Question, what is the purpose of tenting a pool during construction, and at what stages of construction is it usually necessary?

Hello! My name is Dan. I live in Tucson, AZ. We became pool owners when we bought our house in the Spring of 2018. The pool was probably built in the mid 1960s or 70s. After learning from the pool guy for 3 years, I started taking care of the cleaning and chemicals for our pool in 2021. I've realized I'm ADHD and that explains my swing between fixating on a pool problem through tinkering and forgetting the problem exists. I've been slowly learning how to do more to care for the pool that we have!

We are thankful for our pool in the Tucson summers! We love hosting pool parties and spending time as a family cooling off!

Hi friends! New member and first time poster. A friend and former member encouraged me to reach out to the TFP collective wisdom.

I'm looking for recommendations for a new pool pump.

Context: My single speed pump has an irreparable crack where the tank body assembly meets the seal plate to the pump. Water sprays everywhere when the pump is on. Due to the cost of the replacement part, I'm looking at installing a new pump. A 3rd party pool service guy recommended by my local Leslies, came, looked, and said he could build me a new 1HP single speed Pentair pump and install it. His job keeps getting delayed and I'm not sure when he will be able to do it. Meanwhile a friend and some others have encouraged me this is a job I can do myself. However, I really don't know what I need in terms of a new pump. I also don't have much of a gauge for how much I should or could spend on a new pump. Our income is currently tight, but our pool has been filter-less for about 2 weeks.

I have a roughly 20,000 IG plaster lined pool. The skimmer basket return is the only suction point. This is where I run our Hayward cleaner from.

So, how do I know what HP pump to get? How do I know if I need at VS, DS, or SS pump? What price range should I expect? What pumps do you recommend?

Thank you for any help!

We were removing the original overlap liner to replace it with a hook and bead liner. Only to find our 3 year old pool has a great deal of rust in multiple spots. The pool had no leaks that I know of, so I am very concerned this happened. Not a saltwater pool.

Contacted the retailer to see what the Doughboy warranty will cover. If we end up stuck with this one, do I just sand down and paint over?

Hi TFP community,

New (and frustrated!) pool owner. I have an IG vinyl pool with SWG and sand filter. Long story short - moved in to the house last summer and the pool was fine but then sprung a leak. Took three pool companies to come out and claim it was the light under the diving board so had that resealed. The pool sat for a while since the water drained under the skimmer (right to where the pool light is). Once that was fixed I filled the water back up and treated the swampy green mess that took over (prior to learning about the TFP slam method) Only took about a week to get it clear. Once the pool was clean - it started leaking again. Turns out it was a small hole in the liner on the floor in the shallow end - patched it up, no problems. Until it started dropping water level again. By then it was too cold to get back in the pool so it sat unattended for 6+ months.

Now all leaks are fixed and the pool is holding water but this go around I'm having the hardest time getting the water clear. Before finding this website I took samples to the pool store (I know, I know, I now have a TF-100 kit). They did say I had a very high copper lever - 1.5. I've been draining water through backwashing and vacuuming to waste and refilling. The pool has gone from a very dark green to a turquoise cloudy pool.

I had very little CYA (pool store said 5 - TF Test kit doesn't register any so assuming 0). I added a 4lb bag of clorox stablizer using the sock method. Tested the CYA a couple days later and it raised to almost 20. However, two days later the TF-100 CYA test was 0. It was almost completely clear, black dot very visible. I've been pouring 10% bleach in daily, brushing, vacuuming, backwashing and all of the rest of my numbers have been fairly consistent. I just added 4lbs of stablizer again to try to get CYA up to 30.

Am I doing this right? Do I just need to be patient? I don't fully understand what my levels need to be?

