Im a first time pool owner and would like to learn how to keep my pool balanced. I tried the pool store testing and the suggestions were very pricey. I want to be able to learn how to test the pool myself and how to fix it if the levels are off.

Hi folks, first time posting here. I just got the Taylor/Leslie’s K-2006 kit and tested my water. I shocked the pool last night and ran the pump all night. I tested the water today and FC is at 8ppm and CC is .5. I know the FC is high because of the shock, but from my understanding a CC of .5 is at the limit of what’s acceptable.

I tested using 10ml of water because I just shocked, so I multiplied the drops by .5. My water is crystal clear, so I’m not sure if I have an issue, or if I need to retest using 25ml of water to get a more accurate reading. Seems to me that my CC can actually be less than .5.

Would love to hear what you all think. Thanks.

Thought I'd ask here before I do something regrettable. A few years ago I turned a nasty pool shed into a nice, usable pool house. I custom built a "love seat" over the pump, but space was limited by the filter housing. There are 12' pipes running behind the pool house bathroom to the heater outside.

Question: if Iwant to relocate the filter to the outside next to the heater, so that I can add a seat and turn the love seat into a couch, can the pump remain where it is and be 12' away from the filter? I've only ever seen the pump directly next to the filter. My initial thought is it's fine, just a lot of work to redo the pipes and valves.

Fellow TFPer’s,
We have a Jandy ePump VSSHP270DV2A that was installed Sep 2022 by a Jandy authorized installer. It seems to be much louder than I remember post install and I think it’s happened gradually over time. It did happen suddenly once before and the cause was a dead lizard jammed in the cooling fan area. I figured at this point it was the same and honestly hadn’t noticed it until the neighbors said it seemed louder. I took off the cover for the cooling fan and all I could find was more debris than usual (recently completed landscape project where they brought in sand/soil to bring up elevation after a drainage project. I fear maybe they slung it around the fan and it was ingested since it seems to coincide with when the neighbors mentioned it. Cleaned it off but the sound remains…is this a normal sound for this pump? I have a pending warranty request with Jandy for someone to come take a look. Any ideas are much appreciated!
-One video is 1250 RPM (usually run low speed at 1750 to keep some skimming action….our yard is a perimeter of bamboo and the leaves are constant) and the other is 2750 RPM
-impeller is clear, we use skimming baskets with hair nets…the only thing I haven’t checked is the cartridges (been about 3 months since I’ve cleaned them but no rise in filter psi right now)

Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media

Yesterday my pump lost prime and I had to add some water to the basket to get it going. Woke up to the same issue today, looks like the spa suction is fine but pool side wasn’t working. Removed the skimmer float valve and it started working again. Not 100% sure the issue here but still testing. Any advice welcome!

Main thing I wanted to ask is I found this part in our Spa as well. Anyone recognize this?

I followed the TFP recommendation and added a bypass valve for my heater when I was building my pool. In the summer, when I don't use my pool heater, I let the water bypass the heater. I am wondering if I should also drain my heater (in the summer) by removing its drain plug?

New pool (completed May 2023). So all equipment is 3ish months old.

Saw some white flakes coming out of the jets recently and figured the salt cell was dirty. We went out of town and my Father-In-Law who was caring for the pool turned off the Chlorinator (chlorine levels were HIGH). White flakes stopped.

We returned and Salt level kept dropping on the system (Instant Salt got as low as 980ppm). But two separate tests of the water showed it actual amount was holding around 3000ppm.

When we turned the chlorinator back on, the white flakes returned, which confirmed the salt cell needed cleaning. Followed all instructions and cleaned the cell using a muratic acid mixture (there was LOTS of build up).

Rehooked everything up and it's been running about 24 hours now. Instant Salt reading has bounced between 1200ppm - 2300ppm.

Salt Test Strip reading = 3040ppm
Leslie's Store Test = 2847ppm
Instant Salt (per system) = 1750ppm

What else could be causing the cell to give such faulty readings??

Attached is the diagnostics for the cell.

