Recent content by lebaige

The first time I used the stuff I just poured it on in .. ugh, that was unpleasant, I had a headache the rest of the night. I'm in the Air Force and they're kind enough to issue me a gas mask and chemical gloves, which I now wear when dealing with the stuff. Problem solved! The neighbors do...

It's a AG with a vinyl liner

I have not one but two nasty brown water line stains on my lines from the swamp water the previous owners blessed me with .. one is above the water line, the other below it. Are there any good methods to remove thsese outside hours of scrubbing? The brush seems to get some of it but there is...

Well, I can actually see the bottom at this point. As it turns out my wife started putting clarifier in every three days without bothering to mention it to me. I'm honestly not sure if it worked or not but there you go. We've also had a lot of water turnover due to rain and backwashing...

I just stick with the Walmart 6% .. the nearest pool store is a half hour away and I almost never make it over there so any savings even if they do stock 12% would be totally wasted on the trip.

I'm looking at replacing my pump with a 1/2 hp Hayward model, and I'm having a hard time understanding the differences in their models. Specifically, I'm looking at the Hayward Super Pump 1/2 HP (SP2600X5) vs the Hayward Power-Flo 2 1/2 HP (SP1750). The "Super Pump" is marketed as an in ground...

I have a piddly little Dough Boy Media Master 150lb sand filter. I have a feeling the pump it's coupled with (A Doughboy Power Pak II 1.5hp) is too strong for it, although the pool stores that sell them claim the GPM for each are compatible. I'd like to replace both with a little .5hp Hayward...

The water isn't green at all anymore, that happened about a week ago when I vacuumed the bottom. It came from all the crud that was sitting down there with the leaves, which are gone now. It's just cloudy with tons of dead algae now and seems to be content to stay that way. You can clearly...

Quick story, we opened our pool almost three weeks ago to a massive slime pit courtesy of the last owners. It's a 24' AG with a 150lb sand filter and a 1.5hp pump. Current numbers from our Taylor test kit: FC: 13 CC: 0.5 TA: 100 (was 230, brought it down via acid and aeration) CH: 230 pH: 7.0...

Well I'm not a chemist but I understand that explanation, thanks! Of course, that begs the question .. if lye can be used as as a base with no unnecessarily added alkalinity, why do we use Borax? I'm almost positive I've seen it on sale in various hardware and grocery stores before ..

See, the above is what I thought happened. I was under the impression that the ACID is what reduced alkalinity and pH, and the aeration was simply an economical method to raise the pH back up without affecting the TA level you just lowered. Since borax is also supposed to raise pH without...

Ah. Well that.s interesting, I didn't realize that's how it worked. It seems odd that stores sell acids as "Alkaline lowering" when it's apparently just an enabler. Even the book that comes with the Taylor kits implies acid reduces TA ..

You know, that seems like a decent idea but I wonder how much chlorine breakdown you get storing it out in the heat and sun like that. The plastic they use doesn't look entirely opaque ... For the record I called the company and they are basically a regional distributor to pool stores in the...

I was reading the apply acid / aerate procedures for lowering TA and ended up scratching my head a bit .. if Borax raises pH without affecting alkalinity, why is aeration necessary? I ask because I don't have an effective aeration method at the moment but do have somewhat elevated TA and CH...

Well .. I've more or less decided that the filter is fully operational. I can find nothing physically wrong with it that would cause the sort of problem I'm having. Apparently Doughboy Media Master filters don't use traditional laterals, but rather some sort of one piece underdrain. The...