Howdy all,
You guys helped me a bunch last year so I'm following your advice again.
We opened our pool May 2nd. I have an autocover but use a safety cover in the winter, which was a good thing as I had a leak this winter that would have destroyed the autocover. When we opened the pool it wasn't bad, mostly clear with some leaf debris. But, I had to add 8,000 gallons that I had trucked in from the local city well source. Our house is on a well and it has high iron, which I mistakenly used last year to fill the pool on opening. So I know there is some iron still in the water but it should be quite a bit less. I had an AIO water filter installed on the house including the backyard spigot to help with iron so I hope that I can top off with no ill effects.
The water looked good right away, clear, good chlorine, etc. I added 6 bags of salt to start, then added three more, and lasts night one more. I'm upto 3200 on salt finally and the salt cell appears to be working. So here is the question.
Everything seemed great. FC stayed at 3-2ppm and CC at 0. pH is always a bugger and stays high. ALK always is high. Last full test was 4 days ago:
FC 2.5
CC 0.0
pH 8.1
TA 140
CH 150
CYA 0.0 (more on that)
Salt 2200
Temp 82
CSI .38
Then
FC 2.0
CC 0.0
pH 8.1
salt 2400
temp 86
CSI .42
I added 3 bags of salt; 2 lbs of ph down; 1 gallon of liquid stabilizer; half gallon liquid chlorine; and roughly 3/4 of a pound of GLB Stain magnet to deal with iron staining on the steps and returns. The next day the pool turned cloudy. Note the auto cover was on the entire time so the low CYA should not have been the cause.
FC 0.0
CC 0.0
pH 7.8
salt 2800
temp 85
Added another bag of salt and 1 gallon of liquid chlorine.
Today:
FC 0.5
CC 1.0
pH 7.5
TA 140
CYA 10 (roughly, it's cloudy but I can see the dot on the bottom)
Salt 3200
temp 86
Added 2 gallons of Chlorine with plans to SLAM
So, what happened? Could the adding stabilizer, chlorine, and stain magnet at the same time caused the FC to get used up? Seems odd that there was no issue, then after adding more salt to get the generator working and adding chlorine, the next day I had FC 0.0.
Last year I had a heck of a time, which I surmised was due, in part, to extreme phosphate levels screwing with the ability of the salt cell to work, which I've read various articles suggesting a link. Last year when we opened the pool and added liquid chlorine it immediately turned brown due to the high iron levels. It took a lot of sequestrant to get the water clear, but of course spiked phosphates. Regarding CYA, I had to add a lot of dry stabilizer last year to get CYA levels up, meaning either I had bad product that wasn't as effective as it should be, or something was sapping it. Although I had to add 8000 gallons (plus much more from rain and snow) I still expected to have some CYA in the water this spring, but it was zero with no cloudiness during the test. This year I'm trying the liquid stabilizer and see some improvement from 1 gallon and plan to add more today.
You guys helped me a bunch last year so I'm following your advice again.
We opened our pool May 2nd. I have an autocover but use a safety cover in the winter, which was a good thing as I had a leak this winter that would have destroyed the autocover. When we opened the pool it wasn't bad, mostly clear with some leaf debris. But, I had to add 8,000 gallons that I had trucked in from the local city well source. Our house is on a well and it has high iron, which I mistakenly used last year to fill the pool on opening. So I know there is some iron still in the water but it should be quite a bit less. I had an AIO water filter installed on the house including the backyard spigot to help with iron so I hope that I can top off with no ill effects.
The water looked good right away, clear, good chlorine, etc. I added 6 bags of salt to start, then added three more, and lasts night one more. I'm upto 3200 on salt finally and the salt cell appears to be working. So here is the question.
Everything seemed great. FC stayed at 3-2ppm and CC at 0. pH is always a bugger and stays high. ALK always is high. Last full test was 4 days ago:
FC 2.5
CC 0.0
pH 8.1
TA 140
CH 150
CYA 0.0 (more on that)
Salt 2200
Temp 82
CSI .38
Then
FC 2.0
CC 0.0
pH 8.1
salt 2400
temp 86
CSI .42
I added 3 bags of salt; 2 lbs of ph down; 1 gallon of liquid stabilizer; half gallon liquid chlorine; and roughly 3/4 of a pound of GLB Stain magnet to deal with iron staining on the steps and returns. The next day the pool turned cloudy. Note the auto cover was on the entire time so the low CYA should not have been the cause.
FC 0.0
CC 0.0
pH 7.8
salt 2800
temp 85
Added another bag of salt and 1 gallon of liquid chlorine.
Today:
FC 0.5
CC 1.0
pH 7.5
TA 140
CYA 10 (roughly, it's cloudy but I can see the dot on the bottom)
Salt 3200
temp 86
Added 2 gallons of Chlorine with plans to SLAM
So, what happened? Could the adding stabilizer, chlorine, and stain magnet at the same time caused the FC to get used up? Seems odd that there was no issue, then after adding more salt to get the generator working and adding chlorine, the next day I had FC 0.0.
Last year I had a heck of a time, which I surmised was due, in part, to extreme phosphate levels screwing with the ability of the salt cell to work, which I've read various articles suggesting a link. Last year when we opened the pool and added liquid chlorine it immediately turned brown due to the high iron levels. It took a lot of sequestrant to get the water clear, but of course spiked phosphates. Regarding CYA, I had to add a lot of dry stabilizer last year to get CYA levels up, meaning either I had bad product that wasn't as effective as it should be, or something was sapping it. Although I had to add 8000 gallons (plus much more from rain and snow) I still expected to have some CYA in the water this spring, but it was zero with no cloudiness during the test. This year I'm trying the liquid stabilizer and see some improvement from 1 gallon and plan to add more today.
