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I've had this brown stuff in the pool, in patches, particularly along the seams, and on the sunny side of the pool - nothing on the shady side, nothing on the walls. This has pretty much been going over the past week. I performed an OCLT test last night and the chlorine went from 8.0 to 5.5...

I have slightly cloudy water as a result of a bad flow switch on my SWCG and my chlorine got a little too low. Now the water is a little cloudy. I am thinking I just need to slam the pool but am confused by the fact that my Free Chlorine has been fluctuating between 1 and 3 (using liquid bleach...

Hi, I have an automatic pool cover and it won't open all the way. After opening up the cover to the motor and rope spools, I can see that the rope is caught underneath other rope and the rope above it is so tight, it won't release the rope that got caught underneath it, therefore it won't feed...

My question is, can I leave my Raypak heater on all the time? For example, I have the pump schedule to go on at a certain time, and then it's off overnight, coming back on in the morning. I have the heater set to 78 degrees. Will it damage the heater if the water flow stops for several hours...

Is it a good practice to remove the stair railings or not. Mine are stainless steel(?). I live in Minnesota and I have always removed them before -last five years- and stored them. However they have some surface rust at this point so does it make a difference?

I’m wondering if it’s normal to have a lot of air bubbles when you increase the pump speed. A little while after increasing the speed there’s no bubbles from the return jets and before I increase the speed there’s no air bubbles in the return jets. But once I turn the pump up I get a lot of...

I just noticed today that there is a slow leak at the base of the pressure gauge on top of my Pentair cartridge filter housing. Is it a simple matter of replacing the thread tape on the filter gauge?

I have historically experienced pH increase and then bring it down, it goes back up, over and over. However, this summer, the pH started at 7.6 and has never changed. I should be happy about that, but it also seems too good to be true. I will add a drop of acid down just to see how the reading...

I have gotten into the habit of testing chlorine and pH every day. Is this overkill?

For the past two weeks I have been trying to lower the TA in my pool. It was at 230 when I began the process and it is still at 230. I lowered the pH to 7.2 then used aeration to raise the pH to 7.8. Yet, after two weeks the TA hasn't budged. I will say that my FC has been about perfect going...

My Pentair IC40 is showing a solid red light for salt level despite my recent tests showing salt at 3600 using the salt water test kit. This just started yesterday. I also just did a test of the water coming out of one of the returns and got a chlorine level of 6.5. Note that I had a sprinkler...

The pool was great until a few days ago when we started noticing a slight haze. Here are today's test results: FC: 3.0 CC: 0.0 pH: 7.4 TA: 225 CYA: 70 CH: 300 I'm tempted just to slam it. I did this a few weeks ago and used Clorox bleach from Costco. I can't tell if that has polymers (which can...

I opened the pool a few days ago and I noticed some brown sandy looking substance on the bottom of the pool. Most of it was along the seams of the vinyl liner. I vacuumed the pool and left it as is. Today, I opened up the cover and saw the same brown substance. As some background, we're still...

what is the purpose of the pipe on the left? The one coming out of the ground? It used to be covered with duct tape I believe.

My pool is fairly well balanced for having just opened it! I just want to get it balanced best I can before we actually try to heat it and swim in it in 2-3 weeks. Here are my numbers... FC = 4.5 pH = 7.8 TA = 250 CH = 300 CYA = 40 Temp = 50-55 (still cold at night in MN!) Salt = Unknown as of...

Hi - I need to replace the plugs going to the four return lines yet, but then everything should be ready to start. I just want to be sure I don't make a mistake. I have the following set up: 4 return lines - one valve each line. 3 incoming lines, 2 from each skimmer, 1 from the drains...

Is it worth it to start to balance the pool if the water temp is still around 50-55 degrees? Maybe colder in the deeper water.

I just received my Dolphin S200 (great service and price from Marina Pool in Denver! Thanks for the tip TFP!). My question is that I haven't opened the pool but I would like to clean it. Can I put the Dolphin S200 in the pool before balancing the water to get the leaves, etc. out? I'm guessing...

Like so many, I need something to do and thought I'd try opening the pool myself this year. I'm not so much in a rush to get in the pool, more to just get the water cleaned up (it's not bad at all mainly leaves and worms) and ready for action when it gets warm enough. I just want to be sure I...

I was walking around and just checking things out before we open the pool not that the snow is gone. I was looking at the pipes coming from the two skimmers and the drain and I saw that one of the pipes was not closed. Is this a problem? Was this on purpose or an oversight? The open pipes is...

I haven't opened my pool yet (Minnesota - still have a little snow on the ground!) but it got me to thinking about something I noticed last year. There were wrinkles in my vinyl liner in the deep end of the pool. They were probably about an inch high and emanated from the pool drains for several...

The first picture is from above obviously, with the second picture showing the whole equipment pad. As you can probably tell from these photos, I have 3 pipes coming into the pad from the pool, the two skimmers and one from the two drains. Then I have four return jets - as you can see by what is...

Now that we have cooler nights, we start getting worms in the pool. They are small black worms, about 2 inches long (not earthworms). We have a cover and they all come into the pool at the end of the cover where the cover closes and there is a small gap, very small, between where the pool wall...

Basic question - which is more efficient? Running the heater continuously or reheat each day? I do have an autocover to help preserve the heat, but I am in MN. I need the pool warmed up (now at 77, probably will be 75 or 76 tomorrow - Thursday- morning) for a Friday afternoon party. The next...

I am using dishwasher detergent and water to soak my filters and now I am wondering how I dispose of 25 gallons of the dishwashing detergent cleaning water after the filters have finished soaking. Any suggestions?

We use our heater to read the pool water temperature and what's interesting to us, is the same water temperature (reading per the heater screen) can feel so much different. For example, yesterday, it read 83 degrees when we started swimming and it felt perfect and we did not use the heater at...

I have read several/many posts about closing a pool using a winter cover and lowering the water below the returns. However, I have an automatic covers and need to maintain a certain level to ensure the cover is supported. What water level would you adjust to when covering with an auto cover for...

Here are my latest test results (using my test kit): FC 5 CYA 60 TA 200 CH 250 PH 7.6 TA has always been about 200. The water has been clear all summer - just letting the SWG do it's thing basically, add MA once in while, and the numbers stay pretty consistent. I have read on this forum to not...

Just closing in on one year with the pool and since finding this site, pool maintenance has been easy, and I've had wonderful, clear sparkling pool water all summer. My question is how often I should be brushing/vacuuming the pool? We don't have any trees nearby and we keep it covered when we're...

We built our pool last year, all Pentair (SWCG, cartridge filter, pump) except the heater which is a RayPak, and the cover which is Latham(?) I believe. My question is now that it's all installed and we've been using it for a year, is it worth it to install automation? Cost prohibitive now? The...