New to the Pool Game

[Bill EH]

Hi All, my family and I live on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. We bought a house with a salt water pool about 2 months ago, it's over 20 years old and holds around 50,000 litres of water.
I started my journey going to the pool shop each week for testing and buying little bags of their stuff to add to the pool, knowing I had to find a better alternative. I found this site and have ordered a test kit from North Queensland Pools, which hasn't arrived yet, so I'm surviving with test strips until the kit arrives. It's autumn here so the pool isn't getting used.
I've worked out that my chlorinator isn't working, as I have to add chlorine every week to keep it at a good level while running the pump for 7 hours a day and the chlorinator turned up so the gage is just onto the red.
The controller is a Sur-Chlor which looks pretty old, so I'm thinking I will replace both the controller and the cell. Any suggestions for brand and type I should get would be appreciated.
The pool turned green 2 weeks ago because I didn't add chlorine for a week when I was away. I had to shock it, and get it back to normal again.
Around a week ago I got a local pool guy to come and have a look and give me some advice about looking after the pool which was quite helpful. He tested the water when he was here and told me to add 2 kg of stabiliser, which I did. When I rolled the cover back this weekend the water is quite cloudy, would this be caused by the stabiliser, or could there be something else going on?

 

[needsajet]

Welcome to TFP! I hope you enjoy it here. You'll certainly end up with a safe and comfortable pool based on support available here. It's a good forum with answers based on science and experience.

There's a fair chance that your cloudy water is dead algae and the stabilizer is not the culprit. Whatever it turns out to be, by using TFP methods, you'll be able to clean up the pool and keep it that way, and also keep chlorine levels that kill bacteria and make your pool safe. You'll do it at very low cost, though it's not as simple as hiring a poolie. Once you get your pool settled in and if you follow the system well, you won't get a green pool again.

You'll need a test kit with a FAS-DPD chlorine test. Hopefully you've ordered a Clear Choice Labs kit or a Taylor K2006. You're unlikely to get good advice without reliable test results, and you're highly, highly unlikely to get reliable results without doing your own testing. So if you plan to use TFPC with support from this site, order a recommended test kit right away. The sooner you have it, the sooner you'll save back its cost.

The test kit most often recommended by members of this site is the TF-100, but we can't buy it here. Your options are (in order of Aus member preference):

1. Clear Choice Labs - by all accounts, great customer service, local supplier, all around good bet - their kit including a hydrometer style salt test is around $180
2. Taylor K2006 - can order from PoolAndSpaWarehouse - very expensive, or from PoolVacParts in Arizona, but with exchange and shipping to pay.
3. NQ Pool Test Kits - cheap prices, little to no response from seller, very slow to ship, one person paid and never received their order

Only No. 2 is a TFP recommended kit. The CCL kit is trusted here among Aussie members.

Here's a couple of threads about test kits in Aus.
Aussie test kits and hello
Australian Test Kit

Start with the kit, and you won't look back. In the meantime, keep your FC up so any problems don't get any worse.

Finally, please check out the link "Read before you post" in my signature below. A few minutes now will help you get the best possible support here. You've probably already started browsing Pool School which is highly recommended.

Great to have you as part of the community here!

 

[Bill EH]

Thanks for the advice. I've already ordered a NQ Pool Test Kit, hopefully it will turn up soon. I'll get my info together and add it to my signature. Cheers, Bill

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP!

 

[needsajet]

Great that your kit is on the way. Unless they've changed, the NQ kit lacks the combined chlorine (CC) test. I believe CCL sells just the FAS-DPD chlorine kit, which would give you CC as well. If anyone knows, please correct me if NQ has added CC.

 

[Jezza]

Welcome Bill. :hand wave:

Needsajet has you covered with the test kits.

Personally IMO if you could get your money back from NQ test kits I would and go with Clearchoicelabs. There is another minor issue in that the NQ test kit does not allow you test for combined chloramines (CC for short). With what your describing it is almost certain that you have algae in the pool- green cloudy pool. Your going to need to perform what we call a SLAM and this important test and result will be very important. Your success in using this procedure is based on accurate testing with a test kit that has the FAS DPD test. Otherwise I hope you have better luck with NQ test kits than many others have reported back on this forum who really had to do a lot of chasing up just to get their kits.

Time is important here so I would be feeding your pool 2-3 litres of liquid chlorine a day until you can get the right test kit. Whatever you do, do not add any more stabiliser. Adding the stabiliser in the pool without proper testing could potentially make your problem even worse- if this is what your pool guy recommended I also would not rely on any more of his advice. Once you get your kit post your numbers up and we can help you out.

 

[Bill EH]

Thanks needsajet, Texas Splash, jezza.
I'm wishing that I hadn't ordered the NQ test kit now but they have my money so I'll go with that for now. I should have checked with the forum before ordering. If I can add a CC test to the NQ kit, I'll be able to do what I need to.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.

 

[Jezza]

Bill you could always get this from Clearchoicelabs. It is a standalone FAS DPD test which will allow you to test for CC. If you get an extra bottle of the titration reagent, then it will be free shipping. By the sounds of it you may need it.