Having a pool built and need advice

[voidpointer]

I used my cooking thermometer to measure the pool temp... It's all I have. I added that to my log entry and now I get a CSI

 

[ajw22]

I used my cooking thermometer to measure the pool temp... It's all I have. I added that to my log entry and now I get a CSI
View attachment 475804

Your Aqualink should display water temperature.

 

[kimkats]

For his back we need to find a way for him to add the liquid stuff so his back will be happy. Let me think about it a bit.

M.A. storage HAS to be plastic. M.A.'s fume WILL rust any metal.

Do you have small kids living with you or that might visit? Is so find a way to lock the M.A. in it's storage box.

 

[voidpointer]

Your Aqualink should display water temperature

Ah, that's helpful. I don't have mine set up yet due to it being in service mode... but I'll use that once it is...

For his back we need to find a way for him to add the liquid stuff so his back will be happy. Let me think about it a bit.

M.A. storage HAS to be plastic. M.A.'s fume WILL rust any metal.

Do you have small kids living with you or that might visit? Is so find a way to lock the M.A. in it's storage box.

Thanks for being considerate. I don't mind bending over at the pool, I just don't want to bend over a box to lift jugs of liquid in and out. As an example, I have car detailing sprays, rags, soap, all at chest height in a storage cabinet in my garage. Makes it real nice to open it and get stuff out. Something similar for pool stuff in the back would be great. Home depot has a ton of those plastic standing cabinets that seems like it might work.

And yeah I have a 6 year old daughter and a 12 year old son. 12 year old only comes out of his room once a year, so not worried about him The 6 year old on the other hand is trouble... I read the page you linked and already plan to lock stuff up.

 

[voidpointer]

I was thinking as I was brushing the pool today. There's a lot of dirt/rocks in the spa. I know the polaris won't go into the spa. And the leaf net attachment won't do any good. So how does that stuff get cleaned up? Is there a hand-held vacuum that attaches to suction somewhere that I will need? What do you folks recommend?

 

[Newdude]

12 year old only comes out of his room once a year, so not worried about him

Legend has it, if they see their shadow, there will be 6 more months of attitude.

 

[kimkats]

I would get one of those foam pads they sell for gardening to help protect your knees from deck.

The less you move the M.A. the better. Float the bottle in the water and tip it over into the PLASTIC measuring cup also in the water a bit. Do this right by a return, making sure the pump is running on high, and pout it that way. I WOULD wear protective eye cover of some sort just to be on the safe side of the fumes. After a while you will not need to even measure it.

Have the kids pick up the rocks. Do you have a main drain in the spa? If so then just brush the dirt into it. Maybe even have the spa main drain wide open with the skimmer closed a bit to help the spa drain suck more. If not main drain you can use a turkey baster to suck up the dirt. Just make sure your pool has it's own baster!

 

[ajw22]

I was thinking as I was brushing the pool today. There's a lot of dirt/rocks in the spa. I know the polaris won't go into the spa. And the leaf net attachment won't do any good. So how does that stuff get cleaned up? Is there a hand-held vacuum that attaches to suction somewhere that I will need? What do you folks recommend?

There is no really good vacuum for the spa. There are some battery powered cleaning wands that do a so-so job.

If the spa has a lot of dirt on the floor I put it in SPA mode so the spa water is circulating and filters and brush the spa and then turn on the jets and blower to churn up the water and get the dirt into the water to be picked up by the filter. Letting the spa run that way for a few hours gets stuff pretty clean.

Then when we use the spa we kick any dirt out of the corners and off the benches and let the filter pick it up while we are using the spa. I may leave the spa on for a bit after we are done to keep cleaning the water.

 

[voidpointer]

Have the kids pick up the rocks. Do you have a main drain in the spa? If so then just brush the dirt into it. Maybe even have the spa main drain wide open with the skimmer closed a bit to help the spa drain suck more. If not main drain you can use a turkey baster to suck up the dirt. Just make sure your pool has it's own baster!

Yeah I think I just have an unusual amount of dirt on the floor of the spa & pool due to the plumbing being dirty and sitting for a year, with no water in it. That combined with dirt everywhere during construction. Annoyingly, I can't get a lot of these pebbles in the drains because they're just big enough to not make it past the grilles.

