A little help please.... With 23K gallon inground pebble tech pool

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J

Jetmanjo

0
Jul 1, 2017
17
Redding, CA.
Hello,

I joined here back in 2017 and got some excellent help and ordered the large test kit. Since that time life has gotten in the way and time has gone on. Things had been going fairly well for years and I was occupied doing life things. Last year things started not going so well and I had failed to keep up on my testing practices and although was keeping the chlorinator floater filled and shocking I was continuing to get algae growth weekly. Made it through the season but it was with a lot of scrubbing and plugging up my D.E. Filters which I ended up having to break down and clean up several times last season.

Well here we are again at the beginning of a new year and new season for our pool. It had gotten so bad that after taking a water sample in to Leslies Pool Supply, I was being advised that I needed well over $500 in pool chemicals to get things under control

I purchased a gas powered 2' water pump and adapted my pool vacuum hose to it. After a couple days of scrubbing the sides and bottom the best I could blindly due to the green pond like looking water that I could not see through, vacuumed the entire pool while discharging the water into the back yard. I then switched over to the 2" suction line and completely drained the entire pool all but a couple inches that remained at the bottom. Used a broom and dustpan to sweep up and get out the remaining leaves and debris and refilled the pool. I figured this would be the best avenue and would rather spend the money on the water bill than adding lots of chemicals to try and get our water right again.

I then did a complete tear down of our D.E. 80 Filter system and got it filtering right away. Got the floater full of 3" tabs and also added about 2 lbs. of shock 3 days in a row for a total of 6 lbs. of shock.

I took a sample in to Leslies for analysis, and I will post the results here. I am looking for any and all help from you generous folks here in hopes of getting my brain back on track and my pool water correctly adjusted so we can have a great season this year as well as many years to follow. I will follow your guidance to a T. Thank you in advance for the help, I really appreciate it.

Our inground pool is 23K gallons
Pebble Tech
Pool sweep powered by secondary pump
Pool Pump runs 4 hours a day, and pool sweep 2 hours a day during the time main pump is running

Leslies ACCUBLUE test completed 04/14/2025

1. Sanitize: Maintain 1-4 ppm of Free Chlorine using Leslie's tablets.
2. Shock: add 1 lbs. 6 oz. of any leslies shock weekly
3. Prevent: Add 10 Fl. Oz. of Leslies Perfect Weekly every week

TEST IDEAL RANGE RESULT

Free Chlorine: 1-4 ppm 0.34 (!)
Total Chlorine: Within 0.2 of FAC 0.35
pH 7.2-7.8 7 (!)
Total Alkalinity 80-120 ppm 99
Calcium Hardness 200-400 ppm 60 (!)
Cyanuric Acid 30-100 ppm 5 (!)
Iron 0-0.2 ppm 0.1
Copper 0-0.2 ppm 0.2
Phosphates 0-100 ppb 462 (!)
TDS 0-2500 ppm 200

PROBLEM PRODUCT SOLUTION

1. Low pH Leslies Soda Ash Add 2 Lbs. 10 Oz. of Soda Ash
2. Low FAC Leslies Add: 11 oz. of Power Powder plus 73,
Leslies OR 13 oz. of Chlor Brite, OR
Leslies 69 Fl. oz. of Sodium Hypochlorite
3. Low Calcium Hardness: Leslies Hardness Plus Add 47 lbs. 8 oz. of Leslies Hardness Plus (But no more than 20 lbs. at a time (Wait 4 Hours between ea. 20 lbs.)
4. Low Cya Instant pool water conditioner, Add 2 gl. 24 oz. of Instant Pool Water Conditioner, OR
OR Leslies Conditioner Add 5 lbs. 14 oz of Leslies Conditioner (in two separate doses)
5. High Phosphates: Leslies NoPHOS Add 49 Fl oz. of Leslies NoPHOS (Do not add more than 48 fl. oz. at any one time)

So that is my latest Leslies water test results and advisements. Granted it is now May 6'th but not much has changed and I have been trying to get to this site to see what suggestions I could get before doing anything at all. There is some algae starting to grow on the east side of our pool wall so that was my reminder I need to get some help with this ASAP

Thank you one and all and I look forward to your advice and recommendation's as well as promise to jump right on the actions you deem appropriate and necessary in the order you prescribe.
Any questions you may have, please feel free to ask and I will get you the answers.

