I kinda knew this was going to happen but decided to do it anyway ...



You can see my PoolMath logs for the latest test results. I added an 8oz start up dose of SKILL-IT algaecide (BioDex) to see if it would help with wasp control. We have mud-daubers (paper wasps) around here and they LOOOOVE pool water. I get 2 or 3 wasps per day landing on the pool water surface many times per hour and then watch them as they fly off to their nests in the neighbors yards. Once I had a wasps nest INSIDE the bathroom exhaust vent pipe up at the roof. Had to spend quite a few days blocking off the vent, poisoning the the nest and then covering the roof cap with plastic so that they would all die. What a PITA!! So whenever I see a wasp at my pool, I always tend to watch it to see where it flies off to. If it heads towards my roof, I get up on the ladder and go on a wasp hunt. Thankfully no more nests up there since the last one.

The interesting part to me is that there are two theories to how SKILL-IT works - (1) either the chemical is displeasing to, or kills, the wasps when they draw up water, OR, (2) the primary chemical in SKILL-IT is both an algaecide and a surfactant and the surfactant changes the surface tension of the water enough to make the wasps not able to walk on the water.

I won't have enough evidence to decide which is which, BUT, if you look at the photo with the aerator setup (its a Venturi aerator that I screwed into my waterfall's auxiliary return line), the bubbles being generated by it are champagne size and very diffuse. Before adding SKILL-IT, that aerator would simply put out huge, globular bubbles like the kind you get by blowing back through a straw in water. So the SKILL-IT definitely changes the surface tension of the water as that is the only way that you could get such a drastic change in bubble sizes.

Suffice it to say that the stuff pours like Palmolive dish soap ... and has nice fruity aroma ... not that I'm sniffing the chemicals or anything ....

Note that this stuff is what TFP calls a "cheap, linear quat algaecide" and so it is known that these algaecides breakdown easily from chlorine and eventually dissipate. So even if nothing changes for me, the bubbles should be gone in a week or so as I tend to run the FC on the hot side.

Hi all. I have a T-9, about 4 years old. I recently observed the salt level reading being low and not matching actually reality. Within a few days the salt cell reading dropped to 1600 and the check salt light came on.

Confirmed the cell is clean and was simply on its way out. I was now trying to determine how to proceed - to just use liquid chlorine the rest of the season (6 more weeks here before pool is closed) or buy a new cell (but then eat into my warranty period unnecessarily since the pool is closing in 6 weeks).

A senior member on here recommended to try another option to get me through the season - change the setting in the panel to a T-3 vs T-9.
I did that and did a reset. The instant salinity went up when I did that, though I had to cycle numerous times to “skip” every other salinity reading as every other reading (one side of the diode?) was very low and skewing the salt average. Long story short, I kept cycling until I got a reading above 2700.

I left it last night as all green lights and at 2800. This morning, it rose to 3,000. All green lights. I did a drop test but didn’t notice a measurable increase in FC. But…it was only about 7 hours so I will try again this morning.

Is it possible that even if I have all green lights, the cell is not producing chlorine?

How would changing the setting to T-3 impact the total FC output per day?

(I think for my size pool, the T-9 setting at 100% and pump running 24/7 produces about 3.8 a day)

Thanks for any inputs.

I have a dolphin nautilus CC robot cleaner. After I got it back from warranty repair, it kept getting stuck on its side. I believe it is because they had removed the blue float that was on the cable and then put it back on all the way high up on other end of the cable. Ugh. I can't figure out how to get it off and move it back down. Does anyone know?

I have an umbrella port in my baha. It's been uncovered and I could see debris collecting in it. I had a few questions:

1. Can I shop vac the debris out?
2. Can I buy a plug for it? The length of hole is a little over 1.5". I'm not sure if this is standard.
3. It looks like the rim of it might be cracked (see picture). Is that an issue?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hello,
We're getting roof work done and need to move these solar water heating panels that we have. They're potentially fafco panels from at least 20 - 30 years ago.
They're these tubes mounted in some sort of aluminum( I think) sheet with PVC pipes in between panels connected via clamps.

Can they be salvaged or is it best to toss these out and get new ones.?

Thanks a lot !!

Hi everyone,

So we are in our 3rd month of a new pebble tech SWP in Arizona. With the groups help I have been holding my own with Ph and TA. Now my little 7650gal pool does not take much run time so if I understand correctly SWGs wear out based on hours used. If correct can I decrease pump run time and boost SWG to 70 or 80% to minimize hours on the unit?

