Hello! New to the forum and pool ownership (though my parents had pools growing up). We moved to a house in southern Pennsylvania in October and just opened the pool April 7. We used the same pool company used by the previous owner, which also built the pool in 2008. It is a saltwater inground pool with vinyl lining. The pool also has a gas heater.
My husband took the water to get tested by the pool company the day after opening. Results came back with FC at .32ppm, combined chlorine 0, ph 7.2, alkalinity 73ppm, calcium 152ppm, cyanuric acid 24ppm, iron .1ppm, COPPER .8ppm, phosphate 246ppm, and salt at 2422 ppm. They suggested adding 5lbs alkalinity, 15lbs calcium (after waiting 1 hr), 2 bags of shock in the evening, then 3 bags of salt. I did all of this and retested with my Taylor K2006 kit on April 10. Assuming I did the tests correctly, I came up with FC 2.5ppm, combined chlorine .5ppm, ph 7.6, alkalinity of 80, calcium hardness of 250, CYA of 35, salt at 3200.
Springtime has been blowing a bunch of Crud into the water. I've been cleaning it daily with the robotic vacuum and they dirt is finally going away! The water looks great. This evening, I noticed what I thought was more dirt on the bottom of the pool, but more evenly spread and not in "piles" like before. After some brushing, nothing has changed. It didn't budge like I expected it to. Are these copper stains? The pool guy originally said not to worry about the copper until the system is running for a bit after being closed. But now I am getting worried! I honestly cannot tell if they are new stains or if they have been there the whole time.
On top of this, the pool pilot digital 220 no longer displays words. For the first week it would go between being readable and then having unintelligible characters, like it was crapping out. Now there is display at all. Do I need to replace the circuit board? Is it something I can do myself without any knowledge of that sort of thing? The pool company said the part alone would be $700-800. As a side question, when this system is working properly, I noticed the SWA says OFF. My understanding, based on googling, is that the SWG is OFF below a certain temp. Obviously the water is cold still. Is that causing any sort of issue with throwing off the balance of chemicals? If its not making chlorine...or does it matter at this point?
It's the middle of the night and these issues that keep popping up are making me lose sleep. I'd love to properly care for my pool, just as my dad did for his. I am desperately trying to learn as much as possible but I am feeling overwhelmed at the moment. My apologies if I included too much in this one post. Still learning how things work around here!
My husband took the water to get tested by the pool company the day after opening. Results came back with FC at .32ppm, combined chlorine 0, ph 7.2, alkalinity 73ppm, calcium 152ppm, cyanuric acid 24ppm, iron .1ppm, COPPER .8ppm, phosphate 246ppm, and salt at 2422 ppm. They suggested adding 5lbs alkalinity, 15lbs calcium (after waiting 1 hr), 2 bags of shock in the evening, then 3 bags of salt. I did all of this and retested with my Taylor K2006 kit on April 10. Assuming I did the tests correctly, I came up with FC 2.5ppm, combined chlorine .5ppm, ph 7.6, alkalinity of 80, calcium hardness of 250, CYA of 35, salt at 3200.
Springtime has been blowing a bunch of Crud into the water. I've been cleaning it daily with the robotic vacuum and they dirt is finally going away! The water looks great. This evening, I noticed what I thought was more dirt on the bottom of the pool, but more evenly spread and not in "piles" like before. After some brushing, nothing has changed. It didn't budge like I expected it to. Are these copper stains? The pool guy originally said not to worry about the copper until the system is running for a bit after being closed. But now I am getting worried! I honestly cannot tell if they are new stains or if they have been there the whole time.
On top of this, the pool pilot digital 220 no longer displays words. For the first week it would go between being readable and then having unintelligible characters, like it was crapping out. Now there is display at all. Do I need to replace the circuit board? Is it something I can do myself without any knowledge of that sort of thing? The pool company said the part alone would be $700-800. As a side question, when this system is working properly, I noticed the SWA says OFF. My understanding, based on googling, is that the SWG is OFF below a certain temp. Obviously the water is cold still. Is that causing any sort of issue with throwing off the balance of chemicals? If its not making chlorine...or does it matter at this point?
It's the middle of the night and these issues that keep popping up are making me lose sleep. I'd love to properly care for my pool, just as my dad did for his. I am desperately trying to learn as much as possible but I am feeling overwhelmed at the moment. My apologies if I included too much in this one post. Still learning how things work around here!