Chuck Roberson
 
  1. Order this, it is the best value: TF-Pro
  2. Get pool math if you don't have it. Link-->PoolMath
  3. Configure your pool in pool math, use the same login/pw as TFP and enable sharing the in gear menu (upper right).
  4. Get 15 gallons of liquid chlorine. Walmart has Pool Essentials liquid chlorine.
  5. Use pool math to determine how much Liquid to add 3ppm.
  6. Add 3ppm of liquid chlorine per DAY until your kit arrives. nothing else.
  7. When your kit arrives, post a full set of results. FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA.
Will Do Full House GIF by Reaction GIFs
 
PoolStored said:
  1. Order this, it is the best value: TF-Pro
  2. Get pool math if you don't have it. Link-->PoolMath
  3. Configure your pool in pool math, use the same login/pw as TFP and enable sharing the in gear menu (upper right).
  4. Get 15 gallons of liquid chlorine. Walmart has Pool Essentials liquid chlorine.
  5. Use pool math to determine how much Liquid to add 3ppm.
  6. Add 3ppm of liquid chlorine per DAY until your kit arrives. nothing else.
  7. When your kit arrives, post a full set of results. FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA.
Will Do Full House GIF by Reaction GIFs
Click to expand...
Thank you,

I have Poolmath app on my phone
I picked up 16 gallons of the Pool Essentials liquid chlorine. Its about $6/gl where I live.
I have the TF-100 Test Kit ™ WITH
Optional Items: Speedstir Magnetic Stirrer
Optional Items: XL Option
Although I ordered it in 2017 so I am sure most of the liquids are no longer good 8 years later. I will look for a refill option.
I will post the FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA results as soon as my refill test liquids arrive and I can run the tests.

Any suggestion on which refill option to get for my TF-100 Test Kit? I will search the site and see if I can pick the correct one.
 
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Your reagents are expired. Go direct to TFTestkits to order your refill. Get the one for the TF100 and you might want to add the CYA sample too to help you learn the CYA readings. If you're planning to add a SWG to the pool (highly recommended) then add the Salt Kit to your order.
 
TinFoilHat said:
Your reagents are expired. Go direct to TFTestkits to order your refill. Get the one for the TF100 and you might want to add the CYA sample too to help you learn the CYA readings. If you're planning to add a SWG to the pool (highly recommended) then add the Salt Kit to your order.
Click to expand...
Thank you,

I have that one in my cart (TF100 Refills)

I have wondered about the SWG and what it would take to get my pool converted over. Do you have any information or guidance in doing this?

For the price of chlorine these days, it may pay off to do this, but I have zero knowledge in the process.

Thank you, I really appreciate everyone here with knowledge and making it shareable.
 
The SWG will save you thousands of dollars in LC over the life of the unit. After the first cell dies down the road (after it has more than paid for itself) replacement cells have quicker paybacks. You have to play the long game with SWG. If you have no automation then a Circupool RJ 60 would be perfect for you. It is double the size of your pool which we recommend. You can usually get it from Discountsaltpools.com for a $10 upcharge from the RJ45. You will need to add a timer so that the SWG turns on AFTER the pump starts and turns off BEFORE the pump turns off so that the cell is not on without water flow. Easy peasy.
 
It is always best to pour the chlorine in front of the returns. That way the pool return’s flow will disperse the chlorine out into the pool. You can always brush the area afterwards.
 
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TinFoilHat said:
The SWG will save you thousands of dollars in LC over the life of the unit. After the first cell dies down the road (after it has more than paid for itself) replacement cells have quicker paybacks. You have to play the long game with SWG. If you have no automation then a Circupool RJ 60 would be perfect for you. It is double the size of your pool which we recommend. You can usually get it from Discountsaltpools.com for a $10 upcharge from the RJ45. You will need to add a timer so that the SWG turns on AFTER the pump starts and turns off BEFORE the pump turns off so that the cell is not on without water flow. Easy peasy.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I really appreciate that advice! I think we are sold on the idea.

we have a timer on our main pump as well as on our pool sweep that uses a separate pump. I will research and learn more about those suggestions and see how I might be able to adapt it to our system.

On a side note, as we have algae (greenish / yellow?) starting to form on the east side of our pool wall, my thought is that it would be best to vacuum it off so it gets directly to the D.E. Filter and has less chance to spread rather than just brushing the algae to mix with the water and eventually it will get filtered. I just think vacuum would be the better way to go. I bought a brushed style pyramid looking vacuum with hose from a facebook seller for $25 and thought that might be the best immediate action to take along with adding the 3 ppm of LC each day. Does this sound good?
 
Okay,

My Reagents came in and I was able to run a test panel prior to adding a gallon of LC this morning.

