Taking care of my pool

[BeachSunH20]

As I stated above our water has high CH. I am surprised it is 400 CH in your area. I would assume you are getting Colorado River water out of Lake Mead. It's CH is ~250 ppm.

I have no knowledge on the borates and bees. If you wish to add borates, read Borates - Why and How

If you have a CYA of 30 and you last drained in Nov 2017, how are you chlorinating?

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When you do the CYA test, try this next time.

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. Pour the solution back into the mixing bottle and redo the test several times. Take the average of your results and round up to the nearest whole 10.

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, ....

Thank you , I only use liquid chlorine for the pool (bleach). I think about the borates.

I would like to find a solution the wasp that are flying over to our pool to take a little dip. [emoji4]

 

[Dirk]

Thank you, Knauss. I have adjusted the flow to a lower speed a few months ago, it has helped a little not to much, it will always mess with the PH unfortunately. I am not sure how to keep the CH from raising, when I drain and fill with new water, it's always at 400. I will need to drain in the winter, I am going to try see if I can maintain it until Jan. or Feb. The CH is is raising each month. I know someone suggested adding a water softener to the fill line, I am not sure about that. I appreciate your help.

Some municipalities base your sewer rates on water usage. And to be fair, they use the winter months for their calculations, assuming people aren't watering their gardens in winter, which would mean the meter readings would reflect water usage inside the house only (which is the water that goes down the drain and into the sewer). Point being, if that is the case in your area, you don't want to fill your pool during those months, because they'll assume that is water going into the sewer, and you'll end up with high sewer rates all year long. If you don't know anything about this, a call to your water company will sort it out. If they charge this way, they'll tell you which months they use for their calculations...

 

[mknauss]

Clark County Water Reclamation District charges us a yearly Fee. There is no adjustment based on water usage.

 

[BeachSunH20]

Thank you Knauss and Dirk. I was not aware of this. My neighbors pool guy was trying to get me to hire him about a year ago, and he asked me the other day how everything was. We started talking about draining, he told me when I drain I need to poor Chlorine down the side of the pool on the plaster before I fill with new water. He said this will kill all the stuff that grows. I told him that I brush the pool a-lot, and I keep the chlorine were it should be. He said it doesn't matter where I keep the FC, I need to always poor chlorine down the plaster before I fill with new water, is this true? He also mentioned he charges $350.00 for this.

 

[ajw22]

Thank you Knauss and Dirk. I was not aware of this. My neighbors pool guy was trying to get me to hire him about a year ago, and he asked me the other day how everything was. We started talking about draining, he told me when I drain I need to poor Chlorine down the side of the pool on the plaster before I fill with new water. He said this will kill all the stuff that grows. I told him that I brush the pool a-lot, and I keep the chlorine were it should be. He said it doesn't matter where I keep the FC, I need to always poor chlorine down the plaster before I fill with new water, is this true? He also mentioned he charges $350.00 for this.

I would nod to your neighbors pool guy and walk the other way. He is selling snake oil.

 

[Thekxl]

BeachSunH20, a short word of encouragement! I too am a 1st time pool owner. Hired a company to take care of it while I learned. It sure can feel like a lot sometimes. In fact, I let my new Taylor test kit sit on the shelf for probably 3 weeks before I dared to try and comprehend the instructions. I only understood them after searching and watching a video on YouTube "how to use Taylor Test Kit"! After that, the instructions made sense and I felt like I had that "1 on 1" guidance that I was searching for. I also spend much time reading through these forums, seeing what other people are going through and, of course, reading through Pool School. In the end, the more I learned (however slowly), the more I realized that the pool company wasn't really doing much and that my levels were hardly in the acceptable range. Needless to say, it took me 2 whole months to learn the basics, but just yesterday I told the company I no longer need their services. In conclusion, read, ask questions, follow the advice given, and read some more. Also, don't forget to breath! Things will start to make sense!

 

[ff702]

What stuff that grows???? D you don’t have anything growing because you maintain your chlorine levels and your pool is clear. I believe you are only draining to combat the high CH right?

Pouring chlorine down the sides would bleach the plaster at the very least.