If I can is there any relationship between the two so I can try to limit the trial and error period? We are leaving on a 2 week trip and hope to have things dialed in or close by departure. I can space the run time to AM and PM to ensure adequate CH per 24hr cycle

Mike

Hello all. Am nervous to install an in wall skimmer. Cutting a bigger hole in the liner I am afraid of the water pressure ripping the corners. Do you have to reinforce the hole after the cut is made or should I not worry about the liner tearing? Thoughts please to help me ease my mind thanks.

Moved from here.

New to serial programming for pool automation, but very excited to try out the solution presented by @MSchutzer in the previous thread Century (Regal) VGreen motor automation.
Currently running a Hayward Tristar 1HP single speed, but have been looking to upgrade to VS without breaking the bank. $2k for a new VS pump will not yield electricity savings returns until 4-5 years down the road, but $600 for a new VS motor is more manageable.

Originally ordered the Vgreen EVO before I started reading on here about the complete lack of automation support for it, so I am returning it and getting the ECM16SQU. Seems like Century took a step backwards with the new Evo motors which is a shame. I have a Jandy Aqualink RS with PDA, so looks like I should be in luck here with getting this to work.

Also ordered the RS485 adapter posted in the original thread. Only issue I am running into right now is it looks like the BPP Terminal program is no longer available. Does someone have the original .exe file they can share? If not it looks like RealTerm should work (allows for hex commands), but I don't think it has macros for predefined commands so I'll just have to type out each command as I go which is fine.

Will post updates once all is (hopefully) up and running! Thanks to all, this website and thread has been amazing.

I am doing a pool renovation and am updating the electrical box

I am going to remove the two timers in my box - don't really use them for anything. The new pump I got is a black and decker and has a controller attached to it. Don't really see the need for the timers in here.... thoughts?

I have 30 amps going in to the box. Old config was a 20 amp dual pole breaker supplying the pump and the LP heater, which seemed to work fine. There was another 20 amp breaker that supplied a receptacle on the side on the electrical box (a GFCI), then the pool lights.

I am adding a SWG and outlet at a gazebo to the mix, wondering if anyone has thoughts?

I was thinking 20 amp dual pole (240V) runs the Pump and SWG. My pump claims 8 amps (Black and Decker 2hp - BDXBTVAR200). My SWG is a Hayward W3AQR15, I can't really figure out how many amps it draws but I saw somewhere around 8amps. So 8+8 = 16, still have the 20% buffer on that breaker.

I was also going to leave the pool lights on the GFCI outlet (obviously the lights need a GFCI). The lights are LED and are very low, I think less than an amp each (have two)

Then the only things left are the LP heater (presume a very low draw) and the outlet at the gazebo. Don't see any super high draw items on that - possibly a TV/ceiling fan/LED lights. Both the heater and gazebo outlet are 12 gauge wire. Any real advantage to using a separate breaker for both of these? My initial thought was add a new GFCI breaker and putting the heater and gazebo on it.

Also, thoughts on GFCI breakers vs first outlet?

Replace 20 amp dual pole for pump and SWG with a GFCI version?

Thanks!

Seriously though,
I just read that Total Alkalinity needs to be settled before changing PH, so now I'm chasing my tail after adding a couple boxes of Borax and the PH is still 7.0
I tried to find the SLAM article I read years ago, but I cannot find it.
I'm slamming the pool. It is at my rental house that I am moving back into now that the renters have left.
The pool was horrible.
Right now Chlorine is reading at 12
CYA is 90
PH is 7.0
TA is 30

Do I need to mess with TA and ph when slamming? I seem to remember that having a chlorine of 10+ can cause the other chemicals to not be as effective, or maybe it was the testing method to not be accurate...
I've come to this old memory because I have now added 2 boxes of borax and the ph has gone from barely below 7 (taylor kit only reads 7 as lowest), to right at 7. This made me wonder if I need to back off of PH and TA and just wait for the pool to clear...

Thoughts?

Anyone know where I can find the Dolphin Premier user manual? I just received a brand new unit and the user manual is not in it. A stack of FAQs, safety info, quick start guide, filter change instruction, warranty info...but no manual. The maytronics website link for the manual is seemingly broken. Anyone able to hook me up?

Mainly looking for info on how to manage the floats and making sure I have the filters set up correctly on it. I took the leaf bag out and put in the heavy filters and am running it now for the first time. Seems to be doing things, but not sure I have the floats correct. They don't seem to actually come out go in and out and rotate? I had seen examples of people saying that one float should be taken out to make it do the waterline tile correctly...

