Hi all! I've been dealing with a super cloudy/hazy pool for about 2 weeks now and no matter what I've done to clear it up (inexplicable amounts of shock, conditioner, stabilizer, alkalinity-up, clarifier, baking soda, algicide, etc.), I have had no luck. For some inexplicable reason, the majority of pool companies and "pool guys" in the area are all on vacation (???) right now, so I'm turning to reddit!

The pool essentially veers between generally hazy (can see through to the bottom of the shallow end but not of the deep end), to almost a green-ish tint, which is why I had tried the algicide. We also do have what I suspect is a slight leak in the filter - could that be the issue? I haven't backwashed and to be honest, I'm not certain about the maintenance of a DE filter - a family friend noticed that neither company which opened/closed our pool last summer actually did anything to the filter itself.

Not sure if this is a filter issue, due to the leak, or if we possibly added too many Dang chemicals over the last few weeks that now it's just going to be cloudy for he next month. The pool was *perfect* in June, truly crystal clear water, and we'd love love love to get that back ASAP.

Any help is appreciated - thanks, all! Photo is attached


General info:

16000 gallons

vinyl

DE filter

Here are the readings from the water, which was tested this morning:

free chlorine: 1.02 ppm

total chlorine: 1.5 ppm

combined chlorine:.48ppm

ph: 7.6

hardness: 264 ppm

alkalinity: 86 ppm

cyanuric acid: 12 ppm (this should prob. be higher, right?)

copper: 0ppm

iron: 0ppm

I need to replace my 15 year old single speed pump that just went to a better place and decided to upgrade to a VS pump. I have 1.5” system piping and a Hayward AquaPlus automation system. Looking at the Hayward Max-Flo VS 1.65 HP. Found a deal for $1,120. Anyone know if this is a good lock.

Most importantly, will it be compatible with my AquaPlus. It says compatible with “automation systems” but does not specify which. The online owner manual has nothing about connection to automation. Any insight is appreciated.

I have a sock with cya in it hanging near the return. Can I swim while this is taking place

Hello,
After installing a new liner in the pool and filling it up, we noticed that some of the stabilizer bars were installed backyards. I was told that if I do one at a time I should be able to correct it while the pool is full? Any thoughts or has anyone else run into this issue. Thanks.

I replace pool and liner (48"x 25ft. round) last year. It was from Doheny's. Had many problems getting wrinkles out, especially on sidewalls, bottom was fairly good with just a few. I think liner was cut wrong on one side as I could not get the bottom seam to rest on the cove properly on one side and had like 18" of excess overhang on 45 degrees of one side. Talked to Doheny's about it but a waste of my time as representatives had trouble with English, kept saying (I think) not Doheny's problem call liner manufacture, gave me a # to call # did not work, gave me another, same. Said they would connect for me, went away, bogus also. Liner was blue, faded to white within the first month. Previous liners took years to fade. Bad experience, shame on Doheny's.
Now this year we are in a severe drought and the wrinkles have tripled in number and seem to be getting worse every week. I cannot explain other than the ground is shrinking due to drought. Also, I have had a ABG pool of this size at this same sight for over 38 years, so the ground should have been stable. What a pain to vacuum and keep clean. Any thoughts?

It looks like a trail. I read an old thread on here that said possibly ants or worms under liner floor but I would think the weight of the water wouldn't allow that. I'm at a loss. Anyone else had this issue. The pic I'm posting was from the old thread but looks exactly like mine. Anybody???
24' 52" above ground

I am on a well.
Use a water softener.
Smelly hot water, not cold water.
I have cut out the anode rods-didn’t fix it.
I have drained and flushed with peroxide. Fixes it for about 2 weeks.
I have cranked thermostat up to 140 degrees for about 2 hours then back to 125. That fixed it for about a month.

I have 2 40 gallon AO Smith water heaters that are plumbed together (water pulls from both).

Any suggestions?

We are rebuilding our house and intend to replaster the pool and redo concrete deck and new pool equipment at the same time. We will also replumb to put new pool equipment under the elevated house.

i have 2 questions for the group...
1. The last time we replastered We found a guy in SC that travels around the state and he did the replaster for 10k. I reached out to him and he no longer travels. I just got a quote for 30k from another company. What is the going rate for just a replaster and tile/cove job in SC?

2. We are doing the concrete around the pool as part of the home rebuild. Is it wise to leave the water in the pool during rebuild and then replaster at the end of the build? Should we drain the pool? We have a very high water table. We will be redoing all plumbing and adding new pool equipment. Everything is at the end of its life. Any suggestions on timeline are appreciated. Thanks

I am purchasing an Intelliflo3 VSF pump model #011078, and I am wondering what type of quality is the shaft seal that comes with the pump? I know a quality shaft seal is very important for the longevity of a pump, so I am wondering if I need to upgrade the shaft seal upon receiving it? I would put the shaft seal PS-201V-CMS in the pump if I need to upgrade it, or does the pump already come with a high quality seal?

