What did you do to your pool today?

[Dirk]

I'm kicking myself for ever adding CH. Pool almost a year old now. I brought the CH up to the minimum recommended amount. Now it's up to 625 and still rising. I don't really get it. My fill water is only 125 and I have an autocover so I barely add water. Only thing I can figure is that it's coming from the pebble itself. I read as much as I could and nothing said be careful with the CH because the pebble will add it on it's own. Not sure if this is normal or not. I do struggle with PH. Every week it goes above 8 and once a week I add about a half gallon to gallon of acid to bring it back down, all other levels are always optimal. Having to think about exchanging water now really sucks. I'm hoping to do it with rain water.....if it ever actually rains here.

Yah, I went to great lengths to avoid an exchange. I even connected my auto-filler to my water softener, which measures zero CH, and I still got a CH rise. It took four years, but it got up to 580. I figured some was getting past the softener, especially when the thing is regenerating. But I hadn't even considered it leeching out of the pebble. Maybe that was it? Oh well. The why doesn't really matter.

Just FYI, even with a fill source of CH 125, you'll still get rise. CH doesn't evaporate, so any amount that enters the pool, however little, stays in there and builds up. Only an exchange (or splash out, or cleaning to waste, etc) gets rid of it. I thought I was controlling my CH with rain water, at least at first, but if I was it wasn't enough. And now it never rains, so that's not going to work for me. I had to exchange about 3K to get from 590 down to 390, so, no, not rain. I'll be happy to get a few gallons of rain this year!! I'm going to do a write up about my exchange experience, because I took some extra steps. But one thing I learned is that my softener will put out at least 2500 gallons of zero-CH water before it needs to regenerate. So I was able to replace all the water I drained with zero-CH water. That really helped, because I would have had to exchange a whole lot more if I had refilled it with city water.

Moving forward I'm going to be more proactive about it. If it rises 50, I'm going to exchange. Not let it get up so high. That way the exchanges will be smaller, with less chance of anything affecting the plaster or the shell. And/or I'll just add it to my annual spring thing: clean filter, exchange for CH, top up CYA and salt. It is what it is.

As for pH, four year old pebble and my pool still gulps acid. Again, it is what it is. I solved that years ago with automated acid dispensing. Worth every penny, just like my SWG.

 

[ManiacalMama]

I'm kicking myself for ever adding CH. Pool almost a year old now. I brought the CH up to the minimum recommended amount. Now it's up to 625 and still rising. I don't really get it. My fill water is only 125 and I have an autocover so I barely add water. Only thing I can figure is that it's coming from the pebble itself. I read as much as I could and nothing said be careful with the CH because the pebble will add it on it's own. Not sure if this is normal or not. I do struggle with PH. Every week it goes above 8 and once a week I add about a half gallon to gallon of acid to bring it back down, all other levels are always optimal. Having to think about exchanging water now really sucks. I'm hoping to do it with rain water.....if it ever actually rains here.

Also kicking myself. I did the same thing after our replaster.
It got up to 675 after about 2.5 years so then I did a water exchange earlier this year, which just about killed me to do. Then the CH was 275, so I decided to add "juussssst a tiny bit" (yeah, yeah, I know, y'all told me not to) and now I'm sitting at about 375 give or take. My main reason was to eliminate the calcium flakes coming off the SWG. And it didn't do that lol
In the end I decided to add borates and now it's smooth sailing. I'm still adding acid about once a week, but it's more predictable (every Wednesday - 32oz.)

As far as what I'll be doing to my pool today: Probably nothing. Maybe skim a few leaves and check the skimmer. But I don't think I need to unless I'm bored.

 

[Dirk]

My main reason was to eliminate the calcium flakes coming off the SWG

I used to get those constantly, when a pool guy was mis-managing the pool. Had crazy high CH. Then I re-plastered and took over the pool. I've kept my CSI at -0.3 and that resolved the flaking completely, until this year, when my CH got over 550. So I had concluded that the high CH, regardless of the proper CSI, contributed/caused the flaking. Just a theory at this point. But so far no flaking since restoring my CH to 390.

 

[ManiacalMama]

I used to get those constantly, when a pool guy was mis-managing the pool. Had crazy high CH. Then I re-plastered and took over the pool. I've kept my CSI at -0.3 and that resolved the flaking completely, until this year, when my CH got over 550. So I had concluded that the high CH, regardless of the proper CSI, contributed/caused the flaking. Just a theory at this point. But so far no flaking since restoring my CH to 390.

I think I was still getting them at 350-375 because I couldn't keep my CSI low enough for long enough. I aim for about -.30 but my TA is hard to keep down with high TA fill water. I was adding acid every other day. The borates have kept everything really stable. I have seen nary a flake in months now. And my levels are pretty much exactly where I expect them to be every time I test.

