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I’ve proven to myself that an alkalinity of 80 ppm or greater will require acid additions once or twice a week. The pH will rise from 7.4 to 8.2+ in 7 to 10 days. So if I maintain the pH between 7.4 and 7.8 I need to add acid at least once per week. If the alkalinity is 40 ppm acid additions...

I've been having problems keeping my FC where it should be for the last two weeks. It should be 4.5 - 5.0 but has been 2.0 - 2.5. I have a Stenner pump that has been is service for about 2 months and until the past two weeks it has done a wonderful job. When the FC dropped I put the outlet...

My stenner has been in service just over one month and today I found the inlet strainer was plugged off and no chlorine was getting to the pool. I have no idea what caused the pluggage. The bulk container has a tight fitting lid and there is no visible debris inside. I took off the inlet...

A friend of mine has a new Intex above ground pool that came with a cover. Wind is getting under the cover and blowing it off. Has anybody else had this problem and if so how can it be prevented. We tried putting a long 2X4 across the top of pool to hold the cover down but that didn't work...

I had to get some HCL this morning and Lowes and Home Depot no longer carry it so had to go to the pool store. While I was waiting to check one of the nice young clerks was helping a woman with "stuff" to raise the alkalinity in her pool. I could over hear her say she had read that sodium...

The pH in my pool is constantly rising and I've had to add almost 1 gal (122 oz) of concentrated HCL in the past 7 days. The TA was running 60 ppm so I tried to lower it by adding acid to get a pH of 7.2. Three ago I added 40 oz of concentrated HCL and that brought the pH down to 7.2 and...

I'm another convert to the Stenner pump. I replaced my liquidator that has been in service for three years. It did the job but we are going to be gone for six weeks at a time twice this year and the liquidator does not hold enough chlorine to last that long. I started the stenner up last...

I’m going to replace my liquidator with a Stenner pump (45MPH10). The pump has been ordered and is on the way. I thought about using the 15 gal tank that came with the Liquidator for bleach storage, but would really like something larger - about 25 or 30 gal. I thought about using 3-30 gal...

It started raining here 7 days ago and is coming down right now. It has not been continuous, but it has rained every day. In total I've had to pump 12" of water out of the pool and will likely pump out about 3" or 4" today. Twelve inches in my pool is about 6,000 gallons and that is a lot of...

Had the liner in the pool replaced on March 23. It filled up and I started the pumps on March 25. Every day since then - I mean every day - there have been from 1 to 3 bullfrogs in the pool every morning. We live about 1/4 mile from a swamp so we get a lot of wildlife from time to time, but...

The liner in my pool was replaced this week and the water is almost high enough to run the pumps. I've calculated the weight of all the chemicals required but have a question on the order in which they should be added. The chemicals needed are sodium bicarbonate, Calcium chloride, CYA, and...

Calcium Chloride is sometimes used in concrete and can be purchased from Lowes or Home Depot. Is there any reason it cannot be used in pools? It's a whole lot cheaper than the pool store stuff.

The rotometer on my liquidator cracked and is getting air in the system. Does anybody have contact info for the company so I can order a new one? Thanks

I’ve had a couple of questions about the final filter bags I use in my pool so thought I would post a description and some pictures. The bags are made using a heavy felt bag from MacMaster-Carr. They come is pore sizes from 1 micron to 200 microns. They are held in place with adapters that...

I've got a small leak in my pool that has been there for about 2 years. The pool loses about 1/8" per day which should be about 60 - 70 gal/day. I came across a comment on another forum that said cracked face plates on pool fittings could be the source of a leak. I started checking my face...

We live fairly close to a wet land (swamp) so we tend to get more than the average number of visits from snakes, frogs, turtles, and even racoons now and then. This year has started off with a multitude of critters. I've lost track of how many snakes I've pulled out. There have been two...

I don't understand the chemistry of the chlorine/CYA ratio, but wonder if there is any reason to maintain a higher or lower CYA concentration. Is there any advantage to maintaining say 40 ppm CYA over a 20 ppm concentration? The lower CYA number would require a lower chlorine number which...

If I don't run the polaris for 3 or 4 days my pool becomes as clear as clean glass. If I run the polaris for two days in a row the pool develops and slightly turbid look - it's still clear, but not as clear as it was before running the cleaner. The color is good and the test results look good...

I installed 1 micron bag filters in place of the return eye balls to act as final or clean up filters, and they have been collecting some large debris that should not get though the sand filter. The stuff consists whole ant bodies, leaf fragments, and similar light weight material that floats...

I have installed 1 micron filter bags on the pool returns and am collecting a lot of large material that should never get though the sand filter. The by-passed material is light weight and will float on water. It is mostly debris from trees like leaf husks, small bits of leaves, small pieces...

Just thought I'd show what my pool looked like before and after treatment with Ascorbic acid treatment. The results are pretty amazing to me. Here are the before pictures.

Came across this guy yesterday taking a dip in my pool. By the time I got the cell phone to take a picture he had climbed out and curled by the pat It's a speckled king snake about 3' long. They are harmless and I see them every once in awhile. They feed mostly on other snakes and lizards and...

It took 15 days to get free chlorine from 4.5 ppm to zero. So finally this morning I lowered the pH to 7.2 and added 3 lb of Ascorbic Acid. The results are pretty amazing. In 1 hour the liner went from a dingy yellowish blue to a bright clear blue. Even the wheels on polaris and the PVC...

I'm trying to get the chlorine level in my pool to zero so I can acid clean to remove the iron stains, but it's taking a very long time. On March 27 the FC was 4.5 and I turned off the liquidator. This morning (10 days later) the FC is 2.0. My question is how much ascorbic acid would be...

I discovered a crack in the bottom of my skimmer housing. It extends about half-way around the suction opening. I've attached a picture, but the crack is kinda hard to see it is inside the white area. What is the best way to repair it and do I need to drop the water level so it can be dried...

We live a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico and are surrounded by live oak and pine trees. About November the oaks start dropping acorns and this year was the biggest acorn crop I've seen in the 15 years we've lived here. They are inches deep all over the yard - front, back, and the pool...

I have bad iron staining in the pool. It has been building up for the last two or three years and I could not find the source until recently. I believe it is coming from an iron ring around my underwater light. I checked the ring with a magnet and it is definitely iron. So I'll have that...

I just came across a product at Lowes called "Angry Egg". It was an egg shaped plastic container with large slots that contained what looked like white compressed crystals. The label said it contained Potassium Peroxymonosulfate. It is to be used for clearing up pool water and claims it will...

For a long time I've been getting iron stains in the pool and could not figure out where it was coming from. I thought all the steel in contact with water was 316 stainless. Today I noticed the underwater light looked a little dark around the edge. I laid down and felt the ring that holds the...

The motor on my main pump was replaced yesterday and now the pump puts out 10 psi less pressure than before. We inspected the impeller while changing the motor and it looked good - no sign of wear or damage. The pump is a Sta-rite single speed model PRA6F148L. The motor is 3450 RPM, 1.5 HP...