- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
New pool build in Katy, Texas!
- Thread starter PoolingAround
- Start date
Thanks for the info Jet.
I'm still debating between the TF100 and K2006 kit. I just wonder if the TFkit might be overkill since I will have a saltwater pool.
Just went though pool school today. I learned a lot of info and feel I have better grip on whats happening with my pool. The pool school teacher was knowledgeable from what I could tell and he even said he could tell I've done my research. What I found interesting is he uses a Taylor kit and knows all the lingo spewed here. He didn't recommend bleach but did recommend liquid chlorine. He was knowledgeable about cya levels and checking for calcium. We measured my water with the entry level pentair kit and I had zero chlorine basically, 8.2 ph, and 120 alkalinity . He filled up my dispenser with pucks (the horror! , lol) and added a half gallon of muraitic acid. He said I wouldn't need the pucks when the salt was introduced so I just need to get by until then.
I did go over my pump speeds with him and this is what we came up with. It basically starts off at full bore for the first hour (3500 rpm) at 10 am, then drops down to 3300 to appease the robot for 3 hours, then 2700 for the next 7 hours, then full speed full speed for the last hour, for a total of 12 hours. Sound good? My water feature has its own pump so no need for extra pressure in that regard.
Hi, my vote is to go ahead and get the TF-100, it only cost a little more and is the better value by far. As to the rest, how can someone be against bleach and for liquid chlorine, they are the exact same thing, just liquid chlorine tends to be stronger (Bleach typically runs 5.25-8.25% Sodium Hypochlorite, and Liquid Chlorine is typically 10-12.5% Sodium Hypochorite, although sometimes as low as 8.25%, the remainder is basically salt water) In other words the weaker Liquid Chlorine you can sometimes find for sale is the EXACT same stuff as the stronger Concentrated bleach, the only difference is the label. For pump run times, yours sounds like it is probably excessive, but not too bad see Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
Personally, I don't think the K-2006 is good value. It has around 25 FAS-DPD tests, which you would use up in a month getting accustomed to everything. You will slow down on testing after a little while, but initially people test a lot.
Glad to hear that you got someone good to explain stuff
. The pucks will help bring the pH down, but 8.2 is high (and could be higher when the test indicates its upper limit) so I'm surprised he wouldn't correct that. Also, I would add liquid chlorine right away if I saw zero chlorine, albeit carefully with new plaster.
Pumping sounds excessive to me, but it's very pool specific. There's a procedure that helps people work through it, linked below. The current schedule certainly won't hurt anything. It's just electricity to pay for. If it was mine, the 12 hours is fine, but I would run lower RPM and I don't know why you would need a higher flow rate with a robot. My pump runs at high speed for 3 minutes to be sure of prime and get the water moving, then 1600 RPM the rest of the time. I have a suction cleaner I use once or twice a week and it likes 2600 RPM. Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time
I don't mean to bag out the pool school guy at all. We kinda go for optimums here, and I didn't hear anything that would hurt your pool. I would keep the FC commensurate with CYA, and if CYA is zero, I'd do all I can to keep it between 1 and 2 ppm FC with pH 7.5 to 7.8
Get that test kit ordered!
Glad to hear that you got someone good to explain stuff
. The pucks will help bring the pH down, but 8.2 is high (and could be higher when the test indicates its upper limit) so I'm surprised he wouldn't correct that. Also, I would add liquid chlorine right away if I saw zero chlorine, albeit carefully with new plaster.Pumping sounds excessive to me, but it's very pool specific. There's a procedure that helps people work through it, linked below. The current schedule certainly won't hurt anything. It's just electricity to pay for. If it was mine, the 12 hours is fine, but I would run lower RPM and I don't know why you would need a higher flow rate with a robot. My pump runs at high speed for 3 minutes to be sure of prime and get the water moving, then 1600 RPM the rest of the time. I have a suction cleaner I use once or twice a week and it likes 2600 RPM. Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time
I don't mean to bag out the pool school guy at all. We kinda go for optimums here, and I didn't hear anything that would hurt your pool. I would keep the FC commensurate with CYA, and if CYA is zero, I'd do all I can to keep it between 1 and 2 ppm FC with pH 7.5 to 7.8
Get that test kit ordered!