First day 6/20/23- (*pool store test numbers*)
FC - .7
CC - 1.2
pH - 7.2
TA - 85
CH - 90
CYA - 5
Copper 1.5

4 days ago (6/23/23):
FC - 12.5
CC - 1.5
PH - 7.5
TA - 85
CH - 86
CYA - <20 almost registering 20

Yesterday:
FC - 13.5
CC - 0 (I think I messed this one up)
pH- 7.2
TA - 80
CH - 175
CYA - 0

Today:
FC - 9.5
CC - 2.0
pH - 7.2
TA - 80
CH - 125
CYA - 0

SOS!

Hi all ~ Last evening I turned the cell output down to 0 and added a bag of salt. As an aside, the Android app won't let you go to 0 only as far as 1. The web app allowed you to go 0. Go figure. So just a few minutes ago, I turned up the output on the cell back to where I had it via the web app. Everything was green on the cell but I noticed the Status light stayed off. Out of curiosity I turned up the output via the panel and the light came on constant green. Which is the desired state I think. My question is, did it take me using the panel to adjust the output to actually 'turn on' the cell? Does it take some minutes before that light will come on? Just wondering if the remote aspects of controlling the cell are bug infested.....

Hi! my name is Ephraim, i found TFP a bunch of years ago the methods used have been an absolute pleasure! Thank you tfp!!

I typically use Liquid Chlorine from the pool store. 2.5 gallon jugs around here, I believe 10% concentration, but I hardly need it as I have a salt generator. However sometimes with very heavy rain, or when away on a trip and something goes wrong I need some chlorine. Its a pain to transport so I thought I would try some normal shock. I bought the stuff below and was curious how it compares to a 2.5 gallon jug of the liquid chlorine. I tried to use the pool calculator and from what I can tell, one 2.5 gallon jug of chlorine is equivalent to 4 1lb bags of dichlor shock like below? Is that about right? Further, when putting in the shock, is it normal for it to take time to boost the chlorine vs the liquid?


I ended up dumping the whole 6lbs of shock into the pool as it wasn't having the immediate affect like the liquid normally does and then went and threw the liquid in as well. Stupid on my part and the pool is thoroughly chlorinated at this point, but I would like to figure out for next time as I would rather use the shock if possible the next time I have a possible algae situation as its much easier to store etc.

I have a Coleman steel above ground pool and my frame is rusted, I've only had it for 2 years, should I just take the pool and throw it away or how do you go about replac in the frame? I'm new to this, I know I would never buy nothing else from Colemans pools... I haven't tried to call them. And I dnt think it would do me no good..Does anyone hav any suggestions? TY
I

I replaced my 4 yr old Maytonocs Dolphin Active 30 last year because replacing the cord, brushes and other parts over time was going to add up even DIY. Since the extra Active 30 features turned out to be worthless and pretty much nonfunctional I went with the Active 20. But the Active 20 just seems so much more stupid (I know there are many posts on this). I should have returned it.…. But I got to thinking what would be involved in transferring any more random “brain functions” from what is a still functioning Active 30? I found that the controller from the Active 30 won’t work with the Active 20. Is it a motor transfer or what that could impart more effective random operation and better wall scrubbing.

A new pool owner here going on two years and excited to become part of this community!

Struggling this year. Never use anything other than liquid bleach 12.5%. No additives.

This year I opened the pool (2 weeks ago) and there’s the typical blanket of algae. That’s never been a problem before. I’ve sparkled up the darkest of algae blooms in the spring (thanks to TFP).

But this year when I went to scrub it or brush it nothing happens. It’s like a stain. But everywhere. Maybe a little bit comes off but it’s still a nice green colored stain along the floor and walls. Never happened before.

Shock clears up the water but the stain persists.

I’m going to do some test later to get the numbers, but I wanted to poll the audience first.

Again, thus isn’t a few spots on an otherwise clean vinyl liner. This is like someone took a paint roller with green/yellow paint along the floor and walls. Will also get a pic later.

TIA

My pool remodel is nearing completion. I have one thing coming in the mail tomorrow, and then we'll be able to get plaster/pebble installed within the next week or so (working around the holiday).

The pool builder has said he'll leave startup up to me. I'll fill the pool and balance chemicals myself.

It sounds like the bicarb startup method is the best for durable, long-lasting plaster finish. If anyone has experience with doing it, I'd love to hear from you about what to expect, any challenges, etc.

I was wondering if there is a more cost effective product people use for increasing Calcium other than what the pool stores sell. Under the TFP "ABC's of Pool Chemistry" it was stated:

You increase CH with calcium chloride, sold as a deicer and by pool stores, or calcium chloride dihydrate, sold by pools stores for increasing calcium.

but from what I saw most/all deicer products contain a very high percentage of salt (it seems 75% salt is common).

Hi everyone. My name is Doug. I've been a pool owner for 6 years now and am just discovering this TFP method. I've been going to the pool store to have my water tested and every time I go in, there's something off with my chemistry and I end up buying something.

Been having issues this year with some algae blooms even though the water is chlorinated sufficiently. I've been treating it with sodium bromide (Yellow Treat) and that seems to take care of it.

Now my CYA is getting really high because of the tabs and shock I've been using. It's always something. I balance one thing and then another thing gets thrown off. It's frustrating trying to keep everything properly balanced.

Anyway, glad I found this forum. Hoping to learn new and less expensive ways to keep my pool up.

Cheers!

Doug

I’m a long time pool owner and have experienced most everything that can go wrong. I have an 18 x 36 I ground pool. The last 2 seasons I’ve experienced algae on the liner walls and floor. I shock it, vacuum the Crud out of it, but leaves some greenish areas in the floor of the liner that don’t come up. Within days it comes back. The liner is about 17 years old and has lost most of its color. It seems the spores are living in the liner. Is that a thing?

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!

We bought a house with a pool 2 years and it's been nothing but a headache. Previous owners didn't open it for a few years and allowed the gutter run off to go down into the pool. We had them make it swim able before we bought it and they did but we continue to have issues and i'm just not sure what it is. We have added a new heater, a new variable speed motor, a new multiport valve as the gasket was bad, we had the sand redone end of last year, and we did a salt cell generator the IC40 for our 27k pool. We had the IC30 and it wasn't generating enough or any salt not sure and we had our pool shop swap that out.


TDS: 5000
Salt: 3600
Ph 7.4
Alkalinity: 95
Calcium Hardness: 180
Free chlorine: 1.2
Total chlorine 1.7
CYA: 104
Phosphates: 4000
Metals (specificially copper) .3

We just can not get this pool clear. Oddly when we opened it up earler this year it was perfect really clear, once the season wore on it's been cloudy espeically after i tried to do a phosphate treatment because we couldn't keep chlorine in it. It's been cloudy for almost a month now and it was cloudy for most of last year. It's like a milky haze almost. I can most days see the drain otherwise its always cloudy. We had issues maintaining chlorine levels and i'm not sure if it was the old generator and the new one fixed it or all the chlorine is being used. We have shocked the heck out of it and still super cloudy.

I'm honestly not sure if i should care about the phosphates or not. I hear people say ignore them, and i hear people say that ours are so high we need to treat. I did a metal treatment and that seems to have helped with the staining i'll know more when i get that tested at the pool store.

We run the pump 24x7 at either 2250 or 3150 rpm. I have the 4ppm culator in the basket as well to help with the metals.

I am new to my own testing and this is a BIG learning curve.
I finally figured out Free Chlorine. Now I need a bit of help with the CYA.
When I test the water, my results does not come up to the 100 mark. I round that to 150. Is that correct?

Greetings TFP community! This past spring my wife and I purchased the 12'x24'x52" Intex Ultra XTR pool. This came with the Intex Krystal Clear Saltwater system ECO15110-2 pump system which has the pump and SWG all-in-one and come with a sand filter.

Set-up was easy, but I am having trouble similar to this user with regards to the pump programming. No matter how I configure the programming, the pump portion runs indefinitely without ticking the time down. The chlorination will time down properly and turn off, but the screen will just display the number of hours I programmed the pump for and continue to run just the pump. I've tried all combinations I can think of but unlike the poster in the aforementioned thread, setting the pump timer first, to say, 12 hours and then the Chlorination to say 6 hours yields the same continuous run results.