Hi All,

I found a used Goldline "spa side" remote and receiver (2008?) came from an AquaPlus controller ... will this operate my ProLogic box (2017)?

See photos, please.

Pool pumps did not run yesterday so I went to check out what it might be, finding the low voltage circuit breaker tripped for the relays.
Reset it and it tripped again.
Checked & tested breakers and found the Main Filter Pump breaker would not trip when I pushed the ground fault test button. So that is the 1st part I need.
Did not explain the low voltage issue.
Tried switching two of the low voltage circuit breakers to see if it was bad. It was not, the breaker I switched to tripped the same.

I suspect my Transformer might be toast. We had a pretty bad electrical storm a couple of days back. It was working afterwards, but it may have taken a surge.

My transformer model is a Pentair 521082.
I noticed in an old 2018 thread someone had to replace one of these and the replacement ended up being a different part number.
The replacement part number was never mentioned.
Any suggestions on locating the 'right' replacement? I have found a Pentair 521233 that 'looks' like the one, but it does not have anything that says it is a replacement for my part.
Odd think is when I zoom in on the picture of the listing it has my part number on the transformer. (link attached)

I am a retired electronics engineer living in GA. We purchased our house with the pool about 5 years ago, but haven't really had any issues I couldn't resolve until now. Will post on the correct forum my questions.

Hi! We’ve be having a horrible wasp problem in S. Arizona. After being stung on the hand and missing 2 days of work, I decided to fight back. I used about 6 oz. of skill-it. IT WORKED! Wasps are gone. But now my crystal clear water Is cloudy. Chemistry looks good (pH is slightly high, CYA is 45, filters changed). Has anyone experienced this? Suggestions on what I can do?

I came home from vacation and had algea

So i scrubbed and added too much liquid chlorine. (2 gallons)!

3 days later and my FC is 20 and my CYA is 70. (PH is 7.6)

It has been dropping each day. Can i swim today?

Thanks

I bought a "Intex Krystal Clear 2150 GPH Sand Filter Pump & Saltwater System with E.C.O." system 4 years ago and it's been working great until recently. It was working fine this season until I plumbed in a large solar heater and moved the pump and filter. Now, the lights of the pump aren't turning on (kind of intermittently) but the pump is actually running.

When I turn it on, no beeps occur and no lights come on. The buttons are unresponsive. Every once in a while the "working" light starts blinking green and I see the LED readout at 05, which was the last time I had programmed. The cell is clearly not making chlorine though.

I did some searching here and see plenty of issues, but nothing that matches mine. Any tips? If not, any recommendations for a new pump/filter/Chlorine generator?

I have a 20x10x3.5 Intex above ground pool. My solar heater is on the ground since I didn't think the pump could handle a roof installation. I'd like my next pump to be able to handle pumping to my roof. Thanks!

My display board was loose and somehow my entire assembly started convulsing. I took everything apart and reseated the board, but now I have a No Flow solid indicator and only AL-0 through AL-5 on my Aqua Trol RJ. I know it was previously AL-7 but I can't get past AL-5 now.

Is there a fix to regain AL-6 and AL-7? I'd hate to spend $500 on a new board without understanding why this one is acting the way it is.

Moved from here.

Total and free Chlorine both 13.05 and TA 180.

I’ve had my salt chlorinator off for 1.5 days. I added more water. It’s not budging.

I’ve added muriatic acid 4 times in the last 3 days and while pH is fine (7.5) I can’t get the TA to go down.

All other chemicals are good. 300 CH. CYA 75. Salt is 3350 (up from 3200 before I turned chlorinator off).

Any recommendations besides draining and adding more water?

If something is referred to as a COMPOUND, is that just a way of saying it has “other” ingredients in it? Example: 100% Calcium Chloride Compound.

If so, will any of the ingredients Snow Joe is now including in their red bag matter? (See photos)

Any input regarding a less expensive price for calcium hardness Increaser appreciated. My pool eats calcium - I need 118 lbs to open and probably another 300 lbs throughout the summer.

