Taking over pool care, don't know what I'm doing!

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Leebo said:
It's just the stuff you test with.
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Thank you for clearing that up! I just realized I haven't posted for a week - that means no pool emergency last week! I have a little question in this update but I hope all is okay for now.

I've been working on lowering TA and raising CYA this week. Today is a very rainy day so I won't go out there and do anything but I did go through the test kit and email receipts to figure out how old everything is in there and how much is left of things. Placed an order for some refills and also got a Sharpie and marked when everything was purchased, plan to do that for all new stuff so I can easily tell how long it's been around.

The leaf cover will probably come off this coming week so that will make everything much easier. As far as I can tell the SWG is working great now. I have it set at 20% for the moment and FC was 5.5 last I tested.

While I'm working on raising CYA (was 60 and just added more Friday, aiming for 70) is the FC around 5 okay? It looks like that is a little on the high side for CYA of 60 but since I'm trying to go up, maybe 5 is okay is my thought? I am thinking it won't do any damage because it's nothing like shock level but want to make sure I don't mess something up!

I think this TA lowering process is gonna take awhile. Patience, patience!
 
You are spot on with a FC of 5! It is fine up to 28! So you are FINE! LOL Some people have to add a little more depending on their pool and environment (full sun, H.O.T. temps. big swimmer load, ect). Have you done a FC test at the end of the day? That is what I use to go by to know if I have my FC high enough. Does it last through the day without going below my min.?

How does your water look? Does it sparkle like a jewel with the sun shines on it and the sun is shining?

Yeah Patience on the TA. It is a small step at a time thing. TA is the last thing we work on so you are doing fine.

:hug:

A whole week??? SWEET!

Kim:kim:
 
kimkats said:
You are spot on with a FC of 5! It is fine up to 28! So you are FINE! LOL Some people have to add a little more depending on their pool and environment (full sun, H.O.T. temps. big swimmer load, ect). Have you done a FC test at the end of the day? That is what I use to go by to know if I have my FC high enough. Does it last through the day without going below my min.?

How does your water look? Does it sparkle like a jewel with the sun shines on it and the sun is shining?

Yeah Patience on the TA. It is a small step at a time thing. TA is the last thing we work on so you are doing fine.

:hug:

A whole week??? SWEET!

Kim:kim:
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Water looks good - still covered so not sparkling like a jewel just yet because not a lot of sun hits it. :D Test time normally in the evening.

Today my FC was down to 2.5 so I bumped the SWG up a little bit and will check again tomorrow evening. TA is at 70 with pH at 7.5 so I think that is good for now, will see if TA creeps up again. I've been adding CYA but it doesn't seem to be increasing much, not sure what is up with that yet. :confused:

Have I mentioned I'm looking forward to my cover being off? ;)
 
Has all of the CYA dissolved? How much did you have and what was your goal when you added it?

The CYA test has a +/- of 15 so if you did not add very much it could be that. When you do the test make sure to just GLANCE in the tube. Do not stare.

Kim:kim:
 
kimkats said:
Has all of the CYA dissolved? How much did you have and what was your goal when you added it?

The CYA test has a +/- of 15 so if you did not add very much it could be that. When you do the test make sure to just GLANCE in the tube. Do not stare.

Kim:kim:
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Turns out the lighting makes a lot of difference. LOL! I mean, I thought the bathroom lights were pretty bright but I guess not enough. I could see the dot in the bathroom so I was adding more to the tube, but out in the sunlight (back to the sun), it disappears sooner (so a higher CYA reading). It looks like I'm good on CYA now. YAY!

My FC is up to 3.5 this afternoon (was 2.5 last night) and I am planning to get the cover off today so we will see how that impacts my tests.
 
kimkats said:
Well that does help! Good check and recheck! You have really learned a lot in a short time!

It will be interesting what happens when the cover is off!

Kim:kim:
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Taking the cover off always gets some stuff in the pool - dust, dirt, seeds, etc, even when I get as much off the top as I can. So the water was looking kind of cloudy at first but not unexpected. I'll check everything tomorrow afternoon!

I did notice there was some debris on the bottom of the pool and saw that there is a leak in the Polaris hose at one of the swivels/joints/whatever it's called. The tail is not swishing either so maybe that leak is the reason or part of the reason. Then later on I pulled it out to clean out the bag and the dang velcro wasn't sealed all the way so I'm hoping that's why there was a little stuff on the bottom of the pool - just shooting back out. Will keep an eye on that to see if the velcro is wearing out and not staying shut. The Polaris has been my nemesis for many years. Gearing up for the next round of battle. :p
 
Hey y'all, bad news - I did the OCLT and failed. Water was not looking crystal clear to me, that's what prompted me to do the test. Dropped 1.5 ppm. Looks like SLAM is in order. However, I am going out of town for a few days. I am guessing I should add some bleach and bump that FC level up before I leave. Here are my questions:


  1. Should I aim for shock level, or go for a little higher?
  2. Should I turn the SWG back on before I leave with FC high? Or leave it off til I get back? I don't want to hurt the SWG.
  3. Anything else you recommend I do before leaving town?
 