I've done a few days searching but no results have helped fix the issues yet. I've also emailed Intex support, still awaiting their reply. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys,

This is going to be a little bit of a brain dump so I hope you don't mind.

I have a 12k pool with a SWG TurboCell T-Cell 15. Since we purchased the home, I always had maintenance people come and do everything. I didn't know a lick about anything and we just got in the pool. About two months ago, our pump died. We went from a single speed to the intelliflo VSP. Literally within the week of installation we ran into more issues and so we decided to re-plaster the pool (and put in a new skimmer). At that point, I decided I was going to fire all maintenance people and take over myself. The plaster was completed and over the next 5-6 weeks I've been on this board learning as much as I can (including getting a proper test kit!).

Since we have a SWG, today I finally dumped in salt. According to the system, we have about 800ppm of salinity. My drop test showed 1,200ppm. So I put in 5 bags of salt to see where i'm at tomorrow and if needed I can drop in bag 6.

My first question is regarding the pump & swg. Our old pump was connected to our Aqualogic PS-8 and ran from somewhere between 1pm-8pm. I believe this is when the SWG would kick on and chlorinate the pool, correct? The new VSP is not connected to the Aqualogic since it is my understanding that they cannot communicate with each other. I operate the VSP manually.

My main question and what I assume is the case, is that the "pump" light on the Aqualogic still needs to run in order for the SWG to kick on. If that is indeed the case, then I need to program the Aqualogic pump times to match that of the VSP pump, correct?
Currently the VSP is running 24/7 at:
Speed 1) 8am-12PM @ 3000 RPM
Speed 2) 12PM - 8PM & 2400 RPM
Speed 3) 8PM - 8AM & 850 RPM
After reading around here over the last weeks I'm considering lowering the 1& 2 RPMs and upping the #3 RPMs.

Additionally, after reading the Aqualogic/SWG manual, it seems that my SWG is meant for double the size of my pool (not sure why the previous owner chose that). The SWG has always been set at 75%. After reading the manual 75% seems like a lot. Should I put it to 50% to match the size of my pool?

I might be forgetting something but that's it for now. I appreciate your time and any help! Thanks!

Hi All,

A few months ago I switched from liquid chlorine to an Intellichlor IC20 SWG. My pool is 18,500 gallons and was built about a year ago. My pool chemistry is:

FC: 1.5 ppm
PH: 7.6
Total Alkalinity: 91 ppm
Calcium Hardness: 271 ppm
CYA: 65 ppm
Salt: 3,656 ppm

For some reason, I'm still having to add liquid chlorine weekly to keep my FC up. Currently its at 1.5 ppm, which I think is low.

I'm also dumping muriatic acid in constantly.... Does this ever stop?!

I'm running my pump 10 hours a day with the salt cell on max output. My rpm is 2,400.

Do you know what I might be doing wrong?

Thank you ahead of time for your help as always!

Jeff

Hi everyone!

Long story short my wife wanted to remodel our pool (we remodeled our kitchen and bathroom ourselves) she figured since we did those remodels a pool wouldnt be much harder.... we had the pool poorly painted that only lasted a couple of years before the paint started rubbing off the walls onto our skin and clothes and eventually flaking off, so now we are looking to replaster the pool.

We have the tiles removed and pressure washed the whole pool and we are going to do a acid wash this weekend.

Im hoping to get any recommendations for a contractor to repair/ replace the cantilever decking surrounding the pool. One contractor told me to avoid doing the concrete decking because I would have to replace all the plumbing and electrical and the whole project would run 80-100k. He recommended I leave the decking and just replace the broken skimmer basket housing and the floor drain to bring it up to code. To replace the skimmer, drain, tile and replaster would run around 25k. Doesn't seem that bad of a deal but doing the replaster and tile ourselves would save us 20k (5200.00 to repair the skimmer basket)


The second thing im hoping to get comments on is the product sider-crete. Ive watched videos and read threads but there is never a follow up after to see if the product holds up to the advertised 7-10 years.