You know more than he at this point, so stay the course. Haha

 

[BeachSunH20]

Hi FF, yes, the reason for the drain would be for the high CH. The pool guy started asking me if I need any services such as draining, I did mention to him I know how to do it on my own. That's when he told me about bleaching the walls. I told him my walls were fine. He said that there is always algae growing on all pool walls, my thought was maybe on walls of the pool he was servicing.....

I wanted to clarify if this was actually something you need to do when draining. I think I got it down at this point, I had a great teacher...

 

[ff702]

[emoji106]

 

[JasonJoel]

I would never recommend bleaching dry walls - plaster or vinyl. That is a recipe for ruining a finish if I've ever heard one.

On most plaster you might get away with it, but not all...

 

[BeachSunH20]

Thank yo Jason, I should have know not to listen to that pool guy. I asked him if it would ruin my colored plaster and said he wasn't sure.....

 

[Dirk]

TFPC can maintain a pool and its surface perfectly, algae free. There is no need to treat your dry walls with chlorine. As pointed out, if it does anything at all, it'll be some sort of discoloring. The rule of thumb I follow? Don't mix TFPC with advice from any other source. Period. When a pool guy or a pool store employee or a neighbor gives you any advice about your pool, just nod politely, and say "OK, I'll check that out." Then do exactly what you just did: ask about it here (or just ignore it all together). I knew more about caring for my pool about a week after finding TFP than any of my pool guys or pool contractors.

If you maintain the TFP-recommended CYA and FC levels in your pool, every day, you won't have any algae. If you dump in a bunch of chlorine once a week, and/or use pucks regularly, you probably will have algae. That's why the pool guy thinks every pool has algae, because every pool he cares for probably does!

 

[BeachSunH20]

Good Morning, I wanted to ask if anyone could guide me were I can find out what are the pool gate requirement codes in Clark County Nevada? I have been getting quotes on replacing our back yard gate with a taller one that reaches the cinder block (7ft), of course it needs to auto shut, and I want to a nice tight fit that you can't see in to the yard. I have had 3 quotes, and the person who quoted it yesterday, was the only one that said I cant have a design on it due to pool codes. I also am not sure if I have to have it inspected after it is installed. Thank you in advance.

 

[Dirk]

Clark County, Nevada has a building department. I'd start there with an anonymous call. See if you need a permit (they'll route you to who can answer that if they can't). Then ask for a ballpark figure for such a permit, if required. Then decide if you want to involve them and the permit process for your project.

If you do, then call or visit them, or your planning dept, and ask them what is required. You may be subjected to other aspects of the code, for example, they'll inspect not only your gate, but other openings into the pool area as well, and require code minimums elsewhere (like door alarms on the doors leading into your house, etc). So be prepared for that. Another pre-build question for the planning dept.

In CA it's self-closing and self-latching, with a required height above ground for the latch, gate to swing out away from pool. No opening a 4" sphere can get through, and no more than 2" between the ground and the bottom of the gate. But there are additional codes for certain types of gate construction.

Never heard about the design issue, but it makes good sense even if it's not code. You don't want anything that would make it easier to climb.

I'm in the process of upgrading my gates and doors. Here's my primary fear: some kid climbs my fence, by whatever means, and he gets injured (or worse) in my yard or pool. Even though he entered illegally, and all my gates were locked, I'm betting I'd get sued anyway if any gate or door was not up to code. Just the kind of thing a lawyer would focus on.

Besides, the codes exist for a reason, so why not make your pool as safe as possible?

See if your county has a document like this:

https://www.riversideca.gov/building/pdf/drawings/Pool-Barrier-Requirements.pdf

 

[BeachSunH20]

Thank you Dirk, I want to make sure I follow all the rules to make sure it is very safe.

 

[Dirk]

If you end up with a similar doc from your planning dept, or some other consolidated explanation of your local code, you might post a link or copy here, for the next Clark Countian that happens by...

And, of course, pics of your finished gate! We love the pics!!

 

[mknauss]

Follow this.

http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/building/plan-review/Building%20Codes/2009pool.pdf

 

[Dirk]

There it is, thanks Marty! Looks to be similar to CA, though I spotted something about a laser/light beam sensor as a secondary access barrier. I'm going to have to see if my county's code has something like that.

Again, do yourself a favor and make sure you understand your county's policy on adhering to all aspects of pool codes if you upgrade only one... That could be a can of worms...