Hello everyone. It looks like I found a great site for pool care and I look forward to participating. I am new to backyard pools but I previously had goldfish/koi ponds for over 25 years. We move to this 20 year old house in southeast Nebraska last August. The house had sat empty for about 3 years before we moved in. But the previous owner kept the pool operating for her grandchildren. We had a pool cleaning company close it up for the winter and he promised to reopen it in the spring and show us how to care for it. This spring he would not answer his phone and had no voicemail. We could not find anyone else at all to come out to open it up and show us the ropes. It seems the pool industry is booming in this part of the country and everyone is busy and booked solid. I did a crash course in pool care and dove into it. First I found a number of cracked pvc pipes that most likely froze over the winter and I replaced those myself. The next problem was a bad circuit breaker. My electrician replaced that as well as the breaker to the pool light. He told me the breaker was fixed but the pump was bad. It was a Hayward SP2605X7 0.75 HP single-speed pump. My research told me to get a variable speed pump. The local pool company was not much help and tried to sell me another single speed pump. I ended up with a Viron 1.5 hp variable speed pump. After many manual vacuums and brushing and skimming, I got all the leaves etc out. I cleaned out the DE filter got the circulation going although the heater is bad and needs replacing at some point.
The water is now clear and the ph is 7.2 but the total alkalinity is 250. I have added probably 2 gallons of muriatic acid over the last month but it remains high. I tested the well water I use to fill it and I found that the TA of the incoming water is 250. I am not sure what I am going to do about that. Help is appreciated.
My other problem is that the inlets have very low water flow about a day or so after backwashing and adding DE powder. After a backwash the pressure is about 14 but it climbs to 25 just one or two days later. The inlet flow seems good right after backwash but 2 days later I can't feel anything coming out with my hand. I have backwashed about 4 times already in about 2 weeks. With the numerous vacuum sessions and backwashing I have taken out quite a bit of water and added new water with high TA. I got a robot vacuum so I could avoid removing so much water. I wish the robot could learn the pool like the iRobot vacuum learns the inside of the house. The pool robot just randomly roams around and spends too much time on the sides in my opinion. Sorry for the long post. I am appreciative for any help I can get from you.
current testing numbers: FC 0.22, TC 0.22. ph 7.2, TA 250, Calcium hardness 252, cyanuric acid 4, copper 0,6, iron 0, nitrates 0, solids 0, phosphates 82, saturation index 0.4. Note the pool company told me there was a chlorine shortage and they highly recommended me using Pristine Blue startup kit. The initial shock was done using Pristine Extra2 ( sodium dichloro-s-triaxinetrione, dihydrate 99%)
The water is now clear and the ph is 7.2 but the total alkalinity is 250. I have added probably 2 gallons of muriatic acid over the last month but it remains high. I tested the well water I use to fill it and I found that the TA of the incoming water is 250. I am not sure what I am going to do about that. Help is appreciated.
My other problem is that the inlets have very low water flow about a day or so after backwashing and adding DE powder. After a backwash the pressure is about 14 but it climbs to 25 just one or two days later. The inlet flow seems good right after backwash but 2 days later I can't feel anything coming out with my hand. I have backwashed about 4 times already in about 2 weeks. With the numerous vacuum sessions and backwashing I have taken out quite a bit of water and added new water with high TA. I got a robot vacuum so I could avoid removing so much water. I wish the robot could learn the pool like the iRobot vacuum learns the inside of the house. The pool robot just randomly roams around and spends too much time on the sides in my opinion. Sorry for the long post. I am appreciative for any help I can get from you.
current testing numbers: FC 0.22, TC 0.22. ph 7.2, TA 250, Calcium hardness 252, cyanuric acid 4, copper 0,6, iron 0, nitrates 0, solids 0, phosphates 82, saturation index 0.4. Note the pool company told me there was a chlorine shortage and they highly recommended me using Pristine Blue startup kit. The initial shock was done using Pristine Extra2 ( sodium dichloro-s-triaxinetrione, dihydrate 99%)
So, we have a few very important items to discuss to get you back on track:
