Hi All,
Checking in from Sydney, Australia here - new occupier and maintainer (n.b. - not owner) of a property with a 70Kl (around 18500 Gal) saltwater pool.
Never had a pool before and have not really encountered a lot of the chemistry that goes along with it, although I am scientifically minded and definitely love to tinker and get stuff 'just right' so it sounds like a match made in heaven. Also fairly lazy and love to automate, so will be interested to see what can be done with automatic monitoring, sampling etc.
The pool itself is in-ground, fibreglass with a reasonably narrow concrete surround, and garden beds that like to donate organics regularly. No overhanging trees thankfully! Approx 17m x 3m, 1.4m deep with no gradient.
Equipment is in the form of a basic -seeming Onga pump incorporating a filter, a Davey Chloromatic Salt Water Chlorinator, an Aquacal 'Heatwave SuperQuiet' heat pump, and a Swash Dolphin pool cleaner 'bot - which is fairly geriatric and behaves accordingly.
We live in an exposed area of Sydney, with plenty of wind, strong sunlight and occasionally pouring rain - water levels will need to be carefully maintained. No pool cover, although there is an existing roller that I hope to reuse.
In terms of testing equipment and supplies I've been left a handful of various dilapidated test kits, strips, etc.. binned the lot, except one bottle of test strips that were fine, and bought myself a 4-in-1 test kit that purports to do all the important stuff - free chlorine, pH, acid demand and total alkalinity. Also left a few bags of buffer, ph increaser, a box of stabilised chlorine, a drum of chlorine and god knows what else in the mess under the house..
I've begun taking readings, and the situation chemically doesn't appear dire, however I'm sure the moment I start messing with the balance to improve things, it'll go all to ****. So far PH is remarkably good, sitting at 7.4-7.6, but free chlorine (DPD 1) is off the chart at 3+, the limit of my scale. Alkalinity appears low, at 50ppm, so a quick dump of buffer yesterday should see that improve soon enough... and so it begins.
A few immediate concerns present themselves...
I'm somewhat limited by funding here - the owners will pay necessary costs for equipment repairs etc, however we get to do the work in order to enjoy the rewards. Fine by me, but I can't just go dropping thousands on new stuff for the heck of it.
As for goals from the pool, we're just inching into winter here, with the first <10°c mornings and evenings presenting in the last week. My partner and I are a little nuts and enjoy winter swimming, and with the aid of a good cover and the heat pump hope to be able to keep the pool at around 15-18°c through winter. The place has an amazing view, and a fantastic bar and entertaining area adjoining the pool, so once spring rolls around and things start to warm up, I expect the pool will have plenty of use and will require more care and attention.
I'll drop a few photos of the pool, setup and so on in a reply here, but for now, if you have any suggestions, ideas, warnings etc, I'm all ears.
Cheers,
Mak
Checking in from Sydney, Australia here - new occupier and maintainer (n.b. - not owner) of a property with a 70Kl (around 18500 Gal) saltwater pool.
Never had a pool before and have not really encountered a lot of the chemistry that goes along with it, although I am scientifically minded and definitely love to tinker and get stuff 'just right' so it sounds like a match made in heaven. Also fairly lazy and love to automate, so will be interested to see what can be done with automatic monitoring, sampling etc.
The pool itself is in-ground, fibreglass with a reasonably narrow concrete surround, and garden beds that like to donate organics regularly. No overhanging trees thankfully! Approx 17m x 3m, 1.4m deep with no gradient.
Equipment is in the form of a basic -seeming Onga pump incorporating a filter, a Davey Chloromatic Salt Water Chlorinator, an Aquacal 'Heatwave SuperQuiet' heat pump, and a Swash Dolphin pool cleaner 'bot - which is fairly geriatric and behaves accordingly.
We live in an exposed area of Sydney, with plenty of wind, strong sunlight and occasionally pouring rain - water levels will need to be carefully maintained. No pool cover, although there is an existing roller that I hope to reuse.
In terms of testing equipment and supplies I've been left a handful of various dilapidated test kits, strips, etc.. binned the lot, except one bottle of test strips that were fine, and bought myself a 4-in-1 test kit that purports to do all the important stuff - free chlorine, pH, acid demand and total alkalinity. Also left a few bags of buffer, ph increaser, a box of stabilised chlorine, a drum of chlorine and god knows what else in the mess under the house..
I've begun taking readings, and the situation chemically doesn't appear dire, however I'm sure the moment I start messing with the balance to improve things, it'll go all to ****. So far PH is remarkably good, sitting at 7.4-7.6, but free chlorine (DPD 1) is off the chart at 3+, the limit of my scale. Alkalinity appears low, at 50ppm, so a quick dump of buffer yesterday should see that improve soon enough... and so it begins.
A few immediate concerns present themselves...
- The pump has lost prime - easy to fix (youtube to the rescue) however I can't, because the access port is totally seized and will require a tool of some design to open without destroying. Tried letting it pick up prime on its own, but with the clogged filter basket (I suspect due to poor maintenance on behalf of the previous mob), it just can't pull enough water through.
- The Chlorinator is also complaining that it is out of salt, so that means.. something?
- The pool 'bot sucks.. but not in the way I need it to. It cleans immaculately the same 5-6m² area of the pool when turned on, then decides it's had enough and goes back to sleep. It also requires manual prompting to run - this appears to be by design.. terrible, pointless design. I need to find a better way to clean the pool, or set aside time to babysit the cleaner and steer it around with the scoop, which does yield good results.
- The pool filter covers, hoses, scoops and so on are all UV damaged and brittle or broken, and the hatches all require special tools to open and clean.. all of which are AWOL, of course.
I'm somewhat limited by funding here - the owners will pay necessary costs for equipment repairs etc, however we get to do the work in order to enjoy the rewards. Fine by me, but I can't just go dropping thousands on new stuff for the heck of it.
As for goals from the pool, we're just inching into winter here, with the first <10°c mornings and evenings presenting in the last week. My partner and I are a little nuts and enjoy winter swimming, and with the aid of a good cover and the heat pump hope to be able to keep the pool at around 15-18°c through winter. The place has an amazing view, and a fantastic bar and entertaining area adjoining the pool, so once spring rolls around and things start to warm up, I expect the pool will have plenty of use and will require more care and attention.
I'll drop a few photos of the pool, setup and so on in a reply here, but for now, if you have any suggestions, ideas, warnings etc, I'm all ears.
Cheers,
Mak
