Super Beginner Needing Saltwater Maintenance Advice

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Check the website of your local municipality to see where they want you to drain water. My municipality up here in Wisconsin lists it - I have to imagine it's even more common of a question in Florida than here. :)
 
Stevev23 said:
Interestingly, the PH test is giving me 7.8, though now I'm wondering if it's accurate.

Just saw the picture of the out-of-ground pool on the draining page and that was truly as terrifying as I imagined!

Now I just need to find my sewer cleanout, so I can do this properly. I've looked everywhere in the past with no luck, so it might be time to find my survey map or call a plumber to help me locate it.

Hopefully it's not buried.
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I have the same problem with my cleanout either it doesn't exist or very buried so for myself I have to get more "creative" 😂😂
 
clambert1273 said:
I have the same problem with my cleanout either it doesn't exist or very buried so for myself I have to get more "creative" 😂😂
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I have a canal but I would presume all that chlorine and salt water would not be good for the flora and fauna, so I considered just going down an internal drain, but wasn't sure if the chlorine and salt would be bad for the pipes... maybe if I'm running fresh water down it at the same time or after, not such a big deal?

Also, while I figure out how to do the exchange, any advice on the SWG setting?

I originally turned it off (from 100%) when I first saw those FC readings 2 days ago, but now I'm not sure what I should set it to until I can resolve the CYA problem.
 
Stevev23 said:
I have a canal but I would presume all that chlorine and salt water would not be good for the flora and fauna, so I considered just going down an internal drain, but wasn't sure if the chlorine and salt would be bad for the pipes... maybe if I'm running fresh water down it at the same time or after, not such a big deal?

Also, while I figure out how to do the exchange, any advice on the SWG setting?

I originally turned it off (from 100%) when I first saw those FC readings 2 days ago, but now I'm not sure what I should set it to until I can resolve the CYA problem.
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I will be running water hose from utility pump to my laundry room window & using the sink there lol
 
Took a bunch of calls to find the right person, but I have someone from water utilities coming tomorrow to help me find the sewer clearout - or at least show me the spot on the street where the drain would lead out to.

In the meantime, I still have my SWG at 0% since my FC was so high.

Is there anything else I can or should be doing until I perform the no-drain water exchange?
 
The waste water utilities manager came out today and was super nice and helpful, but we couldn't find the sewer clearout, though I at least have more of a clue of where to look. It looks like it's probably buried somewhere, so I think I'm just going to run a hose into the bathtub.

I have some sumbersible pumps from my saltwater aquarium hobby, but nothing for this job, so I have a Superior Pump 91330 1/3 HP arriving tomorrow. I also tested the flow of my fill hose and it's about 5g / min. I'm hoping the pump is similar after going through the long hose I will be running to the tub. If not, I guess I will just have to periodically shut off the pump, so I can keep the fill flow close to the drain flow.

I forgot that someone asked me to post a pic of my pool and equipment pad. I'll do that tomorrow.

I plan to start the water exchange on Sat, probably.

Hopefully this will be the start of a more properly balanced pool.
 
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clambert1273 said:
I have the same problem with my cleanout either it doesn't exist or very buried so for myself I have to get more "creative" 😂😂
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Mine is going into my shower as we speak :)

I even had water utilities out here trying to help me find the sewer clearout, but it must be buried. I at least have a much better clue of where to look for it now at least, but I wanted to get the water balanced ASAP, so the shower it is for now.

I got lucky with my drain and fill flows being pretty much identical with no special adjustments.

I know the article says to do the whole exchange at once, but I estimate that could take 24 hours - 5 gal / min exchange and I need to replace about half the water (7,000 gal).

Since I'm not going to sleep with an open door (windows wasn't an option), I might just do 16 hours and if the CYA is still unacceptable, maybe repeat next weekend.
 
I’m sure you understand the reasoning to do it all in one go. The first time is the most concentrated - if you allow to mix, you’ll have to take out 2x the water, next time, to get the same results. You’d much prefer to go too far this time - it’s easy to add, very hard to take away.
 
reggiehammond said:
I’m sure you understand the reasoning to do it all in one go. The first time is the most concentrated - if you allow to mix, you’ll have to take out 2x the water, next time, to get the same results. You’d much prefer to go too far this time - it’s easy to add, very hard to take away.
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Yeah, you make a good point. I'm going to do it all in one shot.

I didn't calculate 2x more, but definitely more.

Since my CYA is 160 and it will take 24 hour to exchange 50% and get to a CYA of 80, if I stopped at 12 hours, now my CYA is 120. If I then allow the pool to mix, now I have to exchange 33.3% of my pool water to get to 80 vs. only another 25% if I'd done it at once. Am I thinking about that correctly?

I'm afraid to see what my water bill will be, but I'm hoping my city water utility will offer a credit for scenarios like these. An adjacent city to me has this program. I plan to call them on Monday and explain the situation.

Once this is complete, I guess the next step is to retest everything, enter it in PoolMath and add salt, calcium, etc. as directed and turn my SWG back on after 24 hours to whatever percentage I need to maintain 4-6ppm FC?

Any tips or special order of operations?
 
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IceShadow said:
Exchanging too much means adding a little CYA.

Exchanging too little means wasting a lot more water.
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Yep. Makes sense.

Doing the full 24 hours estimated to get me to 80.

Now just trying to figure out what the best order of operations will be once I'm done.

I figured I'll run the pump for an hour to make sure it's all mixed well, then test, input to pool math.

Hopefully my CYA will be where it needs to be and my FC will be much lower. My SWG is still at 0%.

To my understanding, next steps would be to adjust for PH and TA with 30 minutes in between any chemical adds.

Add the necessary salt to get back to 3200-3400, brush well, etc. and let my pump run for 24 hours before I turn the SWG back on.

Calcium is less time-sensitive and can happen another day.

Am I thinking about this correctly?
 
Sounds right, but I wouldn’t worry too hard about adjusting TA unless it’s below 50 and you have to add more. If it’s high it’ll come down over time as you add acid to manage pH.

And the only chems you don’t want to add together are chlorine and muriatic acid. The rest can all be added fairly concurrently.
 
The water exchange was successful in lowering my CYA and FC to good levels!

Here's the latest tests before adding anything.

FC - 4.5
CC - 0
PH - 7.5
TA - 60
CH - 200
CYA - 70
Salt - 2200
CSI -0.61

Looks like I need to add about 25lb of calcium chloride and, if I'm understanding correctly, that should help with the out-of-range CSI. I'll need to go get that.

For now, I've added salt and I'm letting the pump run for the next 24 before turning on SWG.

Should I try to adjust PH up a bit as well?

To hit 7.8, PoolMath is saying to add 14oz of Borax which I do have.
 
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Stevev23 said:
The water exchange was successful in lowering my CYA and FC to good levels!

Here's the latest tests before adding anything.

FC - 4.5
CC - 0
PH - 7.5
TA - 60
CH - 200
CYA - 70
Salt - 2200
CSI -0.61

Looks like I need to add about 25lb of calcium chloride and, if I'm understanding correctly, that should help with the out-of-range CSI. I'll need to go get that.

For now, I've added salt and I'm letting the pump run for the next 24 before turning on SWG.

Should I try to adjust PH up a bit as well?

To hit 7.8, PoolMath is saying to add 14oz of Borax which I do have.
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CSI is also affected by temperature. You can do “what if” in the PoolMath app to model changing CH and temp both to see what your pool will look like in summer
 
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