I think he just meant the liquid chlorine is stronger which means less to buy and easier to apply.
Personally, I don't think the K-2006 is good value. It has around 25 FAS-DPD tests, which you would use up in a month getting accustomed to everything. You will slow down on testing after a little while, but initially people test a lot.
Glad to hear that you got someone good to explain stuff
He did add muriatic acid to bring the ph down, that's correct, no?
I asked him about the lowering it and he said with a pool my size (22k he estimated) and the texas sun hitting it all day, it was ideal. I would certainly be in favor of not running at higher speeds if I didn't need to so maybe it's something I need to revisit. Also, my cleaner is pressure based with a dedicated return so I assume that has something to do with it?
I don't mean to bag out the pool school guy at all. We kinda go for optimums here, and I didn't hear anything that would hurt your pool. I would keep the FC commensurate with CYA, and if CYA is zero, I'd do all I can to keep it between 1 and 2 ppm FC with pH 7.5 to 7.8
Get that test kit ordered!
Yes, he mentioned keeping cya and chlorine levels close together as well. Test kit soooonn.
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
Whoops, I missed your comment that he had added acid. That's good to hear. And yep, your pressure cleaner will need a particular flow rate to work properly.
Test kit ordered (TF100) along with the speed stirrer. Wife is not happy (why not just use the free pool store results she says.......
) but hey, such is life. I notice it doesn't have an acid demand based test but I guess that goes hand in hand with ph and alkalinity?
I also notice I have a muriatic acid dispenser hooked up to my system. Do people find this helps in keeping ph levels normal?
) but hey, such is life. I notice it doesn't have an acid demand based test but I guess that goes hand in hand with ph and alkalinity? I also notice I have a muriatic acid dispenser hooked up to my system. Do people find this helps in keeping ph levels normal?
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
I have acid demand but I barely use it. You use the result of that test to refer to a table that suggests how much acid to add. PoolMath does a better job because it considers your TA in the calculated amount of acid to add.
The acid dispenser is a nice extra to get! Particularly if you add a salt water chlorinator. Be careful with the acid dispenser. You don't want to add too much acid in by accident, which is fairly easy to do. If it were me, I'd add acid manually for a while to get a sense of what the pool needs, then dial in the dispenser, starting low. What sort of dispenser is it? After your plaster finishes curing, you likely won't need to add very much acid.
The acid dispenser is a nice extra to get! Particularly if you add a salt water chlorinator. Be careful with the acid dispenser. You don't want to add too much acid in by accident, which is fairly easy to do. If it were me, I'd add acid manually for a while to get a sense of what the pool needs, then dial in the dispenser, starting low. What sort of dispenser is it? After your plaster finishes curing, you likely won't need to add very much acid.
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
No idea (my guess is sensor but will check it out later tonight). Also, since there is nothing in it right now, does that mean its introducing air (if it's even "on").
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
if it was on and the tank was empty it would pump air but it wouldn't cause any issue because it should be plumbed in downstream of anything else so the air will just come out the pool or spa return jets.
Pump run time sounds good but I agree the speeds are a little more than you need for circulation. A higher speed for the cleaner, SWG (when it is hooked up) and skimming may be necessary but for the majority of run time a slower speed that keeps the SWG happy is more than enough.
With all the folks from Texas maybe we should change the forum name to TTFP?
With all the folks from Texas maybe we should change the forum name to TTFP?
A couple months into ownership and still happy. Weather is cooling off so looks like we're going to be stuck in the spa for a few months (unless we have a party and heat the pool). A few regrets (not going deeper, not moving the table near the spa, not going with a bigger SWG, and not adding sod immediately) but overall I still get a grin every time I glance out into the backyard. The muriatic dispenser is pretty sweet, we'll see how long it lasts. Decided to not add sealer to the coping/rock since there wasn't definitive proof that it helped, hope that wasn't a bad decision.