Swimming pool that conveyed with the purchase of our new home was built in 2016. Standard gunite and plaster finish, looks to have been dyed blue. I have been using Pool Math to keep my chemicals in order over that past year but we have noticed an increased amount of the "white, streaky, pitty" areas on the plaster of the pool. Can anybody comment on my current Pool Math log as it might relate to this condition in our pool. Let me know if I need to provide any additional information.

PoolMath Logs

Just got my tests from the Leslie's and noticed only one thing wrong:
Free chlorine - 0.18
Total chlorine - 1.59

They are suggesting adding any form of chlorine probably around 2 gallons. But I want to check with the experts here as to what I should do?

Also trying to find out the cause for this situation to happen in the first place. Since the beginning of the season, I have been mostly adding Calcium hypochlorite on a weekly basis and also have floating tablets which are trichloro-s-triazinetrione. But recently I did use some sodium hypochlorite. Would the mixing cause it?

History
2021 pool school in the spring, pool turned over to us, chemicals good all season

2022 FC consistently low (0.5, 0.1, 0.8, etc)
Total chlorine was below 1.0 during this time as well but also fluctuated.
Phosphates started to increase
Pool store says add 36 gallons of chlorine to break chlorine lock and lower phosphates.

Phosphates increase more and FC and TC sit at 15

Present day
FC and TC at 15
Phosphates increasing (even higher than last season)
7/3 FC & TC at 15, PH 7.4, phosphate 2067
7/6 FC & TC at 15, PH 7.2, phosphate 2170

Total alkalinity, calcium hardness; optimizer all low. CYA at 150.

Pool store says make sure pool is uncovered to burn off chlorine. Also, don’t worry about the other numbers because when the chlorine is high they won’t measure correctly.

I ask what to do to lower the chlorine they say add Chem-Out. I leave, didn’t buy anything. Irritated I was told last year to dump all the liquid chlorine in and now it’s too high.

This all brings me here as we recently discovered the site. The pool is crystal clear. It looks beautiful. No irritation on skin or eyes. Outside temperature has been keeping it around 80 degrees with the heater off. The filter run at 80% 7am-9pm and then 50% overnight. We have an automatic chlorinator and a new frogger pack was installed when pool store opened the pool this season. We have a Hayward heater, a Hayward Swimclear multi element cartridge filter and a Hayward TriStar Pump.

Please help. We are so tired of spinning our wheels and spending our money. If more info is needed please let me know and I’ll edit to add. Thank you sooo much TFP!!

Hi all,
Here are my water tests from Clorox test strips. Don’t really know where to go from here . Bought a new pool and it can hold 1200 gallons. Used to treat with 6% bleach alone every other day until water grew algae.

I’m converting my pool to SWG. Did a test yesterday afternoon and another one today at Leslie’s for a salt Level. Also did a test at home with my K-1766. Leslie’s tested Salt level 2156 while I tested 2600. Who to believe while bringing level to 3500?

Also yesterday Leslie’s tested Phosphates 367ppb and today 87ppb??? I didn’t use any phosphates remover, just added 7 bags of salt.

Scratching my head

Leslie’s / Tayler Kit
FC 2.5/2.7
PH 7.7/7.7
TA 84/80
CH 254/275
CA 56/60
Phosphates 87
SALT 2156/2600

I have an IC40 that failed. It was down a week before I realized it. The pool is a nice green lagoon color now. I know I need to SLAM now, but what’s the best way to supplement until the warranty replacement comes through?

Vinyl pool, 16,500 gallons. Pentair system.

I have a floating tab dispenser that I use for the winter.

I am new to pool ownership (moved in six weeks ago) so still coming up the learning curve. When we moved in, our pool was dark green/black due to neglect of the previous owner. A pool company helped us get things to clear blue water, but we have had recurring issues with algae returning, which I believe is mustard algae. They also helped us convert to a SWG. About a week ago, I got a Taylor k-2006c test kit and began following instructions for SLAMing the pool. At first, there were consistent improvements in the amount of algae each day. However, for the past two days I have not noticed any further improvements. We probably have only about 10% of the amount of algae as we started with before the SLAM, but it is still a decent amount building up on the floor of the pool between brushings. I tried increasing the chlorine levels somewhat (our CYA is at 30 ppm, our FC was at around 13 ppm earlier, and is now at around 18 ppm) with no additional results. We have a 27k gallon pool and a sand filter. I would appreciate any advice and whether I should just keep going with the SLAM despite the stall in improvements. Thank you.

