very interesting about the salt build up. I still think it's gotta take quite a while for it to get there. If I didn't have a salt water pool I'd backwash onto my grass. TA down to 70 yesterday, so that's good news. I've been keeping my FC much higher this year.
thinking of emptying pool
- Thread starter outdoorsgal
- Start date
we leave tomorrow eve for 3 weeks. i checked the salt cell this morn. Looked almost like new. maybe a pebble or 2 or calcium or 2. All I had to do was rinse cell with hose.
checked my levels and I was really surprised to see pH and TA shoot right back up. Just yesterday afternoon pH was 7.5. This morn it was 8.2. Unless I was reading something wrong this was really surprising. TA shot back up to 80 from 70 from last week, though, so that coincides. I looked at my calendar and I've been adding acid about twice a week for the past couple of weeks (and more prior). Each time I take it back down to 7.2. The goal is to do better but that's where I've been for now. With not wanting to ask too much of the folks who r coming to help at the house, I'm thinking of telling them that they can either measure to get pH to 7.2 twice a week if possible or add 25 oz every 3 days which is pretty much what I've been doing. Then when I come back I'll start experimenting more with looking at CSI and we'll have a talk about if I'll continue to chase TA or focus more on CSI. I went back to see if Gene's recommendation was similar to my current conclusion about what to ask of the people helping with the house but couldn't find it and am on the go.
Oh, and FC was down to 5 last night with cell at 35%. I increased it to 40 or 45% and FC was 7.5 this morn. I increased my pump running time by a couple of hrs and will increase the cell a bit more before we leave just to be safe (the family may use the pool-3 little kids...). When I get back hopefully I can figure out how to change percentage to see what the RPMs r also.
Thanks for all your help!
checked my levels and I was really surprised to see pH and TA shoot right back up. Just yesterday afternoon pH was 7.5. This morn it was 8.2. Unless I was reading something wrong this was really surprising. TA shot back up to 80 from 70 from last week, though, so that coincides. I looked at my calendar and I've been adding acid about twice a week for the past couple of weeks (and more prior). Each time I take it back down to 7.2. The goal is to do better but that's where I've been for now. With not wanting to ask too much of the folks who r coming to help at the house, I'm thinking of telling them that they can either measure to get pH to 7.2 twice a week if possible or add 25 oz every 3 days which is pretty much what I've been doing. Then when I come back I'll start experimenting more with looking at CSI and we'll have a talk about if I'll continue to chase TA or focus more on CSI. I went back to see if Gene's recommendation was similar to my current conclusion about what to ask of the people helping with the house but couldn't find it and am on the go.
Oh, and FC was down to 5 last night with cell at 35%. I increased it to 40 or 45% and FC was 7.5 this morn. I increased my pump running time by a couple of hrs and will increase the cell a bit more before we leave just to be safe (the family may use the pool-3 little kids...). When I get back hopefully I can figure out how to change percentage to see what the RPMs r also.
Thanks for all your help!
- Nov 12, 2017
- 11,850
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Let the pool gods do what they will. You've done all you can. Whatever you need to do when you get back, pool-wise, can be dealt with then, which will hopefully just be jumping in for a nice swim!! Enjoy your time away and have fun.
- Feb 6, 2015
- 6,100
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Drop the pH to 7.2 before you leave
Leave instructions on what to add and when
Enjoy your vacation and don't worry about the pool
Leave instructions on what to add and when
Enjoy your vacation and don't worry about the pool
cfherrman
TFP Guide
If you have empty bleach jugs, pre measure a addition and write the day if the week on it
- Feb 6, 2015
- 6,100
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
OP has a SWG.
I believe she was considering leaving some premeasured muriatic acid to be added. I know you are well aware not to cross-contaminate by putting MA in chlorine bottles or vice-versa. But wanted to mention it here as some may not be aware of the potential issue.
Great suggestion to use empty bottles of the same chemical to have a premeasured amount for whoever is watching over the pool while you are on vacation.
thx everyone. I'll see how I'm doing for time tomorrow but I only have one MA bottle left over so I might just give them directions. The gentleman coming to help with the house used to work as a pool guy so I hope he'd know not to spill acid on the coping. I left baking soda and directions. thx!
I everyone! I thought I'd catch ya all up to date. I was hoping to handle getting the TA down myself and then post the good news and life keeps happening and I end up skipping a day or 2 of adding acid, so then I never got the pH where it needed to be. Some days I add twice a day but many days I miss a day, so I'm still at 80. Good news is I haven't had any algae this year! I have been keeping my FC high and feeling a bit better about that. With fresh new water and at least adding acid every few days I have to say the first time I got the "check salt cell" light was on 8-15. I checked it before I left a mth prior and I was thinking it was time to check it again. There was a small leaf and something in the cell and some salt on the sides that came out without an acid soak so I'm extremely happy about that! I haven't had to clean the salt cell with acid yet since draining the pool about 4-18! 