Thanks for any and all advice, recommendations, and tips.

Just joined because I wanted a place to share the solution I found to keeping my pool hose cleaner from tangling.

Hello All,

I have an 18’ x 52“ Intex ABG pool with their 1,600 gal/hr pump/sand filter system attached. We recently added a Hayward ABG skimmer to the pool and also installed the return that came with the skimmer. We’re amazed at how much more flow that created through that pump! The issue I’m finding is that the return is now flowing so strongly that surface items are going too fast to get into the skimmer. I’ve tried ALL the angles, up and toward the skimmer, up and away from the skimmer, down and toward, down and away, straight down the middle. I’m at a loss of finding the right way to point the return to get the best flow. For details sake the return is 4‘ to the right of the skimmer as you’re looking at it from in the pool.

I’d gladly take any suggestions/advice. I know it’s a pipe dream to assume all surface items will get in the skimmer, but there are large items that float right on by even 4“ in front of the weir.

Many thanks!
Chris

Hello TFP community! It's been one year since becoming a pool owner and joining TFP. I have learned so much but still have a ways to go, especially in the confidence dept. We started the year with a pump that died and the SWG also went out - they were both 10yrs old. All have been replaced and are fully functioning. I am currently struggling with the inability to get my pool crystal clear - I've seen the pictures you all have posted and know it's possible, I just can't get there. Also fighting high TA and PH drift - I worked at it all year last year and never got the TA below 120ppm (we are on well water). I use the Taylor K-2005 and got the FASDAP for testing chlorine, and the K-1766 for salt. Here are my numbers this morning:
FC -11
CC - 0
PH - 7.8
TA - 150
CH - 140
CYA - 80
Salt - 3600 (I think is too high)
Water temp - 83*
SWG is set at 40%. Haven't found the sweet spot to maintain FC at 8-9 with regular usage.
The pump runs for 12-14hrs/day
Last week the pool was almost crystal clear (that sparkly clear) but still not there. We had a pool party on Saturday with lot's of swimmers and for the past 2 days the water has looked dull - not cloudy, but definitely not clear. What am I missing? Am I wrong that my numbers look OK? I know I need to drop the PH some and will continue to try and get the TA down but it's a constant battle. I primarily use muriatic acid, cyanuric acid, pool salt and occasionally liquid chlorine. I've never used any other chemicals since owning the pool. I'd appreciate any and all suggestions to get my pool crystal clear with healthy chemical balance. Thank you!

I've had multiple pools in the past and never had a problem with my pool cleaner hose tangling. We built a new pool at our new house in early 2022, and I couldn't keep the hose from tangling. It's a fairly large rectangular pool with a Polaris Quattro Sport cleaner. I tried all of the solutions I saw in other blogs - change the hose swivels, lay the hose in the sun to straighten it, adjusting float spacing, etc. Nothing worked. After sitting on my porch and watching for a couple of hours I figured out the problem(s). First, too much of the hose length was floating on the surface of the pool, exposing most of the hose length to looping over itself on the pool surface. To solve this, I removed all but one float from the segment of the hose between the cleaner and the first swiveled junction. That one float keeps the deepest part of the hose partially floating (so it can't lay on the bottom of the pool and get run over by the cleaner), but does not give enough buoyancy to bring it all the way to the surface. This keeps about a third of the pool hose off of the surface of the pool and out of the way of the rest of the hose that is on the surface. Second, I recognized that the hose was 2-3' longer than it needed to be to reach the furthest point of the pool. I cut segments out of the middle of the hose (in the vicinity of where the loops occurred that led to the tangling). Since doing both of these adjustments, I've pretty much eliminated the tangling problem, such that I generally haven't had to pull the hose straight every night to let the cleaner do it's thing the next day. Anyway, hope this helps somebody who was frustrated by the same thing I was but wasn't having any success with the commonly posted solutions. Good luck!

