Tymeborn
09-26-2012, 04:45 AM
I have read very many posts on these forums without registering, because they came up in my Google searches and I've gradually built a trust with the expertise here.
Eventually, I felt the strong need to register and be a part of this community. So here is my pool story and first question.
First, I need to say that I am 35 years old and had no experience with any pool until about 10 months ago when we bought our home. We weren't looking for a house with a pool, but the house we fell in love with happened to have one :). I had no contact with the previous owner who had already moved out a while ago, so did not really have any info about the pool. It was winter time, the pool was clear, apparently was taken care of (at least to my non-existing standards), and I was told by the house inspector to just keep doing what seemed to be the current care: disconnected salt water system, chlorine tabs in a floater, shock once in a while and keep the pumps running on schedule. I pretty much had no idea what different valves did, no idea how the pop-ups in the pool were supposed to be working, I pretty much had no idea at all about running the pool. And nobody at home cared either, noone was willing to take a dive...
One month ago, my little one got serious with swimming lessons. And with the Arizona temperatures coming down, we decided to get the pool in shape for her. I've had several different professionals come in to assess the pool condition and the equipment (of course I paid for their services). I got the suggested repair (rebuilding gears on Polaris Caretaker) and cartridge cleaning done. I still don't have all the pop-ups working properly, but that's a discussion for a different day. Here is the interesting piece: One of the two independent individuals who came to assess the water condition and start me on a weekly service straight out rejected my business saying it is not worth his time. The other one told me that the pool is clean but the water is over-stabilized, too hard and hence need to be drained and re-filled before they can start me on the chemical/cleaning service.
At that moment, I decided to take control of my pool. I started reading on these forums about hardness, and better test kits. I also started physically working on the pool. I've got a simple vacuum head and hose to get the sand off the floor (pop-ups were still missing some spots), I've started experimenting with all the valve settings to see how returns worked. And most importantly I've bought the most complicated Taylor test kit I could get my hands on in the local shop (without going to online orders) to track my progress.
I have an in-ground pool, which I think is pebble with a line of tile on the very top (how can I tell what type it is?). I estimate the volume to be around 11000 gallons. It's running 6 hours every night on a WhisperFlo Pump, going thru a Pentair Clean and Clear Plus cartridge, and all flow directed to Polaris Caretaker connected to pop-ups on the floor and on stairs. I also have a Pentair Admiral S-20 Skimmer. Come morning time, and I get the airator running to keep the surface moving, around 8 hours a day while I'm at work.
I am using a Taylor-made Leslie's-branded DPD test kit. It only has drips, no powder.
Here is what I was initially measuring:
FC >5ppm (it is off the charts for my measuring kit, I see a darker pink than what is on the chart)
TC reads the same off-the-charts dark pink
pH 7.5
170ppm alkanity
I've took the chlorine tablets out of the pool to see if I can read something within the chart within a day or so. Also given that my incoming water supply was 110ppm alkanity, I really had hardness built-up over time. So I've started with the add-acid/air-out process described in this forum.
After three days this is where I am:
FC & TC are still >5ppm, off-the-char for my measuring kit
ph 7.2 (kept adding Muriatic acid)
120ppm alkanity (gradually dropped over the 3 days)
At this point, I'm thinking I really need one of the better test sets (2006C) as described in these forums to measure FC/TC. However, that's gonna take a few days from Amazon (they don't offer Prime on this product). I would like to understand if there is anything else I should be doing while waiting for the kit or something I'm doing wrong and should be corrected right away.
Eventually, I felt the strong need to register and be a part of this community. So here is my pool story and first question.
First, I need to say that I am 35 years old and had no experience with any pool until about 10 months ago when we bought our home. We weren't looking for a house with a pool, but the house we fell in love with happened to have one :). I had no contact with the previous owner who had already moved out a while ago, so did not really have any info about the pool. It was winter time, the pool was clear, apparently was taken care of (at least to my non-existing standards), and I was told by the house inspector to just keep doing what seemed to be the current care: disconnected salt water system, chlorine tabs in a floater, shock once in a while and keep the pumps running on schedule. I pretty much had no idea what different valves did, no idea how the pop-ups in the pool were supposed to be working, I pretty much had no idea at all about running the pool. And nobody at home cared either, noone was willing to take a dive...
One month ago, my little one got serious with swimming lessons. And with the Arizona temperatures coming down, we decided to get the pool in shape for her. I've had several different professionals come in to assess the pool condition and the equipment (of course I paid for their services). I got the suggested repair (rebuilding gears on Polaris Caretaker) and cartridge cleaning done. I still don't have all the pop-ups working properly, but that's a discussion for a different day. Here is the interesting piece: One of the two independent individuals who came to assess the water condition and start me on a weekly service straight out rejected my business saying it is not worth his time. The other one told me that the pool is clean but the water is over-stabilized, too hard and hence need to be drained and re-filled before they can start me on the chemical/cleaning service.
At that moment, I decided to take control of my pool. I started reading on these forums about hardness, and better test kits. I also started physically working on the pool. I've got a simple vacuum head and hose to get the sand off the floor (pop-ups were still missing some spots), I've started experimenting with all the valve settings to see how returns worked. And most importantly I've bought the most complicated Taylor test kit I could get my hands on in the local shop (without going to online orders) to track my progress.
I have an in-ground pool, which I think is pebble with a line of tile on the very top (how can I tell what type it is?). I estimate the volume to be around 11000 gallons. It's running 6 hours every night on a WhisperFlo Pump, going thru a Pentair Clean and Clear Plus cartridge, and all flow directed to Polaris Caretaker connected to pop-ups on the floor and on stairs. I also have a Pentair Admiral S-20 Skimmer. Come morning time, and I get the airator running to keep the surface moving, around 8 hours a day while I'm at work.
I am using a Taylor-made Leslie's-branded DPD test kit. It only has drips, no powder.
Here is what I was initially measuring:
FC >5ppm (it is off the charts for my measuring kit, I see a darker pink than what is on the chart)
TC reads the same off-the-charts dark pink
pH 7.5
170ppm alkanity
I've took the chlorine tablets out of the pool to see if I can read something within the chart within a day or so. Also given that my incoming water supply was 110ppm alkanity, I really had hardness built-up over time. So I've started with the add-acid/air-out process described in this forum.
After three days this is where I am:
FC & TC are still >5ppm, off-the-char for my measuring kit
ph 7.2 (kept adding Muriatic acid)
120ppm alkanity (gradually dropped over the 3 days)
At this point, I'm thinking I really need one of the better test sets (2006C) as described in these forums to measure FC/TC. However, that's gonna take a few days from Amazon (they don't offer Prime on this product). I would like to understand if there is anything else I should be doing while waiting for the kit or something I'm doing wrong and should be corrected right away.