Hello everyone,

My pool looks good from outside but when I open my eyes underwater is very cloudy and I can barely see. We are listing our house for sale soon and I am afraid my water may turn green when we have buyers coming to look at it. We cleaned the pump filters today and they were not too bad. I did an overnight loss test and it was 0.5. Here are some more numbers:

FC: 5.5
CC: 0
CYA: 30. I have been wanting to raise this a little and I had chlorine pucks leftover from the previous owner so I have been putting some pucks in the water to raise CYA. I am afraid I will get yelled at for doing this.
TA: 80
Ph: 7.8
CH: I haven't tested because I live in AZ and I expect high CH.

What could be the cause of the cloudy water? Thank you so much!

PoolPals:

I currently have a 16 year old pool that I love, which is in tip top shape. Thank you Pebble Sheen and Trouble Free Pool.

My Jandy Aquapure 1400 continues to function well despite its age. I have replaced the cells every 3-5 years like most folks. But I figure the day will come when the thing finally gives up the ghost. Or, perhaps the next time I need to replace the cell I would replace the whole kit and kaboodle. Jandy’s latest offering, the Truclear looks quite good actually, and looks like it would be an easy replacement for my current arrangement. Looks like prices are not bad, and replacement cells are currently under $500. So, if not that unit, what would you go for instead?

Besides my main pool, I also have 680 gallon spa with plumbing completely separate from the main pool.

Pump: Super Pump 700 High Efficiency 1.10 Total HP

Filter: SwimClear™ Single Element

Heater: Universal H-Series Natural Gas 150,000 BTU Low NOx

Chlorinater: Pentair R171096 320 Rainbow Feeder

Chlorine: 17.5
pH: 7.6
Alkalinity: 60
CYA: 30
Heat: 100 degrees

This pool sees about 1-5 hours a week where it is being used and uncovered. The rest of the time it remains covered.

I’m trying to figure the chlorinater out. When it was installed, they put in two 3’ chlorine tabs. This made the chlorine off the scale (10+) but I didn’t have the FAS-DPD test kit at the time to get more specific. Eventually, over a span of two days, it went from 10+ to 0 and the water was cloudy.

I did water changes to take care of that and this time I put in one tab and opened the dial on the pentair to 2, until the free chlorine got to 1.5, then I changed the dial to 1 until free chlorine got to 3.0, then I turned it off. All the way off.

I walked away for a 3-4 days without testing, and I got an FAS-DPD kit in the mail. I used the regular testing kit again today and the free chlorine was again, 10+, even though the dial was all the way off/shut. When I used the more advanced testing kit, it showed that my free chlorine is around 17.5! In all cases combined chlorine is <0.5, water is clear, everything else looks fine.

Inside the Pentair tube I can see that the tab has completely dissolved and the tube was full of water, even with the valve shut.

The adjustable valve for the chlorinater is good, I took it out and tested it, and the check valve doesn’t appear to malfunctioning, as I can see it is shut when I turn tue pump off and take everything out of the pentair fill tube.

What am I doing wrong here? My installer has either ghosted me completely or went out of business, and everyone else around here is understaffed and/or won’t send anyone out to look at it. Is it that this particular feeder is overkill for a 680 gallon spa that sees very little sunlight and people? Is there another way to go about chlorinating this spa if that is the case?

Thanks!

First time pool owner, so very green here. I received my TFPro test kit yesterday and ran my tests this am. Pool math says to add chlorine, salt and stabilizer. I added this salt this morning and then just added liquid chlorine and my stabilizer. Should I run my pool pump on high for 24 hours? Currently my pool pump runs from 8am-8pm. Should retest everything in the morning, or should I give it a couple of days? Thanks!

Planning to replace sand (300 lbs) in my Hayward filter. When tightening the dome back on, what is the torque to be used for the bolts?

Can someone check my math? I have a 5900 gallon above-ground pool. If I use Dichlor, each 10oz puck will raise my FC by 7 ppm and my CYA by 5 ppm. So, over the course of a month, consuming 3 ppm FC daily, let's say I use 13 pucks. That will give me 91 ppm of chlorine and will raise my CYA by 65 ppm. Since I started at 50 ppm CYA, I'll need to drain & refill at least half of the pool water to get the CYA back to 50-60 ppm CYA. That's at least 3000 gallons of water. Based on recent water bills, at $28 per thousand gallons (includes sewer and taxes), that comes to $84 per month, not including the price of the pucks. Last time I bought a 25-lb bucket of Dichlor it was $100 (price has gone WAY up since then), that's 25 cents/oz, so 13 10oz pucks would be $32.50? Total monthly cost is $84 + 32.50 = $116.50 per month?

If I use liquid bleach, I can get a gallon of 10% chlorine at the local Walmart for about $6. Each gallon of bleach will raise my pool 17 ppm FC, so I'd end up using 5.35 gallons of 10% bleach to get the same 91 ppm of chlorine, at a total cost of $32. Unless something happens, likely the CYA will stay at 50 ppm, so no need for further chemicals.

If my math is right, I'm saving $84.50 a month MINIMUM by using a Stenner vs buying Dichlor and dealing with massive water changes. Or is there another way people deal with the CYA buildup? I see a *lot* of pools with Dichlor feeders.

TIA
-Mark

Does anyone know if there is a difference in warranty support when you buy a Dolphin directly from a pool store vs. Amazon? The model i am looking at is Dolphin Sigma (https://a.co/d/3NZ0cyy) from ‘The Dolphin Store’, hopefully they are the original manufacturers (Maytronics) and not some reseller. I'm not sure about level of warranty support received from amazon bought pool robot vs a local store. Has anyone had any experience they can share regarding warranty claims from Amazon bought pool robot. Do i have to pay shipping when sending for repairs in case of Amazon? An advantage with Anazon is the ability to buy extended warranty via asurian which I don’t think will be available from a brick and mortar store. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

When pool company opened the pool recently they said the filter was very dirty the hoses it off with garden hose but said recommend new filter insert but that is $775 and a whole new filter is $900. Does this make any sense to buy an insert? If someone was buying a new filter altogether would a different one make sense to get - i.e. be better and/or cheaper for the say quality and /or cost less to run?

Thank you for your help! It seems so crazy to me the insert costs this much money!

First time pool owner, just looking for a place to get started. Waiting to get the back fill done on my pool and dirt hauled away, so I can start enjoying it. No chemicals have been added yet. Looking where to get started before the pool company shows up on Wednesday for orientation.

I have a 12k gallon white fiberglass pool.. Recently I had to SLAM my 12,000 gallon, white fiberglass pool that got away from me. My FC was reading zero and it was so cloudy I could not see the steps in the shallow end. Since we were having a bad stretch of weather forecasted for the
next 5 days I elected to slam the pool.

Within 24 hours things appeared to improve dramatically and within 48 hours the pool was crystal clear.

I maintained the shock level for another two days to insure a successful SLAM but then noticed a huge difference it the color of the fiberglass. The pool took on a brownish orange appearance almost like I had an iron issue.

I reduced the PH which did help lighten the staining but it is still very noticeable.
Is this now a permanent color caused by introducing the high chlorine content??

Really not sure how to handle it. I did put in a quart of Iron out but it did absolutely nothing.

Would appreciate any advise.
Gary Blizzard

Hi there! My husband and I are first time home owners and the home we purchased came with an in ground sand filter pool. Intimidating, to say the least! So we’re looking very forward to learning and interacting with those that have more experience & knowledge than we do

Hi all,

My Hayward H350FD gas pool heater (manufactured in 2010) has an interesting problem. After verifying that it worked when I opened it a few weeks ago, it now stays in standby mode. It seems to power on and enter standby mode as normal. I hear what sounds like relays clicking when power is applied. Standby light is lit. I push the mode button and it will briefly transition to pool or spa (and shows the water temp) but then returns to standby after a second or two. No error codes. I have already tried replacing the keypad with a new one, but no change. Any ideas what might be causing this?

Doing 5 gal bucket method. Checking every two hours.

Fill water
TA 150
CH 200
PH 7.2

1st Check
TA 180
CH 225
PH 7.5

2nd Check
TA 140
CH 225
PH 8.0

Do I base my calcs on 2000 gallons of water. I believe 1K went in at 2 hr. So, I am thinking 1K every 2 hrs. Then I would assume I need .98 lbs of baking soda. How do I determine acid needed?

Thanks

figured it out. Good advice, get a proper testing kit

New I’m still in the process of filling my pool and I it’s leaking from the collection basket. Help

Testing pool water that was just put in a month or so ago when new liner done. Multiple tests have shown PH at 8.2 (maybe higher in that the Taylor safety test only goes to 8.2?) and total alkalinity at 130. Added a gallon of muratic 31.45 -20 Baumé and still the PH remains consistently too high. Have had a ton of rain in the last month, but I would think that would have joy served to bring down the PH.
Can’t really figure this one out…. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
Jeff

Hi there! Here is the interesting scenario that happened:

• In the fall (due to other repairs going on), all my lines were pressure tested and passed, all good.
• The pool company closed the pool and blew out the lines.
• In the spring, there was a leak in one of my return lines (stair jets). Water could be seen and pressure test confirmed it.