Hoping someone can help. I had my water tested last week 0 chlorine, they told me to do super chlorinate for 24hrs, I also told them that the walls seemed a bit slimy....but they didnt suggest anything. Anyway, yesterday it started to turn green, today a little more. When and got tested, 0 chlorine again. This time they tested for phosphates and it was 750. Recommendation was to lower phosphates, poured the liquid in. Then tomorrow night I'm supposed to shock, then 24 hrs later they said to backwash and rinse. Then get retested on Monday. I feel like I should be doing something else, I know I'll wake up and wake up to a really green pool. I'm feeling depressed, finally a perfect weather weekend and my pool is green.

Hi all, back again.

We talked a few weeks ago and I updated my Intellicenter FW to 2.017 and all was pretty good, except I was getting a nagging alert that the Intelliflow 3.03/3.04 was out of date. I just hit "dismiss but show again" and everything seemed to be fine for a week or two.

Then one day during the day I noticed the pump was running at a very high rpm. I was adjusting the rpm in the app and tried putting it into service mode from the panel, but the pump was not responding to anything, including the schedule (everything else shuts off but pump still running at high rpm). Only thing was cutting the power at the breaker.

I turned everything on today, turned on the pump breaker and it primped and seemed to go to the "normal" flow so I thought to myself, great, maybe it was just a glitch. But come back and its doing the same thing - pump is running at high rpm and nothing will do anything except the breaker.

I have a service case with Pentair and someone is supposed to come take a look but was curious if there is something I can do in the mean time. I did not see a firmware for the Intelliflow pump on the Pentair site.

Went out this morning to backflush the sand filter and noticed the salt cell showing no flow and flashing lights. Any ideas of what might be going on? Thanks!

We just recently moved into a house with a hot tub and the previous owners gave us everything they use to maintain the hot tub. They never used chlorine or bromine and just used the ClearChoice Spa drops. Our water is crystal clear and it doesn’t have a smell. I tested it and the chlorine level is low (obviously) and the PH was high. Does anyone else use these drops and how do I know if my hot tub is safe and free of bacteria?

I'm assuming there is a special puller to remove impellers?

Just joined the forum. Hi from Sydney Australia. I love DE filters. Been around cleaning pools all my life. A few years ago, rebuilt our old spa with Acura control system and a second hand Pentair Gas heater “Master Temp 300”. The spa now heats up in 30 mins!!!

I have a 5000 gallon above ground pool. I have successfully used copper to sanitize the past two years Copper reading is currently .5 which is within range.. I have been dealing with high alkalinity and low PH for almost 2 week now! I've done everything I have read about. My PH is currently 6.8 and alkalinity is 180-200. I've done the muriatic treatment several times and have added baking soda to try to bring the PH back up. Nothing is changing.


I have tried the muriatic treatment for lowering alkalinity 6 times over the past 2 weeks. HELP!!!

Hello all, is it Norma to lose 1/4 in water each day in July in Seattle due to heating water for 30-40 minutes up-to 78-79 degrees? Normally I do not need refill regularly but I am losing a lot of water recently ( last 10 days). I did partial draining 10 days a go. I drained down to first step since cya is high. I also used magnet plus to get rid of some stains before draining. Then I am not sure what’s going on! Pool is a new thing for me and I am not sure if water loss is normal.

@cowboycasey
I am experiencing similar bowing. I have the ABG Prism 16x8x42 rectangle pool w/U-shaped legs thats installed on compacted artificial turf with a slight slope.

Liner is on 1" EPS foam.
I cut out foam and placed 1.5x12x16 pressure treated wood under (8) of the high side legs & (1) corner + 3x12x16 on (1) low side corner & (2) lower side short side legs. Levelness is only 1" off, but bowing. Pool is nearly full.

Do yall think this due to the thickness of the wood blocks?

Should I just go 1" or 3/4" all around since the foam pad has probably compressed.

Help... I'm freaking out. Thanks

Moved from here.

