Hello fellow poolaholics ...
New member here and am so glad I found this site.
Quick background -
Newly remodeled backyard including updating circa 1960's pool.
New plaster, plumbing, gas line, electrical, dedicated vacuum line, auto-fill... the works.
Pool filled week before Memorial Day 2015.
Old Pool: Constantly fighting algae - now I know why thanks to this site - Tablets! AGGG..
Have no idea what my CYA was, but 15 years of using tablets and never changed the water - must have been sky high
Routine was ... add 1/2 gal liquid chlorine wed and sat and keep floater full of tablets. Only monitored Ph and made sure chlorine test showed some yellow. Then every few weeks - algae break out. Vacuum and Sweep and add extra gallon (or two) of chlorine, run pump on high continuously, vacuum and sweep, wait, sweep, clean filter, sweep, wait, sweep ... and pool was ready for the weekend. Only to repeat several weeks later.
Oh and when I say - clean filter - I mean open it up and pull out grids, rinse off completely, put back in, add DE. I didn't know about backwashing! Plus vacuum by hand - no automated pool cleaner.
Needless to say, this was a love/hate relationship I had with my pool ....
And the saga would have continued, new pool or not, had I not found this site.
Ordered the TP-100 test kit and am now a much more educated pool owner. (Also ordered a backwash hose so I can try that out for the first time).
Here are my readings this morning.
FC: 6 /CC:0 / Ph: 7.8 / CYA: 50 / TA: 120 / CH: 400
(Note: Not 100% sure about CH - that was calculation for the first slight bit of blue I saw - but lots of red dots. 450 if you count mostly blue and few red dots remaining)
(Also keeping close eye on Ph, which keeps rising due to curing plaster. Added 20oz acid after testing to drop it back to 7.5)
I have a couple of questions -
1) I calculated my pump RPM's and run time to turn the water over 2 times a day. What is the recommended turnover?
2) Filling the pool took 36 hours and my builder seemed worried about the slow fill rate. The plaster color was silver and I think it looks 'splotchy'. The builder said this was normal. Is it? Would the fill rate possibly contribute to this? I imagine nothing will change it, but am curious. Hoped that the longer it cured the more uniform it would look, but evidently not.
Oh and I did read about the ascorbic acid treatment for my metal stains on my new plaster... can't wait to try. I think this must have happened from metal shavings from when they installed the iron pool fence. I was so bummed. Tried one of those sanding stones in a small area and only managed to being scratching the plaster and stopped - not a worthwhile trade off for the minimal good it was doing.
Wishing you all stable Ph and no CC's
Devon
New member here and am so glad I found this site.
Quick background -
Newly remodeled backyard including updating circa 1960's pool.
New plaster, plumbing, gas line, electrical, dedicated vacuum line, auto-fill... the works.
Pool filled week before Memorial Day 2015.
Old Pool: Constantly fighting algae - now I know why thanks to this site - Tablets! AGGG..
Have no idea what my CYA was, but 15 years of using tablets and never changed the water - must have been sky high
Routine was ... add 1/2 gal liquid chlorine wed and sat and keep floater full of tablets. Only monitored Ph and made sure chlorine test showed some yellow. Then every few weeks - algae break out. Vacuum and Sweep and add extra gallon (or two) of chlorine, run pump on high continuously, vacuum and sweep, wait, sweep, clean filter, sweep, wait, sweep ... and pool was ready for the weekend. Only to repeat several weeks later.
Oh and when I say - clean filter - I mean open it up and pull out grids, rinse off completely, put back in, add DE. I didn't know about backwashing! Plus vacuum by hand - no automated pool cleaner.
Needless to say, this was a love/hate relationship I had with my pool ....
And the saga would have continued, new pool or not, had I not found this site.
Ordered the TP-100 test kit and am now a much more educated pool owner. (Also ordered a backwash hose so I can try that out for the first time).
Here are my readings this morning.
FC: 6 /CC:0 / Ph: 7.8 / CYA: 50 / TA: 120 / CH: 400
(Note: Not 100% sure about CH - that was calculation for the first slight bit of blue I saw - but lots of red dots. 450 if you count mostly blue and few red dots remaining)
(Also keeping close eye on Ph, which keeps rising due to curing plaster. Added 20oz acid after testing to drop it back to 7.5)
I have a couple of questions -
1) I calculated my pump RPM's and run time to turn the water over 2 times a day. What is the recommended turnover?
2) Filling the pool took 36 hours and my builder seemed worried about the slow fill rate. The plaster color was silver and I think it looks 'splotchy'. The builder said this was normal. Is it? Would the fill rate possibly contribute to this? I imagine nothing will change it, but am curious. Hoped that the longer it cured the more uniform it would look, but evidently not.
Oh and I did read about the ascorbic acid treatment for my metal stains on my new plaster... can't wait to try. I think this must have happened from metal shavings from when they installed the iron pool fence. I was so bummed. Tried one of those sanding stones in a small area and only managed to being scratching the plaster and stopped - not a worthwhile trade off for the minimal good it was doing.
Wishing you all stable Ph and no CC's
Devon
You expect several replies regarding your issues.