The pool company said they would repair the leak at no cost if it turned out to be freezing damage. They just repaired it today and the guy said that a fitting had "popped off" (exact words). I believe the repair was just to re-secure the fitting. (99% of the work was digging and locating the line!)

Question: do you think a fitting coming off like that could be due to freezing damage (lines not blown out properly)?

I guessing they will say no, and I will have to cover the repair -- and I'm okay with that if it was due to something else (ground movement etc.). Where it gets tricky is if it MIGHT have been freezing damage but no way to be sure; maybe then I can bargain for a small discount or something.

Thanks for any advice! I appreciate it.

Mike

Hey all, I am looking at purchasing a robot pool cleaner and am curious if anyone has attempted to take advantage of a credit card extended warranty. They all have verbiage to exclude things like “Boats, automobiles, aircraft and any other motorized vehicles or water vehicles.” This seems to imply that a motorized robotic water vehicle would not be covered, right?

Hey guys is there a way to clear this up? I'm assuming it's calcium I just clean my pool and maintain chemicals I likely get in 5x a season. But gotnin today and noticed this.

I finally got my pool clear. Bought a new swg arriving tomorrow. Put the salt in tonight and smell something awful. My husband informs me a diesel can spilled on way home from lowes and got diesel on bags. Bags had sat back of truck for a week or more in this diesel. So... some must of absorbed into the salt. I can see a bit of oily film floating around. The pool now smells of diesel. The salt is still dissolving so i suspect there will be more. Is this a just wait for filter to sort it out situation or do i have to start over?
Im heartbroken. I've worked so hard.

Thank you for adding me!! I'm excited to find a site that helps with pool chemicals and

Good morning. My wife and I picked up a 12x22 6,000gal above ground pool from Costco a couple years back and have loved having it. We have three boys and it’s a daily activity for our family during the summer here in the PNW.

We’ve struggled toward the end of summer each year with algae blooms and cloudiness, wholly due to a lack of scientific approach to pool chemistry on our part.

In preparation for this year we tried to do our due diligence and research better care techniques and that’s how we stumbled across TFP. First off, this site’s reputation for kind members is rightfully earned. The amount and quality of assistance I saw people offer to other member is wonderful. So thank you for creating that environment here.

After reading through a lot of threads on this site we decided to make a change and ordered a SWG and the TF-100 Salt test kit with magnetic stirrer. Huge praise here to the quality of the rest kit and the clear instructions. It’s a nice complete product and we’re pleased with that.

I read through the Pool Chemistry pages here, downloaded the pool math app, and then set up our pool a week ago. We started with manually chlorinating with bleach, added baking soda, and 160lb of salt. We let that circulate and fully dissolve. We overshot the salt content - it measured at 3900 - so we drained down some water per the app, refilled, and retested. I’ve spent the last couple days logging tests and working to get us to a good baseline with all readings in spec but am struggling to get TA within range. Please see attached photo of last night’s values.

The relationship between TA and pH is present but I’m uncertain how to get these two to where they need to be. The recommended step for pH is to add 3.2oz of soda ash but the TA instructions are vague stating

To lower TA you reduce pH to 7.0-7.2 with acid and then aerate to increase pH.

Can any of you help point me in the right direction on these final startup values please? Thanks in advance for your help.

Hey y'all,

Newb here. Just got our first pool up and running early yesterday morning. While I'm waiting on my test kit to get here, I had my water tested at a pool store. They used some type of computer analysis they said.

FC 1.8
Cya 51
Total alkalinity 65
PH 7
Total chlorine 3.1
Calcium hardness 80

Looks like I need to add chlorine for the fc/cya balance but what else should I do?

Sorry if this is a trivial question, but my attempts to find something on this using search got me to a 2011 thread and the forum platform recommended starting a new thread.

I have a pool with a 2010 vintage Hayward Goldline AquaPlus controller. I own the thing since the 2016 season and it hasn't given me much trouble. The electrode is about a year old and clean, salt is at 2800 (where it has always been). Starting early this season, I kept getting 'low voltage' errors but it was making chlorine just fine. In the last two weeks, I have been getting 'no cell power' errors and it has stopped making chlorine. If I start the controller, and go into the diagnostic menu changing the polarity, I get somewhat erratic readings:

In one polarity it gives me
+27.05V +4.1A
81F 1500 ppm

In the other polarity it gives me
-25.64V -6.25A
81F 2800 ppm

The latter is in keeping with numbers I have seen over the years, the former seems to be abnormally low for the amps with a erratic sensed salt reading.