Hey everyone, I saw this site while online and pulling my hair out trying to find answers for my pool being cloudy after algae treatment and shock. I am here to tell you that it has helped me tremendously! I installed the app,tested my pool and am on my way to a healthy pool balance. Thank you so much for all the information and tools to help a newbie look like a pool pro!

So we bought a 18-ft x 42 Bestway pool from Sam's which we are loving. automatically of course I scrapped the crappy pump that came with it and ponied up another $160 for a better sand filter / pump combo going with the 2400 gph xtremepower 3/4 hp with 26 inch sandfilter. I also blocked off the useless below water suction vents and installed a Hayward skimmer and return, not only to get surface skimming power but also have a way to hook up a vacuum.

The pump seems to be doing a decent job of cleaning the pool running at 4 hours a day but there just seems to be a lot of trash still on the surface and mainly on the opposite side of the pool so I was considering buying another Hayward skimmer which automatically comes with another return and adding a second return and skimmer to the other side of the pool to provide more cleaning abilities. my question is do you think that 3/4 hp pump would be enough to power 2 skimmers and 2 returns? Pump is hard plumbed 1.5 inch pvc. I have considered maybe after this season's over buying a much better sand filter / pump combo maybe a 1 or 1.5hp dohenys or hayward setup. I'm sure that would probably more than do the job although my electric bill would probably show a noticeable difference with that setup...lol

Thanks!

Hello, TFP members! Long time Houzz user here and I have appreciated that group there so much, all who pointed me to this group of folks to help us troubleshoot a new pool build in Minnesota. We just settled on our pool builder who has a good reputation and builds a lot of pools in the Midwest. Pool will be in-ground vinyl.

We have two kids, 7 and 3 1/2 who are the primary reason we are building this pool but my husband and I are both very excited about it as well. I have wanted an in-ground pool my entire life, in spite of the short season we enjoy here in Minnesota. We figure with a good heater and an auto cover we can use the pool from May to end of September.

I'm attaching our estimate here from our pool builder and I would very much appreciate any insight/advice as to what we need, don't need, may be forgetting, etc. I'm also attaching a photo of the back of our house. The pool will run longways, parallel to the back of the house and those lilac bushes you see along the lower deck will be removed and replaced with concrete for the pool deck. The steps you see coming down from the lower deck will be moved to the opposite side to allow easier access to the pool entry steps which will be on the swingset end of the yard. This is primarily going to be a family pool that we would love for our kids to enjoy for all of their childhood and for us as we get older and entertain our friends and family.

The size is not very negotiable as our yard is a bit narrow and long so it'll be 18x40. We are leaning toward chlorine, not SWG as for some reason our daughter's eczema seems to flare anytime she swims in a salt pool, though I do know chlorine is chlorine no matter how it gets into the pool. Maybe the pools she's swimming in are just not balanced.

Biggest desires: Slide for the kids! Thinking wedding cake steps that then transition into a long full-width bench running across the 18' width of the pool which is priced in the estimate. That would be one bench, not full end steps which we were told would eat into the useable space of the pool. We don't want a big concrete jungle in our backyard so we are aiming for 3' of concrete on the long 40' sides of the pool with a bigger pool deck on each end of the 18' width for a few lounge chairs, but again, trying not to do too much concrete. We like the green, natural look of our backyard. Love the look of the natural Hamptons style pools but in Minnesota the minimum for concrete along the edges is 3' for structural purposes. We have two large decks, one that sit close to ground level as you can see in the photo so that can also be utilized for eating, lounging, etc. We do know we will need a larger concrete pad for the slide and we are okay with that.

Thinking maybe deck jets for the nice sound, or are those overrated? How about lights? Undecided on depth, but we were thinking the pool would run shallow to deep with the max depth being 6'5" of water depth under the slide area.

Huge investment for us financially and one we have been considering carefully for years. Pools aren't inexpensive in this area, and we are very nervous we're going to get this wrong.

Let me know what we might be missing and thanks in advance!