This is my first time dealing with algae since I switched to TFP method back in the spring of last year.

Short story of what happened is that I didn't add enough chlorine before a really big storm at night, with lots of wind and water accumulation. Unfortunately the morning after the storm, with dealing with a toddle and a baby, I didn't have time before going to work to deal with the pool and it passed my mind to up the chlorine level. After coming home I checked the pool and it went slightly cloudy with a slight hint of murky green. Some green-brown dust at the bottom in certain areas that can be brushed off. However can easily see the bottom (4f deep round pool). I measured the chlorine level and it was at the lower end of the range for my CYA. I quickly added enough chlorine to up to SLAM level (30 CYA - added up to 12ppm chlorine). A few hours later I remeasured and added a small amount to get it back to 12ppm.

Before going to sleep at around 11pm, I measured chlorine to do an OCLT and it measured 12ppm. This morning I got up before the sun to measure again and chorine was at 11.5ppm with no CC detected. So I think I have killed off the living algae already (since I probably caught the bloom very early).

Just wondering what my next steps should be since the pool is still cloudy. It has been filtering through a sand filter for about 15hours and the pressure in the filter is very slowly rising. Will the sand filter be able to capture what I suspect is dead algae dust with running it 24/7? How long could it typically take to clear? Is there anything else I should do?

All other tests were not out of the norm - TA=80ppm, pH=7.8 (this measurement was done at SLAM level so probably inaccurate, a few days ago I measured it at 7.3-7.4 but might have gone up due to the rain).

I was just wondering how to turn off the SWG. I want to leave the pump on, but not the cell, while I add salt. There's not an "off" option on the screen. So, would I unplug the cell from the SWG unit, or turn down output % to 0%? I can't turn off the breaker because it will also cut off power to the pump.

I have a Hayward Aquarite S325.

Thank you.

Hello for all ,
I am a civil and technical engineer for the pipeworks and of swimming pools and jacuzzi networks.

Crystalpool @ yemen

this is our first summer with a pool. Having so some issues with levels and also pump pressure.

I'm chasing a really annoying DE leak into the pool. I have replaced the filter grids (1 was torn) and the manifold that looked like it had a few possible hairline fractures and didn't want to take any chances. I replaced the spider gasket in the multipart as well. It still leaked DE. So I decided to just replace the Multiport as well. I figured maybe I messed up with the spider gasket and didn't want to dig out the new adhesive, so just replaced the whole thing. So new Multiport, grids and manifold. It still leaking, even more than before. I put some PVC glue over the hairline fractures on the manifold just to throw it back in and test and see if I still got some DE in the pool. The new manifold does feel not as tight as the original when seating it onto the pipe in the filter housing. I opened emptied the filter halfway and opened it up. I have the valves for the returns and the skimmer closed and put the multiport in Closed. I opened the return valves and while the multiport was still in Closed, the water ran into the filter as you can see in the video in the dropbox link. Does this mean the new Multiport is bad? My understanding is Closed is just that, it completely closes the filter off from the plumbing. Am I wrong or is this definitely a issue with the new Multiport now.

I inspected my Hayward salt cell and found this gray piece of tubing. Any idea what this is from? Also, is it normal to see dead bugs in the salt cell? Thank you.

Water is crystal clear until i add liquid chlorine then it gets milky. Never had this issue before. Any tips?

Sorry if this has been answered before. I searched the forums and couldn't find anything. It comes with the number 300 in it. Do I leave that number there? Do I put a different number in? If so, what number?
Thanks in advance.

How long after adding can we swim?
It’s a 24 ft round, I added 2 cups.

This is not my first pool, and I used the website version of TFP last year. Live about 30 minutes from nearest pool supply so this has really helped me maintain the pool. Thanks!

A few weeks ago I asked if my DE cartridge in my Sta rite PLD50 filter was causing low flow. I soaked the cartridge and ended up replacing the it (very expensive) and that wasn’t the problem. Still have low flow to sometimes no flow. There are no blockages. I’ve checked all lines and the impeller seems clear. The pool is almost clear so it’s not clogged from algae either but it can’t clear because the water isn’t circulating enough. I’ve been running the pump non stop for at least a month with this issue. My next thought is new pool pump since this one is from 2012. As long as I change it out for 1 hp which it has, any brand should work right? I’m afraid to spend another $300 on this if it isn’t the right way to go. I should of just bought a new filter instead of the cartridge

.