A Houston Pool Build Inside the Loop

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Marlahoutex said:
Thanks Suz! I thought I would be scared to do this part, but it's actually fun! The directions for the TP-100 kit are really easy to follow!
But why did the TA go up. Did the CH raiser cause that?
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What CH raiser did you use? If you go to the bottom of pool math there is a drop down that lets you pick all the standard chemicals and if you put in how much you added it will show you what happens to your levels.

I am using pure product on my pool so I haven't seen those problems. The only thing I have used to raise the TA is baking soda.

TA you should add drop by drop until it turns bright pink and another drop doesn't change the color. I keep adding until the color doesn't change between drops and then subtract one drop.

For reference here is what I use for raising my CH:
Amazon.com : North American Salt 50850 Extreme 7300 Calcium Chloride Ice Melter, 50-Pound : Snow And Ice Melting Products : Patio, Lawn Garden
 
I went out this morning and turned on the pump and was going to do what Bmores suggested with the salt cell. The salt cell went into service mode after being on a few minutes. I texted the PB and he is going to send someone out to look at it.

Umm, because I wanted to get chems right away, I went to Lowes and bought 5 lbs of Clorox Calcium Hardness increaser. I will order from Amazon from now on with your link and what Suz recommended. I tried to find what was in it before buying but all I could find was calcium chloride.

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Kim, I will try a damp cloth. I had always used a dry cloth before.
 
Marlahoutex said:
I went out this morning and turned on the pump and was going to do what Bmores suggested with the salt cell. The salt cell went into service mode after being on a few minutes. I texted the PB and he is going to send someone out to look at it.

Umm, because I wanted to get chems right away, I went to Lowes and bought 5 lbs of Clorox Calcium Hardness increaser. I will order from Amazon from now on with your link and what Suz recommended. I tried to find what was in it before buying but all I could find was calcium chloride.

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Kim, I will try a damp cloth. I had always used a dry cloth before.
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I'll see what is on the bag. I still have it in the garage if you want to know. I first bought a 20lb bag but that only got me up to 250. I haven't raised it to 350 yet. Our tap water in Austin is really low ~100. Which is funny because I always thought Austin had hard water. There are tons of people with water softeners because of the "Hard" water and then when I got a pool turns out it isn't hard at all.
 
FYI I just put 22lbs in my pool today of the deicer. It's only active ingredient is Calcium Chloride. It seemed to raise the CH in the pool as expected by the pool math calculator so I would assume it is fine. It was less than $50 shipped for 50 pounds using Amazon prime. I had it in 2 days.

Next up I just bought 55 pounds of boric acid. My wife thinks I am out of control.
 
Oh, oh, umm! I've already received my boric acid. I may wait until after my granddog visits to add it. I guess you saw the thread with the recipe for testing the level. Are you going to use that? I can't wait to hear what you think about it.
Suz
 
That was my purchase too on the deicer. Nice. I added the boric acid from Duda Diesel late the first year. I decided not to do it after that because, being in a northern climate with draining each year, i would end up having to buy 30-40% of the original amount each spring for a non-essential. I hadn't thought that part through.
 
This thread covers it well: So you want to add borates to your pool--Why and How

I'm interested in using borates to reduce my acid consumption, but the advice I got was to cut my teeth on all the other chems for a year first, before trying borates, so that's what I'm doing. Also, I'm letting my TA drop gradually (down to 70 so far) before I add borates. Feels kinda like borates are part of high school and I'm not past year 4 yet ;)
 

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With all the rain we've been having, my pool was cloudy yesterday when I got home from work. The pool service (I only have a couple of more left with pool contract-yeah!) had been there on Tuesday. These are my numbers from yesterday after rain:
FC 8
CC .5
CH 275 (I know I need to get this up to 350. I had just added ch increaser 2 days before!)
TA 80
CYA 80
pH 7.8

Because the pool was so cloudy, I added bleach last night to raise FC to 15 and let the pump run for about 2 hours. Today I ran the robot (after it stopped raining) to pick up all of the dirt that was washed into the pool. Pool is still cloudy but seems less so. Here are my current numbers.

FC 15
CC .5
CH 275
TA 80
CYA 50
pH 8.2

I should add that my salt cell will occasionally go into service mode. The tech was supposed to come out today to look at it when we do pool school but that didn't happen because of the weather. Right now the salt cell is working although only 2700 at 40% setting. I sent the service guy the code and it's not getting enough current so he has getting a new back board (whatever that is) just in case.

So I guess my question is how long should my pool stay cloudy? Also, should I add stablizer, muriatic acid and CH increaser even with the pool so cloudy?
 
Wow I don't know about the cloudy yet. Mine has been pretty crystal clear from the get go. I am wondering if maybe you aren't running your pump fast or long enough?

I would have guessed that FC of 7 would have been plenty. Mine usually hovers between 4 and 5. Well that is until the sensor on my SWG decided to be a pain in the rear and wouldn't register any flow. I managed to get that fixed last night so no more manual bleach adding for me.
 
A few items to clarify. Rain only is one thing (only dilutes and usually not by much - unless its several inches or more - and I know you may have had a lot), but having runoff go into the pool is another. Sounds like you have dirt/mud running into the pool from the surrounding landscape. Is that correct? Dirt can bring organics with it. Since your water is cloudy, I would have your pump run 24/7 to help filter the water. Keeping in mind that cartridge filters are pretty efficient and may get clogged somewhat quickly. Be sure to monitor your pressure and clean the cartridges once the pressure rises 25% above your pool's clean pressure. If clarity doesn't come within a day (or isn't showing marked improvement and clarity is near), then you will want to SLAM your pool.

Not a problem to add MA, stabilizer or CH during this cleanup time as appropriate. Since your filter doesn't use backwashing, there is no risk of losing partially dissolved CYA via that avenue. I caution on your CYA however. Your numbers show a 38% drop in CYA from 80 to 50. That is not likely because you would have needed to exchange 38% of your water with that rain in order to achieve that. I would look first at ensuring you are performing that test 100% in accordance with the instructions to ensure consistency among readings. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/220-CYA Actually, a caution to adding CYA now is that if in fact you do end up needing to SLAM, you will now have a higher FC level to achieve and maintain. So just wait until the water is clear before increasing CYA to be safe. MA and CH are no problem as necessary to reach your goals.
 
Thanks Bmore. Yes, you are correct about dirt/mud getting into the pool. We need to landscape but either haven't had a free weekend or it's rained. Filter pressure is at 18%. I have been checking that. I will also make sure the pump runs 24/7.

I will make sure I am doing the CYA correctly. I thought I was but now that you point out the numbers it's possible I wasn't. Is the CYA tube supposed to be in sun or is your body shading it when having the sun over your shoulder? That is perhaps where I'm doing it incorrectly. I will do Pool Math to see quantities needed for MA and CH.
 
Just went out and added the MA per Pool Math quantity. I don't have enough CH increaser so I will have to go get some. Should I just pick some up at HD or Lowes? Or should I go to Leslies? Suz gave me the name of her brand she buys off Amazon, but I forgot to order it.

FWIW - The pool looks clearer than a couple of hours ago when I took out the robot.

I forgot Umm said I could use deicer to raise the CH, but I probably can't find any here this time of the year.
 
Thanks Umm for that Amazon link. Just ordered the 50 lb bag so it'll be here Wednesday. I don't think anyone will be able to steal it off my porch.

Do I just dump it (using the correct amount, of course!) into the pool?
 
The tube should be in the shade at waist level with your back to the sun.
 

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