Hi all,
I am at my wits end with my pool (SWG 26,000) gal over the last year of my new house. I had no issues with the pool at my previous home after converting that to saltwater and testing it. I bought this house a year ago. previous owners did not really maintain the pool too well. After buying, I had to replace 3 6 port water valves for the paramount in the floor cleaning system. The SWG was absolutely dead and had to replace that as well. Once I got this resolved, i have had a heck of a time keeping chlorine in the pool. I kept testing with Leslies and listening to them. ( I know better now but was always never had an issue at the last house) and first the CYA was well over 120 and kept draining and adding to get that into range. Then the calcium levels we over 600. (in AZ calcium in water is very high). I did not want to drain the pool anymore as the calcium levels were not dropping that much as I have already drained probably about half the pool just to get the CYA down. So I brainstormed and used a used old water softener to soften the water in the pool. I pumped water from the pool into the WS and back. ran this for a week and had the WS recharge ~1500 gallons. After a week, calcium levels dropped to less that 250. So that was fixed. I thought I was getting better but still kept having to add liquid chlorine almost every week or 2. Winter here starts and just keep filtering it with the SWG on. March comes and start getting the pool ready.
All tests are good but chlorine levels still can not stay up. water is clear and not green nor is any algae growing on the pebble-tec. Over the next month kept adding 2 lbs of shock every week. CL keeps going up and down and FC and TC are within the .2 of each other. I got so mad at this pool, I was this is it I am putting 6 gallons of liquid chlorine in and see what happens BC something is eating the chlorine. I dump 6 gallons in. Over the next 20 min, the pool gets cloudy. after this, I go over to the Reddit r/pools. and that's where I find out about TFP site and about SLAMing my pool that I was doing without realizing it. Over the next week, brush and vacuum daily and it starts to clear up. I clean the filter out and try to maintain the high levels of FC. The pool looks great, but 3 weeks later the FC is 0 again with the SWG running @100% for 18 hours a day. so I SLAM it again and repeat. now the water is clearer than glass and can read the text on the bottom intake from 10 ft way today.
Now the next problem that I have noticed from day one when I bought the house. I thought these dark spots were algae growing on the bottom and it won't brush off or be killed by SLAMing. But looking at the light spots it's around the edge where you can walk. It is still darker in spots you cant walk. The only thing I can think of is the previous owners used graduals and left it on the bottom of the pool and it bleached those areas. Please see the pics and let me know what you think. The camera makes it darker than real life but is still noticeable.
I am at my wits end with my pool (SWG 26,000) gal over the last year of my new house. I had no issues with the pool at my previous home after converting that to saltwater and testing it. I bought this house a year ago. previous owners did not really maintain the pool too well. After buying, I had to replace 3 6 port water valves for the paramount in the floor cleaning system. The SWG was absolutely dead and had to replace that as well. Once I got this resolved, i have had a heck of a time keeping chlorine in the pool. I kept testing with Leslies and listening to them. ( I know better now but was always never had an issue at the last house) and first the CYA was well over 120 and kept draining and adding to get that into range. Then the calcium levels we over 600. (in AZ calcium in water is very high). I did not want to drain the pool anymore as the calcium levels were not dropping that much as I have already drained probably about half the pool just to get the CYA down. So I brainstormed and used a used old water softener to soften the water in the pool. I pumped water from the pool into the WS and back. ran this for a week and had the WS recharge ~1500 gallons. After a week, calcium levels dropped to less that 250. So that was fixed. I thought I was getting better but still kept having to add liquid chlorine almost every week or 2. Winter here starts and just keep filtering it with the SWG on. March comes and start getting the pool ready.
All tests are good but chlorine levels still can not stay up. water is clear and not green nor is any algae growing on the pebble-tec. Over the next month kept adding 2 lbs of shock every week. CL keeps going up and down and FC and TC are within the .2 of each other. I got so mad at this pool, I was this is it I am putting 6 gallons of liquid chlorine in and see what happens BC something is eating the chlorine. I dump 6 gallons in. Over the next 20 min, the pool gets cloudy. after this, I go over to the Reddit r/pools. and that's where I find out about TFP site and about SLAMing my pool that I was doing without realizing it. Over the next week, brush and vacuum daily and it starts to clear up. I clean the filter out and try to maintain the high levels of FC. The pool looks great, but 3 weeks later the FC is 0 again with the SWG running @100% for 18 hours a day. so I SLAM it again and repeat. now the water is clearer than glass and can read the text on the bottom intake from 10 ft way today.
Now the next problem that I have noticed from day one when I bought the house. I thought these dark spots were algae growing on the bottom and it won't brush off or be killed by SLAMing. But looking at the light spots it's around the edge where you can walk. It is still darker in spots you cant walk. The only thing I can think of is the previous owners used graduals and left it on the bottom of the pool and it bleached those areas. Please see the pics and let me know what you think. The camera makes it darker than real life but is still noticeable.
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