I've taken care of saltwater and coral aquariums and know the smaller the aquarium, quicker things can go wrong with water quality. My question is does that pertain to my 7k gallon to your 20k?
Smaller pool harder to maintain?
- Thread starter Pyrodav
- Start date
VERY interesting question. My gut says it could be the same as you saw with the tanks due to the fact things happen faster in a smaller amount of water. BUT with a good test kit like you already have and daily testing you should be fine.
Kim
Kim
Saturn94
Bronze Supporter
- Mar 11, 2015
- 1,864
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I was afraid of that..oh well. What would you say is gonna be my biggest challenge? I have not added salt yet. I'm thinking dialing my swg is gonna be tough at first.
Pyro,
Not sure what you mean by "...dialing in my SWCG".. ??
It is not like you set your SWCG to some magic number and it stays that way for the entire year, at least not in my case. I have to continually adjust the % output of my SWCG as the weather changes. The hotter it gets and the longer the sun is out, means I have to keep adjusting the % of Output to match the ever-changing chlorine demand of my pool. Obviously, the opposite happens as we enter the fall months.
I say this just in case you think that the SWCG has some self-regulating system that adjusts the chlorine it produces with the amount of chlorine needed.
Thanks,
Jim R.
Not sure what you mean by "...dialing in my SWCG".. ??
It is not like you set your SWCG to some magic number and it stays that way for the entire year, at least not in my case. I have to continually adjust the % output of my SWCG as the weather changes. The hotter it gets and the longer the sun is out, means I have to keep adjusting the % of Output to match the ever-changing chlorine demand of my pool. Obviously, the opposite happens as we enter the fall months.
I say this just in case you think that the SWCG has some self-regulating system that adjusts the chlorine it produces with the amount of chlorine needed.
Thanks,
Jim R.
What is your water temp up there? If it is below 60 for some and 50 for others your SWG will not work.
During the cold months most people use liquid chlorine to add FC to their pool. You will not need much due to the cold. Use your test kit.
Kim
During the cold months most people use liquid chlorine to add FC to their pool. You will not need much due to the cold. Use your test kit.
Kim
My pool is covered and put to bed for the winter. Im just thinking out loud for the spring! LOL
I highly recommend people do not build in the late fall winter...going to be a long one waiting..and waiting!
I highly recommend people do not build in the late fall winter...going to be a long one waiting..and waiting!
You can't get over smaller bodies of water being less stable and I understand this from keeping aquariums too, but it isn't nearly as dramatic at all. When things go bad, even from say just being dirty a properly set up pool is far easier to put right than a big one, so there are advantages. Once you screw up a large one, nearly everything is markedly more demanding in terms of effort and resources. If I ever build another pool, it will likely be much smaller and I've had experience with both sizes.
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,392
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
I do three pools from 7k to 12k and you're more likely to get away with estimating chemicals for the larger one, such as pouring acid without measuring. For FC from the SWC I give myself a range of 4 to 8 ppm FC for CYA at 70 ppm. For the smaller pool I would use 4 to 10 to allow for the quicker swings.
If you have the same bather load in a smaller pool the FC will get used up faster.
The other thing for me was overshooting on the smaller pool. I detected no CYA when I took it over, so I added 25 ppm to be safe and ended up more like 40. Everything else was OK so I had the volume right but maybe there was 15 or 20 in there. The TA came down super fast (it was high pH and TA and scaled on the radius at the bottom when i took over) so I had to watch that a bit carefully.
So yes, I would say smaller requires a closer eye on the measuring of chem additions but not difficult. People do spas and I bet the successful ones test regularly and measure their chems
If you have the same bather load in a smaller pool the FC will get used up faster.
The other thing for me was overshooting on the smaller pool. I detected no CYA when I took it over, so I added 25 ppm to be safe and ended up more like 40. Everything else was OK so I had the volume right but maybe there was 15 or 20 in there. The TA came down super fast (it was high pH and TA and scaled on the radius at the bottom when i took over) so I had to watch that a bit carefully.
So yes, I would say smaller requires a closer eye on the measuring of chem additions but not difficult. People do spas and I bet the successful ones test regularly and measure their chems
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