New house, 1st time pool owner

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Gun369fighter

Member
Apr 9, 2019
13
Temecula CA
Hello all,

Been reading up as much as possible the last few weeks, and finally got the keys to the new house on Friday. Did my 1st test with the TF-100 kit Sunday afternoon.

FC - 7
CC - 1
PH - 7.8
TA - 90
CH - 375
CYA - 45

I'm not 100% confident in the results as it was the first time using the kits. I also will not be back to the house to check again until Friday, so no corrections were made for now, just wanted to get an idea of what I had.

It's just under a 9k gallon pool (if my math is correct), and the pump is set to run from 8am to noon. When the pump is running, I get a decent "swirl" of water in the skimmer, but if definitely doesn't seem to draw much in. There are only 4 return jets, all at the shallow end of the pool. The is a good flow of water from them, but the flow seems to stop about halfway across the pool, and the water is calm. I cleaned the filter out the best I could with a garden hose, and it definitely helped, pressure dropped greatly on the filter gauge, but there just doesn't seem to be much water movement in the pool.

I brushed the sides, and as I went down the walls it turned the water pretty cloudy. Letting it settle for a few, the water cleared right back up, but I'm pretty sure all that "dust" just settled on the bottom. I do NOT have a vacuum yet, the previous owner had a pool guy who brought his own. Any recommendation on what to get??? I know a robot is the right answer, but it might be over kill for this pool. I'm under the impression that whatever I need to buy will just plug directly into intake were the skimmer basket sits. I have no other spot in the pool that draws water in.

I've read about backwashing, but I have no clue on what or how with the way the piping is configured, or if it's even needed at the moment.

I think that's it for now. Wanted to introduce myself, and get a thread started for when the questions pop up. I'll gladly take any advice or assistance you all can provide with what I've given so far!!!!

Thanks in advance,

Alan
 

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Welcome to the forum!
Chemistry looks really good. It must have been drained and refilled with fresh water recently.
That pool looks like a great candidate for a robot. A basic one like the one I have would work great.

I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook.
 
You will not be backwashing, you have a cartridge filter.. Also, you will not see a big wave of water when the pump is running. It should look calm.
 
Thanks for the response Marty!

I plan on testing again Friday, Sat, and Sun and reporting back on Monday. If the numbers remain around the same, you're thinking I don't need to do much? Pool math is telling me to bring my pH down and change some water to bring the CH down too.

Thank you for the clarification on the backwashing... some concepts weren't grasped apparently.

Any recommendations on places to pick up a new filter (are there better choices than Amazon)?
 
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Lower your pH when it gets to 8. Do not lower it below 7.6.

When you can, test your fill water (the water used to fill the pool from evaporation) for pH, TA, and CH. You will find that the CH of that water is all ready above 150 ppm. So you will learn to live with elevated CH levels. For now, what you have is fine.

Poolmath gives suggestions on what to do, but, always take those and get more guidance here on the forum until you are comfortable with the overall chemistry parameters of your pool.
 
Welcome! :wave:

If you want to get a manual vacuum setup, I bought mine at Lowes. You need a pole if you don't already have one, a head (plaster pools use the one with wheels, vinyl use the brush type) and a hose. You might need an adaptor to connect the hose to the skimmer.

Here's why:
If there are two holes in the bottom of the skimmer (and possibly a flying saucer-looking thing), if you put a skimmer plate over the basket to connect the hose, it'll draw from the main drain, not the hose. It's less work to pull water a few feet through large pipe than through 35' of narrow corrugated hose.

If there's only the one hole, then you could use a skimmer plate (also from Lowes) so whatever big chunks you vacuum up get caught in the skimmer basket.

But back to where you can't use a skimmer plate, or you just want the simplest, cheapest way to connect. If the hose fits nice in the skimmer hole, great! If it slides down in, bad. You might end up losing the collar in the plumbing. It has happened. Not to me, thank goodness, but someone here posted about it a few years ago. I measured things up and wandered the plumbing aisle and ended up with a threaded PVC adaptor and a backwash hose adaptor that screwed in. Over time, the hose adaptor broke and I discovered that the hose collar is a snug fit inside the threads and the rest of the PVC sits nicely on a lip. I get huge suction --- as much as the pump can generate.

So you get the hookup figured out. connect hose, head, and pole, lower the head down into the pool until it is sitting nicely, then feed the rest of the hose in vertically so any air in the hose escapes. Once the hose is full, shove it through the skimmer throat and connect it. You're vacuuming! It probably took me longer to type that than it will take you to do it.

Back and forth, nice and slow in a Z pattern. Maybe that should be N? Anyway, just do sections and move around the pool and it will be clean.
 
Got back to the house after a week. The water was down quite a bit. I ended up adding around two inches to get the water level to the middle of the skimmer. Did this in the morning, and tested the water again in the afternoon. Second readings were:

FC - 7 (remained the same from last week)
CC - 1 (remained the same)
PH - 7.5 (Dropped from 7.8)
TA - 90 (Stayed the same)
CH - 300 (Dropped from 375)
CYA - 55 (Increased from 45)

Still not completely confident with my test results, or my ability to read the results correctly. There doesn't seem to be much change in the numbers, and I have no idea the last time chemicals were added... I've owned the house for two weeks, so it's been at least three weeks at a minimum if anything was done. We're expecting rain off and on every day this week, but it's been down in the 60s and overcast, so I'm not sure how that'll change the numbers.

The pump is on a time to run from 0800 to noon daily. I hosed out the filter the best I could, set the indicator on the filter to the psi for a "clean" filter, and let it run all week. After checking it this weekend it's gone up about 5 psi, so it's definitely picking up stuff. I did not pull it and check it this weekend, but I'm assuming when I go back up Saturday, the filter should indicate it even more congested, and I'll probably pull it and clean it. Does two weeks between cleaning seem "normal"? I have no idea how old the current filter is, and it's probably safe to think it needs to be changed.

I ended up ordering a Dolphin Active 20 from Marina. That should be here tomorrow and I'll run it for the first time this coming weekend. Pretty excited about that!
 
Very hard to believe the FC stayed the same without any form of chlorine addition. Is there trichlor pucks in a floater or chlorinator?
 

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In your picture of the pool. There is a round cover and a rectangular cover near the edge of the pool. What are those for?
 
Just interested as there are chlorinators that are in the deck.

Very odd this pool has no where to add trichlor. Most all pools, unless originally a SWCG pool, would have something.
 
The picture you showed of the equipment pad does not show a chlorinator.

By the way, you should not plan to use trichlor on a daily basis. Only for extended absences.
www.troublefreepool.com

How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Before chlorinating your pool, you should know these simple tips. Learn the best way to add chlorine to your pool.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
This weeks update:

I'm only able to make it to the house on the weekends still. So I'm going a week in between tests. Not ideal, but until the kitchen is finished, the house isn't habitable.

Got the silver cover off at the end. It access to the light. Not much else in there. We had quite a bit of rain and cloud cover (by SoCal standards). Water level in the pool wasn't too far down. Replaced the filter with a brand new one. Pressure dropped on the gauge and stayed low (compared to the old filter all weekend). I had ordered a robot, so I dropped the Dolphin Active 20 in, and let him go to town. It did a great job of picking everything up off the bottom. At the end of the cycle, the baskets were pretty filled.

But... my pool is completely cloudy now. Looks almost like milk was poured in the pool. The first two weekends, I would brush the side and get the same effect. As I brushed, I would get a cloud of debris, but, it eventually settled (I'm guessing on the bottom). I assumed the robot would collect the majority of it, but I'm pretty sure the brushes made it worse.

I put off testing the water until later in the afternoon, trying to keep the testing about the same time of the day for consistency. The FC had dropped to 1.5, so I followed the Pool Math guidance, added the appropriate amount of bleach, and let the pump run all evening. Got up Sun morning, pool was still very cloudy. FC had made it up to 6, so I followed Pool Math again, added some more bleach and let the pump run all day.

I had to leave around 4pm, so I did a full set of tests, and this is where I ended up:

FC 6.5
PH 7.8
TA 100
CH 150
CYA 55

So CH has dropped drastically since the testing last week (down from 300). Was that a result of the FC dropping greatly? Am I seeing algae in the pool (it doesn't appear so....) because the FC dropped so low, so am I seeing the effect of the CH dropping out of range.

Pool math is suggesting to add several items. Unfortunately, I won't be back to the house until Fri morning. So, my intent is to roll in Fri morning, test in the AM, and hopefully make corrections from there with the goal of having it corrected by Sun afternoon.

It's going to be at least two more weeks until I'll be at the house full time. Any suggestions of keeping things "better" since I'm gone 5 days at a time???
 
CH can only drop by removing water with the CH and adding water with less CH. You did not do that, so one of the tests had error.

The cloudy could be calcium you are brushing off the walls of the pool. Not sure. When you are there full time, post up some pictures and our folks can provide some guidance.
 
mknauss said:
CH can only drop by removing water with the CH and adding water with less CH. You did not do that, so one of the tests had error.

The cloudy could be calcium you are brushing off the walls of the pool. Not sure. When you are there full time, post up some pictures and our folks can provide some guidance.
Click to expand...
Thanks Marty... definitely will do once I get back up there this weekend. If it is calcium coming off the walls, what's the solution? Keep brushing till it stops? I did not run the robot again after the first go for fear of making it worse.

As for the bad test readings, it's pretty likely... I'll get the hang of it once I get a chance to get on it more frequently.
 

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