Bug identification help please

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M

mrtcereal

Member
Oct 3, 2022
11
Sacramento, CA
Pool Size
25000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
SWG Type
Jandy Truclear / Ei
Been working on getting the pool ready for swim season, went to empty the skimmer basket and add stabilizer this morning and surprisingly found a small colony of bugs hanging out in the basket. They're small, dark brown/black, beetle-like guys about a 1/4" in size. We noticed them from time to time last year, and every now and then one would bite us during a swim. They don't look like water boatmen or backswimmers (or at least I don't think they do). Hoping someone can help identify and if anyone has suggestions on what to do here (photo below). Sun doesn't hit the pool very much at all between November and February. It just started getting some sun in the past couple of weeks. We did have some very windy days last week. We're located in Sacramento, CA.

Latest test results from this morning (using TF Pro kit):

25,000 gal, in-ground pebble pool, SWG (currently off). Starite 3 cartridge filter (cleaned two weeks ago). Pump running from 9am to 5pm right now.

FC 1.5 -- was brought up to 4 last Tuesday, just added more this morning to bring it back up to 4.
PH 7.8
TA 75
CH 275
CYA 30 (working on moving that up)
Salt 3050
Temp 61F (just switched the solar on this past Saturday)
Phosphates were at 123ppb according to a test from Leslies a little less than a month ago.

bugs.jpg
 
I know you asked about bugs, but your low chlorine is scaring me.

For 30 CYA and manually dosing with chlorine, your FC should be in the 4-6 range and never ever ever below 2 FC. Yours went down to 1.5, then you only dosed it to 4. I would love to see you bump it up to 6-8, then replenish FC when it gets close to 4 so you can stay far away from the minimums.
Once you get your CYA up and your SWCG in use, you can switch over to the SWCG chart. I put my cheat sheet below if helpful:

1710793796035.png
 
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I'd guess that also by traveling at higher levels of Cl, there would be fewer live beetles......
At least back in my puck days, the increase in alive animal life was a tell tale that my Cl was too low....
 
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JJ_Tex said:
I know you asked about bugs, but your low chlorine is scaring me.

For 30 CYA and manually dosing with chlorine, your FC should be in the 4-6 range and never ever ever below 2 FC. Yours went down to 1.5, then you only dosed it to 4. I would love to see you bump it up to 6-8, then replenish FC when it gets close to 4 so you can stay far away from the minimums.
Once you get your CYA up and your SWCG in use, you can switch over to the SWCG chart. I put my cheat sheet below if helpful:

View attachment 559170
Click to expand...
Thank you. I just added more to get it to 6. I've been checking/adding weekly, and like I mentioned the pool hadn't see much sun for the past few months. I rarely had to add any over the winter, but it looks like I need to top it off more frequently as it is warming up before I switch on the SWG. Thanks again.
 
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