Hi everyone!
I recently bought a house and opened the pool to find a concrete pool, with some corrugated sides. I've never seen a pool like this in Canada, but it appears to be in decent shape.

The sticking point for me is the rusty bolts that surround the pool. They are insanely unattractive, and don't know if they can be removed, replaced, or covered up somehow.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this issue? Thanks!

Hello Everyone,

Long story short.

Just had the pool plastered and filled yesterday afternoon. While waiting for the water truck to come fill the pool. The plaster company wanted to start filling the pool, they asked my wife to start with the garden hose. Our house in Northern CA. Has hard water that is why our well is on a water softener. Filled for about an hour before the water truck came. After all said and done there is a distinct discoloration of where the well water was vs the rest of the pool filled by the water truck.

We have not even started brushing or running the equipment yet, that starts this afternoon. Should we be concerned? Is this an easy fix?

Thanks!

I have around 3 spots with brown stains, that does not come off even when I brush. They are about close to a penny size or less. PB says these stains are from scaling and mineral deposits on top of scales. They are directing me to add BIO-DEX Protect All to clear the scaling, which they think may take some time to clear.

What you all think is causing the stains? How should I address the stains? Just trying to get second opinion to see what the experts here think is the problem.

In addition to this I also have scaling problem on the water line and above around tiles.

Pool Chemistry
I will be working on bringing the CYA little bit low in the next week or two. Right now I have a pretty basic test kit Taylor K-1003, and will soon be investing in a better test kit. Based on TFP method or calculators, I think I need to increase my chlorine usage higher to around 5 ppm.

| 10 months old pool | Pebble Sheen finish|

7/20/2023 Pool test from Leslie's | FC 1.24 | TC 1.34 | pH 7.4 | TA 82* | CH 206 | CYA 76 | Iron 0 | Copper 0.2 | Phosphates 0 | TDS 7000 |
| *TA has been adjusted due to the effect of CYA on tested TA |

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Hi gang, stumbled upon this community after much pool research. I am a new pool owner this season, with our pool being opened on June 12 this year by a local pool supplies/maintenance company. The pool was measured as 36’ x 16 1/6’ average, and was told that the volume should be around 89k litres, or ~23.5k gallons. I’ve inputted 24k gallons as most calculators I’ve tried is close to that number.

This is how the pool started (picture taken after the interlock contractor re-leveled around the pool), and also dumped the cover into the pool. Note that we did not open last season when we owned the house but was under renovation.



During the opening, 20L of chlorine (listed as sodium hydrochloride 12% on my receipt) was added. They got the cover out. I’m unsure whether they scrubbed the liner.

This is what it looked like the day after (June 13):


Without taking any water samples, the pool guy told me to add 40L chlorine without any stabilizer.

This is what it looked like after (June 14):


At this point I had purchased some test strips for quick testing at home (I’ve subsequently ordered a Taylor K-2006C kit which hasn’t arrived yet). The results showed no FC and what could be either no or 0.5 TC. I also had zero CYA.

The next day (June 15), I added 3.6kg of CYA (1/2 on each skimmer), as well as an additional 30L of chlorine (they ran out, otherwise it would have been 40L).

This is what it looked like the day after (June 16), when the pool maintenance guys also came to do some repairs on the equipment (flow sensor and fixing some plumbing joins). They brought and put in 1kg of flocculant, after which we put it in 8 hours of recirculating and then back to filtering. They also spent quite some time scooping up leaves and whatever was inside the pool as much as they could. The image is of the evening when flocculant has had time to work.



The next day I brought a water sample there, and these were the results (June 17, ~1pm):
FC 0.04
TC 0.57
CC 0.53
pH 6.6
Alkalinity 122
Hardness 117
Salt 2400
Iron 0.10
Copper 0.00
Phosphate 1605

Interestingly my test strips were showing higher pH (7.8), hardness (250) but I assume it’s not very accurate.

I purchased but haven’t used:
- 40L chlorine
- 3L phosfree
- 2kg pH plus
- 2 bags of salt (should have been 3 but I only purchased 2 for now)

I’m unsure whether the treatment plan has been correct (water was only tested when I brought back a sample). I think I may need more CYA before putting any more chlorine, and I should probably clean my SWG as it is showing check cell and low salt.

I’ve spent close to 4x their opening costs including the extra service call and chemicals, and they want to come back for some vacuuming after adding in the flocculant. This is as accurate account as I have notes on so far.

