too much DE and excess dirt on the filters. Chlorine is fine at 5ppm and PH is steady at 7.6-7.8 for a salt water pool.

Just wanted to see if I was off base with next steps. Thanks!

I'm attaching a pic of the part I need to be replaced. It's a wire mesh that's torn. I'm three weeks into adding water to a newly plastered pool. I'm seeing some priming issues. My pool guy took a look and said this may have caused the blockage in the pipes but hasn't given me a final estimate or recommendation.

Any thoughts on what I should check or do next?

I've already cleaned those filters with acid and emptied out the plaster in that mess.

First of all many thanks for all the useful insights in this forum and it has been a great help to me to manage the pool. We have an old pool that in the house we bought and learning how to manage. I am upgrading the pool pump to an energy efficient variable speed and also replacing some of the old diverter valves (broken handles, broken lube, ..). I noticed that inside the 3 port diverter valve there is some plastic hose between the main drain & skimmer -- sort of like prevent using either one exclusively for safety. Wanted to check what this exactly is meant for and if I should use same set-up in my new diverter valve. Please find the pictures where I have high-lighted the part in question. Thanks!

Hello,
approx 8 years ago I had a custom spa/waterfall built (not enough room for a pool) . I left all decisions to the contractor who installed a Pentaire ic40 salt chlorine generator system. To date, I’ve had non stop issues with equipment going bad and spent $$$$ on replacing things. I have a company that maintains the spa weekly but I’m beginning to wonder if bad water chemistry has contributed to all the money I’ve spent replacing things - I'm on 2nd heater, second pump, 3rd set of lights, and now I’m told salt generator cell went bad. The cell was replaced yesterday but there are no lights. I’ve contacted the pool company that I’m seeing no lights. Could I have a bad salt cell AND bad power supply? As a point of reference, I noticed last week that the spa was cloudy. I went out and purchased a test kit and there was high ph and zero chlorine. What a mess. I really have no clue when the salt generator went bad but based on the maintenance log I found, there have been no entries for a year! I’ve always assumed this Pentaire system was too complicated for me to learn but now I think feigning ignorance is my biggest $$ mistake. Thoughts from the group?

I have two schedules set up, spillway during the day and pool during the night. My spillway is not cutting of at night. I know i am missing something but cannot figure out what it is.







Pentair
Automation: EasyTouch 8 with screenlogic 2
Pump: IntelliFlo3 VSF

As subject says I have the Pentair Magicstream Laminar's. I have two of them. Both appear to be hitting the edges of the hole where they shoot through the top cover. I do not appear to see any real adjustment on the side knobs, is there some type of trick to this? And also am I suppose to take them apart and clean anyfilters or anything in them?

Hello all, Sonni here from Hotter than Hades Houston. I’m so glad I found you all, looking forward to learning. Thank you all MUCHO!

First of all, I'm thankful to this community for all of the wealth of information provided here. Unrelated to the reason I'm posting now, but I'm on day 2 of my first SLAM because I got complacent about my chemistry and got myself a nasty algae bloom. This is our first full summer with a pool and kept telling myself "everybody said a saltwater pool was low maintenance, so what am I worried about? Look how crystal clear that water is!" I said that to myself off and on for a few weeks until our water turned green! I'M WIDE AWAKE NOW and this site has been a treasure trove of information over the last week or two. Water's more clear each day and my FC level right now is about 25 and my CC's have been 0 to 0.5 for a few days in a row. which brings me to the reason I'm posting.

I wanted to increase the filtering performance of my sand filter by adding DE so I followed the how-to on this site. My filter runs at around 20-21 PSI immediately after a good backwash and rinse, and it was at 21 psi when I went to add the DE to the skimmer. I added 1/4 cup in a bucket of water and checked after 2 minutes, and my PSI had already increased by 1 pound. I was expecting to have to add 1-2 cups, per the how to. Should I be concerned or relieved that it only took 1/4 cup?

Would it cause problems if a popsicle stick gets stuck inside one of the chambers of a Hayward TCELL940 SWG chlorinator??

ARe any of you familiar with filter balls? A friend of a friend wants to try them and asked what I think but I've never seen them.