Water is too cold right now to use, but you can be sure I'll put my little ones to work picking up stuff at the bottom of the pool (and I'm 100% sure they will think it's fun).

Been a long day and I've certainly put you all to work. I'm going to do all the same testing tomorrow. Thanks so much to everyone that helped me out. This is definitely one of the best communities online!

 

[kimkats]

Do not even try to get the pebbles into the drain. Don't want to take the chance of them going to the pump. You need to hand pick up the pebbles. Allow ONLY the dirt to go down the drain to be on the safe side.

 

[voidpointer]

Where do you folks buy your pool chemicals? Should I order muriatic acid, liquid chlorine, etc on Amazon? I'm a huge fan of having stuff delivered if it's reasonable. Sometimes I know basic things are way more expensive online. In those cases I will go out to buy them but not usually.

I'm asking because I want to go ahead start buying a little bit of this in case I need it.

 

[ajw22]

Where do you folks buy your pool chemicals? Should I order muriatic acid, liquid chlorine, etc on Amazon? I'm a huge fan of having stuff delivered if it's reasonable. Sometimes I know basic things are way more expensive online. In those cases I will go out to buy them but not usually.

I'm asking because I want to go ahead start buying a little bit of this in case I need it.

I have a local, family run, pool store nearby that has decent pricing on chemicals and I like supporting local businesses.

For larger quantities I may make a trip to HD or Wal-Mart.

I don’t buy chemicals on Amazon. I want my Liquid Chlorine reasonably fresh and want to check date codes before I buy it.

 

[voidpointer]

I have a Leslie's near by my house, other options are much further away. Interestingly it seems like they are pushing hard for chlorine tablets. When I search for liquid chlorine on their site it says 0 results. Weird. Guess I'll go there anyway and browse.

 

[ajw22]

I have a Leslie's near by my house, other options are much further away. Interestingly it seems like they are pushing hard for chlorine tablets. When I search for liquid chlorine on their site it says 0 results. Weird. Guess I'll go there anyway and browse.

Liquid chlorine is called Pool Shock in some pool stores.

They can push whatever they want. Just say No!

 

[voidpointer]

For the TA test, the card says to "Wipe the tip of the bottle after every drop with a damp cloth". Why?

 

[Texas Splash]

For the TA test, the card says to "Wipe the tip of the bottle after every drop with a damp cloth". Why?

Potential static electricity that might effect the drop sizes. More critical in a brand new bottle. After some use should not be as important.

 

[voidpointer]

I just ran through all the tests again (went much faster this time!) and everything was the same except FC & CC (changed from 2->1, and 0.5->0 respectively). Isn't it bad that the FC is so low? I don't know if a high pH makes up for that.

Also even though the test maxes out at 8.2 for the pH, I feel like it's even higher today. Looks to me like the pink color is darker than yesterday.

 

[ajw22]

I just ran through all the tests again (went much faster this time!) and everything was the same except FC & CC (changed from 2->1, and 0.5->0 respectively). Isn't it bad that the FC is so low? I don't know if a high pH makes up for that.

You can expect to lose 1-2 ppm of FC per day from the suns UV. More once you get into summer time.

That is why liquid chlorine should be added daily.

CC from 0.5 to 0 is good. Lower CC the better.

Also even though the test maxes out at 8.2 for the pH, I feel like it's even higher today. Looks to me like the pink color is darker than yesterday.

pH will rise a bit every day from the plaster curing.

MA should be added every few days to bring it back down.

You are relying on your PB to adjust the chemisrty and as you can see weekly visits really are not the best as the pool chemistry changes daily.

You need to decide if you take matters into your own hands or just turn a blind eye to what you know you should do. Your pool will survive your builders chemical mismanagement.

 

[voidpointer]

You need to decide if you take matters into your own hands or just turn a blind eye to what you know you should do. Your pool will survive your builders chemical mismanagement

Your wording here seems to have a sense of irony or sarcasm to it; I'm not really sure what you're trying to tell me. Are you suggesting I should handle things myself?

 

[ajw22]

Are you suggesting I should handle things myself?

Yes.

I would.