New Pool Owner - Fired My Pool Service Company

[malazarock]

Hello Pool Experts! Hoping you can help me out. We had our pool put in last year in Nov and have had a pool company coming out to service. Not happy at all with their service and most recently had an issue they could not resolve. So I am trying to learn this so I can take care of the pool myself. A bit nervous!

Our pool started spitting out white flakes from the returns and we have determined that the calcium level is over 500. After reading information on this site, the normal level should be between 350-450 for a SWG. What is the best way to lower the calcium level? I'm being told to drain the pool about half way and refill. Is this right? Does it make a difference if the hose water is coming off of a softener? Should I test the hose water before I start this process? Any other solutions?

Thanks!
NL

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum! :handshake:

A CH of 500 is OK. It can be managed. Read Pool School - Calcium Saturation Index (CSI)). You need to manage your CSI (calculated by PoolMath) between -0.6 and 0.

You will need a proper test kit. The ones you show are OK, but by the time you add the tests you need (FC/CC and CYA) you may as well buy a real kit. Order a TF100 test kit
The only other real option for a test kit is a Taylor K-2006-C. Be careful comparing prices because the K-2006 comes in sizes, designated by a letter. The basic K-2006 has .75oz bottles. You need to get the K-2006-C to get the larger bottles that you want.
I also have the SpeedStir. It makes testing much easier.




I suggest you read Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Trouble Free Pool School book.

 

[Jimrahbe]

nl,

Besides following Marty's advice on a good test kit, I recommend that you inspect your cell and see if there is white buildup between the plates or not. If there is buildup, you will need to clean the cell before reinstalling it. Use the search box for threads on how to clean an IC40..

What are your other readings? It is hard to say what the answer is, unless you don't give us all the facts...

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Salt..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[malazarock]

I will reply back once I get the appropriate test kit and provide the readings.

Thank you!

 

[malazarock]

Hi Jim/Marty - I finally received my test kit, got the one that Marty suggested along with the Speed Stir and I've been practicing with the readings. Here are the latest. I added 1 1/2 qts of acid to adjust the PH.

FC 2.5
pH 8.0
TA 120
CH 500
CYA 35-40 (not sure about this, the mixture isn't cloudy and the dot never disappears)
Salt 3800

We took the SWG apart to clean it and there was very little build up. Rinsed it out good and put it back on.

We are still experiencing a white shard looking debris coming out of the returns. I've attached pictures. Can't figure out what's causing this, any suggestions would be much appreciated. Could the CYA cause this?

We invested in a Nautilus pool cleaner and are absolutely love it (Hank)! Also like that it has uses the filters inside the cleaner vs using the pool filter. I have not yet cleaned the pool filter, a bit intimidated so I need to watch a few videos to learn. The pool filter has been cleaned by our prior pool service within the last 60-90 days.

Thanks so much for this forum and your help!
Nancy L.

 

[mknauss]

Enter your test data into PoolMath. The NOW column. You need your pool water temperature and salinity.

I put in your data and guessed at a water temperature and salinity, your CSI is very positive. You need to keep your CSI between -0.3 and 0.0. Lowering your pH is a great start. Keep adding acid when it hits 7.8 to lower it to 7.2. When your TA gets to around 70 ppm your pH should stabilize and your CSI should be in a good spot.

The positive CSI is indicative of scale, which is what you are getting out of your SWCG.

If the black dot on the CYA test never disappeared your CYA is less than 20. Be sure you did the following to test your CYA:
Once you have your solution ready, back to the sun, etc. Fill the vial to a line, say 80, lower the vial to your waist level and glance for the dot, you see it, add solution to the 70 line, glance, see it, repeat until you no longer see it with a glance. Then use the CYA value one step above the line you read. So if you stopped at 50, use 60 ppm CYA.

The vial is in logarithmic scale. So it is not viable to interpolate between the lines. Just use the whole numbers, such as 50, 40, 30, ....

If you still can see the dot the entire time using the above procedure, then you need to add some CYA. Start with 20 ppm worth of CYA powder using the sock method.