New Pool and Not Sure what to do

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Tortuga353

Tortuga353

Well-known member
Aug 2, 2020
83
Auburn, AL
So last week they finished installing my ~27k gallon salt water pool. They gave me the aquachek test strips and pool school. They added CYA stabilizer and said I just need to check and do the maintenance.
We’ve been swimming, having fun, and doing the daily cleaning. I’m running Jandy 2.7 pump 12 hours a day during week and 14 hours on weekend. Jandy 1400 is set to 90%. We have a bubbler and water fall running the whole time. In Alabama and heater is not installed yet. Plus I like the sound and look.

I’ve done a aquachek test yesterday and although the color chart is a bit of guesswork came out with 7.2 ph, .5 FC, 80 TA, somewhere between 50-100 cya or stabilizer. I had added some water Sunday evening (two inches) so thought that may have been an issue.
I retested tonight and was 7.8 ph, 1.5 FC, 80 TA, and same on stabilizer.
I’m now running SWCG in boost and water was slightly hazy tonight on my swim.
Pool school guy made it sound idiot proof and I’d just need to clean, add salt, baking soda, and occasionally after months look at CYA/Stabilizer.
I’ve read quite a few threads but just don’t feel confident. I know I probably need to invest in a decent test kit but haven’t yet. We’re still actually acquiring more salt and baking soda so pretty much an empty pool guy tool box.
Salt content has pretty much remained at 3600-3800 since opening the pool last week.
I have tried reaching installer but they are slammed and having trouble pinning them down for answers.
 
Tortuga,

Welcome to TFP!

Don't know if I can help you any better than to strongly recommend you get your test kit on order asap! You can't do TFP any other way. I've used test strips and they just don't work. Please readABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and Test Kits Compared. We don't sell anything here we only have volunteer experts and pool enthusiasts that help people learn to take care of their own pools at very low cost with generic chemicals and it absolutely requires a reliable test method.

I hope you'll read the articles and change your mind about the kit. But if you don't we'll be here if you need us.

Chris
 
I don't understand the hesitance to get a good test kit after spending mucho bucks on installing a pool? I'd want to protect my investment. Your pool and equipment as well as your water need monitoring. Pool strips were never good gonna be good enough as you're already having cloudy water.

Do you know what size your SWG cell is? It may be undersized and you might need to augment it with liquid chlorine.

Don't buy and put in any more salt until you can test your salt independently of the device (Taylor K-1766 salt test kit) or you may be adding too much.

Maddie
 
Sarcasm.. I’ve only had it for a week and now not joined this forum a few days ago. I didn’t stock my tool boxes for motorcycles and bikes overnight. Also, just assumed the installers and school would be plenty fine based on feedback from other pool owners.

Also Jandy 1400 SWG which says 40k gallons and my pool is less than 30k or ~27k.
 
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What I would suggest is getting a gallon of liquid chlorine and adding it today. Your SWG may be struggling to get up to speed. Was your FC at the desired level before your installer turned it on? They work slowly, like a tortoise and need that FC jump start.
I also tend to use liquid chlorine before/after large parties because I want instant FC response.

Maddie
 
Ok I can do that. Yes, we went through on a test strip but not sure if he tested any other way. I didn’t think about it until last night that the landscapers had been digging and trenching all around pool this week. Red clay dust everywhere so maybe this is the haziness. Sod is going in today and fence on Friday. Then I can finally start worrying about my water. Haha
 
Oy! Yeah, you'll need to give the pool some extra TLC as long as those guys are working around it. I had a whole bobcat load of dirt accidentally (?) dumped into my pool right after filling during construction. Heartbreaking as it was HOT and we wanted to sneak in and swim.
Add a gallon per day until your test kit arrives and you can figure out where you stand. You have a big pool and a gallon won't be too much for it.

Maddie
 
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This is a little of subject but my temp readings seem high on my remote. During the day they are just north of 100 and pool is getting up to around 95. I will check with my grill thermopen and see what the water temp is but is the thermometer reading a real feel temp?
 

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Ok good news this morning I think. The water looks clearer and tested waterfall and got 10ish FC and tested main water away from jets about elbow deep and got between 3-5. It was purple at least instead of white like the first test. I ran boost for 10 hours last night and that seemed to get me somewhat sorted until the test kits arrive and I can see where I’m actually at.

I also checked with thermometer and water was within a degree. Air temp is off
But mounted to of electrical panel and I think it may be touching the metal. Just need to create an air gap but feeling better this morning.

