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pbdoggie

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May 16, 2009
13
Peoria, AZ
Good Morning!

I have been visting here for about a month now and have learned a lot! Generally I have gone to Leslie's to get my water tests and basic supplies. That will certainly change now! I recieved my TF test kit on Thursday and am ready to really manage my pool water.

My pool was completed in Oct 06 by Whitewater Pools in Phoenix (which is now out of business). This is my first pool so I trusted most of the initial advice from the pool store. There are no major issues, but I feel it's now really where it should be.

I have a couple thing to run by the experts here. First I need some help in estimating my gallons. The builder began filling when I was not home, so I could not get a meter reading. It is a free form pool, 79' perimeter, 412 sg ft of surface area. The max dimensions are 29 x 16.6. Depths go from 3.5 to 6 to 5 ft deep. I originally thought about 19000 -20000, but now I am thinking more like 16000 or so. The onlie estimators all conflict with each other.

Has anybody dealth with Whitewater in Phoenix? I have a small leak in the underground plumbing of a return jet. I would replace it myself, but piping is essentially encased in concrete. Sloppy pour or intentional, I do not know. It is a pain to chisel out and I don't want to risk more damage to the pipes. Whitewater provided a lifetime warranty on underground plumbing. Since they're out of business, any idea who'd cover their warranty work or find who the plumbing sub was?

Last, for now, the water is clear in sun, but when I turn the pool light on at dark I can see lots of floaties. Best way to clear this up? Possible that a cart has a tear and best way to check?

My test this morning
TC 5
FC 5
CC 0
PH 7.6
CYA 70
TA 200 (not sure if I am getting this right)
CH not tested

Pool store on 5/16
TC3
FC3
PH 7.6
TA 130
CYA 90 (was 60 on 5/6 as tested by them. Other than some left over "shock", I have not added anything. One reason I am not trusting them not with the knowledge I gained here)
CH 200 (was 400 on 5/6)
Phosphates 100
Salt 4600 (Pool Thing requires about 5000)

Of note too, I am having an issue with the SWG that I just called about the MFG about last week, so I have been supplementing with bleach. I also added 1 box of borax on 5/15, in preperation of going the BBB way (I understand not nearly enough, more of an expierement to see how much it'd affect the ph, since that is the one thing I battle the most in this pool).

Edit: Typos.
 
What actually causes TA to rise? I've noticed that it's not particulary stable in my pool. Before reading here, I never knew that aerating caused ph to rise. Being in AZ, it's often necessary as to not feel like you're swimming in bath water. I have both a stone waterfall and a "stackless" fountain set into the baja step, as well as the normal aerator.
 
You should test your fill waters TA and CH levels. High TA and/or CH levels are fairly common in arid climates. High TA fill water can cause the TA in the pool to go up any time you add water.

Other than that, if the PH remains constant, TA mostly only goes down. TA will fluctuate up and down along with the PH to some extent.

I get something around 15,000 gallons. It could be 16,000 gallons, but no way it is 20,000.

The next time you do the TA test yourself, wipe the dropper tip with a damp tissue. That may help you get a more consistent test result.
 
Estimating pool capacity is really a guess-and-check sequence, if you didn't get to measure the volume during the initial fill. You can do calculations: split up the surface area into "basically shallow" and "basically deep" sections, make a guess for the average depth in each section, work out the cubic feet, then multiply by 7.48 to get gallons.

But, it's a guess. With a 400 sq ft surface, being off by 2" in the depth means you're off 500 gal. Take the calculations as the initial guess, then refine it by seeing how your pool reacts to various chemical additions. My first guess at my pool was 20k, but I always overshot the FC; ratcheted down to 18k, and my current guess is 18.5k.
--paulr
 
Last, for now, the water is clear in sun, but when I turn the pool light on at dark I can see lots of floaties. Best way to clear this up?
Click to expand...
In a crystal clear pool, you will see floaties drift by the lights at night. It's the nature of the beast.

As much active discussion as there is about which filter type filters the finest (it's DE), I cannot recall anyone documenting the elimination of nighttime floaties with a DE filter.
 
waste said:
Welcome to TFP!!

The floaties may well be hydrogen bubbles produced by your SWCG :wink: Try checking when the unit hasn't been producing for ~ 1 hour and see if there still there :-D
Click to expand...

I looked again the other night and they indeed had the quality of bubbles. I looked again this morning after pump had been off and no floaties, but just a little cloudiness.

PaulR said:
But, it's a guess. With a 400 sq ft surface, being off by 2" in the depth means you're off 500 gal. Take the calculations as the initial guess, then refine it by seeing how your pool reacts to various chemical additions. My first guess at my pool was 20k, but I always overshot the FC; ratcheted down to 18k, and my current guess is 18.5k.
--paulr
Click to expand...

Going by my latest chem adjustments, comes out to approx 16000 gallons. I'll tweak it a few more times and see how that goes. Thanks!
 
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