I was sold my "nearly maintenance free" pool in the spring of 2013. I would sure hate to see what a non-maintenance free pool is like!!!
Fought it the first year because of leaks in liner and ignorance. I was adding 1.5 to 2 feet of water 1 to 2 times a week. The pool seller told me that was normal evap for our area. Liar!!! My inability to maintain the water balance caused cell death before second season opening. But while the pool was covered for the winter I was still adding at least a foot of water a week. I knew I had a leak now. I opened the pool last spring and planned to just used tabs instead of SWG. Due to travel it took me a few months to find the leaks. Too much travel meant fighting it every time I was home last year. So at the end of last season I was done with the pool and planned on removing and refilling the hole this year. Well that's not going to happen! A happy wife is a happy life, right?
With zero maintenance or circulation and uncovered since last October you can imagine what this thing looked like 4 days ago.
Drained and refilled as best I could. Since it is 30" below grade loss of suction means end of draining so I left approximately 1 to 2 inches of water in pool. I was flushing while draining with two water hoses so it was fairly clear. I also got most of the debris out too.
Threw in floater with Trichlor tabs, a bag of Leslie's Power Powder and almost a gallon of liquid CYA.
After that point the levels were
FC 10
CC 1
TA 80
CH 120
CYA 35 - 40
Using TF-100 kit
That was just to "hold" the pool until I figured out if I was going to use the SWG.
I then performed a deep cleaning of the filter (OH MY) and repaired some minor drips in piping.
I decided to give the SWG another chance and to begin a SLAM
I cleaned the inside of the steps (nightmare) and added 1 gallon of bleach yesterday morning. I also removed floater and tabs
last night after sundown levels
FC 22.5
CC 1
This morning
FC 22.5
CC .5 to 1
Items on order or here waiting.
2 more gallons of bleach
GLX-CELL-5
240lbs of salt
23lbs of boric acid
Borate test strips
1.2 gallons of liquid CYA
1 bottle Perfect Plus PHOSfree (Leslies test PHOS at 200ppm and I bought before reading here)
1 bottle PHOS something add a cap a week per store. Think I am going to return for my $65
My plan is the following while maintaining 3-5 ppm using bleach
Finish SLAM
Add PHOSfree (Can this be done during the SLAM?)
Add salt to 200-400 ppm recommended (need to research for my unit)
Add CYA to 80
Adjust TA to 70
Add Borates to 50
Once I have a stable 7.5 PH install new cell (stop bleach) and begin setting % with a 6 hour pump run time
6 hours should give me 3 complete water turnovers with a freshly backwashed filter. I measured flow at 3500gph using a clamp-on ultrasonic last year.
Am I missing anything? Is that the correct order?
Thanks in advance for your help!!
Fought it the first year because of leaks in liner and ignorance. I was adding 1.5 to 2 feet of water 1 to 2 times a week. The pool seller told me that was normal evap for our area. Liar!!! My inability to maintain the water balance caused cell death before second season opening. But while the pool was covered for the winter I was still adding at least a foot of water a week. I knew I had a leak now. I opened the pool last spring and planned to just used tabs instead of SWG. Due to travel it took me a few months to find the leaks. Too much travel meant fighting it every time I was home last year. So at the end of last season I was done with the pool and planned on removing and refilling the hole this year. Well that's not going to happen! A happy wife is a happy life, right?
With zero maintenance or circulation and uncovered since last October you can imagine what this thing looked like 4 days ago.
Drained and refilled as best I could. Since it is 30" below grade loss of suction means end of draining so I left approximately 1 to 2 inches of water in pool. I was flushing while draining with two water hoses so it was fairly clear. I also got most of the debris out too.
Threw in floater with Trichlor tabs, a bag of Leslie's Power Powder and almost a gallon of liquid CYA.
After that point the levels were
FC 10
CC 1
TA 80
CH 120
CYA 35 - 40
Using TF-100 kit
That was just to "hold" the pool until I figured out if I was going to use the SWG.
I then performed a deep cleaning of the filter (OH MY) and repaired some minor drips in piping.
I decided to give the SWG another chance and to begin a SLAM
I cleaned the inside of the steps (nightmare) and added 1 gallon of bleach yesterday morning. I also removed floater and tabs
last night after sundown levels
FC 22.5
CC 1
This morning
FC 22.5
CC .5 to 1
Items on order or here waiting.
2 more gallons of bleach
GLX-CELL-5
240lbs of salt
23lbs of boric acid
Borate test strips
1.2 gallons of liquid CYA
1 bottle Perfect Plus PHOSfree (Leslies test PHOS at 200ppm and I bought before reading here)
1 bottle PHOS something add a cap a week per store. Think I am going to return for my $65
My plan is the following while maintaining 3-5 ppm using bleach
Finish SLAM
Add PHOSfree (Can this be done during the SLAM?)
Add salt to 200-400 ppm recommended (need to research for my unit)
Add CYA to 80
Adjust TA to 70
Add Borates to 50
Once I have a stable 7.5 PH install new cell (stop bleach) and begin setting % with a 6 hour pump run time
6 hours should give me 3 complete water turnovers with a freshly backwashed filter. I measured flow at 3500gph using a clamp-on ultrasonic last year.
Am I missing anything? Is that the correct order?
Thanks in advance for your help!!
Welcome to TFP!!!