We have a Hayward heat/chill that is new, we put our pool in last year and was not informed how to use the chill mode. We have no manual or any help from pool company. Our company that test the chemical do not know how. So help someone. The model is 31204T by Hayward. The display on front is bo or 6o I don’t know what that means.

Moved from here.

It’s rained upon rain . I was constantly draining pool . It has been crazy weather . My numbers changed considerably. Here they are and I have a few questions please .
Fc 2.5 ( I added 35 oz 12.5 bleach ) already
Ta is 50
Cya 20 or Lower I added the whole bottle and still seen dot ( faintly )
Ph my dad says 7.2 I say 7.6
My questions are this
1. Is alkalinity up the same as baking soda ? The bucket says sodium hydrogen carbonate . Pool math says baking soda
2. To raise cya can/should I use left over chlorine tabs that have stabilizer ?
3 will the alkalinity up raise ph ? I want to use alkalinity up because I already paid for it and don’t want to waste money . I moving forward just do what pool math suggests .
4 . Wanna Gus’s my ph

i might have went a bit overboard for a Intex setup but hopefully it was worth it , I built my pool on a 24x20 pad made from 3/4” horse stall mats , I purchased the largest Intex pump and SWG they offer, a Hayward Pro Series 50,000 BTU Variable speed heat pump, Vinylworks sliding ladder with a custom 3D printed frame mount to secure it . We wired the heat pump with a plug as my garage is less then 8’ away , I want to be able to take it down easily. I still need to finish the landscaping and cleanup , but as of today everything is working, pump. Has no issue triggering the heat pump

I need advice! A month ago we noticed a symmetrical concave area around one of the return jets, about the size of a dinner plate, where it's sinking in slightly (1/2" or less). The concrete is not cracked but there is a white line around the perimeter where the dishing starts. Does anyone know what would cause it and how it would be fixed? I called our installer but he's not returned my call yet. This is their busiest time of year and they are very difficult to reach. I am losing sleep over it, worrying it's going to collapse during the night.

I have just discovered a section of tiles that have come loose at our cover vault wall. The tiles are pushing up and need to be repaired.


Apparently our tile warranty was only 1 year, so we either need to pay the original pool builder to come do the repairs, hire any tile person we want, and/or DIY the fix.

Seem like a pretty easy fix. However, we would need to get the safety cover completely retracted and out of the way. The tile is above the waterline, so there is no problem with water while it is repaired and the mastic or adhesive cures.

One fix I thought of was to just shoot some good construction adhesive or caulk under the tiles and press them back down into place and be done??? Or I could buy some latex modified thinset and do the repair.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions???

Thanks!

Help! Our late 70s-early 80s inground concrete pool has a single bottom drain that is apparently sealed off with a plug. Why I don't know but I suspect the previous owner must have had this done in order to stop a leak. Assuming there is a leak somewhere in that suction line how can one find and repair it? Right now the only water my pump and filter get is through the skimmer.

1. Do pool companies or plumbers have endoscopes, i.e., cameras fitted to the end of a snake that they can see the inside of the line. I have access to a circa 2" PVC pipe at the pump end?
2. Are there other ways of finding and locating the leak if one exists?
3. How does one go about repairing the same if there is an issue under the pool?
4. Could one alternatively pull through a 1.5" or 1.75" tube and seal it to the drain (on the premise that even though water flow is reduced it would still be much better than nothing which is my current state?

Thank you for this forum and for any help you our your readers are willing to share

Appreciatively, Michael

My 15.6k gallon pool uses 2-3 ppm FC daily this time of year. We are going to be away for several weeks so for the first time in my 3 seasons of pool ownership, I am going to have to bite the bullet and use tablets. We do have an in-line feeder for 3" tablets, but I've just never used it so I have some questions. Also, I have someone who can come by 1-2x a week to check things, but not more often than that, so sticking with straight LC isn't an option.

I am most concerned about run-away CYA levels while being gone for 4 weeks. My CYA is 50 now, but on the advice of this forum, I have raised it as high as 70 to help with the especially hot Texas summers and it has worked. So I feel like I have at least 20 ppm CYA headroom. But I also don't know how many tablets I will use per day or week when I'm gone. (I hope to experiment this week to find out, but time is short before departure.)

Looking at the "Effects of Adding" in the Pool Math app, it says 8 oz of trichlor (I am guessing this is the weight of one 3" tablet) will raise FC by 3.1 and CYA by 2.1 (yikes!). If I go through one tablet a day (is that crazy?---I don't know---I run my pump about 5 hours a day at 1400 rpm) to get my 3.1 ppm FC, then I'll raise CYA by about 2.1 x 28 = 58.8 in 28 days! Am I interpreting this correctly?

If so, I obviously need an alternate plan. I thought about alternating trichlor tabs with cal hypo tabs (once the feeder is completely empty of course) to try to balance chlorination needs with runaway CYA, but cal hypo tabs are actually hard to find (especially in time before I leave).

Any advice, suggestions, or corrections to the above are welcome! Thanks!

PS Needless to say, this only makes me want a SWG even more!!!

About 3 weeks ago, I was a bit lax with my pool and came home to a green pool. It wasn't to terrible, so I just got it cleaned up and never SLAMMED. Pool looks good/clear. BUT, I keep getting persistent spots of algae in my pool. Especially the south side(shaded). I started a slam on Friday night. Saturday morning, I had lost 1.5 ppm of FC. Sunday Morning 1 ppm. This morning, maybe .5(if any). So, I am declaring victory on the OCLT. BUT, I still see some green spots on the bottom of my pool....not dead. See Picture(The pic is the bottom of the deep end...8 feet.) Now.....here is the caveat. Some idiot diy'er measured and replaced his own liner(that idiot would be me because I inverted a measuring on the form.) Therefore, I have wrinkles in my liner(This was done about 10 years ago.) I've never had problems like this before. I have been swimming around with a hand brush to clean the wrinkles. I am going to brush and hand clean the wrinkles now, then bump to mustard algae level. I read the article about mustard algae and cleaning everything thoroughly. BUT, how do you clean the solar cover? Does all of this sound like I'm doing the right thing?

TIA

Hey guys! First time using a FAS-DPD kit and I am just wanting to make sure im doing this correctly- I did the powder amd moved on to the titrate, the instructions say the solution will turn clear, however this is as clear as I was able to get my solution (picture attached). Is this as clear as it will go? It is still a bit tinted and not as clear as the starting water. At this point I stopped adding drops and moved on to the CC test. Following that, I did a second test to see if I stopped too early and my FC was actually higher but adding more titrate drops actually turned my test water more pink. I rinsed my tube and got new water between tests. Is this the color the solution should be when it’s “clear”? has anyone else had this happen?

Above ground 24ft pool. Pentair sand filter. I recently replaced the pump to filter hose and the pump lid has a slow leak when turned off. I put the old hose back on (replaced bc starting to show wear…see pic) and it doesn’t leak? Also, why does the return jet “gurgle” when turned on/off? Is that normal?

Is there a way to adjust the recommended or ideal range for CYA?

In arizona with a SWG I want to run 70 CYA and app doesn't like that

I tried to remove my pool return (eyeball) to build a PVC aerator for it. My eyeball returns don't screw in, and it seems the backside(male) is flared outward. So as I was removing it from the wall, the plaster started to break loose around the pipe. I stopped before I did any more damage and tapped the return cover back in place. image below.

Another option is that I have 3 bubblers on my ledge. The bubblers are just 1/2" PVC cut flush with the plaster. So I'd have to find something that fits inside tight enough that it doesn't shoot itself out.

For a third option, I have 3 brass deck jets that are flush-mounted. My pool builder recommended I replace my middle deck jet with this WMF Series - Crown Jet - Crystal. These run about $225 locally plus I need to buy a tool to install it which is $50-75. I am not sure it would line up correctly b/c the holes on my brass deck jet are not in the same location as the Crystal cover in the image. Needless to say, I don't want to spend $300 on an option that doesn't aerate a lot and may not work.

On another note, I run my deck jets and bubblers at night and the best they've done is lower the pool 3 or 4 degrees overnight (like 93 to 90). The pool normally drops 2 degrees if I don't run them.

Any advice is appreciated!