Greetings everyone!
Recently joined, but I've had my pool since 2002. Live on some acreage, mostly wooded, and am on well and septic.
I have a free form in ground gunite (plaster) free form pool. It is more-or-less kidney shaped with a couple of extra bumps and is 12,000 gallons, but was told to treat as 15,000. About 3' at the shallow end, but the deep end is deep enough for the jump board and slide. Originally it had an inline chlorine feeder, an ozonator, a "smart vac" and "smart lights". The lights were actually fiber optics with an external halogen light and color wheel about 6 feet from the pool. Unfortunately, none of those items work any more and I now use a Swimpure Salt Water Chlorine Generator with a T-15 cell. The pump is dual speed and is a replacement of the original dual speed that went through about 3 or 4 motors. Pool catches the sun during the day except for late afternoons. The slide has two "sprinkle heads" which are always on when the pump is in high mode as the valve to the slide is stuck in the open position (handle moves, but no change in flow). I lose some water from the slide as it has some hail damage.
Not sure if I should put this in a separate post or not, but here it is.
This season I started out with a green pool, broken vacuum hose, failing T-cell, possible bad pressure gauge and an imploded filter cartridge (Excel XLS-779). I've replaced the Excel cartridges with 2 PA-137 Pleatco advance along with a couple of my older filters, but the gauge still reads 0. I hope the filter housing isn't broken again (had to replace the bottom manifold) and it's just the gauge. I have another 2 pleatcos on order as well as a new T-Cell. Just received a new vacuum hose. Shocked the pool with 2 lbs of Leslie's Power Powder Plus which seams to have started to clear things up as well as replacing the imploded filter. Need to remove leaves and vacuum the dead algae now that I have a new hose. I also have some blotchy black stains that I can't seem to get rid of.
The T-Cell had been reading the salt level low previous seasons and this season completely gave out, reading at first 700 then 2000. Last year it tested okay, but this year it failed the test at the store.
Chemistry measured at Leslie's last Saturday:
After two days of rain and threats of severe weather, I took my own readings with a DPD kit, but I don't know how accurate as the reagents are all expired: R 1 & R 3 expired 1/2017, R 2 expired 5/2016 and the rest expired 2/2017. I have another DPD kit and an OTO kit that don't have any dates on the bottles.
I tested the Salt with Acucheck's Salt Test Strips and read 6.6 equating to 3210. The rain rose the pool level about 1 - 2 inches.
Now for the random questions:
What order should I start correcting-- TA, pH, CYA? I bought a gallon of the instant conditioner that should bring up the CYA to about 30 ppm.
Are my reagents still relatively okay or do I really need to replace? Best to get a new kit?
Is it safe to dispose of the tested water down the sink with running water with a septic tank or what should I do with it?
When I clean the salt cell (I use a cleaning stand), can the acid solution used be dumped back into the pool?
Thanks in advance!
-- Glenn
Recently joined, but I've had my pool since 2002. Live on some acreage, mostly wooded, and am on well and septic.
I have a free form in ground gunite (plaster) free form pool. It is more-or-less kidney shaped with a couple of extra bumps and is 12,000 gallons, but was told to treat as 15,000. About 3' at the shallow end, but the deep end is deep enough for the jump board and slide. Originally it had an inline chlorine feeder, an ozonator, a "smart vac" and "smart lights". The lights were actually fiber optics with an external halogen light and color wheel about 6 feet from the pool. Unfortunately, none of those items work any more and I now use a Swimpure Salt Water Chlorine Generator with a T-15 cell. The pump is dual speed and is a replacement of the original dual speed that went through about 3 or 4 motors. Pool catches the sun during the day except for late afternoons. The slide has two "sprinkle heads" which are always on when the pump is in high mode as the valve to the slide is stuck in the open position (handle moves, but no change in flow). I lose some water from the slide as it has some hail damage.
Not sure if I should put this in a separate post or not, but here it is.
This season I started out with a green pool, broken vacuum hose, failing T-cell, possible bad pressure gauge and an imploded filter cartridge (Excel XLS-779). I've replaced the Excel cartridges with 2 PA-137 Pleatco advance along with a couple of my older filters, but the gauge still reads 0. I hope the filter housing isn't broken again (had to replace the bottom manifold) and it's just the gauge. I have another 2 pleatcos on order as well as a new T-Cell. Just received a new vacuum hose. Shocked the pool with 2 lbs of Leslie's Power Powder Plus which seams to have started to clear things up as well as replacing the imploded filter. Need to remove leaves and vacuum the dead algae now that I have a new hose. I also have some blotchy black stains that I can't seem to get rid of.
The T-Cell had been reading the salt level low previous seasons and this season completely gave out, reading at first 700 then 2000. Last year it tested okay, but this year it failed the test at the store.
Chemistry measured at Leslie's last Saturday:
Free Available Chlorine 4
Total Available Chlorine 4
Salt 3400
Calcium Hardness 210
Cyanuric Acid 0
Total Alkalinity 120
pH 8
Acid Demand 3
Copper, Iron, Phosphates all 0.
Total Available Chlorine 4
Salt 3400
Calcium Hardness 210
Cyanuric Acid 0
Total Alkalinity 120
pH 8
Acid Demand 3
Copper, Iron, Phosphates all 0.
After two days of rain and threats of severe weather, I took my own readings with a DPD kit, but I don't know how accurate as the reagents are all expired: R 1 & R 3 expired 1/2017, R 2 expired 5/2016 and the rest expired 2/2017. I have another DPD kit and an OTO kit that don't have any dates on the bottles.
Free Chlorine 0 - 0.5
Total Chlorine 0 - 0.5
pH >8.2
Acid Demand to 7.5 3
Total Alkalinity 130
Total Chlorine 0 - 0.5
pH >8.2
Acid Demand to 7.5 3
Total Alkalinity 130
I tested the Salt with Acucheck's Salt Test Strips and read 6.6 equating to 3210. The rain rose the pool level about 1 - 2 inches.
Now for the random questions:
What order should I start correcting-- TA, pH, CYA? I bought a gallon of the instant conditioner that should bring up the CYA to about 30 ppm.
Are my reagents still relatively okay or do I really need to replace? Best to get a new kit?
Is it safe to dispose of the tested water down the sink with running water with a septic tank or what should I do with it?
When I clean the salt cell (I use a cleaning stand), can the acid solution used be dumped back into the pool?
Thanks in advance!
-- Glenn
In the meantime I have been following the advice to add ~1/2 gallon of Clorox per day. One thing I did note is that you don't want to use the "lower splash" formula. Plan to pick up 10% bleach, Muriatic Acid and Clorox Pool & Spa Calcium Hardness Increaser at Lowes so I'll have it on hand. I'm going to try setting the "smart vac" (Jandy Ray-Vac) on the jump board and directing the "jet" out to the pool for additional aeration to bring the pH up while decreasing TA. Can't use it as a vac any more since I made the mistake of letting it set too long in the sun which hardened and discolored the hoses.