Last picture is from last night (June 17) 8pm, and it looks pretty close to that right now:


What’re my next steps here? I may have missed some details so ask away!

Hello-

I just purchased and installed the relay board for my intelioflo3. We have a very basic set up and all I am looking to do with the relay is to control the pool lights. I have done basic home wiring, but never messed with relays. Could someone point me in the right direction as far as wiring this in? Also, is it possible to wire this such that the manual switch and relay have independent control of the lights? Photos attached. THANKS!

So, we were having issues with persistant algae on the bottom of the pool (for years) However, the water was still crystal clear. We went several days without a pump because of a broken hose. The pool had been vacuumed right before the hose broke so there was no algae on the bottom at that time. As the days went on, I ran a sub pump through a bucket with filter media just to keep the water from getting stagnat, and the water was starting to get a little cloudy, but still could see the bottom just fine. In fact, the algae did not return to the bottom for the entire time the pump was off. Once we got the pump running again, the algae was right back on the bottom of the pool. That's when we decided to change out the sand in our filter. This, we thought, would give us the ever-elusive perfect pool. Apparently, a big mistake. We proudly turned our freshly-sanded pump back on, shocked the pool and went to bed. In the morning, I expected to wake up to crystal clear water with dead algae on the bottom, but it looked exactly the same as it had before I shocked it. Later that afternoon, my husband vacuumed the pool to the filter. That's when it turned into a swamp...I can't see the bottom no matter how hard I look. I backwashed the filter and there wasn't anything of significance that I saw in the sight glass. The return pressure is great. So what is happening? Does my new sand need to be "seasoned" properly or something? Those are laughing tears of insanity, because I spent my entire weekend babying that f'n pool, and this is the thanks I get?! Please advise. Thank you!!

Hello,
We have an Intex 16x24 above ground Intex pool that has sprung a couple of leaks. I’ve read some posts on this thread about using an overlap liner as a way to continue to use a pool. I have searched online and can only find overlap liners for oval and circular pools. Are there any that would fit a rectangular pool?
TIA, especially for our two granddaughters who can’t get in the pool yet!

This is just a question for additional understanding. Reading around the internet in general if your pump pressure increases 10lbs time to clean or change. Also in general you shouldn't be above 30lbs. What none of the information I've run across discusses is that the pressure changes depending on pump speed.

If I run my pump at 1000rpm I get great filtration and almost no reading of any pressure on my filter. If I ramp it up to 3400rpm for quickly skimming the pool or for cleaning I get around 30lbs at the filter.

What is the rules of thumb for how and at what speed you should be basing these decisions such as clean filter pressure etc.

Thanks for helping with what seems like a silly question.

This might be a stupid question but can I use my autocover pump to circulate water for a couple of days while my pump is off? Minor repair being done which means I need the water below the skimmer for a couple of days. It just so happens to be the hottest week here in the mid Atlantic region this summer. If I sat the cover pump on a step or tanning shelf, and run the hose to the deep end, would that work? I've worked so hard to learn the chemicals and I really don't want to start from scratch in a couple of days when we top it back up. Or can I just add liquid chlorine and stir it up with a brush? My FC was 4.5 ppm this morning, CC 0.5 (barely - almost no color change) and pH was where it always is around 7.5. CYA is at 40. I won't be covering the pool while the water level is down. Edited to add - I do have main drains. Can I circulate from them? I am terrified of changing the plumbing. It is the one thing I haven't messed with yet. But the guy who opened my pool wrote MD and Skimmer on the pipes that go to my pump so I guess I can figure that out.

Thanks!

I have an automated Auqalink RS8 to control one pump with two actuators for pool and SPA. It works fine for years, but it suddenly stopped working for spa mode. The actuator for pool/spa inlet stopped working. The other one for return works fine.

After testing for a while, the problem was rooted to the RS8 system. The two actuators are connected to the RS board separately with 3 line connector. White/Red/Black. The white/black is 24 volts, but the red/black is only 12 volts for the stop-working actuator.

I bet it is not connecting loose problem. Any suggestions for the next step?

Thanks.

So excited to get my kit today, but am a bit confused. I'm m reading the directions on the Free, Combined, and total Chlorine. It says add drops of R-0001 and R-0002, but I don't see either bottles. My bottle starts R-0003. Did I get an incomplete kit??

The SLAM process states to continue until combined chlorine is below 0.5. My question is: how is the level reduced. Is it captured by the filter during the process? thanks

I've been discovering over the last week or so that my SWG keeps getting set to 0% output, as seen in the iAqualink web Status page. Has anyone else ever experienced this? I have the RS8 panel, iAqualink and TruClear SWG. I have not been able to find any rhyme or reason for this. I reset it, and later in the day I'll find it's back to 0%.

