New pool owner, feeling totally overwhelmed

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I just want to throw in there that once you get the pool under control and are testing and maintaining it yourself you're never going to have to worry about all this mess again! There won't be any overnight "omg the pool is green! I have to start from scratch!" worries. They're really easy to maintain once you understand what to do and why and you have a good test kit.

I just wanted to make sure that's said since a lot of people who haven't found TFP yet think that the green to cloudy to green to cloudy to almost ok roller coaster is and has to be the norm. It doesn't have to be! (but it sure makes good $$ for the pool companies when people believe it!)

Welcome to TFP. There *is* a better way! :)
 
While at Home Depot to rent a submersible pump my husband started chatting to another guy there who was also having issues with his pool, and told him about this site. Doing our part to help spread the word. :)

We just replaced a Hayward Super II single speed 1.5 hp pump with a Pentair Superflo VS 1.5 hp pump. The installer set it so it runs at the default high speed (3000 RPM) for 7 hrs then the low speed (1400 RPM) for 7 hrs. Once the pool is drained and refilled what speed should I reprogram this to if I'm running it 24 hrs a day?
 
if you are going to run it for 24 hours, you should put it on low speed. you don't need to run it for 24 hours though. you only need high speed when running vacuum, or other features like waterfalls, etc. 1.5hp seems like overkill for your size pool, so definitely run it towards low
 
Hey Dan, she was asking because she's expecting to SLAM after the drain/fill so will be running 24 hrs during SLAM. I expect low speed is ok for that but it would be nice if you/someone could confirm.

Protect your PebbleTec from the sun and heat during the drain/fill. Since the pool is 8100 gallons you could do it overnight.
 
start out with it at slow speed, and see how your flow thru the cartridge filter is. if the flow is too slow, ramp it up a little bit. you want to keep it as low as you can to operate the pool effectively. the lower the speed, the cheaper it is to run.

for the SLAM, the idea behind running the pump is to keep your water circulated for mixing of bleach/chlorine and to filter out dead algae. just got to play with it a little bit is all.
 
I would just go by the jets in the pool. if you are getting good flow out of them and the skimmer is skimming water you should be good. the weir door in your skimmer should be bent over with water flowing over it. if you are too low it might now. that's my non-precise method :). did your pump come with approx. gpm flow rates at given rpms? there might be a chart?

you have a pretty large pump for your size of pool and for the equipment you are running so low speed might be fine.
 
My VS pump runs at 1100 rpm most of the time for skimming and making chlorine. My pressure gauge is 0 at that speed and power consumption is 150 watts. Start at 1000 and if the pool stays skimmed then that is good, if not go up 100 and see. I originally started at 900 and it wasn't enough.
 

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schmoopie11 said:
New pump is installed and my test kit came today. I've read the instructions, watched the videos, etc. but I want to make sure I'm doing this right - for the chlorine drop test the water turned pink after adding the scoop of r-0870 but adding the r-0871 solution kept making the water darker and darker pink until it was a dark pink/purple color, this was after 60 drops, I wasn't sure if I should keep going or if I was doing something wrong or if my FC is really high and after a certain number I could just stop b/c it was so high so as not to waste drops?
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What you are describing is a very high chlorine level. So high that it was partly bleaching out the DPD powder (R-0870) that you added. When extremely high, you just get a "flash of pink" so I'd guess that you are still under 50 ppm FC but probably over 30 ppm FC. To save on reagent you can redo the test using a 5 ml water sample where each R-0871 drop represents 1 ppm FC. Either that or you can dilute your pool water sample and then multiple the result by your dilution ratio.

schmoopie11 said:
Feeling really frustrated and clueless - in addition to not knowing what is going on with the chlorine test, in the Calcium hardness test, the R-0012 never changes the color from red to blue, it goes from red to clear?
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This too is likely caused by the very high chlorine level. You need to get your chlorine level into a more normal range before looking at these other tests. Certainly pH won't be any good.

schmoopie11 said:
TA: 90 (my test went from blue to yellow instead of green to red)
CYA: I'm not exactly sure, I couldn't see the black dot a little more than halfway up from the bottom of the tube to the 100 mark so that indicates it's really, really high, correct?
Ph: not sure, the color was much more yellow than any of the comparison colors.

I'm guessing we are going to need to at least partially drain the pool due to the CYA? The other thing I am wondering is we have what I assume is calcium scaling on the sides of the pool right above the water level, the company that installed the new pump recommended draining the pool and bead blasting it (I think that was the term), I'm not sure if this is a good idea or what the alternatives are for removing it or if it's ok to leave it as is? I will see if I can post some pics...
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As Richard pointed out, the different colors in the TA test also indicates the chlorine level is very high.

The CYA test may read artificially low from the FC so if the black dot disappeared below the 100 mark you probably have quite high CYA levels. You can retest after the FC comes down some, but it does look like you'll need to do a partial drain/refill (probably more than one) to get your CYA level down.

The pH at high chlorine levels would usually read artificially high so if yours is yellow then it may be that the pH is low, but I'd double check that after the FC is lowered.
 
Thank you Dan and pooldv, that really helps. Thank you chem geek for adding your insight, I understand much better now.

Well, we drained what we *thought* was enough water and refilled it yesterday, but this morning I tested CYA and it's at 80. Pool Math says to replace 25% of the water to get it down to 60, so that's the plan for today I guess.

I noticed there were a few leaves and pine needles in the pump strainer basket, should we be opening this and cleaning it out whenever we notice anything in there? Is it a big deal to do this on a frequent basis? The manual for the pump makes it sound like you're risking life and limb.
 
Thanks, Kim!

So today we drained and refilled again, cleaned out the pump strainer basket, ran the pump for a little over 30 mins and then ran through all the tests with the following results:

CYA: 60
FC: 23
CC: 0 (could this be right? The water would have turned obviously pink with adding the 5 drops of R-0003, right? It definitely did not)
TC: 23
CH: 450
TA: 140
pH: 7.2

I'm not sure what to do now?
 
No pink = a big fat 0!!!!!!!!

Now wait for your FC to go to 9 and rerun all of the tests again. Your PH will not test correct with a FC of 10 or over.

Good job getting the CYA down!

That CH still looks a little high for a plaster pool. I am to lazy to read back over the thread. Have you tested your fill water? What is the CH in it?

Kim
 
my CH is about 400 as well, its no big deal. and where the OP is at in AZ they have hard water I believe. 800 or lower is easily managed with pH, TA, etc. just fill out all the info in the pool math and check out the saturation index. im guessing you will be fine.
 
Thank you all for the input!

I tested the chlorine bright and early this morning at 6am and got:

FC: 21.5
CC: .5 (I think, it was a very very faint pink tint but I do think it was definitely there and cleared up again after 1 drop of the 0871. Maybe it was there last night too and I just didn't see it as it was cloudy/overcast at the time with not very good light)

Should I go ahead and SLAM the pool, given the drop in FC? Yesterday's tests were taken at 4:30pm so not after the sun went down but it very rainy and cloudy out.
 
well you lost 1.5ppm but you probably had a few hours of sun on the pool after your first test, right? I would keep your FC up 20+ and redo the OCLT tonight and make sure to do the first test after sundown. its a pretty small drop in FC so I am guess you will pass but worth double checking.
 

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