I have the "share" feature enabled but not sure exactly how that feature works, so I am posting the results here:

==========================================RoboPool------------------------------------------ Build Type: Plaster Volume: 25000 gallons Chemistry: Liquid Chlorine------------------------------------------ Latest Test Result Summary: FC: 2.0 (9 minutes ago) CC: 2.0 (9 minutes ago) pH: 7.8 (9 minutes ago) TA: 80 (9 minutes ago) CH: 100 (9 minutes ago) CYA: 20 (9 minutes ago) TEMPERATURE: 70° (9 minutes ago) CSI: -0.37 (9 minutes ago)==========================================------------------------------------------Test Results 05-15-2025 @ 02:22 PM------------------------------------------ Free Chlorine: 2.0 Combined Chlorine: 2.0 pH: 7.8 Total Alkalinity: 80 Calcium Hardness: 100 CYA: 20 Temperature: 70°F CSI: -0.37

For the CYA test, I did as the instructions stated however I could always see the black dot at the bottom of the tube and slowly added the entire contents of the red capped mixing squeeze bottle. . Around 1/3 to 1/2 way filled the dot became cloudy but was still visible all the way until it was filled to the top.

I think I am now ready for the Pro's here to tell me how I need to treat my water.

Water is nice and clear and I used a brushed vacuum head to vacuum the light algae that was forming around the upper 2-4' perimeter of the pool wall about 4-5 days ago.

Also any guidance on how many hours to run the Quad 80 D.E. filter per day? And also the Pool Sweep? I have separate timers for each.

Thank you!
 

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Jetmanjo said:
I have printed the checklist out. It is all still confusing to me.

I will also watch the video again.

I am sure once I have done the process once things will become easier.

Maybe others have some helpful suggestions for me?
Click to expand...
What is confusing? You have to be specific in order to expect help.
 
It's pretty simple, just follow each step.
Generally,
You want to add 30ppm of CYA.
Then your Target FC is 12.
lower your pH

The slam part is that you test FC, then add enough chlorine to get back to slam level fc.
wait a couple hours, do it again, wait a couple hours do it again.

Then at night you want to do the OCLT. Because there is no UV, you should not lose FC at night. Link-->Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

When you pass OCLT
Your CC <= .5
and
Your water is clear clear no dead alive algae or debris

You are done.
 
Uhhello said:
What is confusing? You have to be specific in order to expect help.
Click to expand...
I guess for the first part, in doing the CYA test, after mixing up the correct amounts of pool water and the associated reagent (The large container) correctly shaking and waiting at least 30 seconds and then a final shake before filling the vile with the black dot in it. I slowly filled the entire vile with the mixed solution but could always see the black dot when holding at waist level. So what exactly is my reading? Seems like the marks on the vial near the top were around 15-20? I did not bring my laminated cheat card to work today, so maybe I am missing a step, or a calculation in that process.

The other questions are what is Dry Chlorine Stabilizer, and where should I get this from? My goal is to try and stay away from Leslies as they seem like such a rip off.

As I have posted my current results, is there a shopping list I should be getting so I dont have to go back to the store to pick up this or that several times a day or week? Or something I can compare to for some of the things I have currently? I have completely drained and refilled the pool as I noted at the beginning of this thread. I have posted the things I have done. Our water is nice and clear. There was some algae growth starting around the top 2-4' around the upper pool wall which is the reason I took a sample in to Leslies for some help. But then decided to come back here because I know the help would be better and nobody will try to sell me things I dont need.

I can follow the step by step directions, but I must be missing something because it is just not clear to me. I need to research more about the pool math app which I do have as maybe that is what will give some guidance or calculations I am missing.

I have heard that baking soda can also be used instead of higher priced chemicals but I forget what that replaces.

I am just running on little sleep and also away from home a lot so an hourly or every couple hour option will not work for me. I can do a morning and evening testing and adjustment right now.

Once my wife returns home from visiting family she will be able to help out at least 5 days a week when she is not at work.

I will try and go over everything again tomorrow and see if I can get some sort of grasp on what the process needs to be. I do have the LC I purchased and have been adding a gallon each day.
 
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Jetmanjo said:
So what exactly is my reading?
Click to expand...
Essentially zero. If the fluid was at least cloudy, call it less than 20. Add 10 ppm worth of CYA and call it 30 ppm until you test again in a few days.
Jetmanjo said:
I have heard that baking soda can also be used instead of higher priced chemicals but I forget what that replaces.
Click to expand...
Baking Soda adds TA. You do not need any. Never will.
 
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