Howdy all,

I have a 4k gallon above ground vinyl pool with an intex sand filter. This is the start of our second year with it.

Chemical balancing was iffy the first summer and as of last week it was green as can be.

I fought off the green and am at a milky blue now. I got there using shock and clarifier. Progress has stalled.



I decided to research and ran into TFP. I realized I've been given bad advice and ripped off by the pool stores.

I'm clearing my cache of pool "knowledge" I thought I had and deferring to the collective experience of this forum.
It's time to SLAM!!

Yesterday I deep cleaned my filter. This AM i filled it to the max in antcipation of losing water to frequent backwashing. I'm going to buy a k2006 after I drop the kids off at school in an hour, along with liquid conditioner and liquid chlorine.

First step is getting an accurate PH and CYA level (It's gonna be real low I think). Then I will use Pool Math and post the numbers I think I should execute...then I will wait until you guys say go. While I wait I will brush, vac, and skim.

After that it's chlorine time. I'll do the math again and post the amount/steps I should take for approval.

I don't want to make any moves until I've been given feedback...I'm new and not pool smart. I'll happily defer and learn until one day I have the real knowledge that I can pay forward

Thanks in advance!

My Jandy salt generator flashes between no flow - low salt and eventually power cycles. I've done the reset but it didn't help. The one thing I haven't done is clean the cell. Would that cause this issue? The cell is probably 7 years old. Would a cleaning work or should I order a new one?

3 year old pool:

A couple months ago my pump started having trouble staying primed and maintaining pressure, ton of air in basket.

I replaced every o-ring on the lids and and valves, ran without filters, plugged pump-drain plugs, but no change. Tried soapy water on all the joints and could really find anything.

I used to be able to run my pump at 2500rpm but now it won’t maintain prime/pressure unless it’s at least 2700-3000rpm.

Pump loses prime the quickest when sucking from the cleaner port (maybe because of the distance/pressure?) but the issue persists even for the main drain and skimmer. Some days the pump can run all day without going dry and others, the basket empties fast. (I assume dirt underground sucks into the leak and holds some days)

That makes me believe the suction leak is after the suction valves and before the pump.
I have an in-ground leafvac canister before the pump. I have a feeling the suction leak is there, before the pump (2 pvc elbows underground), the one place I can’t check.

Does this seem likely? How much am I looking at in terms of repair?
Would be nice if I could reach down into the canister and patch the 3 inch pipe from the inside.

When closing the pool for the season, how far can I drain my fiberglass pool? From what I understand there are 2 things to be concerned about when lowering the water of a fiberglass pool.
1) The pool floating out of the ground from high ground water and,
2) The walls bowing in of twisting from the lack of counter pressure the gravel backfill exerts on the pool.
My PB did install an 8" pipe next to the deep end of the pool to inspect the ground water, and if necessary, drop a pump down it; so that address the 1st concern. Burt what about the backfill pressure? Bottom line is you have to drain down some water at closing. Last year I drained just blow the bottom of my skimmer but with a rainy winter and early spring, the water was overflowing the pool when I removed the cover.
I would love to hear some opinions on this. Thanks.

This weekend I finally installed my RJ-45. I've been stalling on this for a long time, but the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and resulting chlorine shortage finally pushed me over the edge. Plus, it was simply time. The Circupool Installation and Operation Guide is quite good, but here are some notes and images of my own experience.

Here is mt BEFORE shot. My pad is very simple. All power is currently 120V, with an option to change to 220V later if I need to. In this pic you see an outlet at the lower right (for the SWG and pool lights) and my LED light transformer at the top.


I will be replacing this inline chlorinator that I haven't used in some 6 years. My biggest challenge was positioning everything on that single straight run where the old chlorinator is since I don't have enough room elsewhere. The line out of the filter is too short for anything. The Circupool Installation and Operation Guide show various install options based on your set-up (check valves, spa, etc). The flow switch is required to have at least 6-12 inches of straight pipe before it, so in my case I put the flow switch after the cell because the cell is then considered part of that straight line measurement of 12 inches.


This is what you get in the package. I point-out the O-ring and union groove to let you know that the O-ring barely stays in place. In fact, it actually sticks-out of the groove a bit and kept wanting to fall-out (when installed horizontally) which made my last bit of assembly a bit challenging. The yellow plug on the control module power cord is something I installed since I had already planned to simply plug my unit to an outlet without a timer. Not shown in this picture is one black "jumper" included with the contents that is used to convert the factory-configured unit from 240V to 120V. You'll see it below. I had already installed mine.


