Hi, TFP!
I've been handling the pool care at my sister-in-law's new house since she bought it about a month ago. It's kind of a long story, but she bought it as a temporary home to store all her furniture and stuff while she builds a home and then my wife and I will buy the home from her and do some major renovations. So, I thought since it'd be our pool eventually and no one will be living at the house for a while, I would be the one to take care of the pool.
This is my first time being the primary carer for a pool. I did help do plenty of pool chores for my family's pool when I was growing up, but I didn't truly understand what I needed to do when and why.
I had been aware of the TFP method for a while, so I bought a TF-Pro kit and immediately started using it with the pool. I go over to the house every day or two to test and add liquid chlorine and/or muriatic acid.
The previous owner was using Trichlor tabs in an in-line feeder. During the second week, I turned the feeder on and left it at the lowest setting as a backup method to make sure the FC didn't dive too much if I skipped a day to check on the pool. The CYA was around 30 then. By the next time I measured CYA, it was up to 80. I learned my lesson and have kept the feeder off since then.
Lately, the pool seems to have gradually gotten hazier. I'm not sure if I need to SLAM or not. I'm constantly getting a significant amount of dirt at the bottom of the pool. Maybe I'm just kicking the dirt up when vacuuming and it's not properly being sucked into the vacuum hose? There are a couple of tree limbs overhanging the pool slightly that drop in a good bit of leaves and pine straw. Could the dirt be coming from the tree debris? Or could my sand filter laterals or something be busted and leaking sand back into the pool? If that were the case, would the sand be pooled just below the returns or would it be distributed throughout the pool bottom?
Today's test:
FC (FAS-DPD): 3 (I've added a gallon of 7.5% bleach)
CC: 0
pH: 7.9 (I added 8 oz of 31.45% muriatic acid)
TA: 50
CH: Inconclusive. I've had no success with getting a valid reading with pool water or the standard sampler. I've even bought new reagents from a local Leslie's store. Unsure what I'm doing wrong with this test.
CYA: 70
Temp: 79
I've attached a picture from today to this post. The shallow end looks okay. I'm just not sure if the deep end is just dirty or if the situation is worse than that. I'll vacuum the deep end tomorrow.
I'm 80-90% convinced that I should SLAM the pool. At some point during my first couple of weeks managing the pool, the FC dropped to 0.5 or below once or twice. I'm guessing that the hazy water is due to algae that haven't been completely killed off and are multiplying?
Lastly, a couple of random questions:
1. After using the pool, the soles of my feet are usually blue. Could high FC levels in a fiberglass pool cause the paint (or whatever coating is on fiberglass) to rub off? Or is there some other reason for this?
2. The sand filter leaks a bit of water from around the sight glass when I start to backwash. Then when I turn off the pump, you can hear air escaping from there too. Should I worry about this? Patch it with some kind of glue or epoxy?
I would greatly appreciate any and all help or insight into any of the things I've mentioned. Thank you!
I've been handling the pool care at my sister-in-law's new house since she bought it about a month ago. It's kind of a long story, but she bought it as a temporary home to store all her furniture and stuff while she builds a home and then my wife and I will buy the home from her and do some major renovations. So, I thought since it'd be our pool eventually and no one will be living at the house for a while, I would be the one to take care of the pool.
This is my first time being the primary carer for a pool. I did help do plenty of pool chores for my family's pool when I was growing up, but I didn't truly understand what I needed to do when and why.
I had been aware of the TFP method for a while, so I bought a TF-Pro kit and immediately started using it with the pool. I go over to the house every day or two to test and add liquid chlorine and/or muriatic acid.
The previous owner was using Trichlor tabs in an in-line feeder. During the second week, I turned the feeder on and left it at the lowest setting as a backup method to make sure the FC didn't dive too much if I skipped a day to check on the pool. The CYA was around 30 then. By the next time I measured CYA, it was up to 80. I learned my lesson and have kept the feeder off since then.
Lately, the pool seems to have gradually gotten hazier. I'm not sure if I need to SLAM or not. I'm constantly getting a significant amount of dirt at the bottom of the pool. Maybe I'm just kicking the dirt up when vacuuming and it's not properly being sucked into the vacuum hose? There are a couple of tree limbs overhanging the pool slightly that drop in a good bit of leaves and pine straw. Could the dirt be coming from the tree debris? Or could my sand filter laterals or something be busted and leaking sand back into the pool? If that were the case, would the sand be pooled just below the returns or would it be distributed throughout the pool bottom?
Today's test:
FC (FAS-DPD): 3 (I've added a gallon of 7.5% bleach)
CC: 0
pH: 7.9 (I added 8 oz of 31.45% muriatic acid)
TA: 50
CH: Inconclusive. I've had no success with getting a valid reading with pool water or the standard sampler. I've even bought new reagents from a local Leslie's store. Unsure what I'm doing wrong with this test.
CYA: 70
Temp: 79
I've attached a picture from today to this post. The shallow end looks okay. I'm just not sure if the deep end is just dirty or if the situation is worse than that. I'll vacuum the deep end tomorrow.
I'm 80-90% convinced that I should SLAM the pool. At some point during my first couple of weeks managing the pool, the FC dropped to 0.5 or below once or twice. I'm guessing that the hazy water is due to algae that haven't been completely killed off and are multiplying?
Lastly, a couple of random questions:
1. After using the pool, the soles of my feet are usually blue. Could high FC levels in a fiberglass pool cause the paint (or whatever coating is on fiberglass) to rub off? Or is there some other reason for this?
2. The sand filter leaks a bit of water from around the sight glass when I start to backwash. Then when I turn off the pump, you can hear air escaping from there too. Should I worry about this? Patch it with some kind of glue or epoxy?
I would greatly appreciate any and all help or insight into any of the things I've mentioned. Thank you!
