Hello,
We purchased a home in May 2015 with a concrete pool which I estimate to be about 20,000 gallons. I live in the Orlando area so the pool gets lots of sun during the summer. We installed a screened enclosure that was completed in September. We had finer mesh screen installed on the top because the neighbor to the East has trees that drop leaves and long pine needles. With the finer mesh screen, we have been able to keep the leaves and the pine needles blown off but the amount of sun exposure is definitely decreased.
The home was being rehabbed Jan - April. I can see in google maps pictures the pool was a green pond while the house was unoccupied. The rehabber had the pool resurfaced (doesn't look new to me but what do I know about concrete pools) and got it looking presentable at some point. Without a screened enclosure, leaves would have been dropping into the pool and then removed by the company hired to maintain the pool. Once we moved in, we removed leaves from the pool daily. With the screened enclosure, leaves no longer fall into the pool but sometimes when it rains, there are leaves on the screen and the rain washes over them. I bring this up because we recently put phosphate remover into the pool and went through the whole filter cleaning (ran pump for 48 hours straight) goat rope. I had commented to the owner of my pool store that I had had 3 algae blooms since moving into the house in May and wondered if I was missing something. He said phosphates might be high so he had me bring in a water sample and the water turned very blue. He sold me a bottle of phosphate remover (ouch!) and I dumped it into the pool. The water immediately became opaque and the fun began. After a couple of days the water cleared and the phosphorous tested at 500 (ppm?).
I wanted to be more self-sufficient caring for our pool so I started searching and found this site. We lived in FL in 2001-2003 and built a new liner pool with a SWG, DE filter, and heat pump. It was incredibly easy to take care of. This older concrete pool is a little more complicated. Not having a SWG and not wanting to mess with liquid chlorine (I had never heard of stabilizer or CYA), I have been using Clorox stabilized pucks to chlorinate the pool until last week when I 'attended' pool school. My current measurements using a Taylor K1005 test kit are:
FC: >5 (It was 3.5-4 and I added another gallon of 5.25% bleach.)
PH: 7.6
TA: 90
CYA: 65-70 (I have a hard time with the test and now I'm out of reagents.)
CH: 300
It's possible the algae blooms were due to the chlorine being too low given my level of CYA. It appears there was quite a bit of phosphorous in the pool so that might have been a contributor. My system has an in-line feeder which I believe was being used prior to us moving into the house. I'll be giving away the rest of my chlorine pucks switching over to liquid chlorine so the CYA level shouldn't increase. Another issue is an inoperable pool light that has some green water behind the lens.
I have attached a picture of the equipment and of the pool. Sorry they are turned. I will have to learn how to rotate them to have them display properly.
With respect to the algae issue, is the answer just to keep up the chlorine level? I know I have to redo the light but the water is freezing right now!
That's all for now!
We purchased a home in May 2015 with a concrete pool which I estimate to be about 20,000 gallons. I live in the Orlando area so the pool gets lots of sun during the summer. We installed a screened enclosure that was completed in September. We had finer mesh screen installed on the top because the neighbor to the East has trees that drop leaves and long pine needles. With the finer mesh screen, we have been able to keep the leaves and the pine needles blown off but the amount of sun exposure is definitely decreased.
The home was being rehabbed Jan - April. I can see in google maps pictures the pool was a green pond while the house was unoccupied. The rehabber had the pool resurfaced (doesn't look new to me but what do I know about concrete pools) and got it looking presentable at some point. Without a screened enclosure, leaves would have been dropping into the pool and then removed by the company hired to maintain the pool. Once we moved in, we removed leaves from the pool daily. With the screened enclosure, leaves no longer fall into the pool but sometimes when it rains, there are leaves on the screen and the rain washes over them. I bring this up because we recently put phosphate remover into the pool and went through the whole filter cleaning (ran pump for 48 hours straight) goat rope. I had commented to the owner of my pool store that I had had 3 algae blooms since moving into the house in May and wondered if I was missing something. He said phosphates might be high so he had me bring in a water sample and the water turned very blue. He sold me a bottle of phosphate remover (ouch!) and I dumped it into the pool. The water immediately became opaque and the fun began. After a couple of days the water cleared and the phosphorous tested at 500 (ppm?).
I wanted to be more self-sufficient caring for our pool so I started searching and found this site. We lived in FL in 2001-2003 and built a new liner pool with a SWG, DE filter, and heat pump. It was incredibly easy to take care of. This older concrete pool is a little more complicated. Not having a SWG and not wanting to mess with liquid chlorine (I had never heard of stabilizer or CYA), I have been using Clorox stabilized pucks to chlorinate the pool until last week when I 'attended' pool school. My current measurements using a Taylor K1005 test kit are:
FC: >5 (It was 3.5-4 and I added another gallon of 5.25% bleach.)
PH: 7.6
TA: 90
CYA: 65-70 (I have a hard time with the test and now I'm out of reagents.)
CH: 300
It's possible the algae blooms were due to the chlorine being too low given my level of CYA. It appears there was quite a bit of phosphorous in the pool so that might have been a contributor. My system has an in-line feeder which I believe was being used prior to us moving into the house. I'll be giving away the rest of my chlorine pucks switching over to liquid chlorine so the CYA level shouldn't increase. Another issue is an inoperable pool light that has some green water behind the lens.
I have attached a picture of the equipment and of the pool. Sorry they are turned. I will have to learn how to rotate them to have them display properly.
With respect to the algae issue, is the answer just to keep up the chlorine level? I know I have to redo the light but the water is freezing right now!
That's all for now!
