TFP Maintenance methods

[Areobee]

Moved from here.

Hello All! Thrilled to have found this site. So, we live in south Florida and we have a pool cage around our pool. Our pool finished this past January. We have had a pool guy since then. We never had any problems but it kills me to pay him every month for 15 minutes of work. I love to do things for myself and after going through this site, I feel I can do this cheaper. I will track my expenses for one year and let you know what my results are.

I bought the Taylor K-2006C testing kit along with the Taylor K-1766 salt water test kit. Little bit of a learning curve, but I am a math teacher and I love chemistry and I have picked it up pretty quickly with the aid of Taylor's YouTube channel explaining the kit in full.

Latest results
pH 7.6
FC 8
CYA 60
Salinity 4000
TA coming!

I have a few questions...
1. Our Pool has a spa with a waterfall. Total number of gallons is 12k. I have a Jandy Pro Series True Clear SWG. The manual says to set it at around 40% to start with. The pool campanies FREE Pool guy set it at 80% right off the bat. I guess that makes sense for a new pool getting started but the new pool guy I hired back in March has left it at 80% since taking over. It chlorinates from 9am-6pm. THOUGHTS?????

2. I remember the pool guy saying our chlorine was a little high the last time he tested. One of the charts I found on your site showed that if I have a CYA level of 60, FC should be about 6.8. THOUGHTS???

3. What is everyone's thoughts on an automatic pool vacuum?

Pool is clear, skin and eyes are fine. Nobody is complaining.

--Rob

 

[Texas Splash]

Hi Rob and welcome to TFP! For the CYA/FC balance, we always follow our TFP FC/CYA Levels. For the SWG specifically, it's a bit of trial and error, but you should see our Water Balance for SWGs - Trouble Free Pool page for more info to get started. It's all about % and pump run times, so adjust one or the other for now to get the FC level you need. Later you can tweak pump run time and % even more to run at peak efficiency and try to get the most service life out of your SWG. Stick around and ask all the questions you need. Thanks for using the forum.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Rob,

Your cell will increase the FC in your pool by 9.4 ppm if running at 100% and 24/7. So running for 9 hours gives you an increase of 3.5 at 100% and about 2.8 ppm at 80%

With a CYA of 60 "for a saltwater pool" your target FC is 4 ppm.. but anything between 4 and 24 is ok to swim in.. I would try to never let it get below 4.

If this were my pool, I would run it at 6 ppm just so that I didn't constantly have to be testing my FC to make sure it does not go too low.. but that is me..

I believe that water powered cleaners are like using an old black rotary dial phone instead of a cell phones.. I have a Robots in my pools..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Areobee]

So we just had a boat load of rain 6/12 .... streets flooded etc... pool flooded over... drained some of the water down a bit (about 4 inches) .... pumps ran for a day... just tested.... FC is at 2.4 and CYA is about 50... FC was at about an 8 … 3 days ago... Salt is good sitting at about 3600... will the chlorine start coming back up? would you add come CYA?

Trying to learn the remedy to the levels.

Thanks

Rob

 

[Areobee]

oh yeah.. one more thing... I read on here to put the CYA in a sock and let it dangle in front of a return.... In the 4 month I had a pool guy.. I never saw him do that... what are the acceptable ways to add CYA?

Rob

 

[mknauss]

Raise your FC to target level NOW with liquid chlorine.

Add the CYA by using what we call the sock method. Get an old sock (no holes) and put the measured amount of CYA you need. Tie the sock closed and either suspend it in front of a return (hang it from your brush pole works with something weighted on the deck) OR if it still allows flow thru the skimmer, place the sock in the skimmer. Every 15/20 minutes give the sock a squeeze to speed up the process. Please DO NOT follow the directions on the container of CYA to just pour it into the skimmer and don't just toss the sock in the pool as the CYA is acidic and can bleach/stain pool finishes.