 

[PoolGate]

Well my pool isn't closed yet but we're not swimming. I haven't even looked at it in over 2 weeks. So I checked today and the skimmers were 100% full. I don't mean the basket. I mean I took the cap off and it was overflowing with leaves. Lol!! So I cleaned out the skimmers, cleaned out the pump basket which was pretty bad. And then raked a bunch of leaves out of the bottom. Checked chlorine it was up around 20. I still have the swg on even though water temp is below 60. I'll be happy when I'm closed in 3 weeks.

 

[Orion7319]

I closed mine the other day. I feel bad for you guys out west. I get the opposite problem. We get a lot of rain sometimes so I have to add salt and CYA several times a season.

 

[Silver_2000]

worked on my Polaris 3900 - the tail wasn't sweeping, and it wasn't cleaning well. I replaced the water management part the result was dramatic. The wheel rpm jumped to 36 which is supposed to be in range but the Polaris was wheeling all over the pool. So for the first time, I put in one of the restrictor plates and its now 30 rpm which is still in range. While reading the PDF I decided to measure the tubing length for the first time in 7 years and found it was too long. Removed about 5 feet of hose and added a few floats to the rest of the tubing. Seems to have made a big difference. I purchased and replaced the float as well to try to fix the wheelying it didn't help. But since it was $9 I changed it anyway. Need it to be working since its getting cooler and the trees will start dropping their load in the pool

 

[thefloatqueen]

Cleaned out skimmer basket about 5 times and scooped out leaves with my mesh leaf skimmer thingy. Lots and lots of leaves. Ready to close!!

 

[Silver_2000]

worked on my Polaris 3900 - the tail wasn't sweeping, and it wasn't cleaning well. I replaced the water management part the result was dramatic. The wheel rpm jumped to 36 which is supposed to be in range but the Polaris was wheeling all over the pool. So for the first time, I put in one of the restrictor plates and its now 30 rpm which is still in range. While reading the PDF I decided to measure the tubing length for the first time in 7 years and found it was too long. Removed about 5 feet of hose and added a few floats to the rest of the tubing. Seems to have made a big difference. I purchased and replaced the float as well to try to fix the wheelying it didn't help. But since it was $9 I changed it anyway. Need it to be working since its getting cooler and the trees will start dropping their load in the pool

well adding the restrictor has caused the demise of the 2013 boost pump apparently

 

[Newdude]

Drained a foot of accumulated rain water. My trusty little helper didn't quite understand the mission, but helped flood the yard anyway because he's always got my back.

 

[markayash]

Drained a foot of accumulated rain water. My trusty little helper didn't quite understand the mission, but helped flood the yard anyway because he's always got my back.

View attachment 465649

Your getting that “ that dude is berry spooky” look

 

[Orion7319]

No more oak tree over the pool..

 

[kimkats]

That is really going to open up the look and feel of your yard! Are you keeping any of the wood for fires?

 

[Orion7319]

That is really going to open up the look and feel of your yard! Are you keeping any of the wood for fires?

Yep. I’m going to have to relearn my pool as it will now get sun! I didn’t keep any of the wood. It would have to dry for a year and I don’t have a wood burning fireplace or a fire pit.

 

[Dirk]

Yep. I’m going to have to relearn my pool as it will now get sun! I didn’t keep any of the wood. It would have to dry for a year and I don’t have a wood burning fireplace or a fire pit.

Someone did a nice job of matching the fence.

 

[Orion7319]

Someone did a nice job of matching the fence.

Thanks! That was me. The fence I think is at least 30 years old, and the tree grew into the fence post. I couldn’t dig a post hole because the remains of the stump are underground. I screwed the post to that, made a pad of 2 inch thick concrete around it. I think I’m going to have to add a post a few feet behind it and secure the post to it as it rocks just a bit. Eventually I’m probably going to extend the fence back a bit and get rid of the jut out, but I needed to have something up quickly because the dogs were going stir crazy.

 

[jimim]

Drained a foot of accumulated rain water. My trusty little helper didn't quite understand the mission, but helped flood the yard anyway because he's always got my back.

View attachment 465649

Same here. Already took water out twice this winter. No idea where it’s coming from.

 

[Newdude]

Already took water out twice this winter. No idea where it’s coming from.

Someone blessed the rains down in Africa

 

[Katodude]

Gonna take some time to do the things we never had…

And I updated my pool controller to the latest version of NodejsPoolController and Nixie.

 

[markayash]

No more oak tree over the pool..View attachment 465677View attachment 465676View attachment 465678

The folks who do tree work are nuts, one cut his strap and fell years ago doing work at my parents house. Turned out they lied about being insured and the poor guy was on his own. Owner of the company basically left town.

My parents insurance company said since they were inside they can’t be sued but my parents felt bad for the guy.