My pool has an attached spa with waterfall spillway. Until today, my pump schedule was:
8am-6:30pm, 1800rpm (filtration mode). Interspersed, I had 2.5 hours of "cleaning" mode from 8:30 - 11am at 2800rpm and I had the waterfall "active" from 5pm until 6:30pm at 2200rpm. When the "pool guy" set up the pool, he said he liked to only have the spillway running a brief time to slow down the buildup of calcium and salt deposits on the rock sides. SWG is set to 40-45%, so it runs the entire duration of the schedule but other than the one hour of spillway time, the chlorine was flowing into the pool only.
This week I discovered a "stealth" algae bloom - water looked clear during the day but when the light was on at night it looked fairly cloudy. CC was .5 or less (one drop "cleared" it using the 10ml mark measuring level of the Taylor k2006 kit). Because of the cloudiness, I started to slam.
A pool builder friend (did not build this pool) said that I should:
1. Filter at a much lower rpm, like 850-900rpm but up the duration to 12 or more hours per day. This will save electricity and provides all the water movement you need (I don't know if this will circulate the water 1+ times a day. I have a flow meter but haven't installed it yet).
2. Set the swg to 80ish % but because of the relatively low flow rate during filtration it will only actively produce chlorine during the cleaning mode (850rpm is too slow - swg gives low flow error).
3. Set the actuator on the spillway such that it returns mostly to the pool but also returns a little bit to the spa so it is always "trickling" over the edge - seriously, just a faint trickle. Water fall will pick up during the cleaning mode for higher turnover rate. The goal is to avoid dead water while filtering.
He said the algae bloom is possibly because of dead water in the spa and high heat (here in So Cal its been blistering the last couple weeks), which started a bloom and then spilled into the pool during the waterfall schedule. By keeping water always circulating through the spa, bringing in fresh/filtered/chlorinated water, I might avoid this problem.
His recommendations make sense, but I'm wondering people's thoughts. Do you tend to let spa water sit for most of the day or add a trickle? I'd like to save on electricity by lowering the speed of my pump for most of filtration but not at the expense of constantly fighting algae blooms.
EDIT: I understand that the rpms etc are rough estimates and I can monitor and fine tune as we go, but the main issue is about keeping a barely noticeable trickle on the spa important or silly? Is a longer filtration period at a slower rpm better than a shorter duration with higher rpm (and constant chlorine production vs only producing during "cleaning" mode)?
Thoughts? Recommendations?
TIA,
Fred
8am-6:30pm, 1800rpm (filtration mode). Interspersed, I had 2.5 hours of "cleaning" mode from 8:30 - 11am at 2800rpm and I had the waterfall "active" from 5pm until 6:30pm at 2200rpm. When the "pool guy" set up the pool, he said he liked to only have the spillway running a brief time to slow down the buildup of calcium and salt deposits on the rock sides. SWG is set to 40-45%, so it runs the entire duration of the schedule but other than the one hour of spillway time, the chlorine was flowing into the pool only.
This week I discovered a "stealth" algae bloom - water looked clear during the day but when the light was on at night it looked fairly cloudy. CC was .5 or less (one drop "cleared" it using the 10ml mark measuring level of the Taylor k2006 kit). Because of the cloudiness, I started to slam.
A pool builder friend (did not build this pool) said that I should:
1. Filter at a much lower rpm, like 850-900rpm but up the duration to 12 or more hours per day. This will save electricity and provides all the water movement you need (I don't know if this will circulate the water 1+ times a day. I have a flow meter but haven't installed it yet).
2. Set the swg to 80ish % but because of the relatively low flow rate during filtration it will only actively produce chlorine during the cleaning mode (850rpm is too slow - swg gives low flow error).
3. Set the actuator on the spillway such that it returns mostly to the pool but also returns a little bit to the spa so it is always "trickling" over the edge - seriously, just a faint trickle. Water fall will pick up during the cleaning mode for higher turnover rate. The goal is to avoid dead water while filtering.
He said the algae bloom is possibly because of dead water in the spa and high heat (here in So Cal its been blistering the last couple weeks), which started a bloom and then spilled into the pool during the waterfall schedule. By keeping water always circulating through the spa, bringing in fresh/filtered/chlorinated water, I might avoid this problem.
His recommendations make sense, but I'm wondering people's thoughts. Do you tend to let spa water sit for most of the day or add a trickle? I'd like to save on electricity by lowering the speed of my pump for most of filtration but not at the expense of constantly fighting algae blooms.
EDIT: I understand that the rpms etc are rough estimates and I can monitor and fine tune as we go, but the main issue is about keeping a barely noticeable trickle on the spa important or silly? Is a longer filtration period at a slower rpm better than a shorter duration with higher rpm (and constant chlorine production vs only producing during "cleaning" mode)?
Thoughts? Recommendations?
TIA,
Fred
