New to pool owndership and need some guidance

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biosurfer1

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Jul 21, 2016
8
El Dorado Hills, CA
I just moved into a new house and this is my first pool. I've been reading the forum and ordered a TF-100 kit right away. It came in yesterday and this evening I was able to do all of the tests. When I moved into the house, I had a pool inspection done to make sure things were in line and what I found out was whoever was taking care of the pool (local guy) was doing a poor job and basically running the filter pump at full speed for 8 hours a day and half speed the other 16. I'm fairly sure the pump never shut off for weeks, if not months. He also found the chemistry was out of whack, even though the water was pretty clear and seemed ok.

I've been in the house for about 10 days now and its obviously in need of help. While it started out pretty clear, it's getting pretty cloudy and since getting the test kit, I now have numbers to work from.

A little about the pool: Its a mostly rectangular in ground with pebble sheen, shallow end is 3.5ft going down to 6ft. According the a pool volume calculator, I have about 10,500 gallons. It is filled from city water here in El Dorado Hills, CA. I have an Aqua-logic PS-8 controller, a Pentair Intelli-flo 1.25HP variable speed filter pump, Heyward cartridge filter, a 3/4 HP Hayward 5060 booster pump connected to the Polaris sweep, and a SWG. The system also has solar on the roof but that booster pump does not work, and a 1.5 HP Heyward pump for the waterfall. Currently, the Aqua-logic is saying "Check system No Cell Power"

I went through all the tests from the kit tonight and these are the numbers I got:

Chlorine - basically none
P.H. - 8.2+
Free Chlorine - .5 PPM
Calcium - 300 PPM
TA - 270
CYA - basically 0

According to the sheet, the calcium is the only thing remotely close to normal. The water is getting cloudier by the day and I could use some pointers to get everything back in line.
 
stock up on bleach and some MA. Then:

- bring pH down with MA to 7.2 - 7.4 area for likely SLAM later
- bring FC up to at least 10 ppm using bleach or it will turn green in a couple of days
- add 30 ppm of CYA by 'sock method'. This is needed to preserve your FC during day or you'll not have any left by the end of day due to Sun breaking it down.

MA and chlorine need to be added at least 30 minutes apart. You pretty much need to do all of that yesterday. Check your pump/filter, clean the filter if it wasn't done recently.

Please add details of your equipment in the signature along with the test kit name so ppl won't need to search for it.
 
Welcome to TFP! Good to have you here :)

Good advice and get the algae killed and water chemistry right as your top priority.

You're going to need to run the pump 24/7 while getting it sorted, but you can use a more medium speed and start saving money on electricity right away. I have a similar pump and if it were mine, I would do a SLAM at about 1800-2000 rpm. Any brushing you can do will help you kill algae (walls, bottom, sides of steps, under coping overhang, etc.)
 
Thanks guys..one of the first things I did was edit my signature but I guess it didn't save.

I'm heading to the store soon to get supplies as it has already started to turn green. The last week has been 102+ here so that's not helping:) I'll report back once I get some readings.
 
Ok quick update. Put in the MA this morning and after 1.5 hours, the pH is now 7.0. Put in the recommended amount of liquid chlorine based on pool math, so I'll check again in an hour or so and see how we're doing.

FYI, this is what I'm working with (ignore the "unique" statues, they will be gone soon!)
IMG_20160731_100409.jpg
 
biosurfer1 said:
Ok quick update. Put in the MA this morning and after 1.5 hours, the pH is now 7.0. Put in the recommended amount of liquid chlorine based on pool math, so I'll check again in an hour or so and see how we're doing. ...
Click to expand...

Looks not so bad. You need to test the result of adding chlorine or other chemicals- just as you did after adding MA. This way you'll know your pool behavior better.
You need to bring your CYA level to 30 ppm ASAP or your FC won't stay long enough in the water. Please use PoolMath to calculate how much you need to dissolve to bring it to 30 ppm, add half of that first, check over few days and if it still below 30 ppm add more. CYA is necessary component of TFPC method but its excess is very hard to get rid of.
 

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Quick update. pH is down to 7.2, chlorine was between 1-2 so I added a bit more since it was towards the low side. Got the sock in the skimmer, put in half the stabilizer yesterday and checked the level and was at ~150ppm so I put in the rest today. The pool looks great, very clear with a slight bluish tint, no funny smells.

Overall most of the work has been outside the pool, cleaning up the equipment and trying to fix issues there. Did some research on the the "No cell power" issue and it looks like I have some soldering in my future. Good news is I have a former co-worker who worked on circuit board that should make quick work of it, fingers crossed it solves the problem.

A side funny story, the cleaner booster stopped working the other day so I went to take it apart to check and see if power was getting to it and the rear cap was rusted on pretty tight along with the bolts. After beating on it with a rubber mallet for 20 minutes, I finally was able to get it off and was met with tons of rust flakes, cobwebs, etc so I cleaned it up a bit and went to turn it on to check power and it instantly came to life. Who says using a BFH doesn't work?? I know it will have to be rebuilt sooner rather than later but for the time being, I'll just run it as it.

Thanks for all the help. I'll be re-running all the tests Friday and see how everything is going.
 
I have not started a SLAM yet, was still reading and trying to get the chemicals stabilized before moving to the next step. Speaking of chemicals, here are this weeks number's.
Chlorine: 1-2
pH: 7.8
3.5ppm FC
2ppm CC
TA 210
CYA ~20

Still learning the timing and how the pool reacts to adding different chemicals, plus with my cleaner booster pump going out, its been a struggle but I have a new pump coming and it should be replaced tomorrow
 
Sorry to hear about the pump.

Here's TFP convention to report those numbers:

FC 3.5
CC 2
pH 7.8
TA 210
CYA ~20

OTO chlorine 1-2 (this can be left out, OTO is mostly used as a quick dip to know there's chlorine, i.e. during intervals with no accurate testing)

Great to learn the pool as you take control of it!

For the SLAM, (if you want to make it as short as possible) pick a 1st day when you can hammer it. Testing and top-ups after 1 hour, and then every 2 hours roughly. Every 3-4 hours works great as well, and likely fine for the 2nd day. After that, morning, noon, dinner and before bed is a good schedule. Annihilate that algae. If you don't hit it hard and stay on it, SLAMs drag out.
 
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