The Circupool manual is quite clear, but here's a pic of my jumpers installed and configured for 120V. It's a little tight for fingers, but take your time.


Ideally, it would be nice to have enough PVC (movement) on each end of the SWG to move/manipulate the pipes a bit. In my case I did not have that luxury - no flex at all. So with little room for error, and after removing the old chlorinator, I installed the adapter on the right with blue collar first, then installed the flow switch to the far left. This would then leave me with the final pieces to glue - the small 5-inch piece of pipe and left adapter to the cell. The arrows point to the edge of the cell itself (see next image) which is what meets-up with the face of the adapter and O-ring.


Here is the cell itself without the blue threaded collars. When you measure and cut your PVC for this to fit, these will come very close to the face of the gray adapters and O-rings.


Here is my AFTER shot with install completed. Hanging the control module on the wall was easy. It's about 22 lbs, so make sure the supporting bracket goes into some solid wood or studs. Of course your #8 copper ground needs to go the pool's bonding system. I used a "Split Bolt" from the local hardware store to connect the control module's #8 ground to the exiting pool ground near the pump. Since I converted my computer module to 120V, and already installed a plug on the end of the power cord, all I had to do was plug it in. My pump runs 24/7 (on low) because we live in the country with lots of junk in the air settling, so I need that constant surface skimming. So for now, I didn't need to use a timer. I'll just set my SWG to a very low output % setting.


Here is the split-bolt:


And for my final trick, I made this tiny piece to go over the SWG. My equipment pad is on the west end of the shed - full Texas sun. The lean-to and lattice help eliminate most sun & UV light, but for about 3-4 hours early each day, some light enters from the side, so I put this in to shade the SWG. Because my equipment pad area is a bit small with limited space, this also reminds us to be careful when stepping over the SWG and flow switch to pick-up our feet and not accidentally kick the unit or pull a wire by mistake.


Hope this helps anyone else about to do a similar install. If you have any questions, let me know.

I want to install a wifi switch to control my pool light, I am 99% sure I have a neutral wire as required for the switch but want to make sure.
I have 120 v light switch but with 2 blue wires, not the typical black and white. I assume since it's 120 volts, one has to be the hot and the other is neutral. Is this correct? Not suure what the white wire in the back of the box leading to the GFCI outlet above is.

View attachment 511021

I am having great difficulty getting parts for my aquanaut-200, specifically the "Find 3, PVXS01SA-237-01 Upper Body, Blue Logo"

I order and wait, and in a month they tell me they are out of stock. Is THAT customer service?

Over and over again.

Perhaps Hayward won't ever make the part again so that we can buy some more of their overly complex schlock?

~~~~~
For over 20 years I had the original Kreepy Crawley in my California pool. It worked rather well. I went thru two of them, and doctored them up when parts wore out. It was pretty easy stuff to deal with.

• Are the new Kreepys as good as the old are?
  
• Is there a particular model that is superior?

I've a variable speed Hayward pump that runs full tilt for several hours ever night, then drops down to perhaps 50% RPM for five or six more hours.

I'd like to just get a Kreepy and wait for the parts for that extraordinarily complex Aquanaut to come in.

The Kreepy had ONE moving part. It was an exercise in minimalist design.

• I'm a a degreed mechanical engineer, and always marveled at the simplicity of the Kreepy.

What say 'yall?

tanks

Greetings….
I have an in ground pool with a Polaris 380 cleaner…
I have become aware that the foam scrubber at the end of the sweep hose is instrumental, in keeping the sweep hose working as designed.
That having been said, I fell victim to the cheap (Chinese Crud) that you find on the internet ( 10 for $5.00 or?)
They lasted less than a week for each.
Lesson learned….
Can anyone suggest an appropriate replacement, that will last as the original did?
Thanks
Sandy
PS….if everyone refuses to settle for Chinese Crud, we can turn back the tide.

Hello everyone, I have the Circupool RJ 45 salt system. We have had it since 2019 with no issues other than replace cell once in 2021. It has recently started showing "Cell Not Match" on the screen and none of the buttons are responsive. I have found a few forums that say to disconnect power and check connections, which I have done with no success. Has anyone else experienced this and/or found a fix for it? Also, can someone post a working phone number to Circupool, I have not been able to get in contact with them over the phone.

Thank you for any help.

Just wanted to say thanks.

We just bought a new home with a pool back in May, and in the process of opening and cleaning, the pool turned a lovely shade of sour apple.

So I did what any pool newbie would do. Went to the pool store and blindly dumped a bunch of chemicals into my pool. I'm sure you can all guess how that went.

There were times when I got really fustrated. There were times I wanted to give up. But I knew there had to be a way.
SO, I did my research on my own. All signs pointed to TFP.
Lurked on this forum for about 2 weeks. Learned about SLAM. Bought a Taylor test kit. Followed the steps. Understood the value of POP.

A week later, my pool went from sour apple to crystal clear.
I would not have achieved this without you all and your expertise.

I still look at the before/after pics my wife took (which I will provide soon) and just kinda shake my head and smile.
What a feeling...

First time pool owner, just moved to Grand Rapids Michigan. When we moved in I made the mistake of opening the pool, taking sample to Leslie’s… dumped random product into the pool following the recommendations… retested a week later, was told something different and sold more chemicals… retested a week later and now told something different again. After 3 weeks of this I still had a green pool and spent around $500 in pool chemicals.

So I finally did some of my own research, drained the pool and refilled yesterday. Now I’m starting fresh with the TFP method. I just ordered my Taylor test kit and I hope to never have to go back to a pool store again.

Looking forward to getting to know some of you! I am a veterinarian and former PGA teaching professional.

-David

**I know I need to make a signature, so for now: 25000 gal chlorine vinyl pool with sand filter

Hi

Last fall at closing when the pipe was blown, one side of the MD cover came loose. We put it back in place, and it is holding up good

However, before i close, I want to get it fixed

Hopefully it is a matter of a new srew and bolt but if the hole is bigger or bad, is there a fix that can be done to screw the MD cover?

Thanks

So since as mentioned in a prior thread my pool of 16 years rusted out and I have a new one being installed tomorrow.

The old pool was bonded to one of the uprights by the pump, then attached to the pump.

Is it a simple as them just attaching that copper wire to the new upright, or is there something more that's needed or am electrician to do that? All the electrical is existing from when the pool and electric was put in 2006.

I need to replace my light and the clip that hold the light housing is totally stripped, I don't even know how the light stayed in place. I heard of the aqualine pool light wedge, but also thought of using this "speed nut" that the manufacture (Hillman) claims they are made of "corrosive resistance steel".

Will this work and not cause rust and eventually lead to metals in my pool.

My other options are:


Any thoughts?

looking for a source for swim and play pool parts. Yes, I know they went out of business in 2018 wondering if any other manufacture picked up their designs and has some of the same parts. I have a 12X18 buttress free oval pool and I'm looking for top rails and wall coping. the pool is 9 or 10 years old now and I would like to keep it going till my youngest has not more interest in it anymore which is a few more years I think.

Hey all,

I was out of the country for a month, and a friend watched my pool for me. It’s a SWG that usually runs great without issues. Apparently it went green a week ago and he took a sample to the pool store. They advised him to add 1 gallon of Muriatic Acid and then subsequently another gallon. They also had him hit the superchlorinate button on the SWG. The levels before I left were:

FC: 5
Alkalinity: 110
pH: 7.4
CYA: 50-60

Currently I’m reading:
FC: 1
Alkalinity: 140
pH: 7.5
CYA: 30

I already began slamming and am going to add CYA. My question is how to get alkalinity lower without screwing up the pH. Is that even possible? Am I missing something about why it’s green? To be fair, it’s not a dark green - we can still see the bottom and I think slamming will take care of the issue in a day or two. Water isn’t hazy, either. I’m also a little perplexed as to why it went green in the first place - other than the obvious of not enough chlorine in the water. Thanks for any advice you have to offer.

Hey everyone. We have a 16,000 gallon inground fiberglass pool that you might see from some of my previous posts, if you looked, we have been struggling with. Long story short this is the second summer we have had it. Pool builder installed it in fall of 2021 and it was a swamp after the process. We have a mustard algae problem that keeps coming back every time I think it's gone. We have slammed and slammed and slammed multiple times last summer and this summer so far. I used yellow out as a last resort and followed their process after reading amazing reviews online, and I thought it was gone but it's back. We have an auto cover and I keep wondering if the auto cover is harboring it underneath.

Anyway, the water always looks amazing aside from a couple of places where that seems to pop up after a week of jot slamming. I don't really have any issues keeping the water balanced as it should be in those times - just the occasional minor pH adjustment and that's about it. I think you all can actually see my test results from the TF kit. Sometimes I test and forget to actually log them but everything is pretty consistent.

So after some swimming this weekend my 8-year-old developed a rash everywhere her swimsuit touched and a pretty bad case of swimmer's ear. We went to the pediatrician because she has a history of middle and inner ear infections and she said it looked very much like a case of hot tub folliculitis and asked if we had been in one. The only place we've been is out pool, which isn't particularly hot. It just got up to 89 this weekend. It had been around 83. She said it's possible rare to get from a well balanced pool, which was exactly what I thought. Anyway, due to the ear infection she's treating it if that's what it is and used an antibiotic that will cover both plus antibiotic ear drops.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, I also have been finding a few backswimmer bugs in the pool for the last few days. From what I read, it seems like they like algae but I'm not real sure how they get there or how to get rid of them yet.

So everything I can find regarding pseudomonas is related to a hot tub. The one post I can find about a pool was an above ground pool and all the water leaked out of it in the end anyway.

I'm not sure that that's what it is but I'd like to go ahead and take all the precautions necessary. Considering we have the yellow algae that pops back up every few weeks, I'm obviously a little worried about balance.

Can you all give me any advice on treatment in a pool? Considering that is an inground fiberglass pool it's not particularly easy to drain or we would have probably already tried that for the yellow algae. Someone suggested going through the slam process and then also changing the sand in the filter which I was already considering.

Any advice is appreciated!

Hi so I was battling a leak by my skimmer gasket , I repaired the leak and it seems to be ok , haven’t been in the pool cause I have a broken foot but yesterday my MIL and SIL went in and said where the shallow end starts to slope down they felt a large solid bubble …

Now is it from ground water ? We are in NJ it has rained alot lately ,

Or is it from the leak ? Is there still another leak idk where to go from here it’s my first pool , pool companies around here r impossible to get a hold of .

Please reply or DM any advice / suggestions / tips . Thank you!

So, I have learned that I don't need it with a vinyl pool. But will it hurt or benefit the pool in any way even though it is not needed?

Looking if anyone has specific recommendations for cooling down my pool a bit. I'm in Florida, and the pool gets full sun pretty much starting at about 9:30 or so. Currently getting up to about 93 degrees. I would like to get it between 86-88, or at least not above 90. I don't really want to drop thousands on big time cooling mechanisms. I typically run the pool during the day, however I read about running it at night can help cool it. I ran it last night from 2-7. I have a bubbler and ran the bubbler from 4-7. This morning the temp was at 90 degrees before the sun is even out, so I anticipate the pool will at least be 93 in a few hours. Is there anything else I can do? I see these products that are basically PVC pipes that you put into a return jet or the polaris port and they run a fountain that can cool the pool by a couple degrees. Does anyone have experience with these? Would my bubbler not be able to do the same thing? Any other ideas? Thanks

Hi guys,

Come for help once again!

My skimmer has some rust-like spots and at first, I thought there was some leaking. But then I noticed it looked like something growing.

Here is what I observed. First, it was light-yellow-ish mud-like stuff. Then it turned brown, red-ish. If I rubbed it, it spread into lots of red dust. If I left it for a long time, it left rust-like stains, which are very difficult to clean.

I assume it is some kind of algae?? Is it possible to be rust? Now I treat it as algae and try to increase the FC and brush it off frequently. But it won't go away and always grows back. Any suggestion is really appreciated!