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Use bleach to push the FC to SLAM level and keep it there as much as you can until you leave. When you leave make sure the FC is at SLAM level AND turn on the SWG to keep the progress you gained going or at least not going backwards.

Kim:kim:
 
I hope it's okay to post and bump my own thread. Had a neighbor from behind me come over and tell me my pool was overflowing into their yard. The pool filler didn't shut off like it was supposed to today. Oops! Probably was running over an hour.

So I'm thinking that may drop the salt and CYA in the pool, is that right? Any other effects I need to be aware of? I will be running a full set of tests in awhile when the water level settles down and is all mixed again.

Been awhile since I've been on here!

Thanks!
 
Thanks, Kim!

I did add a bag of salt today and also some CYA. Before I went out of town last month it had failed OCLT but I have not retested that. I will probably do that again at some point. I'm not freaking out about anything pool-related right now, so that is good news. :D
 
LOL I went back to read your first post after reading this one..............You have come a long way sweetie!!! It is so neat to see you say "failed OCLT but I will probably do that again at some point" just like a seasoned pool owner!

I hope you start reading other people's threads and start jumping in to help as you can. Just reading what is going on with others will help you if something happens in your pool.

Kim:kim:
 
kimkats said:
LOL I went back to read your first post after reading this one..............You have come a long way sweetie!!! It is so neat to see you say "failed OCLT but I will probably do that again at some point" just like a seasoned pool owner!

I hope you start reading other people's threads and start jumping in to help as you can. Just reading what is going on with others will help you if something happens in your pool.

Kim:kim:
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I don't feel like I know what I'm doing well enough to help other people just yet but thank you for your confidence in me. Reading other threads is a great idea - I have done that a little bit but should do it more often.

I was just out adding some acid and thought to myself, "This water looks PERFECT!" It sparkles, it's beautiful. Only problem is it's only 75 degrees in there and that's too cold for me. Maybe I will turn on the heater (and see if it works, LOL) to warm it up so we can swim this weekend. I hope it works, but if it doesn't, I now have a pool guy who can help me with the equipment. :thumleft:

We ended up replacing our sprinkler controller this past week after the pool overflow incident (the pool fill is on a zone) - my son and I installed it ourselves and I have it programmed to add a couple minutes of water to the pool every day like my husband had it set up before. That seems to be enough normally so I'll keep it there for now and monitor it. If we get some really hot, dry weather it may need some more at times.

I'm so grateful to this website and forum for all the information and help I've gotten. It means a lot to me to be able to take care of the pool chemistry myself. THANK YOU ALL!

Here's to sparkly pools this summer! I'm sure I'll be back with a new problem soon enough. ;)
 
Y'all! I haven't posted in here since MAY! I made it through the summer and it is all thanks to this wonderful place. I am here with a couple questions in bold for you, if you have a moment!

I put the leaf cover on the pool a couple weeks ago so it's more shaded now than normal. I am seeing the FC creep up and wonder if this is normal for cover being on? I have no idea what happened in the past for our SWG settings over the winter. It has been set at 25% for almost 3 weeks but FC is going up more with the leaf cover on. I will lower it and check in a couple of days. We're getting a cold front come in tomorrow so we're going from 90 today to a freeze warning tomorrow night. There is a freeze sensor that will turn on the equipment below a certain temperature - I think we used to turn on the waterfall a little so it would also run if the equipment comes on? Does that sound right?

For now I have decided when I need equipment worked on, I will hire someone (including the filter cleaning). I will keep doing the chemistry and I did learn to backwash the filter. :thumleft: When the salt cell needed replacing earlier this year, I couldn't budge the thing so that made me decide to hire help for that stuff.

Hope you are all doing well!
 
With a cover you will lose less chlorine since there is little to no UV hitting the water, so you will probably need to either turn down the SWG % or lower the pump run time. I run our pump for about 3-4 hours in the winter with the SWG at 20-25% which works well...
 
As the sun angle decreases and your water temperature drops, you consume less FC each day. The cover added more shade. So you continuously dial down the SWCG % and/or run your pump less. Then, when your pool water temperature reaches about 60F, most SWCG's stop generating chlorine. And you switch to using bleach. You can typically just add bleach about every week or two during the winter. Keep testing and circulate the pool some each day. 1 or 2 hours is more than enough.

You should have a freeze protect on your pump though you do not show what pump you have. You should push some circulation through your water fall to keep it chlorinated and from freezing.

Hope that helps.

Take care.
 

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