I don't think I went that long for sure when the pool was first new.
When I got back from vacay pool really needed a backwash. I heard from the wife that the guy added acid-I think once a week? TA was 80 then and is still 80 now so I haven't been focusing on CSI since I'm still focusing on getting that # down. Current #s:
FC 10
CC 0
pH 7.8
TA 80 from 8-18
CYA-measured when I got back but I must've neglected to write it down. It was in a good place, though.
I thought I recalled backwashing twice since I've been back but I only have it recorded for 8-7. I've been seeing air bubbles coming out of my in-floor cleaning system and with the monsoons it's been hard to tell if my in floor wasn't working as fast as I'd like or if I really needed to tear about the filter. I tore about the filter today. I've never done that without backwashing first but since we have nowhere to backwash I went with Gene's advice and broke it down without backwashing. With that, I couldn't compare how it looked. Actually the pool looked great this morning before backwashing and I've been confused for the past couple weeks regarding the pressure on the DE filter. Right after backwashing and right after tearing apart the DE filter the pressure isn't down much. I still need to figure out how to change panel back to read RPMs. As of now all I know that on 90% after tearing down the system it said 23. I've let it run for an hour and now it says 24. I have the green arrow at 19 (but maybe I should move it to 24?) and the red arrow is at 29. I don't remember how I got those arrows to those places but I thought the green was the baseline and the red was showing when I had to absolutely backwash?
Also, It rained few days but that was a few days ago. I'm surprised that my pool is still so full-almost an inch from the bottom of the coping. I turned the H20 shut off valve but I can't tell if that will help or now. I've just been waiting to see if the level with go down due to evaporation. It's been humid but I'm still surprised it hasn't gone down. I might email the pool company just to have it on record since my warranty JUST ended last mth and they know I'm not happy with them right now as it is so if something's wrong it'd be nice for them to replace it. I've been finding grout smudges on my marbella, still airpocket gaps in my grout lines and grout smudged on the tile, too, which can scratch the tile. The guy who came out didn't do a good job and they are trying to say it's not smudged grout when it's obvious that it is.
Sorry it's so long. I was hoping to have all good news and in the meantime I have multiple things I'm thinking about and dealing with at once as usual. Also finding lots of rust stains in the pool which I try to take care of by pouring acid on them via a water bottle with a hole cut in the top and then I go to the bottom of the pool and squirt it on the rust.
thx much.
I don't think I went that long for sure when the pool was first new. When I got back from vacay pool really needed a backwash. I heard from the wife that the guy added acid-I think once a week? TA was 80 then and is still 80 now so I haven't been focusing on CSI since I'm still focusing on getting that # down. Current #s:
FC 10
CC 0
pH 7.8
TA 80 from 8-18
CYA-measured when I got back but I must've neglected to write it down. It was in a good place, though.
I thought I recalled backwashing twice since I've been back but I only have it recorded for 8-7. I've been seeing air bubbles coming out of my in-floor cleaning system and with the monsoons it's been hard to tell if my in floor wasn't working as fast as I'd like or if I really needed to tear about the filter. I tore about the filter today. I've never done that without backwashing first but since we have nowhere to backwash I went with Gene's advice and broke it down without backwashing. With that, I couldn't compare how it looked. Actually the pool looked great this morning before backwashing and I've been confused for the past couple weeks regarding the pressure on the DE filter. Right after backwashing and right after tearing apart the DE filter the pressure isn't down much. I still need to figure out how to change panel back to read RPMs. As of now all I know that on 90% after tearing down the system it said 23. I've let it run for an hour and now it says 24. I have the green arrow at 19 (but maybe I should move it to 24?) and the red arrow is at 29. I don't remember how I got those arrows to those places but I thought the green was the baseline and the red was showing when I had to absolutely backwash?
Also, It rained few days but that was a few days ago. I'm surprised that my pool is still so full-almost an inch from the bottom of the coping. I turned the H20 shut off valve but I can't tell if that will help or now. I've just been waiting to see if the level with go down due to evaporation. It's been humid but I'm still surprised it hasn't gone down. I might email the pool company just to have it on record since my warranty JUST ended last mth and they know I'm not happy with them right now as it is so if something's wrong it'd be nice for them to replace it. I've been finding grout smudges on my marbella, still airpocket gaps in my grout lines and grout smudged on the tile, too, which can scratch the tile. The guy who came out didn't do a good job and they are trying to say it's not smudged grout when it's obvious that it is.
Sorry it's so long. I was hoping to have all good news and in the meantime I have multiple things I'm thinking about and dealing with at once as usual. Also finding lots of rust stains in the pool which I try to take care of by pouring acid on them via a water bottle with a hole cut in the top and then I go to the bottom of the pool and squirt it on the rust.
thx much.