Ok
TF100 and Speed Stir in route
2 - 40 lbs salt
2 - 12 lbs baking soda
Aquachek strips for quick color changing fun
1 - gallon chlorine

Anything else a must have?
 
Tortuga353 said:
Sarcasm.. I’ve only had it for a week and now not joined this forum a few days ago. I didn’t stock my tool boxes for motorcycles and bikes overnight. Also, just assumed the installers and school would be plenty fine based on feedback from other pool owners.

Also Jandy 1400 SWG which says 40k gallons and my pool is less than 30k or ~27k.
Click to expand...

We recommend you size your swg for 2x the pool size. This way you have much more flexibility for pump run time and/or reduce the % power and still keep up with FC demand. You're going to see that running your pump isn't cheap when you get that electric bill. At 14 hrs and 90% you are barely keeping up with typical FC demand this time of year. Any added contamination will drive your FC lower. Maddie's recommended gallon per day will add 3.7 ppm extra if it's 10% liquid pool chlorine. Should catch up with the "dirt dump" and anything else that happens as they finish. When is your kit coming? Pool care is easy with a decent test kit. Guessing is never good. If you go too low your pool isn't safe to swim in and will get algae. If you go too high you can damage the surface. I've been using TFP methods about 5 years. Perfect pool the whole time and dirt cheap using generic chemicals. Makes pool way more fun since we spend our time swimming instead of fixing the mess. Still have the same test kit. I've bought a couple of refills for it.
and all in my cost was about $10/Month including the kit. I've seen a LOT of people get their pool in a real mess and spend hundreds of $$$ to fix it. We're all just trying to help you avoid that.

Looking forward to those test results! You'll pick this up in no time and then have a blast... trouble free!

Chris
 
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You probably won't need the baking. Most likely will need some MA since you have a good amount of aeration. It's cheapest at HD or Lowes $12 for 2 gal of 31%. No need to stock up too much 'till you get your test kit.

Chris
 
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Ok yeah MA I’ll add to the HD list this weekend. The SWG is what it is at this point and is the same size and set-up as a friends pool they built. I can balance a little chlorine dump vs run time once I get things figured out a bit more.

It will be nice to finally have grass again and a picture of the expensive oasis at the end of this week. No matter how smooth construction managment is a PITA!
 
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Tortuga,

I'd like to correct one my previous comment about your power bill. I thought you had a single speed pump but this was not correct. With a variable speed pump you'll be able to reduce the speed a lot and dramatically reduce the operating cost. This has a huge impact on power and is a big reason that many pool owners use VS pumps with swg. Most of the time you only need half speed or less to operate your swg. So pool owners run the pump at high speed only long enough to clean the pool surface with the skimmer and filter any particulates from the water then run at minimum swg speed rest of the time. You can experiment to find out what is right for your pool. At half speed your pump uses 1/8 the amount of power. This is especially valuable for an swg that isn't sized with the 2x factor. Many new pools do not meet this criteria and can still work fine with a VS pump. When you replace it's still a good idea to up size if possible.

Sorry for the confusion on my part.

Chris
 
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Well glad you brought this up. I was screwed and they did not install the pump they quoted me. Fortunately, I have the information that they sent but dang it another battle. The joys of construction.
 

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They said they were sorry and it was unintentional. They will swap it immediately.

@setsailsoon saved me a bunch of money. Plus the HP upgrade will Help on features and flow. I know they said that was unintentional but I made them send me an equipment list because it wasn’t on the contract. I wonder how many accidental swaps there are...
 
Tortuga353 said:
They said they were sorry and it was unintentional. They will swap it immediately.

@setsailsoon saved me a bunch of money. Plus the HP upgrade will Help on features and flow. I know they said that was unintentional but I made them send me an equipment list because it wasn’t on the contract. I wonder how many accidental swaps there are...
Click to expand...
Glad you were able to get the contractor to be fair. Sadly there are a lot of stories where that's not the case. Too late for you now but we have information on contracting for a pool in our "Further Reading". May help next time.

Chris
 
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Yeah not sure how I didn’t find this place when researching pools...I would have been further ahead. I love some product research.

Fortunately I have done estimating and contracting jobs for n the past, so even though my builder is unorganized I was not and checking things. However this makes me concerned...what else did I miss? I’ll probably go through that check list anyways just to fine comb and feel comfortable.

I’ve already ordered better test, getting ball valves replaced with Jandy, adding actuators, and figured out I didn’t get the pump I ordered. That is just from a week on this site. Plus the pool math app.
 
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