*My pool looks good and I don't algae issues in other places.
*I have an old-school Jacuzzi skimmer and the gasket is made of cork. I am afraid the cork absorbs water and contains algae inside.

Max

HELLO ALL,
I am in the middle of a slam procedure and I have question that I haven't heard discussed. As algae dies and settles to the bottom should I be vacuuming them to waste keeping the pool floor clean or let them stay until slam completed?

I’m flipping out! I just put a pool Rx in my pool for the first time about 10 days ago and now I have this horrible staining at the bottom of my liner pool AND a guest just told me her hair turned green yesterday after our Fourth of July party and she had to go and have it corrected.
I’m horrified! How can I get the stains out of the bottom of the pool now? And how can I get the water right so it’s not ruining all of my blonde guests?!
What was I thinking with this PoolRx thing?!!!

Do I need to drain the pool, clean the stain somehow and start over?!
I appreciate your help.

C. Jones

Yesterday afternoon my water tested high pH and low salt in my 35k gallon SWG pool. So, I added a gallon of muriatic acid, which I've done a few times already this season, and 3 40lb bags of pool salt.

I added the acid first, all around the pool. About 15 minutes later, I added the salt by pouring it all along the edges. Some of the salt was in big, hard clumps, so I tossed them in. They stayed in clumps at first, but I knew they'd dissolve overnight.

This morning I go out to find staining on my plaster at the bottom. Did I screw up and add the salt clumps too soon after adding the acid, causing the acid to aggregate around the salt and "sit" on the plaster long enough to stain it? Is there a good way to fix the stain?

Picture of the pool bottom where there is no stain, followed by a picture of one of the stains. More noticeable in person.

I’ve seen several threads on this part but everywhere I look it’s not right or sold out.
I’m in the US.

I added floc to my pool, didn't follow the instructions properly and now what was just a small cloudy issue has become a disaster. Luckily, my water is balanced and clear on top but there is still leftover floc on the bottom and walls of the pool but water level is too low so I cannot vacuum to waste until Saturday when water is scheduled for delivery so should I keep pump turned off or let it run since floc is already in the filter sand? I also bought new sand and plan to replace sand tomorrow or on Saturday, but after I remove the old sand, deep clean the filter and then add the new sand what do I need to do to make sure my new sand is not contaminated with the remaining floc in the pool?

Does anybody have any experience with getting a HeatPro VS Heat and Cool Heat Pump (HP50951T) to work in Cooling mode on an Omni PL system?

My rep didn't activate cooling mode, we didn't think we would need it, but with the temperatures and the pool cover, the pool is turning into a bathtub every day.

I've gone through the settings/config, I click on 'Heat Pump', click on 'Cooling', and it asks if the unit supports cooling, I say Yes to that, then it asks which relay it's connected to. This is likely the issue, however I have tried the 3 relays that are active (2 LV and 1 HV). When I set all of that and the system restarts, I have the option to enable Cooling in the app, and it says that it's cooling, but the heat pump doesn't do anything.

Any ideas?

I’ve been getting a lot of blue sand which I’m guessing is plaster in the Polaris bag. I do see splotches in spots and a few small white spots. I’m wondering what I can do to stop this and if I’m doing something wrong.

We moved here last august so it’s all still relatively new to us. I believe the pool is about 9 years old.

I’ll attach the photo and this morning my results are:

Fc 40
PH 7.8
TA 80
Cya 50
Ca 390

I added a lot of calcium this year to get it up and also keep adding acid to keep ph low since we have a waterfall and it creeps up.

Thanks

I've got these test strips that test for both Chlorine and Bromine separately and my bromine levels keep showing high, like the upper limit of the range on the test. See photo. This is a new pool, I used well water that has been run through a home filter and a water softener, and the only products I have used so far are chlorine and muratic acid with some Clorox pH Down in the very beginning. I've also added 2 bags of Clorox Shock xtrablue. The water is highly alkaline from the well (water softener didn't do much, will need to check that on a separate note) and I have been adding muratic acid daily to keep the pH down and work on getting the alkalinity into range.

The one test strips I bought from walmart had bromine and chlorine on the same line with the same test.

So what the heck is going on with the bromine? Does chlorine simply interact with the bromine strip regardless of whether bromine is present, or is there something else going on here that I am missing?

Thanks!

I replaced a Hayward super pump with a Hayward VSP super pump. Last night when finishing up, I just turned on the breaker, made sure the display lit up on the pump, it started to spin up and I then shut it down. No problem.
This morning I’m ready to fire it up and get it programmed. As soon as I turn on the breaker, it trips. I disconnected the load wires from the breaker and it still trips.
If I disconnect the ground wire from the pump, it will not trip. The other end of that ground wire runs directly to the GFCI breaker. That’s the way the original pump was wired.
So basically I only have the ground wire on there and that’s enough to trip the breaker. ???
What am I missing here?
It’s a Hayward SP2603VSP.