water chemistry

Problem up front: Cloudy / hazy white spots / streaks / runs on pebble tec floor (Not on the sides). Just a haze, so breaking a piece off to test for calcium type is not possible. Back to intro. So fortunate to have found this group. Thank you in advance. I have reviewed many of the posts...

Good morning folks! I've been at this for a little bit, and feel like I've had a good handle on my pool's maintenance and chemistry. The pool was replastered ~4 years ago. I converted it to salt water about two years ago. I think the chemistry is good, other than the pH trending high...

Hello, I am a new pool owner. We had our pool done and water chemistry balanced the beginning of February 2024. Over the last two months we noticed the appearance of some white spots on the pool plaster that seems to be decoloration but we are not sure. There has been an increase of size and...

Hi TFP Folks, and thanks for taking the time to read this. I am a bit at my wit's end. I bought a house in 2022 that had a 30,000 gallon in-ground pool. The prior owner told me that they used to have a caretaker floor system for cleaning the pool, but didn't like it and when they re-did the...

I am a chemist and have been able to get my hands on one of these if I wanted. I know a lot of pool stores use one of these 2 or something similar, while I don't trust pool stores themselves the tech seems to make sense. It would seem to be a spectrometer that reads in the visible light range to...

Hello TFP. I'm currently using a zone on my sprinkler system to maintain my pool levels. It works based on a schedule and rainfall, which somewhat helps but is not always accurate and in the colder months, has actually resulted in some unexpected water loss. Today, I have all this Jandy...

I recently took on a commercial pool and have been running into trouble maintaining proper balance. The site has 2 Stenner pumps, one for chlorine and one for acid, which I diluted today 1 to 1. I have the chlorine pump set at it's max setting and the acid pump at it's lowest but every time I...

If a pool is covered and both TC and FC are zero, what would prevent chlorine from being increased after chlorine is added? There are many posts here that suggest increasing CYA in "chlorine lock." My understanding, however, is that CYA will prevent chlorine degradation from taking place...

Ok new pool owner here and have a quick question for the group in water quality. I know I do not have all of my info in my signature yet as some of it is changing but trying to give a good example. 1. Not sure of volume of pool (yet) 2. Cartridge type filter system 3. Uses chlorine tabs and...

I just moved to Texas and the house had an old plaster pool which I intend to replace when it cools down. There are three plaster options, White, Quartz, PebbleTec. Which would be preferable (looking for longevity as well as comfort)? I just went swimming in it and my skin feels dry and itchy...

I’ve been a pool owner for years and at one point looked into converting my pool to saltwater. I wasn’t able to justify it at the time purely on an economical basis since the math did not work out when considering the payback period. I recognize that it’s a completely legitimate reason to...

Hi - I am a first-time pool owner. We broke ground Feb 18 and we began swimming in mid-March this year. I am trying to follow the TFP methodology. It seems that I am going through about a quart or two of Muriatic Acid per week and several pounds of Baking Soda a month. Not sure if this is...

First ever pool....New ~ 9,500 gallon Hydrazzo plaster pool finished filling on Saturday night. The pool company didn't come until Monday morning. They added 2 gallons of muriatic acid, a small amount of chlorine, and what looked like a sequestering agent. I saw this on the pool camera and they...

I am getting INTERMITTENT milky bubbles coming out of my in-ground pool jets. They last for about 5-mins, make the water cloudy and then it stops for 45-minutes or so, the water clears up and then it starts again. IS THIS AIR GETTING INTO THE SYSTEM? Thank you!

I apologize, as I'm sure this has been brought up but I have yet to find a good answer. My pool chemistry strategy has been as follows: Maintain free chlorine with 10% Sodium Hypochlorite, checking every few days. As Sodium Hypochlorite is basic, it will cause my pool's pH to drift upwards. I...

Does a 200 ppm CYA level invite Black Algae? Seems like I can't keep a high enough chlorine level with this high of a CYA. Black Algae is mostly on the walls with some now spreading down the deep-end walls and a just little on the bottom. To find the 200 ppm CYA value, I used the Pentair Rainbow...

I just want to ask if you guys & gals can look at my test logs and lmk if I'm on track. The water looks & feels great, crystal clear. I'm super overthinking EVERYTHING 😆Because of what I learned from TFP w/my first pool, I do feel WAY more confident in what I'm doing this time. I have checked...

I’m a new homeowner in Southern California and recently had my pool re-plastered. Alan Smith pools did my re-plaster and gave a 10yr warranty with the caveat that from now on I use liquid chlorine to maintain the pool’s water chemistry. So my pool guy says it’s virtually impossible for him to...

Hello all, my pool chemistry is out of whack and I would appreciate any advice. Our CYA is 185 ppm with Free Chlorine of 27ppm. Our PH is also very low based on using a test strip and from the Leslie's pool store test, which yielded a PH of 6.4. I tried to test PH with our Taylor kit but the...

Hi everyone. I’m not a new pool owner, but I am new to this forum and new to maintaining my pool. I have a 20+ year gunite pool with (until recently) the original aggregate plaster surface (DiamondBrite, I believe). I have just completed resurfacing the entire pool with glass tile. Are there...

I have a couple questions regarding the use of Trichlor tabs using an in-line chlorinator. The questions are listed below if folks would like to skip the background, sorry if the background is a little long but I think I over thinking this instead of keeping it simple but I would like to...

Hello all... I was looking into purchasing the Pentair IntelliChem Water Chemistry Controller for my aboveground pool/spa combo. I wanted to see if anyone on this forum had any thoughts on the product and if its worth the cost and or a quality product. Currently, I go through about a gallon of...

I’ve had my pool for 5 years with minimal issues. Now I can’t seem to trust any test as they all give me different readings. Specifically with the CYA, calcium, and alkalinity. I have new reagents in my tf-100 and that’s what I’ve been using for the past 5 years. I replaced half the water in...

hi,I recently moved into a home with a pool of 30,000 gallons, I’ve done my fair share of research bought all the chemicals and so forth, I superclorinated the pool when I first moved in with about 25 gallons of liquid chlorine which killed the algae in the pool And turn it from dark green to a...

After 24 years of using stabilized granular shock, I started having problems with maintaining proper amount of chlorine in pool. Chlorine gone within 2 days. Last season tried , liquid chlorine and Calcium Hypochlorite. I hated using both. Liquid was too cumbersome and calcium Hypochlorite left...

First of all, let me begin by saying this isn't an indictment or skepticism of this community or the TFP methodology. This is a genuine open-ended request for more detailed info mostly out of curiosity, and also due to the fact that a lot of the concepts and principles on this site challenge...