Neighbor's pool

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nlindelldc

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LifeTime Supporter
Mar 21, 2015
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Corpus Christi, Texas
Well my neighbors are on vacation for the week and we are dog sitting. I was told that he filled the pool with water before he left, he has a SWG, so just add water if it falls below the mid-skimmer line.

Well today the pool started turning green. Blooms of algae everywhere. Will try to post pics.

First thing I did was call him and ask me wanted to do (I have no idea of his level of pool knowledge). He was stumped and said he'd never had algae before. He seemed a bit lost. So I finally said, "well I know what I would do if it were my pool, but I don't know if it is the same as what you would do". I told him I had algae before, but kept it short (my wife says I tend to preach about pool chemistry too much).

Bottom line is that he gave me full permission to treat the pool as my own. So I'll be heading home in a bit and I'll post a full suite of numbers with my TF-100.

First problem is he didn't know how many gallons it was. It's a free form 15.5' by 30' with 4' at shallow end and 5' at deep end ACCORDING TO HIM. I highly doubt these numbers, though, pool is pretty small. Poolmath says 13,900 gallons but I know there is no way it's that big.

Second problem is that he has an Intelichlor SWG that I know nothing about.

IMG_1185.JPG
 
do your TF100 test and treat it like a non SWG pool, you can turn the SWG on during the day if you want to keep the FC numbers up but most shut it down to know exactly how much FC the SLAM is taking... I bet the CYA is low unless he just converted to SWG, we will see :)
 
My dimensions/depth are close to that but in a pear shape. 13,000 ish sounds about right.

One way to confirm. Test the FC level, note the number, then add 1/2 gallon of 8.25% and wait 30 min and test again.
if it bumps the level up 4 to 4.5ppm then that is the correct capacity.
 
cowboycasey and borjis, you were both correct! (well borjis would have likely been, but the dimensions were not accurate as I suspected)

Numbers:

FC0
PH 8.2+
CYA 35 (called it 40 for slam, which would put my slam level FC at 19)

Put in poolmath 12000 gallons and added MA to bring Ph down to 7.2. Overshot! (it was 6.9) Put in Poolmath 10,000 gallon pool and added appropriate amount of Borax. 7.2 Perfect.

Added liquid chlorine to 19, brushed, ran robot, tested, it was 10 added more, let it run for a bit, got it to exactly 19. Waited an hour, tested, added to 20 for the night.

Was lucky the CYA was not 80, for a small pool it burned through some chlorine awfully fast. Will test again in am and add accordingly. And brush.

Oh, forgot to say SWG is off. It was reading "low salt" and was not working at all. Bad timing. Will have to deal with that after slam. By the way, I tested the salt level also with the Taylor kit and it was 3400

best neighbor ever?
 
Nice job!

He's probably been fighting that for a couple weeks. He knew you're always preaching about that fancy pool chemist stuff, figured this would be a great time to go on vacation and get his pool fixed! Ha

Pretty good neighbor.
 
Wow! Aren't you nice! What is the water temp way up there in the tundra? :) My IC40 can be a little finicky about salt level with water temp in the lower 70s. The good news is that it doesn't report high salt error until 4500 ppm and even then it will continue to produce chlorine. I would just add a bag of salt and let it mix a couple of days.
 
Thanks for the kind words all. Pooldv, the water temp here is well into the 90's now. Here is a pic of the IC40:

IMG_1187.JPG

Forgot to add that FC was down to 10 this a.m. She's burning the algae, no doubt. Pool looks pretty good though already. Will post another pic later.

Is there a way to clean this salt cell? I have all Hayward stuff and he has all Pentair!
 
Yes, shut off the pump and unscrew the unions to remove the cell from the plumbing. But, it shouldn't need cleaning, it will flash the inspect cell light if it thinks it needs cleaning. I would just add a bag of salt and see what happens.
 
pooldv said:
Yes, shut off the pump and unscrew the unions to remove the cell from the plumbing. But, it shouldn't need cleaning, it will flash the inspect cell light if it thinks it needs cleaning. I would just add a bag of salt and see what happens.
Click to expand...

That was my plan, to add a bag of salt. My concern is that it is reading such low salt that it's not even coming on when my Taylor kit tested it at 3200. (It says 3400 is ideal). Surely something is amiss? I'm worried the cell is already going bad. He does run it at 100% but only for 3 hours a day
 
It might be getting old which will cause it to read low when it isn't. The only option is to replace the sensor or add more salt so it is happy. You aren't that good a neighbor are you? :)
 

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pooldv said:
It might be getting old which will cause it to read low when it isn't. The only option is to replace the sensor or add more salt so it is happy. You aren't that good a neighbor are you? :)
Click to expand...

Haha! NO :)

OCLT was an epic fail. lost 4.5 ppm FC overnight. Brought it back up to 16.

I think I'm gonna add some salt today and fire the SWG back up and see if I can keep it happy. I've had it off since beginning the SLAM. I have a feeling they've been battling algae for awhile and it just now is rearing it's ugly head. This is starting to get old :)

I think I'm gonna skip an OCLT test tonight and do it tomorrow night.

I have my kids brushing the pool 3X per day, which is my least favorite part :)
 
added a 40 lb bag of salt and brushed it in. SWG is happy now and producing at 100%

when I first turned it on, the top two lights were alternating flashing green and red. I assume this is normal upon startup? Took about 2 minutes for all lights to turn all green (no flashing)
 
Dang, this thing is starting to be a pain.
Checked FC this evening (with SWG running all day and starting at like 19 or whatever it was). It was down to 10[emoji35]. You can still smell chloramines, this thing is fighting me big time!

Am I missing something?!?!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Very high loss initially for two reasons - attacking contaminants obviously, but also you're seeing how FC gets clobbered when it's above the CYA's ability to protect it from sun.

Maintain, maintain, maintain, and the daily loss will drop. The better you maintain shock level, the shorter the SLAM. Be sure it's up there for night-time, and the pool is brushed to open up the algae to get a really bad taste in it's mouth :) Tomorrow, think about where algae colonies are hiding, e.g. behind skimmer weir, inside light niches, under the coping edge, under ladder rungs, behind anything, etc. and brush those spots to scalp the algae. Hate algae, hate it real good. ;)
 
Wow, I literally cannot believe it.

Failed the OCLT AGAIN! Last night FC was 11.0. This morning it was 9.5! Ugh. I tested it twice, I couldn't believe it. I was tempted to call it good but I have come this far, what is one more day?!?! By the way, I have had no CC's for like 2 days and the pool has looked great for 4 days now. 1.5!

So I added another gallon and cranked up the SWG again. Neighbors come home late tonight so I'm gonna hand him a sock of CYA with instructions for Sunday :)
 
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