I started brushing my pool with stainless steel brush (due to the black algae) and adding liquid chlorine this afternoon. All the black algae spots were removed from the plaster. Probably, I should continue brushing for the next several days even though all the spots have been removed, should I? I am also wondering if I should clean my cartridge filter as well? Thanks.

Hi,

I have been slamming my pool for a little over a week now with little to no changes other then the reduced thickness of my wallet. At this moment the ph is at a fair level of around 7.7 (when I checked before slamming about 2 weeks ago) cya is at 46ppm, and free chlorine is at 31ppm (Recommended shock level is 18ppm with regard to the cya level) and .25-.5 combined chlorine, I have not tested calcium hardness but have noticed some light scaling at around water level. I have been brushing everyday, backwashing about every 3 days as the filter pressure gauge indicates it is necessary, but have yet to vacuum. Testing has been done with a new Taylor 2006 kit, fc added through use of 10% pool chlorinating liquid from Walmart, and the pool is roughly 16,000 gallons. Pool filter sand was changed last year, and a broken lateral was replaced a few months ago, the pressure from the return is good. With regard to climate and temperatures, I live in Nebraska.

The recommend dosing provided by the pool math calculator for free chlorine has been having little affect on the chemical level, thus requiring me to add two to threes times the recommended dose to get the wanted results with regard to free chlorine (ie. to get from a FC of 14 to 18 I was told to add 2 quarts of 10% bleach, but I added 4 gallons and withing 16 hours the FC level was 15ppm, with .25 CC), it also hasn’t been able to maintain the levels very well either, which has me confused as cya is at a good but slightly high level, and combined chlorine is rather low. Over the last two days I have maintained a shock level of 18ppm FC with no results, so last night (14 hours ago) I added 8 gallons of 10% chlorine on recirculate, I have just recently tested the pool and the FC is at a level of 31ppm and the pool looks like the photo provided. The only changes I have noticed is most all the insects have been eradicated and algae is not showing up much in the basket anymore. I am at a point where I have spent a few hundred dollars on chlorine already and am about at wits end as no amount of chemicals seem to be helping. I was waiting until I could at least see the bottom to vacuum, and figured I should probably do it sooner, but I guess I’ve felt if nothing else has had an affect it wouldn’t make a difference either.

I was recommended by someone on /pools on Reddit to raise to shock level, recirculate the water for several hours, brush the pool, then turn the filter off for 24 hours, after which I will add floculent, recirculate for 4-5 hours, then turn off the pump and once all the algae has dropped vacuum to waste. I was apprehensive about listening to this advice as I often hear not to use floc, but so many others seemed to encourage me to follow these directions. I wanted to get a second opinion before I went down this path, so what do y'all think I should do?
thank you

Hi TFP,

I'm replacing the MPV on my Tagellus TA-40 sand filter.

On removing the old MPV I've discovered that the centre pipe is not a single piece, but appears to have been cut in two and then re-joined. There's a piece of centre pipe extending 2"-3" from the bottom of the MPV, then a connecting collar (see pic), then the rest of the centre pipe going down into the sand. The piece of pipe in the MPV is stuck fast. The connecting collar is a snug fit both sides, but was not sealed with anything.

My question is... is this OK?! Is it likely to be diminishing the effectiveness of the filter? I'm trying to decide whether to simply replicate this setup when I fit the new MPV or to replace the centre pipe entirely with a new one that is the right length in one piece? I know the latter is the better option, but don't want to have to remove/replace all the sand unless it's really necessary.

Hello everyone, my name is Juan and we’ve been in this house for a little over two years. We live in the Houston area just south of Houston. About halfway to Galveston. We absolutely love our pool/spa and I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of controlling it. Up until now I’ve counted on the local pool store Leslies for testing and supplies.

I recently bought a Taylor K 2006 and I’ve become pretty proficient at using it. I have a pretty solid science background and my pool hasn’t looked this good in a long time. I’m starting to buy my chemicals online and where I can find them on sale, and I feel better being more in control of this myself.

My neighbor has a pool, and he recommended the forum and I’m looking forward to learning from all of you and getting great advice.