Does this behavior point to any specific failure ? What would be the next diagnostic steps ? Given the sheer number of connectors, I have yet to pull the controller off its mounts to check for the infamous 'K1 solder joint'. It's something I can do, I just want to avoid ****** something up if I can help it.

For now I am maintaining chlorine by adding tabs, but I rather get back to the thing working on its own without me having to do anything.

I have a fairly large disparity between my ScreenLogic and Vis-A-Flow (about 10 GPM). This has resulted in "flow" errors on the IC40. My filter is just cleaned and the IC40 was cleaned at the start of the season (April). I am just trying to figure out where the ScreenLogic is getting the GPM reading from (pump or IC40) so I can figure out how to clean/troubleshoot. For setup, it is running through the heater, then the Vis-A-Flo check valve , then through the IC40. When I bypass the heater it goes straight from the filter to the IC40 and the readings look normal on ScreenLogic. I have attached a picture of the setup (the IC40 is mounted where the blue painters tape is). I guess my question is, how there could be a 10 GPM difference between the Vis-A-Flow and the IC40. Taking the flowmeter apart to see if there is any sort of blockage, but any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

Was hyperfocused on getting this pool level and situated and didn't give any thought to chemicals until now. I ordered the Taylor K-2005 test kit, after doing some research I also ordered a salt water generator, but neither will come until Wednesday. Also have CYA coming tomorrow. Is it ok to hold off until I have some known parameters or is there some "safe" dose of chlorine to put in an untreated pool to hold over until then? Thank you!

Hi all! I've been trying to get my mother's SWG pool in order this summer so it's a bit more sustainable for her to maintain between when I visit. The stats in my profile should be accurate but here's a rundown of the system and current chemical levels:

~15,300 gal salt water pool
Gunite and plaster (in ground)
Location: Houston (super hot right now)
Sun: in full sun from about 11 - 5
SWG: Circupool COre35 running at 50% from 8-6 7 days/wk

Latest test:
FC: 1.5
CC: 1.0
TC: 2.5
pH: 7.8
TA: 110
CH: 300
CYA: 47
Salt: 3300
Temp: 85.1
CSI: 0.18

pH has been high (8.3 avg) for months and I've been dumping in Muriatic acid to combat that. For whatever reason, I'm having to add about double what Pool Math suggests to get pH to start trending down. My plan was to lower pH to 7.2 and then aerate (with hot tub blower) up to 7.8 to lower TA at the same time. So far, 7.8 is the lowest I've gotten the pH without dumping over a gallon of acid in.

Likewise, CYA has been low (averaging 20). Pool Math suggested 2 gallons of conditioner which only raised it to ~50 as we see now. Apparently I need to go buy more. I was also noticing some light green algae on the walls which I was able to brush off easily.

I was doing some reading and it seems that since my pH is high, CYA is low, and TA is high, a chlorine tablet might do exactly what I need. I have some chlorine tabs here (don't know why) that I can certainly use but I wanted to run this plan by the brain trust first. Is there anything I'm missing with using a chlorine tab?

If the chlorine tab isn't the best thing to do, what's a better method? And why does it seem like I need to dump 2-3 gal of Muriatic acid in to get pH down to 7.2 to aerate back up?

Thanks!

Anyone has tried swapping a Polaris control unit from a model to another one?

Trying to identify my sand filter after the label has worn off. I can't see any identifying marks aside from the labels on the top, which seem pretty standard to me (not well versed here, but this is my second pool).
It's got a 22" diameter (or very close to that) and the tank itself is about 24" high, not including the stand or the attachments. I know for sure the pool was here in 2011 due to some real-estate photos, but I'm assuming it was installed around 2005 or so. Any idea how to go about identifying this thing?

Hi! We are building our pool and having a hard time deciding on a color. Our builder uses CL Industries but their site is not ideal with samples. I think we narrowed down our color to Blue Pearl and Grey Reef Pearl but can’t really find a ton of pictures. Any pictures would be greatly appreciated!!! I’m looking for a more “natural” blue color since we are having a natural rock waterfall put in and we live in a highly wooded area with a lot of pine trees. Our coping is bluestone. We have a sunshelf and spa, and the pool will be 3.5-6 ft. Also, do you think our tile will make a huge difference. Attached is a picture of the blue pearl with the bluestone coping and the color tile we picked out. They didn’t have a grey reef sample in the office.