Hi, all!
Our pool was completed and startup began a little over a month ago. The salt cell was installed by the PB after the first 30 days.
I've been using the recommended test kit and getting the hang of what to add. I've noticed, however, that the pH is always high and I add MA pretty much daily. pH usually bouncing around 7.8 to 8.2 (or more?).
My most recents results are as follows:
FC 5.0 --> 4.5 -->6.5
pH 7.8 --> 8.2 -->8.0
TA 80 --> 80
CH 375 --> 400
CYA 50 --> 60
Salt 2800
Looking back, the salt cell was added on April 10th and 3 days later, I added a 4# bag of CYA to a sock and placed in the skimmer basket because my level was down to 30 from 60 a few weeks earlier. We still brush and skim about everyday. A little disappointed in the performance of my two skimmers. They don't appear to keep the surface free of small debris and there's usually a "tub ring" of debris along the waterline tile. That's why we brush so much. We run our VSP at 80% for 3 hours and 50% for 12 hours. One skimmer basket typically has more junk in it than the other.
So my third issue is the presence of white flakes floating on the surface of the water. I've read a few posts and some speculate as to whether it's calcium, pollen, residue for the salt cell, undissolved CYA, or even white mold. This is more recent and I can't seem to time it in relation to the salt cell installation or the addition of CYA. We just noticed it sometime after both. When we skim it off with the fine net, the flakes look brown. Hopefully, they show up in the pics below.
My last issue is topping of the water level. Seems that were adding an 1-2 inches of water every 4 days or so to bring the level midway up the waterline tile. We asked our PB about autofill while the pool was being built and he said they hardly ever add them to their pools, but when I asked my PB if filling it up this frequently was cause for concern, he said it was likely normal evaporation. I thought this was odd, because had we known we'd be dropping a hose in once or twice a week, it would've made more sense to install an autofill? Well, our landscaper was installing sod and lights yesterday, so we asked him what he thought about it since he works for another PB company. He said they don't install autofill either because they had nothing but problems with them in the past. He seems to think it might be evaporation also, but mainly because of our spa spillover. It's set to where it always spills over as long as the main pool pump is on. He asked if we could cut off the spillover and we said no. We've noticed that when the pump is on 50%, there is a lot more splashing against the stone wall of the spa. Could that be our source of evaporation?
Sorry this is so convoluted. But my main questions are these:
1. Why does my pH stay so high, requiring MA daily?
2. What can we do to improve our skimmer action? Increase pump speed? Re-direct the returns?
3. What can we do about these white flakes?
4. Should we be concerned about a leak?
5. Can the PB change the valve settings so we can turn off the spillover?
Thank you in advance!
photos.app.goo.gl
Our pool was completed and startup began a little over a month ago. The salt cell was installed by the PB after the first 30 days.
I've been using the recommended test kit and getting the hang of what to add. I've noticed, however, that the pH is always high and I add MA pretty much daily. pH usually bouncing around 7.8 to 8.2 (or more?).
My most recents results are as follows:
FC 5.0 --> 4.5 -->6.5
pH 7.8 --> 8.2 -->8.0
TA 80 --> 80
CH 375 --> 400
CYA 50 --> 60
Salt 2800
Looking back, the salt cell was added on April 10th and 3 days later, I added a 4# bag of CYA to a sock and placed in the skimmer basket because my level was down to 30 from 60 a few weeks earlier. We still brush and skim about everyday. A little disappointed in the performance of my two skimmers. They don't appear to keep the surface free of small debris and there's usually a "tub ring" of debris along the waterline tile. That's why we brush so much. We run our VSP at 80% for 3 hours and 50% for 12 hours. One skimmer basket typically has more junk in it than the other.
So my third issue is the presence of white flakes floating on the surface of the water. I've read a few posts and some speculate as to whether it's calcium, pollen, residue for the salt cell, undissolved CYA, or even white mold. This is more recent and I can't seem to time it in relation to the salt cell installation or the addition of CYA. We just noticed it sometime after both. When we skim it off with the fine net, the flakes look brown. Hopefully, they show up in the pics below.
My last issue is topping of the water level. Seems that were adding an 1-2 inches of water every 4 days or so to bring the level midway up the waterline tile. We asked our PB about autofill while the pool was being built and he said they hardly ever add them to their pools, but when I asked my PB if filling it up this frequently was cause for concern, he said it was likely normal evaporation. I thought this was odd, because had we known we'd be dropping a hose in once or twice a week, it would've made more sense to install an autofill? Well, our landscaper was installing sod and lights yesterday, so we asked him what he thought about it since he works for another PB company. He said they don't install autofill either because they had nothing but problems with them in the past. He seems to think it might be evaporation also, but mainly because of our spa spillover. It's set to where it always spills over as long as the main pool pump is on. He asked if we could cut off the spillover and we said no. We've noticed that when the pump is on 50%, there is a lot more splashing against the stone wall of the spa. Could that be our source of evaporation?
Sorry this is so convoluted. But my main questions are these:
1. Why does my pH stay so high, requiring MA daily?
2. What can we do to improve our skimmer action? Increase pump speed? Re-direct the returns?
3. What can we do about these white flakes?
4. Should we be concerned about a leak?
5. Can the PB change the valve settings so we can turn off the spillover?
Thank you in advance!
4 new items by Rushia Slaton
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