I have high phosphates at 251 PPB. The pool store instructions are to use Leslies no phosphates to remove phosphates from the water. It explains to run the pump for 48 hours without back, washing or cleaning the filter. They say to monitor the filter pressure as it can rise rapidly. That does not make any sense to me. if the pressure rises too high, you are going to have to backwash or clean the filter.
Can anyone explain?
Thanks,
Mike

We just got our chlorinator fixed. Because it was not working properly, unfortunately, the average salt level in the pool is now close to 4500. What’s the best way to bring it down to 3500 levels without draining and diluting the pool with fresh water? What if I switch off the chlorinator for a few days while the filter is running…will that take care of it?

Hey guys, my skimmer was replaced when the pool store opened it this spring (only 2nd season, im learning so i can do it myself next year but im not sure im confident to do it) a month after i noticed there is a crack, im thinking they overtightened the screw. Spoke to them and since its been over a month they take no responsibility.

Is this a cause for worry? If not,
Is this something i can just leave on and monitor if it becomes big?

Im worried about water leaking between the wall and the liner.
Thank You

Hello everyone!!! I’m new! This is my first post and my TF pro with ph meter and sample tests are being delivered tomorrow! Can’t wait to figure out if what’s in my pool is algae or something else

Soo I posted a couple photos from 0650 this morning and I used my pool blaster cordless vacuum last night. Same stuff in pool last night as this morning. Basically it’s reappearing. I tried to feel it in my feet last night and it didn’t appear slimy but the stuff my cartridge filter is filtering is a tan to light brown slimy looking substance. When touched or brushed in pool it clouds up and breaks up immediately. Not really forming on walls other (sticking) it’s just gathering in all areas of the bottom and seams of pool. My above ground pool is in the sun all day.

So before I get my test kit tomorrow night, is there anything I should do before doing the official testing n my water? Can I do the overnight chlorine demand test tomorrow night and first thing Saturday morning?

In the mean time feel free to wager your best guesses at the gunk in my pool that is driving me crazy!! Ps in the last 10 days I’ve added pro team algaecide (last Wednesday night), hth clarifier (last Thursday morning), chlorox brand ph decreased and chlorox brand alkalinity increaser. Haven’t put those in though since probably this past Sunday or Monday. And liquid chlorine nightly, 1 gallon.

Using my test strips I would guess ( why I bought the tf pro to take guessing out)my ph to be maybe 7.6-7.8, feee chlorine 10 ish but looks a little more based on strip color, alkilinity around 100 maybe my current strips don’t test cya but the ones I had a few days ago before I ran out showed around 30-40.

Thanks and so glad I found you all

Ps I added a pic of a cartridge that we took out probably a week ago so you can see color of what’s in my pool if this helps…

I ordered a new gas temp unit (pictured). It comes with the orange wire shown, which is good because mine is rusted. I would like to order some more of that wire because it connects other components in the heater and I'd like to replace any old wiring. Is this sole on Amazon, along with the push connectors? I took the sheathing off the wire and it says sew 2 200 degrees. Thank you!

Hello,
I have a Pal Color Touch receiver/driver PCR-2D-35 lighting system with 2 multi color lights connected to it. I opened the pool 2 days ago and when power from the breaker box came on, both lights lit up very dimly on their own.
I tried to turn them off by the remote, no response. I would turn the breaker off and on, they would come on the same way.
I read if I turn the breaker off for 24hrs,it would reset itself, I tried it now it's completely dead, nothing comes on
Remote has new batteries and is operating. There is power going through the circuit board, I see the red power light on when I opened to check the wiring
I don't know what else to do next, totally puzzled what happened to it during the few months of winter, it was operating fine all season last year

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated
Thank you
Allen

If I have pebble tec finish in my pool. Which finish do I pick in the pool math apps? Vinyl, fiberglass or plaster?

I’ve been working on a leak for about a week. It seems slow. About 2 inches a day. It just went lower than the skimmer so im Guessing the light niche. It was replaced about a year or so ago. Perhaps the epoxy gave way a bit?

I noticed that the new light doesn’t fit perfectly so there may be more movement then normal. I tried to use some food coloring but I didn’t notice any suction. I assume it could be a small leak.

I also can’t figure out where the water is going. No wet/sunken areas.

I plan to add more epoxy in a bit and mark the level again. I’ve had the pump off this whole time so I’ll need to SLAM once it’s said and done. I’ll also have to find a better way to seal the light housing. Is there an adapter or something for this type of thing?

If it’s not the light. I’ll be at a loss.

Advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.