A double whammy

Jump to latest Follow Reply
tim5055

tim5055

TFP Expert
LifeTime Supporter
Moderator Emeritus
May 11, 2014
11,536
Franklin, NC
Well, I spent the last seven days in the mountain of North Carolina. I left only expecting to be gone four, but my work schedule came out with extra days off so I just stayed.

Now, I usually don't worry about the pool as my Stenner pump adds chlorine every day and I toss a floater in the hot tub with a 1/4 puck to keep it clear.

I just got home to find that I forgot to put the puck in the hot tub and the pool timer jammed and has not been running for a few days. The hot tub is an interesting shade of green....

On the pool, I lucked out (I think). FC was still 1 when I found it and was still perfectly clear.

So, the hot tub is draining and I've added a bottle of bleach to bring the FC up. Another bottle after dark and on to the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT).
 
Well, I discovered the T104 timer is dead. New mechanism on order and will be here Tuesday (thanks Amazon).

The hot tub has been dumped and is now heating nice new water. It has a much higher level of chlorine right now to clean up the little bit of water that was left in the system.

Knowledge is power. Before I found TFP I would have been lost when this happened. With the knowledge gained here I was ready with my test kit and hopefully the OCLT will pass.
 
Well, I guess I spoke too soon. The last coupld of nights the dear wife has commented on the pool looking "dull" in with the light on. Daytime it looks fabulous.

Looking around today I found a light dust on the steps, yellowish in color. A good wire brushing had it gone but testing shortly after showed:

FC=2
CC=2

Up to shock level we go and the pump and Stenner will be working overtime.....
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
tim5055 said:
Well, I guess I spoke too soon. The last coupld of nights the dear wife has commented on the pool looking "dull" in with the light on. Daytime it looks fabulous.

Looking around today I found a light dust on the steps, yellowish in color. A good wire brushing had it gone but testing shortly after showed:

FC=2
CC=2

Up to shock level we go and the pump and Stenner will be working overtime.....
Click to expand...

Kind of strange considering you passed your OCLT 3 days ago....
 
Well, I think I found the culprit - and I'm going to use a common excuse, it rained after my OCLT. Now the details.....

Last year while removing calcium build up above the water line I accidentally punched a hole in a grout line with a screwdriver. For most pools that would not be a big issue, above the water line = no leak. My pool is "different". As I have explained in other posts, our house lot is the low lot in the neighborhood. All water runs to us. When I punched that hole in the grout it turned into a little fountain, nasty water from behind the tile began flowing into the pool from hydro-static pressure. It's so bad that in a really heavy days long rain we can actually see water coming up through the joints in the side walks and driveway.

So, back to the last few days. The night before last we got two inches of rain in a few hours. Obviously nasty water began coming in through my hole. I just got in the pool to do some brushing I can't do from the side and discovered it still leaking through the hole. To make matter worse, my CYA has been slowly droping until i'm right around 30. With he amount of sun I get I like to keep it around 50. So, I just dumped a cup of CYA in the skimmer...... But, for full disclosure I have skimmer socks so it sits there and dissolves quickly. It was gone in about 30 minutes.

Well, time to quit procrastinating and get this hole patched up......
 
Picture please!!

But if the tile is hung on the bond beam, then how does water get into the pool? Tile grout is mostly cosmetic...again, a picture would help with my confusion...
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Picture please!!

But if the tile is hung on the bond beam, then how does water get into the pool? Tile grout is mostly cosmetic...again, a picture would help with my confusion...
Click to expand...
Literally, it is just a small puncture in the grout line. This side of the pool is higher than the other three sides, holding back the yard.

I'm headed to work, but will try to shoot a photo tomorrow.

Here is my original thread about the efflorescence that I deal with. The middle photo shows the area where the hole is to the left of the sheer decent waterfall

Grout Efflorescence in Several Areas
 
Zootopia Sloth Laugh Scene - YouTube

Or, as I said when I saw the picture, "Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nooooooooowwww iiiiiii geeeeeeeeet iiiiiit!!"

(My favorite scene from Zootopia)

I recently procured a 6 gallon air compressor with 2.6 SCFM @ 90psi. It's small potatoes compared to the larger 20 gallon compressors but I was thinking of getting a simple hand-held bead blaster like this -

Amazon.com: Unitec 007 Hand Held Sandblaster: Automotive

And some kierserite media (magnesium sulfate) and do some surgical soda blasting on my spa face efflorescence. If I ever get to it, I'll post my results.

I had soda blasting done on my tile two seasons ago and it worked perfectly at completely removing scale and efflorescence. My tiles looked new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.

Similar threads

D
First Timer-Green Pool
Replies
2
Views
211
Just Getting Started
Katygreys
K
H
What do I do? My pump one is tripping breaker and ... It's winter
Replies
4
Views
284
Spas and Hot Tubs
Mdragger88
Mdragger88
R
Flo Error after turning Sundance Cameo
Replies
2
Views
180
Spas and Hot Tubs
RDspaguy
R
AUSpool
Temperature and CyA degradation in a hot tub
Replies
9
Views
510
Spas and Hot Tubs
AUSpool
AUSpool
T
Anyone interested in helping me find a leak?
Replies
2
Views
238
Everything Else
tagteamcomputing
T
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply